22 Weeks

Dear Miss Sammie Girl,

Teething is here and it’s in full swing. While teeth are looming somewhere beneath your gums and fighting their way through, you’re chomping on anything in sight (fortunately the dogs’ tails are no longer on your list of things to snack on), your clothes are often spotted with drool, and smiles are replaced with screams.

Oh, the life of a five month old baby. I’d be committed to a mental institution if I were to chew on people’s fingers, drool all over my clothes and scream at will. I suppose it helps that you’re extra super-duper cute!

If teething weren’t enough, separation anxiety has also started to make appearances here and there. Last Sunday, I put you in the church nursery. Forty five minutes later, the pager in my pocket buzzed. As I walked by the glass windows of the nursery, I could see the hapless nursery worker holding you and trying her hardest to calm you down. She could have rocked and sung to her heart’s content, but you had already made up your mind that this woman was no match for your mother. Needless to say, you stopped crying as soon as I walked into the room. It stinks for the nursery workers, but it makes this mom’s heart melt because it reminds me of the special bond that we have.

Of course, when the same story played out half hour later and it was your Poppa trying to calm you down, I didn’t feel as good—hopefully you can expand your list of "acceptable people" to include people like your Poppa and your aunts and uncles?

The one person you most definitely have included in your list of acceptable people is your father. I laid you down next to him the other night so that I could check my email. I came back a few minutes later to find this:

Yep, you made his blanket your blanket and completely fell asleep in a matter of minutes. I guess that explains the note on my bathroom mirror this morning telling me how much he loves you and how glad he is we adopted you. He’s completely and utterly in love with you. He is also doing a wonderful job as a stay at home father, branching out and doing things that he hasn’t done in years and years (or ever): changing diapers, fixing bottles, going to the grocery store…the list goes on. He’s quite the guy, your father is!

I guess it’s a good thing that your father’s stepping up to the challenge and taking over everything I used to do because this past week my work-load at school doubled. Yep, it’s time for the school play: Annie. Directing the school play used to be the highlight of my year. This time around, it’s different. I’d give anything to hand over the reins and spend my afternoons with you, teething tears and all.

Oh, well. I don’t have rehearsal this afternoon, which means it’s only 3 more hours until I get to snuggle with you again!

Loving and missing you tons,
Your mommy
　

21 Weeks: The Gigantor Baby Edition

Dear Gigantor Baby…Errr…Samantha,

I’ve got a list of things to do that is a mile long, but because you turned 21 weeks today and are due for a weekly update, I’m giving myself permission to put everything aside and use the blog as an excuse to procrastinate on the to-do list. Grading my college students’ improv books and blocking Act II of ‘Annie’ will just have to wait!

As the heading suggests, you reclaimed the Gigantor Baby title this past Monday when we took you in for your scheduled doctor’s visit. Daddy and I were taking bets while waiting for your name to be called in the lobby of the doctor’s office. He said you’d be 14 pounds, 8 ounces. I thought you’d be 15 pounds, 2 ounces. We both were way off. I could hardly believe it when the nurse put you on the scale and said that you were a whopping 16 pounds (even). At 24.5 inches, you’re in the 75th percentile for length, and your weight puts you just above the 75th percentile.
I hope you don‘t develop a complex when you sit next to your cousins Benji & Wendy Elizabeth this year at Thanksgiving. They’re three months younger and still have got some catching up to do, but they are currently half your size!

While in the doctor’s office, we asked Still-the-BEST-Pediatrician-in-the-World (STBPITW for short) why you had given up on naptimes and were increasingly fussy. STBPITW reminded us that babies tend to throw their perfectly planned schedules out the window and start getting *temperamental* when they’re about ready to hit a new milestone.

I’m betting that you’re about ready to solve quadratic equations, because those the napping patterns (or lack thereof) I described last week are still in full swing this week.

Case in point: last Wednesday night, you gave your Nonni a run for her money while she baby sat you at Grandma & Grandpa Willis’ house: you screamed like a banshee much of the time. We blamed the lack-of-nap factor. Tuesday night, it was Grandma Max ‘s turn to regret volunteering to babysit you: you turned on the waterworks the entire time she was watching you at Grandma & Grandpa Pats’ house. In both cases, the tears stopped when we walked into the room. You even had the nerve to smile and giggle as I held you at Grandpa & Grandma Pats’.

So…kiddo…we’re waiting. What are you going to do next? Please do it soon because Mama really got spoiled with the whole 12-hour-a-night-sleeping-pattern thing.

While you’re figuring out what to do next, here are the pictures from last week’s photo shoot.

First: the 'Seinfeld' poses

Then, the all-important multi-generation picture:



You and Nonni reading "Goodnight Moon" (note the bunny slippers--gotta have bunny slippers! )


We snapped this one while you were still a happy baby:


Once we got you into the dress, though, all you-know-what broke loose. This shot took quite a bit of coercing on our part!


The last shot. By this time you were done. Really and truly, the final picture says it all!




Loving you lots,
Your mommy

PS. I still hate the term "temperamental." Can't we just say "smiles on temporary hiatus" or "baby who knows what she wants?"
　

Week 20.5: Pumpkins and Rice Cereal

Dearest Sammie,

Today's been such a big day for you that I couldn't wait until next Thursday to post.

As we get into the fall season (which is finally here, thankyouverymuch), I have been getting more and more excited about the holidays to come. More specifically, I have been excited about starting new traditions with you, ones that you'll look back on fondly when you're a little older. Seeing as Halloween is right around the corner, I have been excited about going to the pumpkin patch and getting awesome pictures of a smiling and happy Samantha hugging pumpkins.

Um...yeah. While the pumpkin patch happened, the smiling and happy Samantha didn't. The sun was so bright that you didn't want to look up to the camera (much less smile), and when you did look up, you screamed. A lot.

So it's a miracle we got these pictures at all:

Riding the tractor...where the tears began.

Hanging with Daddy by the cornstalks.


With Mommy in the pumpkin patch--note that you're not interested in looking at the camera.

Trying to get that all-important baby by the pumpkins picture.

Finally, I got the bright idea to go behind the hay bales and hold you by the back of your shirt while Uncle Tom, Aunt Beth & Daddy all tried to get your attention.

This picture of us isn't half bad. We caught you in-between screams.

It had been a while since we took a picture of the three of us, so we snagged this one.

I rather like it!

Needless to say, you fell asleep on the way home (hmmm...maybe you were a little tired?).

Later on that night, after your bottle, I decided to be a little daring and feed you your first solid food: rice cereal. Most babies are given the go-ahead to sample solids at their four month check-up, but, due to scheduling, you aren't getting your four month check up until Monday (two days from now)--which is more like five months. Sooo...I decided to give it a whirl and mix up some rice cereal. Again, I had visions of getting the all-important baby-covered-in-food shots. Fortunately, I succeeded in this mission.

Here's your before shot. You were rather bewildered at the bib and bumbo with a tray set up.

The "during" shot. You grabbed for the spoon any chance you got,

so I think rice cereal is officially a hit.

And, of course, the "after" shots.

Love you lots,
your mommy

PS I realized that I still had the old blog title (Sarah and Jay and a Baby on the Way) from when we were waiting for you. Oopsie. I changed it tonight to "Dear Samantha Joy." I think it fits what we talk about a little bit better :-)

The Big 2-0

Dear Sammie Girl,

Another week, another letter. This has been a crazy, what-was-I-thinking-planning-all-of these-things-in-such-a-short-time-span-week. I’ll try to spare you the insanity and make week 20’s letter a little less chaotic that the goings-on of these past few days.

Friday night, we kicked off the weekend by going to the Caruthers’ fair with your Aunt Beth & Uncle Tom. You had a pretty good time and were captivated by all of the lights and sounds of the festivities around you. Fussiness set in around 8:30 , but that was to be expected, considering that you were up past your bedtime. I wriggled you into a way too small 3-6 month onesie and put you to bed as soon as we got home.

Saturday afternoon, I had a heart to heart with your closet as I stood there and unsuccessfully tried to add the way-too-cute clothes I had bought for you that morning to your already packed closet. It was time for me to put my pride aside, so, taking advantage of your lengthy afternoon nap, I packed up your way-too-small onesies and dresses in a box for your cousin Wendy Elizabeth to wear. It was a little sad to take some of your itty bitty clothes off their hangers, but 9 month clothes are really just as cute.

Sunday evening, you sported some of your bigger clothes (I called it an “Ode to Poppa” because it was a hippo outfit) and spent the afternoon with Nonni & Poppa while I took my college students to see a play. I joined you a few hours later at church’s fall festival, and you were unimpressed by the activities around you. In fact, you decided to let everyone within five feet know that you were displeased by spitting up so much that you managed to tag not only my sweater but also the carpet below. You followed that up with screams and sobs galore that neither Nonni nor I could stop. I took the hint and drove you home.

Monday through Wednesday brought about their own challenges. I don’t know what has changed, but naptime isn’t your friend anymore. There’s so much to see and touch and grab (the dogs remain at the top of your list of things to see, touch and grab, by the way), that you don’t want to miss anything…so you stay wide awake. The soothing sway of the swing does nothing for you anymore. And the comfort and tranquility of your crib? Nada.

Your dad and I aren’t quite sure what to do, because even though you’re resisting naptime with all you’ve got, your sleepy eyes are telling quite a different story. To compound the issue, I must’ve gotten a little too smug and told a few too many people that you’d been sleeping twelve hours a night, because you’ve managed to kick yourself into a tizzy at 2AM more than once over the past week. So…you’ve thrown us for yet another loop, kiddo.

For now, the plan is to get you on a fixed nap schedule. I don’t know if it’s the answer to the world’s problems, but it’s worth a shot.

Love you lots,
Your mommy

PS We got the next set of your professional pictures taken yesterday. You started off great with lots of smiles. I was quite amused by the fact that you—a four month old baby—managed to turn three grown women into blumbering noise making fools to get your attention for the camera. I hope our silliness paid off because you were still on your nap strike and hadn’t slept all afternoon so you didn’t last long and threw quite the screaming fit toward the end of the session. More pictures to come…

19 Week Musings

Dear Samantha,

It’s Thursday—which means it’s time for this week’s update on all things Samantha Joy. For the first time, I actually had to go check last week’s blog entry to figure out how old you are today. I’ve gotten so used to telling people your age in months (you’re four months, by the way) that I’ve forgotten how old you are in weeks (19—gulp).

Still lifting up your head and upper body!

I know I said last week that I would be making the switch to the next size in clothes, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I think I’ve convinced myself that if I keep you in smaller clothes then you’ll just stay small forever. I know this logic is inherently flawed (and I sound like a broken record), but give your momma a break. Every time I turn around it seems that you’ve grown another inch and gotten even bigger than you were the day before. Plus, the weather has FINALLY agreed to catch up to the clothing sizes we have for you. At long last, we’re getting FALL weather, and not a moment too soon (I was going crazy last weekend making pumpkin bread and jambalaya as the temperatures soared to 102 degrees).

Thankfully, with this cooler weather, we were able to put you in the last of the 3-6 month clothes that you haven’t been able to wear yet: the purple butterfly outfit. Girl, you wear purple VERY well. I didn’t get any pictures of it, because you spit up on it before I could get my camera out, but I’m going to try to make getting a picture of you wearing it my weekend’s mission!

What I did manage to get pictures of was you and your BFF: Roxy. I don’t think Roxy realizes that she’s your best friend, but that doesn’t seem to faze you. Whenever she’s in the room you’re looking for her and reaching for her tail. Hmmm…maybe that’s why it’s more of a one-sided friendship? Fortunately, Roxy doesn’t seem to mind a whole lot. She just looks at me, rolls her eyes, and flops back down while you grab away.

BFFs: Roxy & Sammie. And about the same size, too!

In fact, you’re realizing more and more that your hands and fingers are for more than just sticking in your mouth when you’re bored. I’m loving watching you notice a toy and make the grab for it…so you can stick the hapless toy in your mouth. When toys can’t be found, you’re also happy grabbing and patting my face. Thankfully, you haven’t tried to eat my face yet.

Picking up your toy cow--this was right before you tried to eat it.

You moved on to your feet once you were done with the cow. You tried to eat them, too.

Another thing I’m loving is watching you sleep. Yes, I’ve become one of *those* crazy moms who stands over her child’s crib and watches her child sleep. I can’t help it. You are so dang cute and because I’m working I feel like I have to make up for lost time somehow. So…every night and every morning, there I stand in your nursery, watching over you as you’re dreaming about dog tails and bottles (this is what I think you dream about, at least). You’re quite content to be swaddled as I watch you at night. Something, however, must happen in the wee small hours of the morning, because during my morning watch I usually find you with your hands out of the swaddle and your thumb firmly in your mouth.

And, yes, I took a picture of you sucking your thumb.

Loving you lots and lots and lots,

Your mommy

PS On the really good mornings, you're awake when I check in on you after feeding the dogs. That means I get your "Hello-World-I'm-Here-Smile."

And yes, I took I picture of that, too.

Scootching & Growing

Dear Miss Sammie,

Your days of being stationary are numbered. In the past week (happy 18 weeks, by the way), you’ve decided that laying there isn’t enough. You’ve also figured out that if you use your legs, you can get places.

So…you’ve started moving. It’s in little increments, but you’re moving nonetheless. When you’re on your back, you arch your back and use your legs to scoot your body in one direction or another to get closer to whichever toy or object pleases you at the moment. When you’re on your stomach, you lift up your upper body and keep moving your legs until you’re scootching off the blanket.

Gulp. I guess now we *really* have to make sure all of the childproofing we did last year with your grandparents and aunts and uncles is going to hold up, because you already like to get into everything.

And whatever you get ahold of, you put in your mouth. As in, one day when Roxy’s tail got within grabbing distance, you thought it might be fit for a snack so you started smacking away. Roxy wasn’t quite sure what to do with that, but since I took her tail out of your mouth, she’s been pretty careful to stay out of your grabbing zone.

In other news, I think I’m fooling myself if I think I can keep your four month self in the 3/6 month clothes for much longer…as in, through the fall season. The onesies that fit so perfectly back in August are getting harder and harder to snap. Sigh. I tried to be a good mommy and stock up on the clothes that were on sale—but I never anticipated a growth spurt of this proportion. So…the outfits that were supposed to last for a whole three months will likely only be used for seven weeks.

It should be interesting when I get the bag of 6-9 month clothes out this weekend. I thought for sure that we’d be well into winter when you wore this new batch of outfits, but as a result of this mistaken assumption many of the clothes that we’ve got for you to wear are for the cooler days and nights. I’m fairly certain that the oh-so-cute overalls and sweatshirt getup will not be oh-so-practical as the temperature outside continues to stay in the triple digits.

Nuts. Maybe your dad wouldn’t mind if I turned the air conditioner down to 50 degrees for a few hours so we could do a rapid modeling session—long enough to wear and photograph all of the winter outfits—like those butterfly overalls and sweatshirts? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

Can’t blame a momma for trying.

Love you tons,

Your mommy

Nothing New...This Week

Dearest Sammie,

Happy 17 weeks sweetie! There haven’t been a whole lot of major milestones going on this week (hey, every busy girl’s got to take a rest sometime, I understand). In fact, this past week has been kind of…boring. And given the excitement and craziness of the past month (heck, the past four months), I’m totally okay with taking a break from the chaos for a very lovely “boring” week.

As the school year goes on, I’m getting more settled and used to the idea that I’ve joined the working mom club. As in…I have to go teach while your father gets the joy of staying home with you.

I think it’s harder on me than it is on you, because frankly, you and your father seem to be quite content to be two peas in a pod. He’s still getting a kick out of watching you feed yourself from a bottle (last night he proudly proclaimed that you had fed yourself “95% of the time”). He’s also leaving the comforts of his chair more often and getting down on the ground to chat with you on the activity mat. For someone who teased me so mercilessly for saying “ooga booga” to you to get you to smile, he sure has been using that phrase quite often. He even wrote it on the bathroom mirror this morning, after wishing me a good day!

While your father’s been using what only can best be described as the new Vogt household catchphrase, you and I have settled into a (dare I say it?) ROUTINE. When I come home from school (seriously 2:30 cannot come soon enough), if you’re not taking an afternoon nap, I’ll pick you up and chat with you. Usually, you’ve got quite a bit of things to say. Then it’s time for a bottle followed by naptime for an hour and a half while I get dinner ready. Once you wake up, we chat and play a little more, hanging out on your mat and putting you on your stomach so you can continue to lift your head up and strengthen your upper body muscles.

Around eight, I take you into your bedroom where we begin our bedtime routine: onesie, diaper change, swaddle and book. The book part was a new thing. Your Nonni pointed out last week that you really like to be read to, so I’m trying my best to read to you every night. It’s amazing how you sit and stare at those books, taking each page in as I read to you from your growing library. This week, we’ve been reading Sandra Boynton’s ‘Going to Bed Book.’ The lyrical rhythms have been doing a pretty good job of lulling you to sleep, because when we finish and put you in bed with a quick kiss and cuddle, you’re usually pretty content to lie in your crib and watch your mobile for a few minutes before turning to the clown/star/blue thing next to you and falling asleep.

Note that I said *usually* it works. Last night, I came home from a late night of teaching my college class in Visalia and was surprised to see that you weren’t in bed yet. I guess you had gotten pretty used to our little routine, because when I came home, Daddy and Grandma Max told me about the fit you had thrown a half hour before. They couldn’t calm you down…but they also hadn’t gotten past step two of the onesie/diaper change/swaddle/book technique.

I picked you up from Grandma Max’s arms, and you pretty quickly woke up and proceeded to sigh and tell me how your day was. It was almost like you were saying “Mom, I tried everything to get them to listen to me and follow our routine, but it didn’t work. I gave up and just fell asleep in Grandma’s arms instead.” You melted my heart, last night, kiddo.

I didn’t want what happened last night to happen again next Wednesday night when I teach again, so I had your father watch as I executed our bedtime ritual. This would be why I said that *usually* you like to be read to at night. Last night, of all nights, you decided to fuss as I read to you. With your father watching. So now he doesn’t believe me when I say that you like book time. Hmph. At least you fell asleep fairly quickly—I don’t think you were awake 10 seconds after I put you down.

So…that’s the boringness that was this week. I did spend sometime last weekend sticking you in your bumbo and taking what can only be described as an insane amount of pictures. I think you like getting your picture taken, because when I moved the camera over your head to get a picture of the bow you were wearing, you moved your head to face the camera. So then I moved the camera to the right—and again, there you were following the camera. This went on for a while—camera shy, you definitely are not. You really are my daughter!

You enjoyed making funny faces...

...and flashing the camera...

Notice that wherever the camera is, your eyes are focused and ready for your photo op...

...and this would be my favorite picture that I've taken of you EVER:

I love you like crazy and can’t wait until 2:30 so we can have our afternoon chat,

Your mommy