We Are Fami-Lee: March 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

20 Ways My Day Sucked More than Yours!

I'll get to the fun, awesome, fantastic week we had in Hawaii later (Save the best for last!). But first, let me just give you a little look into the last 48 hours...the not so fun, or awesome, or fantastic trip home. Oh, and excuse my language!

1. Guy checks us into our flight in Hawaii. Prints bag tags that will go all the way to Calgary even though we are spending the night in San Francisco and need our stuff. Luckily, we were able to talk to the people at the gate and they found our luggage and reprinted bag tags for San Fran.
2. 5 hour flight to San Francisco...enough said.
3. Get to baggage claim only to realize I left my purse on the plane...with all of our passports. Luckily, I was able to get it back from the lady at the baggage area. G.R.AT.E.F.U.L.
4. Get to hotel at 10:00 p.m. local time, Sam hasn't slept, but there's no crib in the room.
5. Finally get the crib and some milk in her tummy and that girl PASSED. OUT. Best part of the trip!
6. Wake up at 5:00 a.m. (why I planned it this way, I'll never know, but it's definitely my fault)
7. Wake up Samantha at 5:30 (she only got 7 hours of sleep) so we can make the airport shuttle. We get down to the lobby as the driver of the shuttle is leaving. Wait for the next one.
8. Oh, did I mention, that I came down with a cold the day we flew out of Hawaii. And, I ate something wrong so my stomach was upset? Yeah, it was the best!
9. Make it to the airport but get dropped off at the international terminal when we shouldn't have.
10. Get checked back in, through security and to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Sam dirties her diaper before the flight so we think all is great. She's exhausted but she's been exhausted before. We can do this!
11. 2 hour flight, should be fine. Sam's exhausted and without much fuss (besides a few scowls and weak cries) she falls asleep. WHAT? Samantha. Fell. Asleep! It was amazing!
12. 30 minutes later and the real fun begins. She's never been able to sleep longer than 30 minutes anywhere besides her crib, so at 30 minutes we weren't surprised she woke up (Derek and I even got to take a little snooze!). What we were surprised about was the
13. Complete, and utter meltdown that ensued for the next 20 minutes. I have NEVER, EVER seen Samantha this way before. She was an incontrollable, inconsolable, exhausted, screaming mess. I don't even know if I can explain it, but I assume anyone with kids has seen it. All Derek and I could think of during the 20 minutes was: If we never knew she could throw a fit like this before, what are the next couple of years going to bring? We shall see!
14. Finally get her calmed down.
15. Get off the plane, get our stroller from the jetway (we are the last ones left) and head to customs. We can't go on the escalator (stroller doesn't fit) and the elevator requires a keycard, so we get someone to swipe us in, the door closes and we're stuck. Can't push any buttons, can't open the door, can't do anything except the alarm sound so Derek lays on that button for the next 5 minutes, while we yelled and pounded on the door. FINALLY someone opens that damn door! It was too bad that he was the nicest man ever, because I was almost in tears and I wanted to rip into someone, but I couldn't!
16. Get to customs and pick a line with 2 officers. Once we get to a point where there's no turning back, the 2nd officer leaves so we are left in the slowest line EVER!!! People keep leaving our line, I just want to get the hell out of there. We eventually pick another line too and it picks up (I think we were in line for close to an hour).
17. Get to the officer only to realize that my visitor's record expires in 2 days. Oh yeah. Forgot about that one.
18. Go to immigration and get grilled about why we haven't done anything new since getting a letter from them in the middle of February. Long story short: we need to fire the lawyers Derek's company set us up with. Got a stamp that lets me stay here for 6 more months...
19. Get our bags, get Samantha tucked into the car and off we were to home. We were able to keep her awake long enough to get home so she could have a good nap.
20. After unpacking (slightly), I got a nap too. And now, the world is a much happier place!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Girl and Her Elephant--14 Months

I wrote this post a couple of days ago, and then it got deleted, so here it goes again. My baby's 14 months old! Pictures, anyone?

Isn't that outfit adorable?

Word List (new words in bold):

1. mama/mommy

2. dada/daddy

3. puppy

4. baby

5. noodle

6. hi

7. bye

8. no

9. banana (said nana)

10. grandpa (said buh-puh)

11. bath (said "ba")

12. milk (said "lllaa" Don't ask, we don't know why)

13.

Sign List (new words in bold):

1. please

2. more

3. all done

4. Thank you

5. up

6. (we'll be working on how to say "sorry" soon. She's been needing that one in her repertoire ever since she started being malicious with her sharing with all the new kids we meet.)

Favorite food: bananas

Favorite toy: whatever the other kid's got.

Favorite word: Hi

Favorite things to do: take a bath, hold mom's hand to show her something, going down slides, climbing and crawling on anything!

Least favorite things to do: SWIM LESSONS, get her hands and face wiped after meal times

Sam learned how to fold her arms to pray this month.

She can also distinguish between 3 animal sounds when we ask. Before, she's always bark like a puppy, even if we asked her what a horse said. Now, she knows how to bark, neigh, and baa when we ask for the respective animal. She can also occasionally do kitty, parrot and dolphin sounds (thanks iPad app) but can't do them when you ask specifically. She'll do it after she hears it.

Samantha can find her belly button and her tongue, and we're working on her eyes, nose and ears.

She still loves getting into anything and everything, and sometimes I just pretend I don't notice so I can type up her 14 month blog post. Maybe I should go take care of that now...