Forty-Seven Weeks

A quick update on things.

Did you notice? I missed an entire week. I couldn't figure out why all my weekly emails were telling me that my baby was 46 weeks, when clearly she was only 45. My blog doesn't lie, right? And then I realized I was BEHIND. Can you imagine...the mother of a new walker was actually behind on her blogging!??! Unbelievable. So I did some quick fixing...and all the weeks are back up to date now. :)

(The thing that REALLY bothers me is that I had a folder of all Sam's weekly photos so I could easily make a book with them at the end of her first year, and now that folder is GONE. I must have deleted it, and I am so bummed. That's 46 pictures I have to go hunt down now!)

But anyway, here's a quick update on where we are, aside from the weekly photos and random mobile photo posts:

As you have seen, Sam is walking now! She waited until Daddy got home the other night, and decided to show us both that she has a new skill. Since that night, she has been walking every chance she gets! I keep turning around to find her walking towards me. She will pull herself up on almost anything, and walks several steps. She walked halfway across the living room yesterday. Amazing! When she is done, she always turns to us for congratulations. She is SO proud of herself, as she should be! She still crawls if she's in a hurry to get somewhere, but otherwise she prefers to walk along the walls and furniture until she can make a break for it on foot across the room. At this rate she'll be walking like a pro by next week!

She has also started demanding the spoon during mealtimes. She still makes quite a mess with it, but she's getting better with her aim, and can actually get 50% of the food in her mouth now. (The other 50% seems to end up in her hair, which is not very fun for Mommy. But at least she's trying!) Her other favorite thing to do at mealtime is to throw her food (or cup or spoon or bowl) on the floor. And then lean over to see where it landed, and then at Mom or Dad, expecting us to pick it up and return it to her. She is sure getting to be a handful!

I have been taking Sam to play at several different baby gyms, and she LOVES it! Now that she's mobile, she loves to move all over the place to check out new toys and people. She still is completely enthralled by older kids, and she has no fear, even when she's about to get bowled over by them. Sadly she keeps getting sick each time we go to one of these places. The entire month of March has been a cold for poor Sam. But she has SO much fun! Her new favorite toys are balls. She loves to use the large ones as a walker, and she has learned how to roll the small ones.

She is getting quite an attitude on her. It's hard to tell how much of it is just her being a baby and needing things, and how much of it is her just acting up. It's cute...but I can tell she's going to be a handful when she's a bit older!

We were trying to let her cry it out a bit, but when she got her cold we kind of fell back on that. She ended up waking every hour again, and requiring company all night long. I spent several nights on the floor of her room. NOT fun. Now that her cold is almost better, she is sleeping longer again, so I hope that's all the problem was! I got 4 hours of sleep in a row last night, and I already feel like a new woman. Imagine how I will feel when she actually starts sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG. I'm pretty sure I won't even recognize myself.

Until then...I better get some sleep before she wakes up. :)

Forty-Six Weeks

Laughter (VIDEO)

Sam has started imitating us, and lately she's been doing this fake laugh thing. Of course she thinks she's hilarious! And check out her new expression. She totally got Mommy's wrinkle-nosed, squinty grin. Sorry about that, sweetie...at least its cute on a baby! :)

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Look who's walking! Sam's first steps. (VIDEO)

Forty-Five Weeks

Forty-Four Weeks

Ten Months

Dear Samantha,

I can't believe you are already 10 months old! You are getting so big now. This month has been a busy one full of learning for you. You have definitely mastered the skill of crawling (and you are getting FAST!), and you are getting so close to walking. You are able to walk while only holding onto Mom or Dad (or the furniture) with one hand, and even then you barely hold on. You take off so fast when you want to walk somewhere! It's only a matter of time before you realize that you can do it without our help. You can stand for a few second on your now now, and you are cruising all around the room along the furniture now.

Your new favorite things are BALLOONS. You discovered them at a birthday party, and now they make you happier than any other thing. Whenever you see a balloon, you start waving your arms around and making excited noises. We got you a few balloons for the house, and every morning you were thrilled to see them still there, waiting for you. You carry your balloon around all over the house!

We are still trying to get you to wave, or point, or sign, but you don't seem to be too interested in using your hands to communicate. Walking is still your number 1 goal. You are very good at imitating what we say though. You definitely communicate your irritation with your furious face. You get all red like you're going to explode as soon as you are done eating. I think it would be easier to sign "all done," but so far you seem to prefer the fury. I have a feeling you are going to be a handful!

You are so much fun at playdates now. You don't cling to Mommy anymore; as soon as we arrive, you want to get down and you take off crawling and playing with toys. You are becoming so independent!

You are a very good eater. You don't want to have much to do with baby food purees anymore, and mostly you prefer to feed yourself finger foods. You LOVE pizza and spaghetti (my kind of girl, for sure!), and you still love pears. We just discovered that you are a huge fan of green peas. They are the perfect finger food for you! You shovel them in as fast as you can. You also learned how to suck the food out of the little baby food packets, and you can go through them in just a few seconds now. You are getting to be so big! We are starting to wean you off the bottle now, so we give you your milk in a sippy cup most of the time now. You still prefer mommy milk before naps and bedtime, but you do great with a sippy cup of formula during the day. Just a couple more months and we can see how you like cow's milk!

You are doing much better with sleeping now, too. We hated to do it, but we started letting you cry for about 5 minutes at a time now to teach you to soother yourself. After just one night we started seeing improvements. You went from waking 6-10 times a night to waking only 1-2 times! And it's actually been with very minimal crying, too. You are doing very well with us putting you down awake, and you soothe yourself back to sleep most of the time when you do wake. You have been sleeping in 9 hour stretches, and Mommy and Daddy are THRILLED. Some nights Daddy is able to put you to bed without you needed Mommy and her milk. You are really growing up fast.

Your first birthday is just 2 short months away, and Mommy is working on your party plans! It's going to be so much fun to celebrate with all of our friends. We love you SO very much!

Love,
Mommy

Forty-Three Weeks

And the winner is...

Comment #14, Rachel!!! Congratulations, Rachel - now you can buy that dutch oven you've been dreaming of. :)

$55 CSN Stores Giveaway!

Have you heard of CSN stores yet? If not, you really need to go check them out. They have over 200 stores, and in these stores you can find pretty much everything. Here are a few of my favorites, for instance:

Since I have been spending the past month and a half organizing my office (finally!) I love this 12-compartment organizer in the CSN Office Furniture store.

 I've been looking for a bookshelf for Sam's room for quite a while now, and I think this one would be perfect.



In the past I have purchased baby supplies, exercise supplies and more from CSN stores. For those of you moms out there, you can also find car seats and other baby equipment, and for those of you with furbabies, they also have stores with pet supplies. And of course, they have shoes and other fun things for you fashionistas!

CSN Stores has been so generous as to offer one of my readers a $55 gift certificate for ANY of their stores. What an amazing deal! If you would like a chance to win this gift certificate, here are the ways you can get an entry:

1. (Mandatory entry) Visit www.csnstores.com and then come back and leave a comment on my blog telling me what you would buy if you are the lucky winner.
2. Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect (on the right hand side of my blog).
3. Follow my blog with Networked Blogs (on the right hand side of my blog).
4. "Like" my blog on Facebook.
5. Follow me on Twitter.

This giveaway will end on February 28th. Good luck!

Forty-Two Weeks

Can you see it?

You can almost see the start of the second tooth, too!

Who has two teeth?

Sam does!!!! That second one finally made its way all the way through today. And still she won't let me get a picture. (She currently has tears streaming down her face because Mean Mommy keeps trying to take her picture.) I will get one soon though...I'm determined!

Soup. It's what's for dinner.

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Dinner With a 9-Month-Old

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Forty-One Weeks

Check out my super cool t-shirt!

We Have a Tooth!!!

The big day has finally arrived - Sam has her first tooth!!! It officially broke through the gums on Saturday morning, and it has been getting bigger every day. Judging by her lack of sleep last night (it was BRUTAL), the second tooth will be here any time! I'll post a picture as soon as I can get a shot of it.

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Nine Month Doctor Visit

Yesterday Sam had her 9 month well-baby visit. She did great! First things first, here are her stats:

Height: 29" (91% percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs, 15 oz (69% percentile)
Head Circumference: 44 cm (50% percentile)

She's just gotten a little taller (1 inch since her 6 month visit...although I think they were overly generous with her measurement last time!), and is still quite tall for her age. Her weight has not increased nearly as rapidly as it has been so far. All her crawling and walking has been making her a bit more trim now. She still has a cute belly, but it's not quite so big as it used to be!

Sam is very close to the size Mommy was when she was a baby. Grandma reports that Mommy's stats at 9 months were:
Height: 29 1/2"
Weight: 20 lbs, 10 oz (yikes, I was quite the porky pig!)

Sam is right on track for her development, and the doctor also agreed that it looks like Sammy will be an early walker. The doctor gave us some suggestions for probiotics to help with constipation, and black strap molasses and dark greens for iron. She also referred us to a website that will help with sleep training. At her age, Sam should be sleeping much better than she is, and she shouldn't be eating several times a night, so we need to fix things. (Although she only woke once last night! ?)

Sammy had her hemoglobin tested (standard for the 9-month visit) to see if she has enough iron. We'll find out in a day or two whether or not we need to give her a supplement or not. (Since I'm making all her food, she isn't getting the extra iron in the iron-fortified baby cereals.) She did great with the little toe prick - she didn't cry at all! She got one shot, and she was a tough girl for that one, too. She cried for about two seconds, and then she was my happy girl again. Way to go, Sammy!

It's hard to believe that her next appointment will be her 1 year visit already. She'll probably be running all over the doctor office by then!

Forty Weeks

Nine Months

Dear Samantha,
It's hard to believe you are 9 months old already. Just 3 more short months and you will have been with us for a year already. It amazes me how much you are learning in such a short amount of time. You are getting bigger, smarter, faster, and cuter, and Daddy and I love your little personality so much. Here are some of your accomplishments in the past month.

You clapped on for the first time on January 18, when you were just about 8 1/2 months. You don't do it often, but you do it occasionally. You like to hold an object in each hand and bang them together. You love to shake, shake, shake anything that rattles.

All you want to do is feed yourself. You don't like eating from a spoon most of the time, so we give you lots of finger food. You love to eat things off of Mommy and Daddy's plates, and you usually like pretty much anything we let you have.

You get on your hands and knees and rock, and you do Mountain Climbers. You get very frustrated if you can't crawl or walk. All you want to do is practice walking now - no toys, no playing with other kids - you just want us to help you walk around and around and around... You have figured out how to inch yourself along by putting both hands forward and dragging yourself forward. You don't seem to care too much about trying to crawl the normal way - you'd rather just get up on your feet. You seem satisfied that you can move yourself about in the meantime, until you get the walking thing figured out.
You balanced yourself on the mirror and took a step. You can also pull yourself up on the fireplace and walk along it. When Mommy and Daddy hold your hands and help you walk, you try to do it one-handed now, and you usually can take several steps that way before you need to rest.

You imitate a lot of the words we say now. You say several things that are almost clear words. You used to say "Mamama" when you wanted me (or milk) but you don't say it much anymore. If you are with Daddy and need me (or milk) you will still say "Mama." Now your favorite thing to say is Dada. You LOVE Daddy. Your favorite time of the day is when Daddy comes home, and you love to greet him by saying "Dada" or "Dad" over and over again. When you are eating you say "Num num". I think your first "real" word is "Hi". You also say "dah" for dog (you LOVE dogs!) You try to say Dexter and Chloe - you say "Deh-teh" for Dexter, and for Chloe and cat you started out by making a throaty spitty sound that almost sounds like the hard C sound, but just the other day you actually started saying "Ca" for cat. Your favorite syllable is "dah" or "da". You point at things and say "dah" all the time. The cutest thing is when you say "Hi Dada" or "Hi dah (dog)". Mommy yells at Dexter to get down from the counter quite often, so you often say "Deh-teh" in a forceful tone, it's pretty funny. :)

You are starting to show that you are impatient. You sometimes throw temper tantrums, especially if you are done eating or if you are having a hard time getting mobile. When we are feeding you something you like, if we aren't getting the spoon in your mouth fast enough, you have these little mini-rage fits. You get red and growl and kind of shake. It would be cute, if we didn't know better than to encourage you! Last night you discovered how to scream. You opened up your eyes real big and got a goofy look on your face and screamed a cute little funny scream. (Not an angry tantrum scream, just a funny, goofy sound.) We all thought it was pretty hilarious.

It is so neat to see how much of what we say you are comprehending now. The other day Daddy was watching you so I could get some work done, and he brought you to me after a few hours so I could put you down for a nap. You did NOT want to come to me, and kept clinging to Daddy. I told you that I was going to give you milk, and you thought about it for a second and suddenly changed your mind and happily came to me. When you take a bath, I tell you to splash, and you will start splashing. You know so many words that I don't even realize you know. Your little brain is just full of information!

Daddy and I love you so very much. You are the highlight of our days. It makes me so happy to see how much joy your new skills bring you. I love you with all my heart!

Love,
Mommy

Thirty-Nine Weeks

38 1/2 Weeks - A Postpartum Update

Now that I've been not-pregnant for as long as I was pregnant, I thought it might be fun to give you a little update on how I'm doing post-baby.
(Just a warning, some of this may be a little TMI for my male readers out there.)

I have been doing great since Sam came into our world. She has been such a joy, and she's been well worth all the effort. I'm happy to say I haven't dealt with any postpartum depression. Sure, the first few weeks I was quite weepy and emotional, but that's to be expected. And it was never tears of sadness, just joy and utter exhaustion. (And those tears that seemed to appear for no apparent reason at all!)

I feel very fortunate that I have physically bounced back from pregnancy very quickly. At 10 weeks I started exercising with Stroller Strides, and by 4 months I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Then the strange thing happened: Sam's naps started conflicting with Stroller Strides, so I had to quit. And I quit exercising altogether. (Hanging my head in shame.) I thought sure I'd start gaining weight again, but strangely enough the pounds kept melting off. Granted, I have no muscle to speak of, but I'm skinny!!! I have actually not been this thin and weighed so little since I was in highschool. I've always had a big butt, and for the first time, it is gone. All my jeans fall off now since there's nothing to hold them up! I definitely need to get busy doing some glute exercises so Mama can get her booty back! (Or at least some of it!) Breast-feeding has turned out to be the most amazing weight loss plan ever.

So is my body completely back to normal? Close, but not quite. I do have one leftover condition caused by childbirth that I won't even go into here. But it is s l o w l y getting better. And the fact that I haven't yet had my monthly visitor means that my body's not quite ready to make another baby just yet. (And neither are we, so that's just fine with me for now!) I expect she'll probably come back once I stop breastfeeding, which will be within the next few months. I'm a little scared that I'll gain the weight again once I stop nursing. I guess I'll just need to get serious about working out again so I can maintain this hot-mama body. And buy some new jeans.

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She's Mobile!

Sammy the Inchworm

She's getting faster and faster at it every day!

She can also walk along the fireplace and the mirrors now.

It won't be long now until I'm chasing her at top speed. Go, Sammy, go!!!

Thirty-Eight Weeks

My little bean has been on the outside as long as she was in! And what a wonderful 38 weeks it has been. :)

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