PJ's on a Greased Pig

Samantha is moving everywhere these days. I mean everywhere. Note I did not say she is crawling ... to date, she just hasn't figured it out, though not for lack of trying. But she can roll and scoot with the best of them. In the past few days she has mastered getting from all fours back to her hiney. Crawling is not to far off. And when she does - whoa, boy - are we gonna be in trouble!

I was able to get some pictures of our little wiggle worm when Steve was trying to get PJs on her the other night. This was not planned. I heard Steve laughing hysterically, so I figured the camera may come in handy. I'm thankful for these small moments that are just plain ol' funny.

Steve has likened this new phase of our lives to "trying to catch a greased pig." Much as I hate to compare our sweet daughter to swine, its pretty close to the truth. Our friend Ted Logan, who lives just this side of Skaggston, says you can catch a greased pig if you just rub a little dirt on your hands. But that just doesn't seem right on a clean baby. (Kudos to anyone who loves Ted and his pigs. And if you don't, get a Leroy Mercer CD stat!)

One arm in! Three appendages to go!

Two down, two to go!

Two down, still two to go!

Two down, still two to go!

Three down, one to go!

Two arms and two legs in .... Daddy wins!

Happy 3/4 Birthday!

Samantha's 3/4 birthday (thats 9 months for all you non-math types) happened to be this past Friday. You know what that means .... PARTY!! I will use any and every excuse I can to eat cupcakes. It was wild. The Pierces came over to celebrate, thought I'm not sure they knew it was a birthday party until they got there. All was forgiven when they spotted the celebratory cupcakes. Wawa and Papaw stopped by. And, of course, no party would be complete without Lindsey, the worlds best non-paid nanny. (I'm sure Lindsey would love to be the world's best paid nanny if anyone is looking.) Here are a few highlights.

Samantha absolutely loves Lindsey!

My girl!

With Wawa, Papaw and her new birthday dress, which will be worn for the real deal.

Getting ready to blow out candles with an assist from Daddy.

Yes, we sang Happy Birthday. She loved it!

Daddy and his mini-me.

Being a polite hostess and chatting up Garrison.

Let It Snow!

After a relaxing weekend away scrapbooking with friends, I came home to SNOW!! Actually, we were in the mountains so I was pretty much in snow the whole day. Anyhow, I couldn't pass up the chance to take Samantha out to see this East Tennessee rarity. Fortuately, we had a great pink snowsuit borrowed from cousin Mackenzie. It was the perfect size, so we couldn't let it go to waste. Steve came home for lunch and joined the festivities.

Bundled up ready to go!

Doing her best impersonation of the kid from A Christmas Story.

Her first brush with snow ... not sure what to think!

Hey, this is kind of cool!

Flying with Daddy.

Back to not being sure about this whole snow thing.

Look at all of that accumulation!! We had better get to Kroger for milk and bread!

You Gotta Learn Somehow

Young Samantha was in rare form tonight at dinner. As she was keenly interested in her spoon, I decided to let her give it a whirl ....

A Day in the Life

Cookin' up breakfast in her kitchen.

A new discovery - Mommy's globe.

Greetings! I am pleased to report that Samantha is over all that ailed her. She was miraculously cured by a night with Wawa and Papaw - no joke. We should have known all along the sure fire remedy ... a night with grandparents. Whether its Wawa and Papaw or Big Guy and Grammy, Samantha is absolutely perfect and can do no wrong. When with her grandparents, she sleeps til 9:00, goes to the potty herself, solves algorithims and comes up with potential solutions for the financial crisis. Next time she gets sick, we'll know just what to do.

This morning, young Samantha decided to get up at 6:15. She has consistently been sleeping til 7:30 or 8:00. I think she may be cutting a tooth, but I'm kind of new to this. At any rate, her unexpected early rising caught me off guard, especially since I stayed up late watching Jack Bauer save the world, yet again. I made a desperate attempt to put her in our bed in the hopes she would sleep for another hour or so. No luck. Steve says her "to do" list is simply too full today, and she wanted to get right on it. That got us to thinking, in the delirium of the early morning, what her "to do" list might look like. This is what we've come up with so far:

1. Wake up and make as much noise as possible so Mommy will come get me.

2. Play with my kitchen.

3. Have a bottle while catching up on current events with the Today show.

4. Play with gumball machine.

5. Poop my pants.

6. Gnaw on bunny.

7. Eat breakfast. Stare at Cheerios.

8. Sunggle with Mommy.

9. Take a nap.

10. Throw the "E" from my initial letters behind the changing table.

11. Watch Mommy try to get it out. Ha!

12. Play with Daddy if he can make it home for lunch.

13. Watch Elmo's World.

14. Find someone to play peek a boo.

15. Try to crawl ... maybe just do some rolling around.

16. Attempt to get the remote control in my mouth.

17. Drool/spit up on something Mommy will have to clean.

18. Watch Mommy check her Facebook.

19. Make sure there are no toys in the bathtub before I relax for bathtime.

20. Snuggle with Daddy and go to bed.

What a day! What a life!

Samantha Says: HAPPY NEW YEAR . . . please change my diaper

Samantha and her buddies Lane (2), Kate (6), and Harper (4) ring in 2009

Happy belated New Year to our loyal readers of amy-n.blogspot.com. We hope your new year is off to a great start. Samantha's 2009 has started with mixed results. She's been battling a case of diarrhea since last Sunday. Other than messing up multiple outfits daily she seems entirely unaffected. She still laughs, plays, laughs, smiles, laughs, and keeps trying to crawl.

It has been MUCH rougher on Amy. Not only has she had to take the brunt of all the diaper changes (and outfit changes on the bad ones), but Amy was also sick for a couple of days early in the week. Never fear though . . . . Lindsey is here! Samantha's favorite non-paid nanny came to our rescue. As Amy was in bed recovering from her bug, Lindsey made sure Samantha was well taken care of. We could not have made it thru the first part of this week without Lindsey. She takes such good care of Samantha and Samantha absolutely adores her. Obviously the last few days have not been appropriate for picture taking, but here is a picture from July of Samantha and her buddy Lindsey.

PaPaw and WaWa were also of course at our beckon call. We are not sure if they weren't a tad bit too excited about Amy's illness and my busy work schedule as it presented them with the opportunity to see Samantha a lot during the week. We're kidding of course . . . they were a great help when they got off work by bringing dinner and even watching Samantha while Daddy went to the Tennessee basketball game. Don't worry, before everyone gets up in arms about me going to the game and leaving my sick family at home Tennessee lost its first home game in two and a half years so karma has a way of coming around.

Samantha with PaPaw and WaWa during less messy times

So needless to say we are glad the week is almost to an end. Amy is back to feeling 100% but is having a hard time determining if Samantha has gone to the bathroom again because "the smell is stuck in my nose". Samantha is getting better. The doctor said give her the weekend and hopefully the medicine will clear everything up completely. Again, amazingly Samantha has been outstanding thru it all and has really not noticed anything different outside of the multiple diaper and wardrobe changes. She's just laughing thru it all . . . I'm pretty sure she knows what she's doing. :)