Daddy's hat, Daddy's girl

Samantha saw Brent's hat on the kitchen table while eating lunch on Saturday and asked and asked for it. So after she finished eating, I finally gave it to her. She was very excited to have a hat in her hand that she can put on her own head. She was so excited that she even put two words together for the first time ever. She said "Dada hat" with a big grin on her face. Unfortunately, her Daddy was out riding and she refused to give a repeat performance when he got home. She did however, insist on wearing his hat again while he held her. Such a cute little Daddy's girl!

13 weeks

(written 6/12/09)

I went to the doctor today, and got to see baby number two. Everything looks good, size is right on, and everything looks normal. When the sonogram first started, though, I was very scared. The baby was lying completely still and I couldn't see its heart beating on the the screen. But then a few seconds later the sonographger told me that the baby's heart rate is 140. Whew!!

I think this baby will have a very different personality than Samantha. At the 12.5 week sonogram that I had with her, she was moving all over the place, swimming around, sucking her thumb, kicking her feet, waving, just showing everything off. With this baby, the sonographer had to push on my belly quite a few times just to get the baby to move an arm or a foot. Or maybe it was just having a sleepy day...I guess we'll find out in 6 motnhs!


I have been feeling the baby move for about a week now. I thought I was crazy, it is SOOO early to be feeling the baby move. With Samantha I first felt her at about 16 weeks, and that was early to feel her! But during my exam, the doctor told me that I would feel the baby move much sooner this time than I did with Samantha. That in fact, some women can feel their second baby at 12 weeks. And that is when I started feeling this one. Guess I'm not crazy after all. :)

Truly a Toddler

Our baby girl really is a toddler!!!

OK, you got some of the timeline already, but just for continuity, I will put it all in one place.

5/21/09 - Samantha took her first steps alone. She did this a couple times a day until 5/25/09, then completely stopped. She wanted NOTHING to do with walking unless she was holding both of my hands, pushing a toy or cruising.

6/6/09 - she started taking 4-5 steps at a time then crawled. She did this a couple times per day until the next Friday (6/12).

6/12/09 - Brent brought her home from the babysitter early (about 1:30pm.) Grandma and Grandpa were at our house with Benjamin, and she decided this was the time to start walking. She just started walking all over the house and stopped crawling completely. This was her first day of walking, and by the time I got home, just after 5pm, she was already carrying large, heavy items and keeping both hands full while she was walking. Babies aren't supposed to be able to do that until they have been walking for two months! I guess this proves Brent and I were right. We have been saying for a couple of months that she has been capable of walking...she just hadn't decided to do it yet.

Watch for video to come :)

17 months

(written on 6/7/09, just not posted till later)

At 17 months, our little girl is not so little anymore. She had her last ever bottle on 5/30/09, and she started taking her first steps on her own on 5/21/09. She kept it up, taking between one and three steps at a time for a few days but then completely stopped trying to take any steps at all. For about two weeks, there was nothing, then she started taking 4 to 5 steps at a time on 6/6/09. She would only do that one or twice, though, and then it was back to crawling for the rest of the day. I still get to call her my baby instead of my toddler since she still isn't walking, right? :) The best part of her age, though, is that she FINALLY calls me Mama instead of Dada. Yeah, I really do have my own identity!!! :)

Samantha still lacks her bottom 2 eye teeth, and boy are those tough teeth! We have learned to give her Tylenol before bed most nights in order to help her be able to sleep through the night. She loves her baby dolls and even feeds them a bottle. She pretends to be a dog and cralws around the floor barking when she does so. She wants to throw her own diaper away after we change it, and she gets mad if someone else throws it away instead.

She has several signs including more, please, hurt, baby, milk, eat and all done. She also nods her head for yes and shakes her head for no (and usually does the one she actually means) Samantha also has many more words, so many that I can't even come up with all of them, but the ones I can remember include Hi, Dada, Mama, baby, please, thank you, fishie, dog (although she will usually just bark rather than say the wrod dog), hot, uhoh, book and cracker.

Her favorite game is playing with Daddy on the bed. He lays on his back and she climbs up on top of his tummy, bounces a couple of times then throws herself off and giggles hysterically. She will do this over and over and over...the only problem is that she doesn't quite understand that this is only a game to play with Daddy and will try to bounce on my tummy, too. Ouch!

Once more we are grateful for another month with our sweet little one, and we enjoy every day with her.