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!

Sam Being Awesome

I've stopped trying to figure out all of the words Samantha can say because that would be impossible at this point.  But, because of that, I haven't been writing down the ones that I think are just so adorable.  I know that one day I'll want to remember how she said certain things and even though I try to get it on video, it doesn't always work, so I might just have to write them down instead (too).

1.  Thank you (Day doo)

2. Vaccuum (am-youm)

3. Button (butt)

4. c'mon (mon) as she holds out her hand for us to grab...

5. giraffe (raffe)

6. kangaroo (roo)

7. outside/slide (dide)

8. stairs (dee-uce)

9. meow (meee-owww)

10. potty (pah-eee)

11. breakfast (back-est)

12. blanket (bankek)

13. crib (bib)

14. lunch (wowch)

15. soother (fyou fyous)

Other funny things she does:

1. hits her (or your) nose and says, "beep, beep"

2. squeezes her (or your) nose and says, "onk, onk"

3. Oh, and dance.  She loves to dance. 

A Girl and Her Elephant--18 Months

Yep.  She's 18 months now.  Crazy!  Elephant pictures are getting more and more fun to take.  This month, I was able to tell her that I was going to take her picture and tell her where to lay or sit.  And she did it!  It was awesome!!!  Here they are for your enjoyment.  

She was giving the elephant loves in this one.  So sweet. 

Samantha is as sweet as ever.  She gives loves and kisses.  She says "wuv you."  She dances and smiles and giggles.  Well, when she wants to, that is.

She has QUITE the personality.  When she's not in the mood to do any of those things, she'll dramatically throw her head to the side, get a huge scowl on her face and yell, "NO!!" It's kind of funny, but I feel bad when she does it to people who didn't do anything to deserve it!

I think part of her grumpiness in the past has to do with all of the teeth she's gotten in the last little while.  She got her 2 front teeth (FINALLY) and two molars on the top too.  Now she has a total of 8.  And, on any given day, there are 4 more that get pretty swollen.  So, she's happy for the most part.  But, when those teeth are bugging her, or she's tired, she lets us know!!!

Father's Day.  Look at how cute they both are!

Before the flood, we were able to make it to the zoo one last time! Sam, looking at the gorillas!

Not of Sam of course, but man, look at that river!

We had a chance to go to Montana with our friends and Sam had a BLAST!!!  There was a park, a boat, and of course, WATER!!!

Going down the slide!

I love this picture!

This one will get framed and go to work with Daddy!

Driving the boat!

Water baby. 

Look at that face!

Yep.  She has now learned to get on top of the window sill.  Awesome.

Stylin'

On the carousel at Heritage Park.  She LOVES the carousel!

First train ride at Heritage Park. 

So cute! And look at the crazy hair!  

Man, I love this kid!

We went to the stampede and we had to dress up for it! 

She's so fun at this age!  This month, we are excited to see my friend Laura who's coming up to visit us in Calgary!!! And, for a trip down to Utah to visit my family.  I'm excited to see my family, not so excited to drive down there!!!  We'll see how that goes!

Les Miserable

Les Miserable was my dad's favorite play.  I knew that from the time I was small.  I have strong memories of my mom playing the piano while my dad belted "I Dreamed a Dream" in our living room.  My dad had a beautiful voice.  Something I like to think he passed down to me.  I sang "Castle on a Cloud" in a 7th grade choir trio for my entire middle school.  When I had a singing coach in high school, I asked to sing "Dreamed a Dream" but he wouldn't let me because he thought I didn't quite understand the lyrics and it was too adult for me.  Maybe he was right.

I've grown up on Les Mis.  Even if I never actually saw the performance until it came out in theaters.  It was a part of me and my childhood. Once I did see it, I understood completely why it was my dad's favorite play.  My dad was no Jean Valjean, but he also didn't have the easiest of lives, like most of us.  He related to the play, just like I think all of us can.

On Friday I went to the actual play for the very first time.  Live actors, live music, incredible atmosphere.  Every time I felt a bit emotional (so pretty much the entire 3 hours), I grabbed Derek's hand to my left.  But at the same time, I imagined my dad, smiling, with tears in his eyes sitting next to me holding my right hand.

I haven't felt that close to my dad my whole life.  When he was alive or since he's been gone.  It felt incredible.

It may surprise some to hear, but I don't think of my dad very often.  He's been gone 16 years.  That's a lot of time.  Almost an entire childhood and all of my adulthood up to this point.  When I used to think of him, I'd feel a lot of anger at the choices he made at the end of his life.  Choices that made him leave me and my family.  I didn't want to think of that and feel angry.  But as I've grown older, I look at the things that my dad faced and I honestly can't say I wouldn't have made the same choices.  He faced a lot of things that I would never want anyone to face, at a time that wasn't very accepting of those struggles.  When I think of him now, I feel a lot of compassion towards him.  I never used to feel like I wanted my dad here because at the end of his life he wasn't a good person to be around, but it is times like this that I wish he were here so I could tell him that I get it.  As much as I can for not having dealt with the same things.  I get it and I forgive him.

I think that is what everyone can learn from such a powerful musical as Les Miserable.  Forgiveness and Mercy.  It isn't our place to judge.  Just forgive and show mercy.  I think that was all my dad wanted when he was alive.  Forgiveness and mercy.  And, even though he's not alive to hear me say it to his face, I'm pretty sure he knows how I feel about him now.

So, go see Les Miserable.  If you've seen it already, watch it again.  If it doesn't make you strive to be a better person, then I'm not sure what to tell you.  Because it has influenced my life almost completely.