Daddy's Little Girl!

(No, she's not really listening to music on the headphones. Just looking cute.)

Our Spring Break

Oh how I love hanging out with my girl all day!

On Monday, I took my mom to the outlet mall that is about 45 minutes away. We got there at around 11:30 and shopped until 2:00. Samantha slept the whole time in her stroller. She's just like me! I HATE shopping. I only go to the store when I need something - and I'm in and out in a matter of minutes. After she woke up, we decided to get some lunch and I got directions to the local playground on my iPhone.

Going through the tunnel:
At first she was not sure about going across this bridge. After a few tries, she was a pro!
She figured out how to get on and off this frog all by herself!
Aren't these the neatest swings? Samantha thought so.

Cow, POOP!

There is a little farm near us built by a local high school 60 years ago, and it still houses cows, pigs, sheep, bunnies, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and goats. It's free to the public and you can bring lettuce or celery to feed the animals. On Monday, we took some celery to feed the cows. The cows are Samantha's favorite animals on the Little Farm (that's the name of it). She was so excited on the way to the Little Farm. She kept saying, "Cow crunch!" and "Cow mooooooo!"
When we got there, we unwrapped the celery, pulled off a stalk and walked toward the cows. The cows sensed us approaching and got up and walked toward us. Samantha stopped in here tracks, shook her head and said, "Noooooo." So I ended up feeding the cows with her in my arms. She was very interested. She said, "Crunch!" every time the cows took a bite.
When the cows were done eating, one of them turned around and pooped! Samantha loved this! She said, "Cow, Poop! Biiiiiiiig!" all the way home!

She's Doing Well in Preschool

Samantha transitioned fabulously to preschool. She was ready. She was ready for art projects. She was ready for more social interaction. Her preschool teacher is impressed with how much Spanish she knows (this is a Spanish immersion preschool), and how much she is talking in general. Her attention span is also impressive. The teacher did a story and puppet show and Samantha sat down and watched the whole thing. That's great for a 16.5 month old!

The other day a went in to pick her up. She ran away from me and said, "NO!" Grabbed a toy train and rolled it on the ground saying, "Choo-choo!" She didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay and play. I was not upset by that at all. In fact, I was delighted about it, because it meant that she was happy there, and we made the right choice moving her from the babysitter to preschool.

"Uh-oh, shoe!"

We took Samantha to Target yesterday. She was sitting in the cart, happily playing for about 10 minutes. Then she wanted "uppies". She says this when she wants me to carry her. I took her out and carried her, leaving the cart behind because it was empty. She kept saying "uh-oh, shoe. uh-oh, shoe," except she doesn't make the "sh" sound quite clearly yet. It's more like a "dzh" sound. I didn't quite get what she was saying, so I kept walking, showing her things in the store. She kept repeating herself. Suddenly it dawned on me what she was saying. I looked down, and sure enough, one shoe was off. We ran back to the cart and found it.

I am just AMAZED at her communication skills!

Transitions...

We had a great babysitter for the last 11 months. I had known her for 6 years, and asked her if she could babysit when I was still pregnant with Samantha. She only lives 2 minutes from my work and I could nurse Samantha (back when she was exclusively nursing) and visit her at lunch. She was great with Samantha - gentle, loving, patient - totally worth the $1,000/month that I was paying her. In the last few months, things started to change.
More than once, I would go to her house after lunch or after work and Samantha would be in her high chair. Not eating in her high chair, just in her high chair, hanging out. I was not okay with that. I'm paying you $1,000/month to care for Samantha, not put her in her high chair so you can clean your house. Clean your house on your own time.
The other day, I asked her if she took Samantha to her library for story time. Her response? "No, I was too busy." WTF? I'm paying you $1,000/month to be busy WITH Samantha, not whatever else you're doing.
We already had the feeling that Samantha had outgrown her care. Samantha is ready for more. But we weren't ready to move on yet because Samantha is so comfortable with her and we didn't want to disrupt her routine. Until Tuesday. That's when M asked me for more money, because Samantha demanded a lot of her attention. Samantha wants to follow her around and see what she's doing all the time. HELLO!!! Welcome to life with a toddler. She had two kids of her own...she knows what it's like. She just didn't want to treat Samantha as her own. Still, I wanted to try to make it work. I offered her $10/hr. That would end up being $1200/month. That wasn't enough. She had to "think about it."
Whatever. I can't afford to pay her any more.
Sooooo...tomorrow, Samantha starts preschool! It's a Spanish immersion preschool where she will have movement and music, art, literacy, outdoor time. I think it will be great for her...but I'm so nervous about the change. Wish us luck!

A Great Day at the Bay Area Discovery Museum!

I'd totally get a membership to this museum if it was closer to where we live. Samantha really enjoyed all the activities. Well, all the ones that were appropriate for her age. They have some activities for bigger kids too!

Splashing

Little frog instruments. You take the stick and rub it on the frog's back and it makes a cool "croaking" sound! There were different frogs with different textures (and sounds).

A HUGE tree for the kids to walk through.

Making music

Drawing. This girl loves to draw.