Happy Birthday!

On September 9, I celebrated my 26th birthday and Sam celebrated her 20 month birthday!  We had a lot of fun that day.  She was amazingly well-behaved which was greatly appreciated!

We got up and went straight to her first swim lessons this fall.  She LOVED it!  She remembered all the things she learned from last time.  She blew bubbles, put her eyes, nose, ears, and hair in the water.  She let me dunk her and she laid on her back and kicked her legs.  It was really fun!

A funny thing happened in the dressing room after lessons though.  I had gotten Sam all ready, and was just putting on my clothes when she RAN out of the dressing room and into the main lobby.  One of the other moms tried to grab her (because, did I mention that at this point I was only in a bra and my bathing suit was pulled all the way down acting as underwear?) but she melted on the floor.  So, I in my bra and underwear glory, had to run out into the lobby, with everyone staring, to grab my kid.  It was kind of awesome!

When we were done, it was time for lunch, so Sam and I stopped for some pizza.  Yum.

During her nap, I got to cross-stitch while watching a show on Netflix.  It was nice.

When she woke up, I started prepping for dinner.

At 7:15, I went to my first ever yoga class which was SO nice.

Got home, had some dinner (that Derek had really made) and then we stayed up and chatted in bed.

I should mention that throughout the day, I had several people come and drop things off for me.  Treats and gifts.  So sweet.

It was a really nice birthday.

Utah Trip

We drove down to Utah at the end of July and had a blast while we were there!  Samantha did excellent in the car (we were lucky that she started liking cartoons literally the week before we left!) and we were able to make it there in a single day.  We left at 4 a.m. and got there at about 7 p.m.  LONG, LONG DAY but Samantha did excellent!  I stayed in the back most of the time, but I was so pleasantly surprised!

While we were there we did so many fun things.

Splash park

Zoo

Birthday party for our cousin Emily

And lots and lots of time spent with cousins and, of course, Aspen, the dog.  She had a love/hate relationship with Aspen because she's still a puppy but is as big as a full grown dog.  That means she loves jumping and licking.  Samantha mostly just liked her from afar and the minute she got close would freak out! But she got used to her by the time we left!

Grandma Farr loved seeing Sam and Samantha LOVES her Grandma Farr!  They had lots of fun playing and singing together.

I can't say that the timing of the trip was ideal since I was in the middle of my morning sickness, but it was so nice to see family and to help Sam build relationships with her aunts, uncles, grandma and cousins that she doesn't get to see very often.

A Girl and Her Elephant-19 AND 20 Months

Sometimes it's just hard to sit down and blog, you know.  So, Samantha's 20.5 months and I still haven't updated.  Let's blame it on the fact that it's been a busy summer! Get ready for a picture overload!

19 Months:

Only 2 good ones this month.  She wasn't in the mood to take pictures. 

20 Months:

These were a little better.  I asked her to lay down next to the elephant and she was very compliant. 

When I ask her to say cheese, this is what she does.  Every. Single. Time!

This kid is a talk-a-holic!  She now says several phrases/sentences.  Her longest is "I don't want to." Typical toddler!  She also says "I want (insert what she wants)," "No way," and "Stop it." Typical toddler!  Every time she says "Don't" or "Stop it" to me, I always respond with "No thanks" so I guess technically she knows that one too, because she'll repeat it after me, but it's never her first choice.  Typical toddler!

We've always known Sam loves dancing.  But now that she's gotten a little bossy (see above paragraph), she makes sure that everyone around her is dancing too.  Derek and I cannot go ANYWHERE in the car without having a full on dance party.  "mommy? dancing? dada? dancing?" are typical conversations in the car.  Pretty funny.  

Samantha is also learning lots of letters.  We have foam letters for the bath that are split up between two bathtubs and then the rest of the house.  We also have one of those puzzle floor mats with letters in it too.  She knows some pretty random letters because of it.  She'll just show me a letter and I'll tell her what it is and she'll repeat it.  The ones she knows the best are O, E, F, I, W, X, A, N, and S.  Sometimes she'll remember B, L, H, and P.  Told you, random.  But, I think my kid is the smartest kid ever.  She has her own little "IPad" (it's a toy laptop thing that she calls her ipad) and she can find letters if I ask her but she can also say the letters if I point to them and ask her what they are.  I'm always surprised at how fast she picks up on things!

As is normal with any toddler, Samantha can be extremely bipolar!  One minute, she's the sweetest, most affectionate little girl, and the next, she's doing a bum-drop tantrum!  But, I still like this stage better than the baby stage. At least she can tell me what's wrong or what she wants most of the time. 

Speaking of sweet and affectionate, Sam knows that there's a baby in my tummy (oh, by the way, in case you didn't know...there's a baby in my tummy...) and she'll point to the baby, give it kisses and hugs.  Will she give her own mother kisses and hugs?  Not directly!  But, when she thinks she's kissing the baby, of course!

Samantha has also learned the express skill of fake crying.  It's pretty awesome.  

A couple of weeks ago, Sam was sleeping 14-15 hours a night and still taking a 2 hour nap.  I enjoyed it, that's for sure, but wondered what was happening in her little body to cause her to need so much sleep.  Well, I found out that she was having a major growth spurt.  3 pounds of major growth spurt.  I noticed she was getting heavier and when I weighed her, it was like, yep, I didn't make that up.  It was a significant change in weight!  

Samantha is pretty ready for potty training, I would guess.  She has peed on the potty a number of times (when I'm not too lazy to take off all her clothes to let her try) and the other day when we were in the shower together she said "poo poo" and grabbed her bum.  She's never said that before having to go, so I didn't really think anything of it.  Lo and behold, about 10 minutes later, I smelled a nice little treat in the bathtub.  Luckily, I had already gotten out of the shower by that time!  So, she might be ready, but I'm not sure I am yet.  Maybe when it gets colder, we can spend a few days in and work on it!

Another big thing that has happened in the last 2 months is teeth!!! From about beginning of July to end of August, the girl got 7 new teeth.  That's 7 teeth in 8 weeks.  She still only has 9 so I look forward to the next huge teething episode!  It was pure joy for both of us! :)

Okay, ready for picture overload?  2 months of pictures coming right up!

We got to go to Calaway Park when Carolyn and Jeff were in town with Elizabeth and Andrew and Samantha had an interesting time.  While she was on the rides and as long as they were moving, she looked like this: 

But, the minute we got off the ride, or it didn't start as fast as she wanted, she looked like this:

She had much too fun of a time!  The emotions that accompany such a good time are diverse!

My friend Laura came and visited us back in July.  We took her to Banff so she could see for herself how beautiful it is!

Why is my child wearing only a shirt and diaper?  Oh, I don't know.  Maybe it's because we were trying to get out of the house so fast that morning that someone forgot to change her diaper from the night before.  She may or may not have leaked through her pants.  Ahem...

Watching morning cartoons with daddy!

Helping us water the garden!

French toast and yogurt anyone?

Like me, she's not too happy for the cold weather to start.  These are gigantic on her, but they'll do for this winter and maybe even next winter!

More cartoon watching. 

That's as much as I can remember from the last two months.  I'll most likely stop these "Girl and Elephant" pictures when Sam turns 2 in January, just to start a new one with the new little baby in March!