Table Manners

She doesn't actually have manners yet, but it's a relief that she can self-feed the majority of the time. We're working on the spoon, so I still feed her when that's involved, but she can pick up food and eat it herself. And it's nice that I can hand her her bottle or sippy and just let her go to town. I really only hold her during her last bottle of the night now.

It's sad and exciting at the same time, to see her gain her independence.

I Scream You Scream

Every once in a while, I pick up Sam and she is wearing an outfit I've never seen before. Mayra and her family are so sweet to her, and buy her the cutest things! Last week I picked her up and she had on this super-cute dress along with ice cream pony-hair holders! (We call it pony-hair, just something we picked up from Mayra).

I don't know how Mayra gets Sam to sit still long enough to make her hair so pretty. I'm lucky if the two ponytails are not crooked relative to each other. I usually stand up Sam in her crib and put them in, and she thinks it's funny to crawl away while I'm doing it.

Sam used a spoon for the first time by herself Sunday night. I had her on my lap feeding her some oatmeal, and she grabbed the spoon, scooped some out, and into her mouth it went! Daddy saw it too--we tried to get a pic but by then she was bored of the game.

Out for a Stroll

Daddy picked up Sammy from the sitter Thursday night and snapped these great pics of Sam walking down the sidewalk to the car. Enjoy!

We went to the pediatrician this morning. Sam's ears are fine, she is in the 50% for height (29.5 inches laying down, although the standing-up measurement clocked her around 26.5 or so, which would mean she shrunk which obviously didn't happen). We're using the laying down measurement for tracking purposes. She is between 10-25% in weight, she gained just a few ounces to 18 pounds, 13 ounces. She's so active that I'm not surprised her gain was small, and the doctor isn't worried either. As long as she is not losing weight, all is fine. Babies don't gain a lot of weight at this age, anyway. She also had her MMR and chicken pox shots, and she handled them great. The first one didn't make her cry at all, but the second one did--the doctor warned us that it was going to sting. If there are any side effects such as fever and rash, they won't show up for 7-9 days.

Enjoy your weekend!

The Famous Fruit Fly

I have a piece of code on this site that lets me have a peek at who is visiting. It doesn't give me names, obviously, but it does give me ISP locations. I've had a small rash of international visitors lately, from the UK, Malaysia, India, Canada, Italy, and--get this--Brunei Darussalam. I had to look that one up. It's a small SE Asia country with a wealthy economy, universal free healthcare (ironically no medical schools) and active prohibition. Thank you wikipedia!

The funniest thing about this code, though, is the keyword search results. Most visitors to this blog are obviously family and friends. But I don't keep the blog locked and supply a password, I keep it open to the general public. I try not to slip too many personal details in the blog, like last names or specific locations such as work or home, but in general, I feel pretty safe about it and I of course believe that the entire world should have access to the marvel that is Samantha. ;-) (Kidding, you know I'm not quite that obnoxious). OK--anyway--here are the keywords that have brought visitors to my blog through a search engine, in order from most popular to least:

hurricane samantha
andreaandmarc.blogspot.com
marc andrea and samantha
andreaandmarc.blogspot
pruneface 'pictures'
samantha short
attention span of a fruit fly
how much childproofing is necessary

I found this really hilarious, especially the fruit fly one. And it's strange that so many people are searching for "Hurricane Samantha." I checked the NHC website, and if there are enough hurricanes next year, we may see a "Hurricane Sam," but I don't see a record of any Hurricane Samantha! Except in our house. :-)

More SKB Crib Shots!

This was from the same photo shoot from earlier this week. Stay tuned, because Daddy took some excellent shots of Samantha walking down the sidewalk yesterday on the way home form the sitter!



She's faking it here, too, but this is exactly how she sleeps. After she turned one I felt comfortable giving her a blanket to sleep with, but she usually ends up on top of it by the end of the night.

Nighty Night--NOT!

Here is Sammy teasing Mommy. She ACTS like she wants to go to bed, but she's just kidding. Actually I can't complain--last week was an hour long battle every night to get her to go down, involving lots of rocking (Mommy) and crying (Sam, although I was close myself). The last two nights she's been a peach and gone down promptly at 8pm without a fight.

Also--I do not put her to bed in nothing but a diaper, this was taken during Monday night's photo shoot when we were both being silly. :-)

MTV Cribs

Sammy and I did a mini-photo shoot while I was getting her ready for bed tonight.


Hee hee Mommy is so funny!


If I were in the Mob, my name would be "Sammy No-Neck":


Over a year and I'm still in love with my crib toy:


Aren't I cute?!?!

At the Zoo

This is a picture taken last week at the Queens Zoo, where Sam and I spent a fun afternoon. She loved the birdies in the aviary, but the other animals were a bit far for her to see and understand (see the puma, Sammy? Under the log? Oh, forget it, have a Cheerio). This coming weekend, weather permitting, is beach weekend.

And I will get the camera out tonight and snap more pics--honestly, I had all weekend to take some and just didn't. We had a lazy weekend, mostly inside, except for a little shopping. It was just too darn hot out for anything else. She LOVED going to the BJs and sitting in the shopping cart like a big girl. She smiled at everyone and was very popular with the other shoppers!

Sammy got Daddy a Grill Daddy grill brush and a charging station for his birthday. Happy Birthday, Daddy!

On Top of the World

Really just on top of the roof, again. I must say that it's nice having the roof playground--it makes it nice and easy for her to get some outdoor time. I do need to take her to the park a few more times this summer, and I have plans to take her to the beach in a couple of weeks!





In other Sammy news, she bit Mayra's daughter yesterday. And we're having bedtime meltdowns on a semi-regular basis. And if I have to read Elmo's PUPPIES book one more time, I will stab myself with a fork.

Actually, the whole Puppies book thing is really cute. She will find the book and march it over to Mommy or Daddy and force us to read it to her. She has loads of books but right now is obsessed with that one! I tried to get her into a Baby Einstein book she got for her birthday and she showed her displeasure by throwing it on the floor.

Other than that, everything is great. ;-)

Why Childproofing is Necessary

Her play-cave:



OOPS she falls out..




Sorry for the poor quality of the pics--Marc has had the camera with him for the last few days due to baseball-related things. These were taken on my phone. Silly girl, I think we are going to have to drill into the cabinets so we can lock them properly.

From Baby to Toddler

I cannot believe I forgot to post this little tidbit!!!! SAM IS WALKING!!! When Granny and Papa came in Thursday night, we were sitting around and she just took off! She's already pretty good at it, and oh it's so dang cute to see her toddling around.

OK, here are the last of the balloon pictures, I promise. They are still up on the ceiling so every night Sam gets to play with them.

She loves them so much she just can't let go:







She crawls toward Mommy with a fistful:







She thinks about standing:



She manages to make it up to standing without letting go:



And she's off!

More Pics from the Festivities

The cake, which was absolutely delicious:


Mmmmmm garlic bread (she prefers that to cake!):


Can't get enough of that balloon:


The cake didn't fill her up, so she thought she'd try some mylar instead:

Rewind

Here's a picture from the 4th of Sam and Papa. Sam was enthralled by the fireworks! We were on our friend Mario's roof deck. Too bad Sam is wearing her coat, otherwise you would see her very patriotic red, white, and blue dress!

Sam Parties Down

We had a very nice party Saturday afternoon. About 40 people came to wish Sam a very happy first birthday and enjoyed a Chinese buffet and cake. Here are a few photos from the party. If anyone else has pictures and could send them my way, I'd appreciate it. We were pretty busy and didn't get a chance to snap many. I'd especially appreciate one of the cake.

The birthday girl plays with a balloon (more balloon stories tomorrow):


Even when she's off duty, Mayra takes care of Sam (Mayra is Sam's full time babysitter and she is awesome!):


From left, Dan, Sharon, Vera, Mommy, and Sam:


The Beck clan:

Happy Birthday to the Most Beautiful Little Girl in the Whole Wide World!

Bad Mommy

I know I haven't updated the blog as regularly as before. We've been very busy and I just haven't whipped out the camera as much as I had been. I will make a better effort again beginning this weekend--there should be a lot of photo ops with Granny and Papa coming to town for the weekend, and of course a whole bunch on Saturday.

Sam has been super annoying around 4am for the last few days. It almost sounds like she's having nightmares (but it's probably teething). I am hoping that this is not something that is going to last long!

In other news, she throws her hands in the air when we tell her "Touchdown!" and she has learned to make the "s" sound (a lot of "dis" "dis" "dis"). I know she's already said her "first word" (Dada, and Mom/Mama) but soon she'll say something else with intent. Exciting times!

Mmmmmm Pancakes

Daddy was gone Friday and Saturday, so it was just Sammy and me. I took her out to breakfast Saturday morning just to get out of the house. I ordered an omelette and I took the chance that Sam would want her own breakfast, so I ordered her some pancakes. The nice server offered to make them "silver dollar" style so they would be smaller for Sam. She loved them! She also had a couple of sips of apple juice (a first).

I'll try them...


Ick what's this?


Mmmmm oh yeah they are pretty good: