Baby, Baby, Baby...

Its been quite a week for little Miss Samantha. As I alluded to in an earlier post, she is becoming quite attached to her baby doll. "Baby, Baby, Baby" is all we hear any more. Baby drives into daycare with us now, and Baby sleeps with Samantha at night, Baby eats what Samantha eats, and Baby almost took a bath with Samantha the other night. But, we had to draw the line somewhere! But the worst was when we tried to leave for work yesterday. Samantha had just placed Baby in her stroller and wasn't ready to go. Ken tried to explain to her that it was time to go, but when he picked her up, she wouldn't let go of the stroller. She had quite a grip on it. We had to pry it out of her hands. I just can't see me explaining to my boss that I'm late because my daughter wouldn't let go of her stroller... Well if nothing else, her attachment to Baby is terribly cute!

The other night I got my first real hug. She's been holding onto us a lot closer recently, and she likes to run up and hug our legs when she wants something, but the other night I picked her up and she puposely draped her arms around my neck and placed her head against my shoulder for no reason other than to hug me. I thought I was going to cry. It was the sweetest thing and made me feel so loved.

Last night we decided to go get some burgers for dinner and eat out. We went to Five Guys for the first time (its no Cheeburger Cheeburger), but they did have decent music playing. Well, when Billy Joel started singing Piano Man, Samantha instinctively started swaying back and forth. Its like she saw the last song played at our wedding... or maybe my girl just loves to dance!

We're a little nervous about this weekend, apparantly her whole daycare is sick except for her and Lauren. Lets hope they don't catch what is going around...b/c rumor has it its not too pretty.

Well, we're excited to see the family this weekend when we celebrate Great-Grandma Z's birthday!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Check out recent pictures of Samantha on her shutterfly site at http://sammi.shutterfly.com You'll need the password to get in, the password is our last name (all lower case).

15 Months Old and Samantha's 2nd Christmas

Samantha turned 15 months old on Christmas Day. And what a great Christmas she had! On December 23rd we celebrated at the day care Christmas party. Samantha got a little car she can ride around on from Santa (see picture). Samantha also got a beautiful sweater Miss Gladys got when she visited Peru last month. Samantha was a little Angel at the Christmas Party.

On Christmas Eve Aunt Kelli and Uncle Matt, Aunt Jen, Grandma and Pappy, and Grandpa and Granny all came to our house for dinner. Even Santa Claus stopped by to visit Samantha. We read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and left cookies and milk out for Santa and Carrots and reindeer food out for Santa's reindeer.

Then on Christmas morning Samantha woke up to a room full of toys. She certainly perfected how to open gifts. It took a lot of effort and she needed a nap afterwards! In the afternoon we went out to Towson to spend Christmas with family. Samantha really enjoyed seeing all her Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. But she got really tired. (Mommy had planned on her napping during the hour drive out there... Sammi had different plans). When we got home Christmas night Samantha played with some of her toys and went to bed.

The day after Christmas Samantha spent the whole day playing with her new toys that Santa brought her. She loves the stroller and pack-n-play she got for her baby doll. She rolls her baby around in the stroller and gives the baby her milk and juice. She's such a good mommy to her baby doll.

Our Little Chef

This past weekend Samantha had so much fun. Aunt Jen came out and helped us make Christmas cookies. Samantha loved making cookies. Her favorite parts were when mommy cracked the eggs, dumping the ingredients in the big bowl, and of course spreading the colored sugar on the sugar cookies. Samantha is very excited for Christmas as are her Mommy and Daddy.

"Love You"

Samantha's vocabulary is really growing. Last week we heard her count to three, yesterday she said "this a book" when she got a book off her bookshelf, but so far the best yet has been that she said "love you." Now the unfortunate part of this (for me anyway) is that she said it to her Aunt Jen, not her Mommy. Although, Aunt Jen claims that she also said it when I walked out the front door on Saturday. But I don't know if that counts since I didn't hear it. I told Samantha that Aunt Jen isn't allowed back to our house until she says it to me. I understand that you probably shouldn't give a one year old an ultimatum, but I had to. The other very cute thing Samantha has been doing a lot lately is blowing kisses to everyone. Daddy left the house the other day and he said good bye and Samantha said "Bye Daddy" and blew him a kiss. She's such a sweetie.

Samantha had another great weekend. Aunt Jen came out Thursday on suspician that schools would be closed on Friday (they were) because of the snow. So she and Sammi spent the day together on Friday. Then on Saturday us girls went out shopping and had lots of fun. Santa even said hello to us when we walked through the mall. Saturday night Aunt Jen babysat Sammi while Mommy and Daddy went out without Samantha (gasp!). On Sunday Samantha helped Aunt Jenny make a Christmas tree for Uncle Stevie. And Samantha watched Daddy hang Christmas lights outside.

Samantha is very concerned about her big sister Rosie. Ever since Thanksgiving Rosie has been limping. Well we really thought it would go away but last week we realized it hasn't. So we finally decided to take Rosie to the vet. $350 later Rosie has her rabies and distemper shots and two beautiful X-rays. And the diagnosis....a broken hip. That's right, my poor little kitty has a fractured hip. I feel so bad for her! And the fix... a $1500 surgery. They have to call in an orthopedic surgeon. The alternative is to wait and see what happens. It is possible that it will heal itself. So, that's what we're going to try to do. She doesn't seem to be in any pain. She still runs around like a nut and attacks/bullies our other kitty. So, hopefully it will heal. Looking at her X-ray's the vet seemed to think that her bone may already be growing back. We'll see, we'll keep a close eye on her.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday Grandma! Or as Sammi has been saying a lot lately Hoppy Birt-day!

We sang it this morning on the way to daycare to practice for calling Grandma tonight! Over the weekend we celebrated Granma's birthday with cake! Sammi said "Hoppy Birt-day" and made Grandma's day!

Brrr...

We've had a very cold last few days! We spent the weekend at Pappy and Grandma's house in Hershey and it was so cold! Samantha spent most of Saturday hanging out with her Daddy and Pappy while the women (Grandma, Aunt Kelli, and I) went to the Harrisburg Christmas Craft show. Granny, and Aunt Jen even came up for the day's activities. After the shopping was done we went to Hershey Park for Christmas Candy Lane. It was so cold out! But Samantha seemed to enjoy the lights. I think it may have been one year too early for her to really enjoy it. She liked the lights but we didn't put her on any of the rides and she couldn't really see the reindeer. Then Saturday night we got about 2 inches of snow up in Hershey. Just enough to make it pretty. Yesterday we got some snow at home. I'm looking out my office window and it sure does look pretty out.