baby on the move
He's got the funniest looking crawl but Dylan's moving all around! He on his two hands and one knee and uses his other foot to push himself around. So I guess technically it's not a crawl. But it is. Video to be taken shortly. Among that he's really into pulling up these days, I tend to forget and remembered this evening when my dad said in astonishment something about Dylan standing and then not standing anymore. Guess I can't leave him alone too close to the couch anymore.
tag and a tattle tale
Samantha discovered a new game this afternoon...tag. It's pretty freaking hilarious. We'll be playing then all of a sudden she'll take off for the kitchen and I start following her around the kitchen back to the living room. The whole while she's laughing hysterically, especially when I reach down to grab and tickle her stomach. She's a cutie.
And also a tattle tale. Since becoming mobile and obsessed with eating finger foods we've been working with Brody to not eat his food in piles. (background, while eating Brody will make little piles of his food in the kitchen and in the living room) More recently we've become really strict about it since we had ants. Mostly me picking up any food he leaves almost instantly and telling him no. Samantha must have caught on because while playing a game of tag she stopped crawling and started jabbering and pointing. She turned around to me still babbling and pointing near Brody's food dish. I peeked around her and started laughing. She was telling me that Brody had left a pile of food in the kitchen next to his dish. A true little sister, tattling on her big brother.
remember when
First I thought the following was freaky. As I've thought more I suppose there was always a chance of this happening but didn't think it would, so now I think it's just plain ole' cool. Kristin had the same nurse (Kim) and the same dr (Wright) deliver Grace that delivered Samantha, and Grace was sunny side up. Just like Samantha. How fun will that story be to tell the girls some day? And if they don't appreciate it I suppose it will always be something that Kristin and I will think is fun.
I spent a lot of time reminiscing yesterday about Samantha's birthday as we would get updates or lack there of while Kristin was in labor. I got teary looking at the pictures of Samantha right after she was born, all cone head being cleaned and weighed. I cried when Paul sent a text saying Kristin was pushing because I got it as I was nursing Samantha and I looked at her and remembered how I felt when I was ready to start pushing, the pure excitement and anxiety that I'd be able to do it and she'd be healthy. I didn't want to mention it yesterday because yesterday wasn't about me. I can't believe just (almost) 8 short months ago Adam and I were in Kristin and Paul's shoes welcoming our daughter and instantly our whole world got better. I'm amazed every day that she is ours. And in disbelief how fast time is going. Yesterday we were playing and Samantha toppled over and started crying. Instead of sitting there crying she started crawling towards me as I stretched out for her and she curled up in my lap and cried for a minute. She's so big already and she's not even a year old! Such is life, but man is life moving fast.
gyming it
I am Samantha's human jungle gym. She loves to crawl over me, on top of me, up me, down my legs, etc. Most of the time it includes her trying to eat me as well but it is fun. Now if I only had a gym in this house. And a personal trainer. And a nutritionist. Then, we'd be set.
In all honesty I'm moving a bit more again now that Samantha's crawling. I probably walked 5 miles a day back when Samantha needed to be walked to sleep for all naps and bedtime. Then we did Ferber and all the 'exercise' stopped. I won't lie, I really think it made a difference in me. At least that what the scale says. Now that she's crawling I have to get up and down more often. Put her down, sit with her, play with her, watch and comment as she crawls to the kitchen, get up once she's inches away from Brody's food, bring her back to the middle of the living room, repeat.
She really is a good girl. I took her to Target today for diapers and new pacis and we used the cart cover for the first time. I think she liked it. She's smiling from ear to ear in the picture I took of her. Yes I took a picture of it. But I didn't have the casio so it's on my phone! I'm not sure how to get that online if I even can.
waterbaby
Funny how smells bring back so many memories. For our after lunch walk today I put some sunscreen on Samantha and I'm doing all I can not to just hold her and take it in. It reminds me of the beach/pool/lake. I was never a fan of the smell to be honest but now that it's on my baby, it's intoxicating. So many possibilities, hopefully lots of sun filled, family/friend filled, outside days await us this summer to enjoy.
Samantha pulled herself up yesterday. Adam got home from work and we put her in between us and watched her crawl from me to him, him to me, repeat. One time she was crawling to him, reached him, put her hands on his legs and stood up. Just like that. Like she'd been doing it all along. So much so that Adam went on with his conversation until I was like, um, she just pulled herself up. Adam. said "oh yea...look at that. " In his defense, she did it last weekend while trying to get a toy out of her bouncy seat but fell back pretty quickly. So he'd seen something similar already. But this time she just remained there.
here you go
If Samantha could talk I'm pretty sure that is what she would have said to me when she took the sock she was sucking on her of her mouth and handed it to me. Yes, handed it to me. And she kept it out there until I took it from her. Is this normal?! She's crawling. She's turning to us when we say her name. She's telling me in her own little way after naps if she's ready to come out or needs a few more minutes based on where she is in the crib when I open the door (ps, if she's in the corner by the door looking at you when you walk in, she's ready to get up. If she's anywhere else, she needs a few more minutes). And just tonight this hand off of a toy. Ok, it was a sock but it's basically a toy at this point to Samantha. Literally every day this week she has done something new that she's never done before. It is with out a doubt in my mind some of the most fun I've ever had. At the same time it's frightening. It's a constant reminder that I/us need to watch how we act and what we say around her. She's clearly learning at this point and I don't want us to screw her up.
april 8
April 8th last year was a great day for us. We had received a call from the dr office the week before saying I had an abnormal result on the optional blood test we choose to do. It was an agonizing week/weekend thinking of all the what ifs. Adam worked from home that morning while I went in for a half day. I spent most of the morning on email with the girls trying to keep my mind off of it. Adam and I had thrown around the idea of finding out the sex of the baby the night before so I was thinking about that too. Our 1 o'clock appointment time came and luckily it was right after their lunch so we weren't waiting too long. I was holding my breath as the tech started the ultrasound...I had no idea what they were looking for and I just wanted to hear her say she saw a heartbeat. After a few moments she noticed I was off and I don't remember if I asked or she asked me a questions but she profusely apologized and said she saw the heart beat right away and was sorry she didn't tell us. She was incredibly friendly and she made the whole appointment much more relaxed. She had mentioned at the beginning that she couldn't say anything about how the baby looked but as she was doing measurements she commented on how the baby's hands were opening and closing and that was a great sign. Babies with the abnormality that our test showed wouldn't be doing that. We were starting to get more and more relaxed about the test results being a false positive and thouroughly enjoyed the appointment. She asked if we had any feelings about the sex of the baby. Without hesitation I said I thought boy. Adam said girl, he went opposite just because I was so gungho boy. She asked us if we wanted to know and we just looked at each other and knew we did. So besides finding out we were having a healthy little baby we also found out we were having a girl. We had some great pictures from the ultrasound and spent the rest of the day spreading the news.
Fast forward one year to today. Samantha ate pears for the first time. She liked them so much she started crying when the bowl was empty. A true daddy's girl. She is getting quicker and quicker crawling around. It's funny, once she learned how to roll to her tummy she hated being on her back. As she started shimmying around she hated staying in one spot. Now that she's crawling she rarely spends any time on her tummy; she's either crawling, rolling from hip to hip or foot to foot, or sitting herself up. Which I think is the cutest. She's getting super fast at it. Where is my little baby going, I'm scared to blink.
I call it like I see it
Samantha crawls. She moves her hands and her knees together to move in one direction. 95% of the time it's backwards. On a rare occasion she'll go forward. She's not zooming around me in circles yet. I don't think I have too much more time until then however. Over the past few days she'll get much further from her starting point in shorter spans of time. From the time I got up to walk to the fridge and back to the floor to play she had gone from the coffee table to Brody's toys (o joy of joys). This week I'm going to analyze the situation here so we can move some things, ground some things - namely the shelf in the corner, remove and/or bundle all electric cords, and come up with a decent looking way to block the way to the back of the TV. Oh, and the main thing, find a magical way to help Samantha not be afraid of the vacuum. With her scooting off her blanket it's really important to begone of all the Brody hairs. I guess I or Adam can just do it every night before/after dinner so one of us is around to hold her. We'll see.
We made a family trip to the library this weekend. I'm not overly impressed with the kids section. I keep comparing it to the Riverside Library and while if I remember correctly it's not like it was perfect it was nicer than this. But she's still to young to care anyways and they're voting this week to expand the library anyhoo. Adam got a number of books and I checked out two total chick books. This was late morning Saturday. Sunday evening at 12:15 am I finished the first book. Apparently I have more me time than I thought.
The weather is crazy...why is it snowing in April!?!? But we made it out before it all started and went to lunch today with BT and Brie to finally have that celebratory. We put Samantha in the high chair at Texas Roadhouse. She did good for about 20 minutes then wanted to be held. I'll take it, you have to start somewhere!!
fun with friends
I took Samantha over to Gretchen's house to play this morning! G has twin boys - Max and Jake (2) - and Brynn (7 months). Samantha was entertained watching the boys entertain me. Such happy little boys those are. And smart! Brynn woke up after a while and the girls rolled around the floor, showing off their 'almost' crawling. Brynn army crawls and I wanted Samantha to catch on to that, but no go. She's still going backwards. Lots of fun but now the little muffin isn't napping. Barely napped on the way there, a naplet on the way home, and fussy right now in her crib. Ugh. She's got me so confused.