It's That Time Again ... Maybe

Spring has sprung ... hopefully. The weather was a bit windy, but 75 degrees outside today. I'll take it, considering that there was one day last week when it was 22 degrees outside when I got up in the morning. With the new season upon us, it brings with it more stroller walks. It was possible that last year, Sam would go on three stoller walks a day. Usually Aunt Minnie would take her for one in the morning when I was at work (I worked in the mornings last summer). I would take her for another one in the afternoon ... and then, depending on the weather and how tired we were, Steve and I would take her for another walk in the evening. She loved them and it was good exercise for all of us ... Today, we went for a stoller walk:

As you can see, Samantha is all smiles and happy that the new season is here again. I don't know how many walks we will take in this neighborhood this year as I have good news: Our house is sold! Yes, the "SOLD" sign is out in the yard. We accepted an offer for full price and have passed inspections. Once we hear back from the appraiser this week, things will be moving very quickly to close as the buyer is anxious to move in.

That means that we are feverishly looking for a new home for ourselves. We know the approxiamte area that we would like to move to (out of Lansing), but it's difficult to find a home that meets several criteria for us. We are being as open-minded as possible at this point, and hope that we find one soon ...

In other news, we are in the process of litter-box training the two kittens. It seems to be going all right (knock on wood), as there has only been one accident and that happened in our bathtub -- easy clean-up. The kittens are now 5 1/2 weeks old and are close to being weaned from Mia. Now we need to make a decision on which one we will keep and which one will hopefully go to a very loving home. It's a hard decision for us because Steve prefers one of them and I prefer the other. Yet, we aren't too keen on keeping all THREE cats. That would be a big step for us. Afterall, the plan was to only get one new cat (and that changed when we fell in love with Mia).

Needless to say, it's been pretty busy around here ... but it is a good and productive kind of busy!

Mommy's Little Helper

Samantha has started being a really good helper for Mommy. As you can see above, we made cookies the other day (apple-shaped cookies, of course) and she loved being up on the countertop helping me. I think that the rolling pin was her favorite part!

She throws her own diaper away now (only the wet ones). We hand it to her and ask her to throw it in the trash and she races over to the trash, lifts the lid and throws it in. She knows where her diapers are when it is time for a changing and she also knows where her shoes are for when we are going outside -- she runs to the drawer, opens it and gets out a pair of shoes (usually not the ones that I am planning on her wearing ... but she has the ability to have "free-choice" on that).

It's amazing to me how much she comprehends when we ask or tell her something. Although she doesn't say too many words right now, she understands a lot. I have a feeling that when she does start talking, she is going to have a lot to say!

Our new additions

Three weeks ago, we decided to foster a mother cat and her two kittens. They were rescued from Animal Control by my sister (the county vet) the day that the mother gave birth to her babies. Animal Control was planning to euthanize the mother the next day. My sister just couldn't let that happen, as it was obvious that the mother was going to be a very good caregiver to her babies and she had just gone through labor and delivery. Knowing that we were looking for a kitten (I had given Sophie to a new family after determining that she just wasn't adjusting well to our noisy household), my sister asked me if we would be interested in fostering this little family until the babies were weaned. By that time, maybe we would decide to keep one of the little kittens. Below is a picture of the little guys (both boys) when they were about one week old:


Since that time, we have named everyone and they are doing so well. We have fallen in love with Mia (as in Mama Mia) and are sure that she is going to become a permanent resident of our home. Sam loves her kitties so much and shows them to everyone that comes in our house (even Steve when he comes home from work).

Mia seems to want to be around us at all times. She is the friendliest cat E.V.E.R. and is so playful. She jumps on our laps (and even on the laps of our company that comes to visit) without any reservations. My sister estimates that she is less than a year old ... and maybe that explains the playfulness that she still exuberates.

Mia likes to be part of the action

We moved the family to a box about a week ago in order to contain the growing (and exploring) little ones. They have managed to stay in the box very well, but I anticipate that it will soon be time to retire the box and begin weaning because the boys are starting to become a lot more active.

I started getting the kittens used to milk from a saucer this week. It is still an ongoing process and one that has to be monitored closely to avoid 1) Mia drinking all of the milk herself, 2) the kittens tracking the milk all over the kitchen and 3) Sam dipping her own fingers in the sticky milk and making a tremendous mess.

Watson (on the left) and Mendel (on the right)

Both of the boys were named after famous scientists. Watson was partially responsible for characterizing the double helix structure of DNA and Mendel was famous for his research in the inheritance of genetic traits.

We are not sure which kitten we will be keeping yet. I would love to keep the whole family together, but it's a bit much to take on three cats at the same time. We'll just see how it goes ...

16 Months Old

Samantha is 16 months old today. She is growing up so much lately and each day seems to bring about bigger changes in her. She is trying to actually say words now -- her favorite is "kitty." Her second favorite word is "this" and she says that while pointing ... as if asking, "what is this?" She loves to climb stairs (although she can only go UP the stairs; we have not mastered going DOWN the stairs yet -- we're working on that). She climbs on anything that she can, including my dining room chairs. I have to make a real effort now to keep the chairs pushed in toward the table as much as possible so that she is not tempted to climb on them.

Now that the weather has been nice for a few days, we have taken to having our lunch together on the deck. She loves it. We have been taking stoller walks and trips down to the mailbox a lot lately. She knows the word, "outside," and runs for the back door whenever I mention it. I think that this girl is going to love the outdoors world ...

Posing for a quick pic outside with Mommy's phone

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It is a tradition that Steve and his friend, Eric, always go out to celebrate on St. Patrick's Day. They always wear green and they always wear lots of beads. Before Steve left today, he gave me a pair of beads that I could wear and be festive with today. When Sam got up from her nap, she caught sight of them and wanted them immediately. Daddy should have known better and left her with a pair of her own. But, I don't mind sharing ...

"I love jewelry of any kind!"

"I'm not really in a posing kind of mood, Mommy .. but I'll try"

Florida

While Steve and I were in Florida, we were able to go to 2 Tigers games. Even though they lost both of the games (one game was really close in score), we still had an absolute blast! The first game was against the Atlanta Braves and we had great seats behind home plate:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Tuesday, the weather was a little questionable (cloudy and rainy at times), so we decided to go to the Florida Aquarium. It was so exciting to see all of the exhibits there -- my absolute favorite was the seahorses. Unfortunately, we were not able to take any pictures of them because of their sensitivity to light, but I am sharing a couple of other pictures with you ...

Posing in front of one of the gigantic (and beautiful) aquariums

(Look closely and you will see tons of jellyfish in the background!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the aquarium visit, we took a boat ride out into Tampa Bay and were able to tour the bay and see dolphins! It was a little chilly on the bay, but the weather cooperated and didn't rain while we were on the boat ...

One of many dolphins that we were able to see

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our second baseball game was against the New York Yankees and we had incredible seats along the first base line. We were in the sun for the entire game (and managed to get a little burned along the left-side of our faces and arms), but it was nice to be able to feel the warmth.

Posing right before the game

All in all, we had a really nice time. The weather was beautiful (not as warm as it typically is this time of year down there, but definitely nicer than the current Michigan weather). We were able to visit many sites and it seemed to be just the perfect break away from everyday life back home. I was so excited to see my little girl when we got back home and I managed to give her a little extra loving that very night!

It's Been a While ...

Things have been very busy around here lately, but it's a good kind of busy. Steve and I left for Florida last Sunday while Sam stayed at our house with my mom. This was a small trip that we planned several months ago so that we could go and watch the Detroit Tigers during their Spring Training in Lakeland. We were able to get tickets in January for 2 games and planned our flights around those games. All in all, we were gone for 5 days ... This was the first time that I have ever been away from Samantha and it was definitely very hard for me. But, she had so much fun with my mom and I called home regularly to check on them.

The weather was very nice (about 75 degrees) and the games were incredible. We also went to the Florida Aquarium and took a boat ride out to see some dolphins. I promise to post some pictures in the next couple of days; Steve has the camera at work, otherwise I would have posted them here right now.

While we were in Florida, my aunt passed away from leukemia. She was my dad's sister and was diagnosed less than a year ago. She was a strong person and fought this tremendous battle with such determination, but the cancer was too strong and never went into remission. We attended her funeral yesterday in West Branch and were so happy to see such a large outpouring of so many friends and family there. She will be greatly missed by all of us, but we feel secure knowing that she is no longer in pain ...

The week before we left for Florida, we officially put our house on the market. We are determined to move out this year and find a place that has a little land and is much bigger in size for us. We were surprised to have a couple of requests to see the house after only being on the market for 2 days! We are very hopeful to have a sale soon and now are in the midst of searching for a new house for us.

The following are a few pictures of Sam after I had cleaned the house to prepare for our showings. I made sure that the house was in impeccable order, which meant that all of Sam's toys and books were tucked away in secret hiding places. Samantha managed to find all of them afterwards.

Checking under the couch for hidden books and puzzles

I took her platic letters off the fridge/dishwasher and she found them


Carrying around her bag of previously-hidden letters

15 Month Doctor's Appointment

I took Samantha to her 15 month doctor's appointment on Tuesday. She had to get one shot, but the doctor told me that she is DONE getting shots until she is 4 years old! Yay!

She is now 31.25 inches long (which continues to put her in the 75th percentile for length). That continues to amaze me because her parents are obviously not very tall ...

She weighs 22 lbs. 10 oz. now, which means that she gained just over 3 lbs. since her last visit to the doctor 3 months ago. That big weight gain now puts her in the 50th percentile for weight. This was a big growth spurt for her because she has always been on the "low side" for her weight. The doctor has never been concerned about that because she has continued to follow her same weight curve. We likely believe that this growth spurt and weight gain are the result of having whole cow's milk now and yogurt.

Overall, Samantha is very healthy and continues to exhibit all of the characteristics of a growing and developing toddler. She has good eating habits, good sleeping habits and is very bright and attentive. She knows a lot of words now and shows that she knows them by retrieving any items that you ask for ... We will go back to the doctor in 3 months for her next check-up.

More Birthday Celebrations

On Saturday (my birthday), we dropped Sam off at Aunt Deb's house while Steve and I went to dinner by ourselves -- it was kind of a celebration for both of us since Steve's birthday was 2 days before mine. Going to dinner by ourselves is something that we rarely do anymore and it was nice to have a quiet meal (and not have to entertain Sam or feed her while feeding myself).

Afterwards, we went back to Aunt Deb's and she surprised us by having a chocolate cake and ice cream. It was so good. Then, we opened our gifts from all of them ...

Sam wanted to help open as many gifts as possible

I got some special chapstick and Sam wanted to try it out!

The next day (on Sunday) we met Steve's parents for lunch and it was wonderful. Afterwards, we went back to our house for left-over cake and to open gifts.

Helping Daddy


Helping Mommy

It was a wonderful week/weekend of many celebrations. It was so nice to be able to share all of this with Sam now that she is older and has a real appreciation for cards and wrapping paper. I have now entered into my 30s and can't wait to see what this next decade holds for me and my family ...