We Are Fami-Lee: March 2012

Friday, March 23, 2012

Time

Even as I write this, I can't stop thinking to myself: Samantha's asleep, I could/should be doing this, this, this or this. But, I'm writing a blog post.

Time has come to mean something very different to me since Sammie was born. In fact, the last year has been quite interesting when it comes to time.

When we moved to Canada, I was forbidden to work or go to school. I had all of the time in the world, and nothing to do with it. I tried to stay busy; I did a lot of my favorite hobbies, but I found that when all you do is your hobbies, they don't feel like hobbies anymore. To be honest, I am not really sure how I spent my 6 months of complete and utter time. I found that when I have so much time but nothing to do with it, it can be difficult to stay happy. I think I did an okay job with it, but it was hard.

Now I have the opposite problem. For a long time, Samantha would not be put down, even when she was asleep. She would wake up the minute I put her down, and if she did sleep without being held, it was only for like 15-20 minutes. She's better now; in fact, she can be put down before she's asleep and can fall asleep somewhat on her own. She still only sleeps for 30 minutes to an hour at a time. (She's had a couple of days where her afternoon nap is like 2-3 hours which has been nice). Anyway, what I'm saying is I don't have all that much time in the day! And when it's interrupted so very often, it makes it difficult to do anything at all. (Sometimes, my shower/getting ready time is spanned over 2 naps, which is like a 2-3 hour period...)

I'm not going to lie, it does stress me out a bunch. I've got a lot of things that HAVE to get done. My immigration papers, Samantha's U.S. citizenship, her passport (which we did end up getting done, thank goodness), taxes, etc., etc. These things can't get done in a 30 minute nap so often, it takes me all day to get just a little bit of one thing done. I mean, I've been working on my immigration stuff since she was about 6 weeks old. And, it's still not done. It's certainly stressful. And, it can be difficult to stay happy.

I just have to remember how precious she is to me. I have to remember how much I yearned for her to be here in my life. I have to remember that if you had asked me a year ago, I would have given anything to be exactly where I am right now. I am lucky, I am blessed, I am extremely grateful.

Stressed? Yes! Not able to get much done in a day? Definitely Yes! But happy, blessed and humbled? A thousand times YES!!!

I wouldn't trade any of it for the world!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A Girl and Her Elephant--2 Months

Sorry I'm a little slow on the posting this time around. She's almost 2 1/2 months by now...whoops!

Not only did I take a few pictures of Samantha on her 2 month birthday, but we went to Grandma Lee's house and did a much better photo shoot with Grandma's good camera and excellent talent! Thanks Grandma Lee!

Samantha continues to be the joy of our lives! She is such a blessing and we don't go a day without thanking God for putting her here with us! We're so lucky and she is so special!

A couple of things about Sammie this month!

1) She continues to smile and smile. She'll do it a lot more often now and sometimes even unprovoked. For example, after a somewhat stressful 3rd hour at church, having to leave my meeting 3-4 times, I was changing her diaper and looked down and there she was smiling up at me like she knew I was stressed. It made it all better, that's for sure!
2) At her 2 month immunization appointment, she weighed 10 lbs 2 oz and measured 22.75" She was like 76th percentile in height and 30 something in weight. For the weight/height ratio, she was only 3rd percentile...the nurse wasn't worried because she wasn't off the charts yet, but if she does go below the charts, she said she'd be worried. I'm not worried. If you look at her, she's perfectly healthy. She's got some rolls in all the right places, her cheeks are super chunky and she's super happy!
3) Samantha has always been very strong but as a braggy mom, I have to say that she started rolling over. From her stomach to her back! And it's very much on purpose! I'm a proud mama!
4) I have heard her giggle twice. I'm not yet convinced that she knew what she was doing. We were having a little conversation and she was smiling and talking with me, and it just came out! I'm hoping to hear more of those little gems soon!
5) She's getting better at being put down. Especially since she is awake more, I'll put her down to play on her mat so I think she's getting used to it.
6) As of last week, she could sleep 8 hours (with me getting up every hour or two to put her soother back in her mouth...). The last 3 nights or so, however, she's been getting up every 2 hours. Sometimes less. And her soother won't soothe her... She's always been a great sleeper (her first night she had a four hour stretch and has had at least that since) so I'm thinking she must be having some sort of growth spurt. Needing that extra food!
7) She's learning how to use her lungs more! She's still not a cry baby :) but she'll cry more often. She'll cry when she's tired and can't get to sleep without some help. She'll cry when she's hungry. She'll even cry when I'm not paying attention to her like she wants me to. That's my favorite! Because all I have to do is look at her and play with her and she's all smiles! Sometimes, but not very often, she'll cry just because she wants to cry.
8) She likes to play a lot more. She will stare and stare at the little star on her play mat and kick her legs and bat her arms at all the toys hanging down from it!
9) She LOVES standing up. When she's fussy and it's none of the normal "hungry, poopy diaper, tired" things, just stand her up, face her out so she can see everything around her, and she's great! She especially loves to do this with her daddy. He's even learned to literally run around the house to keep her happy. She loves the movement and the standing up! It's pretty cute!
10) We love, love, love our girl. She is perfect in every way. Sometimes, I have to remind myself how important it is to take the time to appreciate her at this stage. I know it will go way too fast; it already has. So, sometimes, I just need to slow down and play with my little girl! Love her!