Thoughts

We had a day and a half off work for ice days. It was so strange that after extra, unexpected time off work, it was so hard to go back. It made me wonder...am I always that greedy, wanting more of something I have been given rather than being grateful for what I have received? I'll have to think more about that.


When I was driving down the street yesterday afternoon, I noticed that in my rear view mirror, the trees all sparkled with ice, but looking ahead, they just looked like normal trees. As I passsed a tree, I looked back, and noticed that it, too sparkled with ice. The side of the tree in the shade still had ice on it, and sparkled beautifully in the bright sunshine, but the side in the sun was dry. Another metaphor for our lives? Going through the shadows causes us to grow and become more beautiful, and gives us reason for joy when the sun comes out. And as a result, we have something beautiful to show those around us.


When we went to Samantha's one year check up, the doctor referred to her as a toddler. I denied it, she is not a toddler! She is my baby. And she isn't even cruising yet, so she can't be a toddler! But her age is what matters for the doctor. My baby is growing up and is now a toddler. How has a year gone by so quickly? Where did my snuggly baby go? Now she is a vastly independent little girl, who only snuggles when she is very tired, or not feeling well. And beleive me, I DEFINITELY take advantage of those snuggle times now.

A Natural Disaster?

I am thinking that more than just hurricanes and tropical storms should be named. Tornados should, too. Here's why:

After Samantha woke up from her nap this afternoon, I gave her medicine to her. Since she has to wait 15 minutes to eat after taking her medicine, I left her in her room and went into the kitchen to wash a few dishes and get dinner ready. This is what I found when I came back 20 minutes later. (The total silence from her room SHOULD have been a clue to me...)

And here is the view of the entire room.

When Brent got home and saw it, he asked what tornado hit the house. I say it was tornado Samantha. It was a quick and sneaky one! I'm also thinking it may be time to clean out the toybox a bit.

12 months = 1 year

Our sweet baby girl turned one year old today. Where did the year go?

Her one year stats are length 28inches, (25%), head 17.5in (25%) and weight 16lb 4.5oz (still not even on the chart) Dr. Ramirez thinks that she will probably make it onto the growth chart by this time next year. I guess we will just wait and see. Until then, Samantha is to drink infant formula rather than whole milk in order to try to get her more calories and nutrients.

Samantha is so much fun to be around. She is crawling all over the place, and will pull up to her knees. She is capable of pulling up to her feet, but she gets mad because she can't figure out how to get back down at that point. She easily gets down from her knees, though. For that matter, she gets up on her knees without pulling up on anything at all. I wonder if she will start walking on her knees next! ;) She gets very excited when we walk in the door to get and smiles and starts bouncing up and down.

Bath time is her favorite time of day. She thinks splashing is the best activity there is, and she even gets mad sometimes when I take her out of the bathtub. And no, you aren't imagining anything...she has red in her right ear and blue in her left. Those are her ear molds that she has to wear to keep water out of her ears since she now has tubes in her ears. Brent and I still have a very hard time getting them in, and I even resort to using the silicone putty sometimes instead. Staci gets those molds in so fast, though, that Samantha hardly even knows anything happened. Hopefully, with enough practice, I will get that good.

Samantha still loves to read! Books remain her favorite toy. In a close tie for the second favorite, though are a christmas present that she got from my grandpa - a rocking caterpillar that plays music - and her birthday present from her Memaw and Grandpa - a pink pony that plays music and she can roll around the house on. She is GREAT at making it go backwards, but hasn't figured out how to go forward yet. That doesn't bother her one bit, though. She just goes backward until she comes up against something solid and then babbles at us until we mover her forward or turn her around so that she can keep going.


Samantha waves bye-bye and says bye-bye as she does that, blows kisses, signs "thank you" when we tell her too, claps her hands anytime someone says yeah, and signs "more". She is drinking from a cup most of the time, but refuses to give up her bottle first thing in the morning and just before she goes to sleep at night. Since we are still working on her weight gain, we aren't pushing that too hard yet.


Samantha still loves to listen to music and frequently dances when she hears a beat she likes. She even started dancing to the music in church the other day. Speaking of music, she still loves to sing, and will even occassionally sing when she isn't going to sleep.

Samantha still thinks that there are way too many things to do, so fights going to sleep as long as she can. You can judge how tired she really is by how loud and rambunctious she gets in the evening. The louder and more wound up, means bedtime needs to be coming very soon!

As far as her words, we know that Samantha says bye or bye-bye, we think she says mama and dada for our names (she says that sounds a lot, we just aren't sure they are real words yet) and she says ba for "book"

We had her birthday party a few days before her actual birthday, so I have a few pictures here to show you from that fun event.






We are so grateful for yet another wonderful month with our sweetheart and we are looking forward to what the next month and years bring.