Well, my dimpled darling
dear is six months old today!! My, oh
my, how time does fly!
Don't make fun of my old lady nightgown.
Samantha is
amazing! Motherhood is everything I
could have ever hoped for and then some.
Sure, there are days when I feel like I don’t do as good of a job as I
could be. However, most of the time, I
feel like I've got a pretty good handle on things so far. She’s happy, healthy, and developing ahead of
schedule in most milestones. Most of all, she's amazing. Sometimes I catch myself sitting in silent awe watching her play. I do think it's true - there is nothing stronger or greater than a mother's love.
So, a few words on how she's been doing...
Play time!
Until recently, Sam was
still just doing vowels sounds, but about two weeks ago she started saying
“mum, mum, mum” when she’s tired, hungry, or needs a cuddle. I’m not convinced that she’s asking for
me specifically, but it melts my heart just the same! Also joining the “mum” are some “da-hd”
sounds. She loves blowing raspberries
and will sometimes mimic others when they do so. Other consistent noises include: squeals of delight, growls at the dog, the
occasional “hi,” "ba-hd," or “wow” though in sound rather than word meaning, and lots and
lots of hiccups, grunts, and vowel-based coos.
We have finally gotten a few giggles out of her! She's always full of smiles and will squeal with delight, but we weren't getting any belly laughs. We still haven't gotten many, but at least we know now that she CAN laugh, haha! This video isn't the best example, but it's all I've gotten so far.
Sam and Loki
She’s head-over-heels
in love with the dog. Most times, he
could take her or leave her. He’s pretty
protective of her, though (runs to her when she cries, sits beneath whoever is
holding her, etc). She enjoys trying to
pounce him, trying to steal his chewies (aka, rawhides), and attempting to play
fetch with him. He enjoys sitting under
her high chair, waiting for her spoon to go flying.
Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy = fun, fun, fun!
Sam’s favorite toys are
her bouncer and her stackable rings, right now.
She’s no longer interested in the swing because it straps her down. Rolling and scooting around on the floor is
also one of her favorite activities, so being strapped into any kind of seat is
like torture for her. She’s a champ at
rolling from place to place and has started getting on her hands and
knees and rocking back and forth… We expect her to start crawling
any time now!!
Sam still enjoys bath
time with Daddy (or occasionally, Mommy).
Splashing is always a fun time!
Enjoying some applesauce
We are currently eating
two meals a day – lunch and dinner.
Samantha LOVES bananas, sweet potatoes, pears, pears and pineapples, yogurt
(plain or with fruit), mangos, strawberries, and prunes.
She tolerates (without fuss but without excitement) carrots, peas,
applesauce, and anything mixed with rice cereal. She HATES yellow squash and green beans. We will be adding a sippy cup to her meal
times soon and we’re looking forward to trying more new foods! When she gets a bottle (whether expressed or
formula), she is holding it on her own (and has been for about three or four weeks
now).
Naps are still a
challenge for Sam. She’ll usually have
two or three 20 minute power naps throughout the day. Even with the addition of lunch and a
lunch/nap routine, she’s not interested in long naps, though we're working on it. Occasionally I’ll get lucky, but it’s rare. While Samantha used to be an excellent night sleeper, her habits have changed a little. She wakes up an hour or so after being put to bed and then usually once or twice sometime in the night. She's usually ready to start her day between 7 and 8am.
Here's a few more pictures, just in case you haven't seen enough!
Getting to be a very good sitter! While she still hasn't pushed herself into a sitting position on her own, she has gotten close to doing so.
Chewing on her sheep.
Playing and talking with Mommy.
I went to get something from the kitchen, I came back into the living room (we're talking 30 seconds here) and she'd wiggled herself under her toy box...
Samantha’s first trip to the beach didn’t go exactly as
planned....
It started first thing Monday morning. We woke up as planned, showered, got Sam
dressed and ready to go. We’re all
packed up and I reached across the seat to turn the car on while Richard locked up
the house… “click, click, click”
The car won’t start!
After poking around for a little while, we decide to try
jumping it. Worked like a charm and we were
off. We dropped Loki off at his little
puppy resort and headed to AutoZone. Got
the battery checked and it was dead.
Love those guys at AutoZone!!
They had us fixed up in, like, ten minutes. We were finally, really, and officially on
our way.
We got to the beach around 3:30pm after a few stops to feed
and/or sooth Samantha. Richard and I
unpacked the car and set up shop in our hotel.
We scarfed down a late lunch and packed up the stroller to head to
the beach. The breeze was already
picking up and the beach was starting to get chilly. Still, it was comfortable enough to take a
short stroll and play in sand for a few minutes.
Checkin' out that big blue
Such a happy girl! (And it's wind, not a mohawk...)
Got my toes in the water, toes in the sand...
I just love the look on her face! She looks like she was jumping, lol.
The water was actually pretty decent and she got a kick out of the waves.
My beautiful little girl!! :o) So in love with her!!
Passed out in Daddy's arms after a fun walk on the beach.
We headed back to the hotel and Richard tested the pool
water.Too cold.We decided to just hang out in the hotel for
the remainder of the evening and we’d head to the beach again in the
morning.While Richard was flipping
channels, he passed the weather channel.Noticing some storm action, he went out to the hotels computer station
to check out the forecast in more detail.Damn, storms were rolling in.We were
looking at gale force winds, a strong rip tide, and thunderstorms.We realized, at this point, that our beach
weekend was going to end up our hotel weekend.I was really glad that I “splurged” on the Jacuzzi tub!
Stormy beach
Tuesday morning, after breakfast and some morning cuddle
time with Sam, we got her bundled up and headed down to the beach… just to see
how things were. It was pretty breezy
out, but we didn’t think much of it until we hit the top of the dune. Wow!
Sand was blowing and biting at our ankles. We covered up Samantha and went a smidge
lower on the beach. The waves were
strong and the beach looked awesome; I wanted some pictures. Richard and I are both into severe weather. So, making sure the baby was safe, he and I took
turns going down to the surf. I didn’t
want to keep Sam in that situation long, so we headed back to the hotel after
only a few minutes.
A few minutes of pool time
Feeling like we needed to be in the water at least part of
our vacation, we adjusted our packed stroller for pool versus beach time and headed out to the pool. The sun was warm, though the breeze was
cool. Richard and I dunked our legs in
the water. It was definitely cool! I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but we stuck
Samantha in it for just a few minutes.
She seemed excited at first, but then… she too, decided it was a bit too
cool for her.
We headed back into the hotel and decided to just wait out
the storms that were quickly rolling in.
No biggie! I’d brought all of our
food and we had the Jacuzzi tub and HGTV!
We’d be just fine. We filled up the tub, slipped a Little Swimmer's diaper on Sam, and plopped her in her float. She had a BLAST splashing around. I, unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of that. The wind and rain finally died down around 10pm and Richard and I discussed a late night stroll on the beach. But, with Samantha sound asleep, it just didn't make sense to do it.
Wednesday morning, we discussed going back to the beach
after breakfast. We had an appointment
to pick up the dog at 3:00, so we really needed to be on the road by
11:30. After getting the car packed up,
we decided that it would be too much of a hassle to get down to the beach when
we knew nothing about the conditions on the beach. It was only in the 60’s, so it was really too
cool to go playing in the waves.
Cleaning any sand off and repacking the car without being able to clean
up was a turn off too. So, we decided to
just head home early. Of course, we ended
up stopping on the way home to feed Samantha, so we made it just in time to
pick up the pup.
Baby foot print
It was a really great weekend, even though it really didn’t
turn out like we hoped. Still, we got to
have some great conversations, played with Samantha a lot, and we still got to
stick some baby toes in the sand! All in
all, a successful weekend!!
Monday (which is our
Saturday), Richard took Sam downstairs for some quality daddy/daughter time
while I cleaned the heck out of our bathroom.
We’re talking rearranging and organizing cabinets and closets, hands and
knees kind of cleaning. I also made it
through our bedroom, Sam’s room, and the guest bathroom. Then, during a quick break to nurse Sam,
Richard and I started talking about rearranging the guest bedroom into his
office space. My mother-in-law is moving
in with us for a couple of months before she heads to Florida. We’re going to set up a bedroom for her in
our downstairs bedroom, which currently operates as my craft room and Richard’s
office. Some rearranging needs to take place before she gets here (roughly the end of September).
With Samantha
comfortably settled in her bouncer, Richard and I started moving the guest
bedroom furniture into our storage room downstairs. It was heavy and a lot of running back and
forth, but we managed it in quick time thanks to tag teaming it. Then, it was time to move the desk from
downstairs to the upstairs bedroom…
Holy cow!
If that thing weighs
less than 200 pounds I’d be amazed. Did
we take it apart? Why on earth would we
do something that smart!? Oh no, we just
heaved the damn thing up our steep flight of stairs. With me pulling the front of the desk up one stair at a time and Richard holding most of the weight behind, we made very
slow and painful progress. I feared I
would give out, if we didn’t quickly come up with a better idea. About a third of the way up the stairs, he
tells me to run to the garage and get a piece of plywood. I feel it’s important to mention here that I
married the Incredible Hulk. Once he got
the idea to lay a piece of plywood under the desk, he basically shoved the awkward
bulk up the stairs in one giant push.
Unfortunately, the plywood stopped three stairs before the top, so I had
to pull it up the last three steps.
Luckily, I’m a pretty strong chick.
Haha!
There was no way the
beast of a desk was going to fit and turn down the hallway and into its final destination. We talked again about disassembling it, but
Richard said it would be a huge pain in the tookus to do so. Richard said, “lift toward me” and we’d try
once more flipping it on its side; the desk protested immediately. The cabinet where the CPU could be placed
split all the way across. We stood it
back upright and stared at it, standing there limping in defeat. Now what?
The desk in its new home
Well, in an effort to
shorten my story, I got the idea to take a spare piece of plywood and brace the
CPU cabinet leg of the desk. It worked
like a charm. Though, in the process of
laying it down for operation, we discovered how stupidly easy it would have
been to just take the hutch off of the damn desk. It could have saved us TONS of time and TONS
of energy. On the bright side, I definitely
got my workout in that day!
Monday ended with two
exhausted adults and a pooped out baby.
I didn’t get all my cleaning done, but it was time well spent,
nonetheless.
The guys and the trees
Tuesday, Richard’s
buddy John and my parents came over for Tree Day! We were taking down a very sad looking cedar
that I’ve hated since day one, a walnut that was uncomfortably close to the deck,
and a tree-bush that was just plain ugly.
I won’t get into the details, as that’s what my hubby’s blog is
for. However, I will say that those guys
worked their butts off and I’m totally over-the-moon about the results! My poor husband was moving very slowly this
morning, indeed. I really wish I could
have been out there helping them.
This week promises to
be another busy one. I want to finish my
household projects (cleaning closets and scrubbing down the house). I also have a few crafty things I’d like to
work on. I have two visits with very
dear family friends, one coming over this evening and one we’re going to see
tomorrow. Plus, there’s that baby of
ours! She’s been into everything she can
get her hands on lately and I can’t get enough of it!
Richard’s schedule has
been adjusted this week and he’ll be working 12 – 8. He’s been in charge of dinner and bath time
with Samantha (while I cook our dinner) since his shift change to 11 – 7 a few
months ago. So this week, Momma gets to splash
around with the squirt. Unfortunately,
it also means several late evening dinners for us.
Ah well, it’s just a week.
If there’s one area of
day-to-day parenting where I really disapprove of my own methods, it’s nap time. Samantha sleeps very well at night,
usually. When she wakes up in the
morning, she will play for two or three hours before getting sleepy again. If I rock her and nurse and she falls asleep
in my arms, I can lay her in her crib for her nap. This nap will often last about twenty minutes
to forty five minutes on average. If she
doesn’t fall asleep in my arms and I try to lay her in her crib, she will fuss
and cry and refuse to sleep. My failing
is that I will soothe her and then plop her in her swing.
In her swing, she’ll
sleep for hours! At least one, but
sometimes as long as three!
I loooooooove that
swing!
This is a blessing but
also a major source of guilt for me. I try to tell myself that parents do all sorts of crazy things to get their children to sleep. My problem isn't that she won't sleep, though. It's really just my selfish desire for her to sleep a little longer. That's all. But it's such a big difference when it comes to the length of time she'll sleep! Anyway...
We
keep the swing in the living room, so if she’s napping there I can’t get much
done around the house without disturbing her. No dishes, no cleaning, no vacuuming. During that time, I tend to goof off on
Pinterest or Blogger or Facebook or watch some Netflix. Sometimes, I’ll do laundry. It’s lovely downtime for me, but not very
productive. Part of me loves putting her
to sleep in her swing. Part of me feels immensely
guilty for not being more productive.
It’s not just my lack
of productivity during nap time that makes me feel guilty about letting her
sleep in her swing. She will,
eventually, outgrow the swing. Where,
then, will that leave me at nap time? I
really want her to have healthy sleeping habits, but I also want her to
actually sleep. Twenty minutes seems so
short a time period, though it must be enough for her if that’s all she’s
getting before waking up. The difference
between the swing and the crib does not seem to change her nighttime
sleep.
Today, she’s in her
crib. I forced myself to let her “cry it
out” a little bit. I’m not nearly as
good at that as Richard is. I tend to
give up very quickly. She eventually (after
ten minutes of tears that felt like an hour) fell asleep. I know I only have twenty minutes or so to
get anything done (I’m down to about eight minutes now, haha). Though, Richard and I had a late night last
night (we watched “We Bought a Zoo” after Sam went to sleep) and I’m wishing I
could nap with her, but I don’t think I’d get much sleep in the next seven
minutes. *looks longingly at the swing*
I feel like the crib is
the right place for her to be. Maybe in
time her naps will lengthen over time…?
Ahhhhh, a few blissful
moments of silence as my baby snoozes peacefully in her swing. I thought I’d take advantage of the quiet and
write up a little blog post. Where, oh where, does the time go...!?
Tummy time with a side of drool
First, Samantha. Five months old on August 28th! She’s doing fabulously! Her favorite things include: her swing, her
bouncer, her twisty rattle, her two sheep stuffed animals, and her toes. She really enjoys the recent addition of “dinner”
to her food plan, haha! We’ve only tried
yogurt, apple sauce, bananas, and green beans at this time. She’s definitely not into the green beans
yet, but we’re continuing to try them every couple of days. She made it through a whole ice cube last
night, so progress is being made. Sam
rolls around all of the time now. She’s
also sitting up a lot more. Her balance
is a little iffy and we have to help her into a sitting position first. She keeps teasing us when it comes to
crawling. She’s thrust her little body
into a sort of triangle and then push her little feet and sort of slide
forward, but it still seems sort of accidental.
She’s much better at slowly working her way backwards. This frustrates her and usually results in
tears.
Her sleep schedule is
still really great. I’m so thankful that
she sleeps so well at night. Nap time,
however, is a different story. They
usually last for about twenty minutes, on average. Some days, I might get a full hour out of
her, but it’s rare. Sam still hasn’t
really laughed. We get some chuckles
every now and then and lots of delighted squeals or huge gummy grins. We thought she might be ticklish, but so far
that hasn’t really panned out. She loves
it when we pretend to eat her toes or blow raspberries on her belly.
Comfort from Daddy
Every day with her is
an adventure and it’s so much fun to watch her explore and play. I am so full of pride and joy when she tries
something new and gives me that “proud of myself” grin. It’s almost like she’s saying “Did you see
me, Mommy!? Did you see what I can do
now!?” I love it and it just totally
melts my heart.
Even her “bad” days
aren’t all that bad. It amazes me how I
can feel so frustrated when she whines and fusses or wakes up after 15 minutes
of ‘nap’, but then all I do is pick her up and it all melts away. I find that it’s never frustration with her,
but at not feeling like I have the time to do whatever it is I’m trying to do. It’s neat to feel the difference and
reinforces the feelings of ‘motherhood’ in me.
It’s also pretty amazing to me to feel how much my love for her grows
each day. How can a full heart just
expand and expand? You think it’s full
to capacity and then you look at her and know your heart just got bigger. I can’t imagine a life without her in it and
it almost feels like she has always been a part of our lives.
Bliss! Life is just total bliss!
The other part of our
lives that’s taking up a lot of time is the house. We are finally starting to make some of the
changes and improvements that we’ve wanted to do. Of course, it’s a slow-going process since
money is tight. Still, it’s pretty
exciting to see the progress. We’re
starting with projects that were included in our home inspection (sealing
hairline cracks in our foundation, repairing some little odds and ends, and
taking out some bushes that are too close to the house). Then we’re doing some fun projects, such as
painting the living room and organizing the garage. Richard’s in progress on that now and will be
writing his own blog on the completed project.
Then there are things
we’re doing to prepare for our upcoming house-guest. My mother-in-law is going to be moving in
with us at the end of September. She’s
planning to move to Florida to be closer to her brother and sisters. She wants to buy a house down there and needs
a few months to save up her money. In preparation
for her stay, we’ve put new blinds in the windows downstairs and dark out
curtains in our office/craft room, which will be her bedroom. We’re going to lay some linoleum in the
laundry room (a temporary fix until we have the funds/time to finish that room
completely). She’s got four cats that
will also be staying with us and we’ll set up a spot for them in the laundry
room. We’re going to move Richard’s
office space into the guest room upstairs instead and then there’s a lot of
furniture rearranging to do so that everyone is comfortable. All this should keep us pretty busy for the next
month!
News on South George
and our attempt at short selling it is limited.
We know that the bank ‘approved’ it and sent my file to the USDA for
approval. This put us on another 4 to 6
week wait until we hear if it’s been approved by the USDA. Then, I think, we get to set a closing date
on the contract we have on the house. If
not, we’re back to the drawing board.
Let’s hope we don’t have to go back to the drawing board, because any of
the other options (including, but not limited to, renting it out to someone
else) would cost us a whole lot of money we just don’t have. I remain cautiously optimistic.
Well, that’s the quick
and dirty regarding the big things in our lives. Samantha is stirring and I should get dinner
(BBQ pork riblets in the crock pot, yumm!) started before she fully wakes.
Hope all is well to those of you bored enough to
make it through my blog! ;o) *LOVE*
On Monday, Samantha had
her four month check up with her pediatrician.We were really excited to see how she was developing and talk to him
about some feeding issues we’d been experiencing.The last week and a half, Sam’s been drinking
me dry.By the last meal of the day, I
was running on empty.She’d gone from
eating every three hours or so, to eating every two hours or so.It was such a sudden shift that my body just
didn’t seem able to catch up with her!I
was pretty upset when Richard suggested supplementing with the leftover formula
we had from when I was super sick.I
even pumped one night, just before her last feeding, to see how much I had left
– 2 ounces.No wonder she was still
hungry!
First Food, vanilla yogurt
So we talked it over
with Dr. S. and he said that it sounded to him as though she was ready to start
on some “solid” foods!!We suspected as much,
based on conversations that I’d had with my mother and the little bit of
reading we’d done.Dr. S. suggested that
we start with a few simple things – bananas, apple sauce, and yogurt – wait three
days between trying new things and see what she likes.He said that they no longer suggest waiting
to introduce certain foods, like eggs, until after their first birthday.He advised that we try a variety of foods
(over time).For the next two months, we
can start introducing her to fruits, veggies, cereals (rice, cream of wheat
type things), and dairy products (cottage cheese, yogurt, etc.).At her six month checkup, he said he’d go
over the next step – adding small amounts of water from a sippy cup and things
like that.In the meantime, we’ve got a
WIDE variety of exciting tastes ahead of us!
Daddy's Lil Honey Bee
He also said she was
developing beautifully, falling in the 80th percentiles for height
(26”), weight (16lbs, 13oz), and head size (42cm).Sam received her second/third round of shots,
which she handled like a trooper!Then,
we headed off to Costco and Target!
We knew we were likely
to get permission to start Sam on some “big people” foods and I really want to
make my own baby foods, so we planned a trip to Target for a high chair and a food
processor after our doctor's visit. I'm not sure how I've managed to go this long without a food processor, but there ya have it. Since we’ve got a good stash
for the yogurt, apple sauce, and bananas, it will be a week or two before I
start making my own stuff though.I’m super
excited about baby food recipes – so if anyone has a favorite they’d like to
share, I’d love to give it a whirl.Yay!
I’ve added two videos
to the blog today.They are both from
Monday's first meal.I admit, they’re
kind of long.The first one is two
minutes and the second video is just over a minute, I think.It’s probably pretty boring, unless you’re
really into babies or especially attached to mine.;o)But I wanted to be able to share it with family and friends.
When I became a mother,
I expected to feel instantly “maternal”.I thought I’d feel a little older.Maybe, a little wiser.As a
child, and even a teen, I thought my mother knew the secrets of the
universe!There was no question she
couldn’t answer.Sage wisdom seemed to
pour from her whenever I was stuck in a problem situation.Even when I realized my mom was fallible, she
remained one of my first resources for questions/problems.She may not have known everything, but she
sure knew a lot! I guess part of me thought that after the birth,
they handed you a darling little baby and a book with all the answers.
Now, logically, I know
that’s not true.However, I really did
think I’d feel like a slightly different person.I have always entertained the hope that I
would someday become a cross between Paula Deen and Martha Stewart.Hahaha, yeah… That’s never gonna happen!But I thought, as a mother, maybe I’d be more
organized. I thought I might
instinctively know the secrets to raising children. Maybe I would magically be a
better-than-average housekeeper.Perhaps
I’d actually start making my way through my stack of “must try” recipes while
balancing a baby on my hip.Or really
pursue my backyard garden next spring.Be that mom that can do anything and still have perfect hair and a
sparkling kitchen and well-adjusted children.
Some of those things
are true.I really do want to get a
garden going next spring and I do keep my house MUCH cleaner since I’m no
longer working.That’s about where the
similarities stop.My hair is NEVER
perfect and my kitchen can sometimes be a little less than sparkling
(*disaster!*).I definitely don’t know
the secrets of the universe (though, Richard and I have been working our way
through a Discovery Channel series on the Universe… yeah, we’re that
dorky).And when Sam has a problem or
question, I think the odds are 50/50 as to whether or not I’ll know the
answer.Here’s hoping my mom’s around to
answer her phone when that time comes…!
Maybe I’m jumping the
gun even thinking about such things now.Maybe they send you that book after your child’s first birthday…?
In the meantime, I find
that I still feel like my same old self.There are days I don’t feel like cooking and it becomes a hot dog
night.There are days when my daughter
doesn’t get her bath or my husband has to make his own tea.I’m not perfect.I don’t know everything.I wasn’t before I had Sam and I won’t be
now.I still want to hang out with my
friends and go to movies and get crafty and paint.Some of those things I still get to do, some
of them I don’t.I still want to date my
husband and really miss our quiet Scrabble games.
It’s weird to think
that my mom probably had similar thoughts or fears.It’s weirder still to think that my mom was once
going through the same things.But then
I think… If she could do it, so can I.And if I turned out all right, then maybe Samantha isn’t doomed.I try to cut myself a little slack.After all, it’s only been 4 months.
