A-PA

Happy APA to You
Happy APA to You
Happy APA to You

That's what Sammi sang on the phone to me this morning.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Winkle Winkle Little Star

Winkle Winkle Little Star
How I wowa wa la lu
Up abubba wor so la
wa wa wo wada la lu
Winkle Winkle Little Star
How I wowa wa la lu

A Little Cousin on the Way

We are very excited that Aunt Kelli has a little bean on the way. Samantha was so excited when Mommy and Daddy told her that Kelli heard Hector's heartbeat today. Okay, well, she didn't really know what we were talking about but she's such happy child. Congrats to Aunt Kelli and Uncle Matt.

Yeah, "Jen"

Today started Samantha's two weeks of fun! Since Aunt Jen finished her classes at the University yesterday (Congrats Aunt Jen on your Master's Degree!) she was finally able to come spend some time with us. Jen and Mommy went to pick Samantha up at daycare today and brought her back to Mommy's office to see everyone there. She was super shy at the office but she warmed up when mommy let her sit at my desk and play on the computer.

After the visit at the office Samantha and Aunt Jen came home. By the time Mommy and Daddy got home from work the house was a mess with toys everywhere. Aunt Jen and Sammi were having a great time. After dinner Aunt Jen and Sammi ran around outside chasing Mommy.

Samantha wanted to do everything with Aunt Jen, a great break for Mommy and Daddy but poor Aunt Jen is going to be worn out after these two weeks!

Daddy is off to Chicago tomorrow so Sammi, Aunt Jen, and Mommy are going to look up in the sky at all the planes.

Sammi's First Pigtails

These pictures were taken on July 1st. They didn't last long, but she sure looked cute! Doesn't she look different with them in?

Sammi's own Grandma didn't recognize her yesterday with a barette in. She looked too grown up. 

Summer Fun

Well the summer is half way through and I've barely had time to write about our beautiful little girl. She continues to grow up before our eyes. She talks in little sentences now "people on bus," "I want that one, that one, that one," "I drive car," "Mommy, want to color," "Aunt Jen on phone."

Samantha has become really good with her motor skills too. She can feed herself rice krispies in the morning with little to no mess (we love that she eats the same breakfast we have!) She can take her pants off (despite my efforts). And she has become so helpful, like when Ken needs the remote and it is half way across the room.

Samantha has also taken an interest in using the toilet (aka, the potty). Despite my desire to wait until she is two for potty training we had to get her a little seat that she sits on to use the toilet. The good news for me is that she thinks its a game, and she doesn't quite know what to do with it. You may wonder why I don't want to teach her yet, I just am dreading the commute to and from work. Our commute to work is already close to an hour, and I'm not sure where exactly we can stop on the way if she declares she needs to use the toilet. So I'm trying to wait until I can communicate with her that she needs to hold it!

We finally let Samantha sit in the little "car" grocery cart. I was holding back on this too. Because I knew that once we introduce the car cart there is no turning back. So finally, on Sunday I said to Ken, lets do it. There are always car carts available. So of course, there was only one Sunday night. Well, we put her in it and she was so very excited. And of course [hello karma!] the starp was broken. So we had to take her right out of it. And she wailed! It was so sad and unfortunate. So Ken had to stalk a family that was leaving to fill their car up with their groceries and take their car cart right from them. So finally we got her in it and started our shopping. She loved it. She also loved hanging out the side and pointing to everything.

Here's what we've been up to lately:

This past weekend Mommy and Daddy went to Philadelphia to catch a baseball game with some friends. So Sammi stayed back and spent the evening with Grandpa, Granny, and Aunt Jen. They played in the pool that Aunt Jen got for her visit, they played with lots of toys, and they visited the neighbors across the street. On Sunday we got the best crabs ever and Sammi loves to eat crabs! It sure brought memories back when we had to tell Samantha "In or Out!" as she kept going from the family room to the patio. I sure remember my dad telling Aunt Jen and I that we had to go "In or Out."

The first weekend in July we spent time up in Pennslyvania with Grandma and Pappy. She played in a pool up there too. We also went shopping and she went for walks while Mommy and Daddy headed over to Hershey Park. Sammi loves her Pappy and it is so funny when she sometimes calls him Bobby (like I do!). Although, she wasn't very happy with Pappy when he yelled at her when we were at 3B's. She was being a little bossy trying to get her own way and he told her to knock it off! And it worked. She was so good after that. She sat there with her little cup of ice cream and ate.

On the fourth of July we spent the day together as a family. It was too hot to go do some of the activities in Frederick so we went shopping, got Rita's Italian ice, played in the pool, chased lightening bugs, and looked at fireworks from home. Samantha also enjoyed watching "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS because it featued Elmo, and she loves Elmo. She also enjoyed Jason Alexander's song and dance routine and she had us all up dancing to that. It doesn't sound like much, but it was such a great day. I wish every Tuesday was just like it!

The last weekend in June was fun because we had crabs with some friends and Samantha loved the pond in the backyard! For Ken's birthday Sammi spent quality time with Grandma while the rest of us went to bet on some ponies and play the slots in Charles Town. She also splashed around in the pool while Mommy and Daddy went to a wedding.

We got the kitties some new feathers to play with. They are feathers on a stick that of course the girls think are birds. Well Samantha loves to chase Rosie with the feather. Its really fun!

Samantha Got in Trouble

Samantha had her first "time out" over the weekend. Aunt Jen had to put Samantha in time out because she wasn't listening very well. Jen and Samantha were playing with magnetic letters and when it was the time to clean them up Samantha wouldn't help. And then she went over to the container and dumped them all on the floor. So mean Aunt Jen put Samantha on the step and told her it was time out time. Samantha cried because she was so sorry. And she was just overly tired, poor little angel.