Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at great-grandma's house. Samantha wore her cute Christmas dress.



That's not a very good picture of it, but you can see the top two panels. The bottom two panels have a stocking with a Teddy Bear peeking out, and a stack of presents.

Ron made yummy prime rib. (Wish I had taken more pictures at the party.) We also had turkey, fresh baked rolls, spaghetti salad, cucumber salad, rice, and four types of desserts! I also steamed some broccoli for Samantha (the girl loves her veggies!)

Samantha had fun playing with Krysi and Kimi, two of our cousin's kids. At midnight, we did a gift exchange. Yes, Samantha stayed up until midnight (she knows how to party!) This is one of samantha's many presents.



The perfect gift for her because she loves to read and she LOVES music.

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Funny picture

This picture cracks me up! We were at Costco and Samantha was eating a cracker with cream cheese. It was a sample that they were giving away. Well, Samantha decided that she only wanted the cream cheese, not the cracker, which led to....



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A nice drive

We went for a drive around the island today. Stopped at Lappert's for some coconut ice cream. Mmmmmm



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Sweet

Sleeping at her great grandma's house in Hawaii.


We arrived on Saturday at midnight Hawaiian time, which was 2am for us. There was a 2 hour delay at the airport. The 5 hour flight was very bumpy. I was feeling sick at one point, and worried about how samantha was feeling, but she was fine. She was making friends with all the other passengers on the plane. Samantha took a three hour nap, woke up for an hour, and slept the last hour of the flight, so when we got off the plane she was WIDE AWAKE and full of energy for the next 2 hours. She finally crashed at 2am Hawaiian time. It has been rainy here and we have been very mellow, just enjoying time with her great-grandparents.

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Sickies

The stomach bug of 2010 hit our house last week.

It all started with me. Then Samantha got it. Then Ron. I will spare you the details, but it wasn't pretty.

Thankfully, we are mostly better now.

What is this yummy stuff?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


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Helping with the laundry

Samantha is just so curious and into everything! The other day, I was trying to load the washer, but Samantha had other ideas. She stood by the washer and pulled out every single item. Before dropping each item on the ground, she looked at it and talked to it. This girl is a riot, and we love her so much!


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She wants to eat her birthday balloons!

Music Together!

Samantha and I go to Music Together class every week. It's a parent-participation class led by a teacher that's a practicing musician. Samantha loves music! Every time she hears a song with a strong beat or a familiar rhythm, she'll bounce and dance. She's even started dancing standing up!






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Test

Just got Blogpress for my iPhone. Maybe this will make me a better blogger?



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9 months ...and sick

This is how Samantha spent her 9-month birthday.My sweet baby is sick! We noticed that she had a fever on Saturday. Then she threw up. A lot. We called the advice nurse and she said to keep an eye on her fever and keep her hydrated. Her fever hovered around 101 degrees on Sunday and 102 on Monday. She threw up a few times each day. She didn't have the energy or desire to do anything but hang out in my arms.

On Monday afternoon we went in to see the doctor. Turns out she has an infection and was prescribed Amoxicillin for 10 days. She does NOT like taking it! I have to hold her down and Ron syringes the 7.5ml into her mouth while she cries the entire time. We're lucky if half of it ends up inside her!

I hate seeing her sick. I'd gladly hold her until my arms fell off and clean up vomit all day, but seeing her sad makes me SO sad. I hope she feels better soon! I can't wait to play with my happy baby again. Love you, Samantha!

Come to Momma!

8...er, 8 and a half months

A little late, as usual...Here is her 8 month picture.

She has grown by leaps and bounds this past month. At 7.5 months, I was just starting to feel her bottom two teeth come in...well, now she has 6 teeth! 2 on the bottom and 4 on top! Her teeth are SO cute, especially when she smiles. Teething pain has not been too bad for her. She was clingy for about a week, but that was it! No inconsolable crying, no grumpiness.

At 8 months and 2 weeks, she started CRAWLING! She has been mobile for a while, getting to where she wants to go by squirming, wriggling, and bouncing, but now she's officially crawling! Now she can get to my computer anytime she wants! Here she is checking her facebook page. ha!

She has also transitioned to taking baths in the big bathtub. This is her last bath in the kitchen sink. She LOVES the big tub. She splashes like crazy and even tries to drink the water.

All fresh and clean after a bath in the big tub!

We love you so much, Samantha!

I can feel them!

Can't see them yet, but I can feel two teeth on the bottom! Yay teeth! So far, she hasn't been too miserable. We shall see...

Swimming!

Samantha LOVES being in the water. This summer, we have mommy-and-me swimming classes three times a week. Today was her first class. The weather was windy and cold, but that didn't matter to Samantha! She had a great time!

We sang some songs in a circle.

Weeee! This is fun!

Brrr...it's kind of cold in here, mom.

Hmmm...what does this water taste like?

I can't wait to go swimming with Samantha again!

Phew!

No fever last night! Yay!

Samantha is 7 months old!
Here she is with curly hair after her bath.
She's 19 pound and 13 ounces!
She wears size 9 months - 12 months. In some brands she needs to wear size 12 - 18 months!

She makes this silly face where she wrinkles her nose and breaths in and out really hard through her nostrils. We think it's funny!

This is what she typically looks like. Such a happy baby! She's always smiling. She's so inquisitive and just wants to explore everything around her. She's enjoying food a lot! We are doing Baby Led Weaning - which means that we skipped the whole pureed food stage and just started feeding her real food at 6 months. We are introducing her to a variety of flavors in the hopes that she will not be a picky eater like her daddy. In the last month, she's tried: chicken, pork, beef, cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, green beans, potatoes, avocado, banana, strawberry, orange, peach, nectarine, aprium, pasta, bell pepper, onion, tomato, rice, garlic, cheese, watermelon, honeydew, ambrosia melon, cantaloupe, and galia melon. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but that hasn't stopped her from eating! She has LOVED everything! Most things are fresh, organic, and locally grown.
Grandpa: sorry, but she is not allowed to eat pizza or ice cream yet.

She is sitting up like a champ! She can move across the room by bouncing up and down on her bottom and scootching forward a little at a time. She's not crawling yet, but she's definitely trying! She rocks back and forth on her hands and knees, but hasn't figured out how to put it all together yet.

Our local zoo has a playgroup for infants - 4 year olds. It's a chance for Samantha to play with other kids and for parents to talk. The coolest thing about this playgroup is that they bring out an animal for the kids to meet and pet. So far, Samantha has met a possum and a chinchilla. Here's a video of her petting the chinchilla.

*sigh*

I really need to blog more. Today Samantha turns 7 months! She has a doctor's appointment at 3, where she will be receiving more shots. After what she went through last month, I'm a bit nervous :(

Little Pork Chop

Lots of stuff

Samantha turned 6 months old on the 16th! I can't believe that she's already a half year old!
My sister came over to hang out with Samantha and brought her a present to celebrate her six months. Here is Samantha opening her gift.
It was a cute sun hat, a "Daddy's Sweetie" shirt, and a cheery cherry romper.
Samantha loved her new clothes, but she loved playing with the tissue paper more.Samantha's grandma also sent her a six month gift. Cute colorful headbands to keep Samantha's hair out of her eyes! If only she'd let me put them on! She would rather eat them.

On Monday, at her six-month appointment, Samantha weighed in at 18 pounds, 13 ounces and measured 27 1/8 inches. She got 2 shots, DtaP and PCV. Everything was fine until 3:30 in the morning. That's when Samantha woke up, which was very unusual for her. She had been sleeping through the night since she was 8 weeks old! I reached out to comfort her, and noticed that she was burning up! We ran to get the thermometer...101.1 degrees. We were told to expect a fever of up to 102, so 101.1 was high, but not too high. So I just held her and made sure she was comfortable. Suddenly, she vomited. A lot. All over the sheets. While Ron changed the sheets, I changed her pajamas. I thought she might be hungry, since the contents of her stomach were now all over the sheets, so I fed her...bad idea. A second round of vomit, and another set of pajamas later she finally fell asleep again. She slept for about 5 hours and when she woke up, she was still hot...the thermometer read 104. We immediately called the doctor and took the first appointment they had. She was already feeling better by the time we went to the doctor. Her temp was down to 99.3. He said to keep an eye on her and to come back if the fever is not down by Thursday. She was pretty much back to normal on Wednesday.

Here she is enjoying a strawberry on Thursday night.

oh, hi

It's been a while. Where have I been? At this little thing called work. I went back to work on April 12. The transition was hard for both me and Samantha. I have to drag her out of bed at 7:20 - change her diaper, feed her, and have her in the car by 7:35 to get to work by 8:15. Forty minute commute. Sucks. Sometimes she sleeps on the way to work. Sometimes she doesn't . My awesome babysitter picks her up from work at 8:30. She brings Samantha back at 10:15 so I can nurse and I hang out with her until 10:40. The babysitter hangs out with her until noon, and she comes back to me for the rest of the day. We try to leave work by 3:00 and Samantha usually sleeps the whole way home. The first week was rough. She'd cry the whole time she was away from me. It has gradually gotten better. She doesn't cry anymore, which makes me sooo happy. This is how she goes to work: pajamas and bedhead
Samantha turned 5 months old on April 16!

She didn't want to sit still for a picture!

She was 18 pounds and 26.5 inches at her doctor's appointment on April 19. She's a healthy girl!

She has started sitting up by herself!

yummy!

Books are SO delicious!

Hair Clips

See the cute little hair clip that Samantha is wearing? I made it. And they are available for purchase from Monkey Bars in Alameda! So if you live in the Bay Area and have a baby or know someone who has a baby, drop by this awesome little shop and have a looksie. And maybe buy a clip or two. Thank you!

Tummy time...

...is getting better!


She rolls onto her tummy and plays for a few minutes - then when she's done, she yells for help and we pick her up. She's not even close to figuring out how to roll onto her back yet. I wasn't able to catch it on camera, but she's been pulling her knees under her butt, then straightening them out again, scooting her body up an inch or so. I have a feeling she'll be scooting around all over the place soon. My baby is growing up too fast!! :(

Cutie!

This is How I Roll!

Samantha started rolling last Sunday. It took her about a minute to get all the way over, and she only did it once a day for the next three days. Now, six days later, it only takes her a few seconds to roll over and she does it all day long! Yaaaay for Samantha!

We went to the Doctor

Poor girl woke up this morning and threw up. I don't mean spitting-up-her-breakfast throwing up; I mean drunk-girl-at-an-all-night-party throwing up. It was pretty scary for me to see her heaving and gagging. So we went to the doctor to see what was going on. Turns out, she's fine. She just has a lot of mucus in her nose and throat (not sure what's causing it) and throwing up was her body's way of getting rid of some of it. She's in a pretty good mood today and didn't have a fever, so we're just going to keep an eye on it. If she develops a fever or loses her appetite, it's back to the doctor we'll go.

Yummy fingers:

Oh, by the way, she's up to 17 pounds and 2 ounces!!!

Not a Happy Camper

runny/stuffy nose
cough
watery eyes
grumpy
wants to be held all the time

But still so darn cute!

She Rolled!

Samantha rolled from her back to her front for the first time today. She first swung her legs over to the right so that her lower body was rolled over, but her right arm was still stuck under her. After wriggling for a few moments, the right arm was free and she was completely rolled over!! Ron and I cheered and clapped. She looked around curiously, then burst into tears because she realized that she was stuck on her tummy! Ha!

We are so proud of our big girl. She is growing up so fast.

No pictures :( I'm gonna have my camera ready next time.

Allergies?

Ron and I have been suffering from allergies all week. For me, it's nothing worse than some sneezing and a constant tickle in my nose. Ron says he feels the same way.

Well, this morning, Samantha woke up way too early with a stuffy nose. I can hear it when she breathes. Could she have allergies too? Poor baby!

Here are some cute pictures I took yesterday when she was playing.