That's more like it.....

We are lucky enough to get to plan our vacations based on what weeks Chris draws out of a hat.  We had been looking forward to this last one of the year because we knew we could actually experience the fall season.  We headed to Utah to see if we could find some snow.  Funny thing was, we took the Arizona sun with us.  It was beautiful the entire week.

 Chris could barely contain himself with a rake and leaves.  He and Sam crunched in them and jumped in them.

 For Halloween we decided to transform into little red riding hood, the big bad wolf, and granny.  You would think a little girl would find a big bad wolf scary, but Samantha didn't even flinch.  No wonder the wolf looks so happy.

Little Red thought getting candy (especially M&Ms) was pretty sweet.  She also couldn't get enough of my aunts cat.  Too bad we wouldn't let her put the cat in her basket.

 Chris carved his pumpkin in honor of his daughter this year.  Nothing says I love you like Elmo.

 We visited Thanksgiving Point for the first time.  

 Samantha was not afraid of getting friendly with the cows, but wanted nothing to do with the pony ride.

 Her favorite part was this little "saloon".  She has apparently been to one before because she knew dancing was involved and didn't want to leave.

 She also enjoyed running through G & G Brown's garden.  

Thanks for the family fun.  5 1/2 days is just not long enough.

October fun.....

I love this time of year because even though its still 90 degrees outside, we can start to do fallish things.

We had an awesome Halloween party at our house with our friends

One Saturday we ventured out to an orchard that was about 45 minutes away.  It seemed sketchy at first when the pavement ended and there was no orchard in site, but eventually the dirt road turned into this fun little farm.

 There were hay bales to climb, chickens to chase,

 and really big trikes to try to ride

On the way home I discovered Samantha was poopy and turned around to tell her she stunk.  This was her response!

18 months....

Samantha is officially 18 months now.  We celebrated by going to the pediatrician and getting 4 vaccines (I mean, nothing says I love you like passive immunity right?).

Here's a little taste of what she's all about these days:

Weight: 24 lbs  50th percentile

Height: 33 in      75th percentile

Foods she loves: yogurt, fruit smoothies, pears, cheese, eggs, pancakes, Oh's cereal, pasta, peanut butter/honey sandwich (no crust, and she must open it if folded in order to get it to stick to her fingers prior to ingesting), and M&M's (she is obsessed with them.  I can't even check out at the grocery store anymore without being handed 10 packages of them).  She is very persnickety when it comes to eating.  I have learned the only constant is that she has no constant.

Words she is using: Mama (usually with great exuberance), Dada (whenever the phone rings- she gets more phone time with him than face to face time), No and Yeah (both with varying tempos and with varying enthusiasm), Elmo, Coo-kie, kitty cat, me, I, bubble, pop, tickle-tickle-tickle-tickle, go-go-go

Things she loves to do: jump, jump, jump, climb on everything, open the fridge and pull stuff out, open the pantry and pull stuff out, climb some more, play the piano, read books (often the same book 6 times until I tell her she must choose a new one.  Anything with Elmo is an instant hit at the library and she carries them around with her until I sneak them back because they are all so dumb), run around (she now runs so fast I can't just fast walk to catch her- I too have to run), swing, wink, jumping jacks and dance.

Naughty things she likes to do: take a drink and then spit it out all while looking at you and giving a naughty giggle, puts things in her mouth like rocks and beads and as she does so she says "No", bolts out of the garage and across the street the minute the garage door opens

 First day of piggy tails

 So much for using a spoon

 Standing on her head

 Playing tickle monster

 Why swim when you can play with dripping water?

 No obstacle is too difficult for this girl to master

  A little sandbox time with the white old man

 Sorting aka Eating beads

 This is her when I told her to wink at me

 She recently discovered a new place to climb

 She is quite the tower builder- Chris didn't believe me that she could stack 5 blocks by herself.  As you can see, she is also a great tower destroyer.

Things she can't get enough of: Elmo, M&Ms, school buses, airplanes, putting her hands under running water, climbing around in the car (she literally throws a fit if we take her out before letting her play jungle gym in the car for 5 minutes) and bath-time.

She is growing like a weed and getting more fun by the day.

Apple Annie's......

Chris had this past week off and let's just say, it was awesome.  Every time this happens I forget how nice it is to actually sit down and eat together as a family and to not have to change every single diaper.  

In true Chris "vacation" form, we painted 2 rooms (Sam's new room and the room for the baby), went to the temple, had a smoothie-donut park morning, went on our first bike ride since Sam was born (she loved it!) and then to finish off the week we visited an orchard called Apple Annie's.  It is in Wilcox, AZ which is about 1 1/2 hours away.  We debated whether or not it would be worth the drive, but we had a blast.  

Sam was not sure of the wheelbarrow, but sat in it for a minute

This is the first apple she picked off of the ground and instantly started trying to bite it.

Let's pretend like this little apple picking contraption isn't really cool.  We wandered around aimlessly pretending like we knew which apples were which until we finally asked someone where the signs were that told you.  Turns out the ones we thought were Fuji were not.  We still have no idea what ones we brought home!  We did encounter one big snake- after that I went from strolling mode to hyper-awareness mode.

 After we had had our fill of apples- apple picking, apple bread, apple cider donuts- we headed 5 miles down the road to the pumpkin patch/vegi part of the farm.

 We got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and so Sam could pick her very first pumpkin- Chris even let her help use the "adult only" shears.

 The weather was beautiful for the first few hours, but by afternoon we were hot and sweaty and all came home with a bit of a sunburn

So, even though it was a bit of a drive and Samantha didn't get a very good morning nap, she seemed to enjoy herself- funny how one of her biggest smiles of the day came when we were leaving and she plopped herself down on the ground in the dirt/rocks and just started playing with the rocks.  Can you tell that is what she is used to playing with here!?

It's A.......

 Baby.  We had our ultrasound yesterday and here's a little sneak peak at our 1 pound Cletus. No we didn't find out the sex, we are old school like that.  

I am still trying to figure out how if it only weighs one pound where all these other pounds are coming from.....!  (don't try to tell me it is from the mint truffles and cookies and snacks I consume hourly.)  Everything looked great.  10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 kidneys (important when being born to a urology resident). 

It is fun to actually feel it moving around, giving me a reminder that it's in there.  

 I have found that I am more moody, easily fatigued, and famished with this little one than I ever was with Samantha.  Chris is hoping that it goes away- he finds himself walking on eggshells some days.  

I am 22 weeks now so only 18 more to go, but who's counting?

 We enjoy the "HI" that the tech inserted

This pic's for you Kristin- eat your heart out!  

I figured by 22 weeks it was probably time to take a picture of the growing belly.  Samantha wanted to show her growing belly too.

come on baby with me, we're gonna fly away from here

So a friend of mine posted this on facebook today and I decided, hum, a sad song about a little boy dying from cancer- why wouldn't I listen to it?  I mean 20 weeks of pregnancy hormones got nothing on me. (says the person who is using her over sized pajama shirt to wipe her tears away)

What a beautiful song.  Apparently Taylor Swift wrote this song after reading a mom's blog about her 4 year old son who died of cancer.  It made me think about how often I feel the monotony of motherhood but what a truly amazing, god-given opportunity and blessing it is.

Samantha is my little buddy.  She makes me laugh when she pretends to be blind while eating her lunch or when she waits to see if I am looking and then does something she knows she shouldn't like run into the street.  She leaves me in awe when she memorizes books and replays them with me over and over again.  She makes me want to pull my hair out when she throws her already been chewed food onto my newly mopped floor or when she wipes her grimy, wet hands on my newly washed mirrors and glass doors.  She makes me sad when she falls- even when I have told her that she was about to fall.  She makes me happy when she walks over to me and gives me a kiss and a hug for no reason at all or when I get to wake up to "Ma ma", "ma ma". 

I am no Taylor Swift, so no song will be written, but man am I glad the last 17 months of my life have been blessed by the job of motherhood.

Lock and Key.....

What's that you ask?  Oh, its just our key in our front door.  Let me explain.

The day after Samantha and I got home we were outside playing.  Our backyard flooded while we were gone so I was sweeping off the patio.  We moved to sweep off the front porch and Samantha was hitting the front door trying to get inside.  I tried to explain to her that it was locked and then looked up and realized that the key was right there in front of me. 

My first thought was, "how long has that been there?", my second, "what was Chris thinking?"

I promptly called Chris to investigate the matter.  Turns out it had been there almost the entire time I had been out of town.  He couldn't believe that he had left it there all that time.  How lucky are we that all of our possessions never got taken?  Our front door is on the side of our house so you can't see the front door from the street.  That might have been what saved us.  

I told him that I was going to start calling him Colleen (my mom did a similar thing when she came out for Samantha's birth in St Louis, but only left the key over night in the lock- a bit better than 3 1/2 weeks!)  He felt so bad.
So what could lead a really responsible guy to do such a thing.

This week, I was reminded of the insane schedule he keeps.  The following is so I NEVER forget what residency was really like or feel sorry for myself that I have it bad, keeping in mind that he keeps telling me "this is the easier rotation".  

Alarm goes off between 5 and 5:30 am.  Leaves for work.  Comes home between 7:30 and 9 pm.  Talks to me, eats a bite, changes his clothes and then proceeds to do patient notes, dictations, or reading for a surgery the next day or journal club.  Comes to bed around 11.  Every other night he is on call so then you get the awesome pages at random hours.  Like Tuesday night, one at 2 am, then 10 minutes later, then 15 minutes later.  

So I guess it's pretty clear to me how the key got left in the door...but I'm still not going to let him forget it!