Sunday, January 22, 2012

Yes we do have a video camera

So we purchased a video camera last year in anticipation of capturing videos of Samantha and being able to share them with our family and friends that are not able to see her. We've done pretty good on the first count, but apparently have been hoarding those videos over the past year. I blame it on blogspot being a difficult website on which to upload videos (or maybe I'm not as tech-savvy as I once thought).

Anyhoo, we've posted some recent videos of Samantha on Youtube and wanted to share the links with you if you're interested.

She's such a fun little girl. It's been amazing (and incredibly entertaining) watching her over the last few weeks as she has gone from having to be coerced into crawling to now walking around like crazy (albeit with a slight wobble). My new favorite activity with her is chasing her around...it's as fun as I imagined it would be.

Dinner Time:

A few of her first steps:

She can walk:

Calming her down before bed (my favorite):

A little trick:

Rody:


Saturday, January 14, 2012

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.....

We are working on learning how to count around here. Even after 9 months she still isn't grasping the concept? For some reason after counting to 4 she switches to counting in Spanish. I blame the new toy she got for Christmas that counts in Spanish.

Sam's newest tricks:
Walking (not for long distances and like a drunkard, but she is pretty steady on her feet)
Drinking out of a straw (the girl loves water. I mean, she loves it.)
Clapping (well, it is more like putting her hands together, but basically the same thing)
Making kissy faces and fishy faces
Regularly pooping in the tub (this is her meanest trick)
Playing the piano, scales are her favorite
Pulling books off of shelves (over and over and over again)
Growing teeth (she finally has 2 on the bottom peeking through)

This is Rody, he is one awesome bouncing horse

Tomato anyone?

My parents came to visit last week and we went to the zoo



We also went to Old Tucson, a little town where some old westerns like John Wayne movies have been filmed.
Don't mind Chris in his scrubs, he had to meet
us there from work, got called back into work, and then came back again. Don't you think a cowboy hat should replace a scrub cap as the new thing?


We also went on a hike at Sabino Canyon.
It was a bit chilllier than expected but so beautiful.

It only took Samantha mere minutes to fall asleep on grandpa's back
We pretended like we were on the beach in San Diego. I mean, we were only missing the ginormous ocean, smooth warm sand, and our swim suits.

Mr. Smartypants....

So I like to think that I am somewhat of an educated woman. I finished college, graduating with a Bachelors degree and did so with good grades. Chris does a good job at reminding me that I am not. Like this morning when he was recounting a story from work yesterday:

Chris: Then this nurse went on a diatribe...yada yada yada

Linzi: A what? What was that word?

Chris: A diatribe.

Yep, he is good at reminding me that I don't study the dictionary enough like he does.

Do you know what diatribe means? Tell me I am not the only one. Please.

And let's pretend like I didn't have to ask him how to spell diatribe while writing this post.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A month of discoveries....

Well, we started off the month discovering something so fun, you just can't help but touch it
EVERY TIME you see the open door:
The infamous toilet paper roll.

Chris and I then discovered that we may be a doctor and doctors wife, but we have NO IDEA how to dress and act like one. We were invited to the surgery holiday party and we knew as soon as we saw people getting out of their cars dressed in suits and short/sequenced dresses that our nice jeans and sweaters were NOT going to cut it for the proper attire. We went inside the country club to discuss our options and decided to high tail it out of there. Just as we were turning to leave, we ran into one of the attending physicians that Chris works with. After discussing with he and his wife how embarrassed we were for how we were dressed, the woman replied, "oh well, you live and learn".
We had plenty of time to mull that comment over as we stood at a table sipping our sprites for the entire cocktail hour.
At least we got a fancy dinner and ornament out of it.

We also discovered that a stay-cation is awesome! Chris had the week off and were were able to just hang out. I am pretty sure Samantha was more sad to see him go back to work than I was. They were such little pals all week long. We hiked at Sabino Canyon, went to the zoo, and went up to Mesa to go to the Temple. We found out that there was a hotel in Phoenix that was displaying Who-Ville.

Soon after coming home, we were inspired to do some building of our own. Chris had started drawing out gingerbread templates like a week before until I dashed his dreams and told him we were going to use one I found online. We baked some real gingerbread the night before and had a hard time getting it un-stuck from the counter after rolling it out which resulted in many pieces that were not the same size as the wall it countered.
It wasn't until we began assembling the houses that we discovered that you need to have exact dimensions and that your roof should not weigh more than the house. We knew things were not looking good when the blow dryer came out and we were threatening to use a glue gun.
This was taken moments before the entire thing came crashing down.
Dave and Megan had a great strategy in the beginning, and I thought for sure theirs would pull though, but soon enough theirs came crumbling down too. Hopefully next time goes more smoothly.

Most families have a tradition of fancy dinners on Christmas Eve, I grew up roasting hot dogs in my grandparents fireplace. In honor of that tradition, we decided to use one of our Christmas presents early, a fire pit. We grilled some burgers and then roasted marshmallows, made smores and listened to Christmas music under the stars.
Samantha discovered that the glow of a fire is memorizing....

She also discovered that Ute pjs bottoms are awesome. She looks like she is crying but it was just a super sized smile going on here!

Thanks to my mom, we discovered that snow from a can is the way to go. No shoveling or salting, just pure snowmen building fun.

Our final discovery came during bath time
Now isn't that a great way to end Christmas Day?!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Santa Clause, Santa Clause you are much too skinny...

After 13 days straight of working, Chris finally had the day off on Friday so we made the most of it. We went for a run, ate lunch at Chick-fil-a, and took Samantha to meet Santa Clause. As you can see, she thought he was pretty swell. Part of me was sad that we didn't get a great hilarious picture of her freaking out. (that is why I am such a great mother...) Maybe next year!


As we left the mall, Chris had to rate Santa. He gave him points for having a real beard but took more away because his beard had grey in it and that he was too skinny. We have high expectations apparently.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Winter Street Fair....

I was looking online to see what things there are to do in Tucson in December and found out
that they have an annual winter street fair downtown. I found a couple friends who were adventurous enough to join me with their cute children. After a very eventful time finding a parking spot, we found the fair. It was mostly just tented vendors selling all sorts of fine art (including turquoise jewelry, painted pictures of naked women, and all sorts of interesting yard ornaments) but they did have a children's station and music and lots of food. They introduced me to frybread, a little piece of heaven. After about 1 1/2 the kids were all asleep or crying and people were calling us the stroller brigade. Even though it was a bit crazy, it was so much fun.


Don't you love how on December 9th we were actually hot and had to take off our jackets?

Cutie season has begun....

I was so excited when I saw the Albertson's ad a few weeks ago because they had Cuties on the cover, I may have gone over board and bought two bags full, but they are so small and delicious, you have to eat at least 4 a day right?

Samantha has discovered that she loves sucking the juice out of them
I wasn't going to buy a hat for her, since we live in Tucson, but this one was on sale and it turns out some days are cool enough that you need a hat. Do you like the irony of a naked baby with a hat and mitten's on? She told me only her head and hands were cold.
Samantha is now :
*crawling although she still prefers to just hang out by my side
*pulling herself up with anything she can get her hands on, including our glass shower door. (Ever tried shaving your legs while trying to keep a baby from sliding the glass door open?- so much fun right?)
* Balancing while standing up and will even take a step or two before falling on her face