Friday, January 24, 2014

Visit to Long Island

We were back on Long Island last weekend for my Grammy's wakes, memorial service, and funeral.  It wasn't the easiest of weeks, but our whole family certainly felt blessed by the outpouring of love and support we experienced.  Grammy was dearly loved by so many, and we were also thankful for friends of ours and our parents who didn't know her well, but showed up and supported us through this difficult time.  And we were very thankful to have Samantha present to make everyone smile in the midst of a difficult weekend.

Samantha opened some belated birthday presents from her Nana and Granddad and Aunt Kerri and Uncle Eric.
Nana and Granddad got her this cool pig puppet.

Which Lanie wanted to check out.
And despite lots of other fun presents, anything on the family room coffee table proved to be the best toys- coasters were definitely a highlight!
Saturday was my mom's birthday so she and Samantha celebrated together with a little dessert.
What are these brown things?
Trying them!
Yum...delicious!  I like chocolate :)
And a birthday weekend at the Citterbart household could not be complete without a puppet show from my Dad.
Definitely brings back some good memories from my childhood- he is the puppet show master!
Glad to have some small things to make us smile during a tough weekend.

In memory of Grammy

My Grammy, Jean Citterbart, passed away last week.  I've had all my grandparents for my whole life, and it's so hard to imagine my life without any one of them so it's certainly been a rough few weeks, and I'm sure it will continue to be difficult as we grieve her loss.  We grew up only fifteen minutes away from Grammy and Pop-Pop, and some of my earliest memories involve Grammy scratching my back to help me sleep when we had sleep-overs at their house and watching old Shirley Temple movies with her curled up in their bed.  We spent many days in the summer out on their back patio and in their pool, and when I was 13 we lived with my grandparents for almost a whole year, while our house was renovated.  I feel so blessed that I got to spend all this time with Grammy growing up- she was there for every important event of our lives- from concerts to sports games to awards ceremonies to our weddings to my baby shower.  Grammy was an amazing listener, and she remembered every detail about our lives- about friends of mine she had only met once, about trips I was taking, about classes I was enrolled in- everything.  Grammy's love language was gift-giving, she gave Kerri and me so many wonderful things over the years- things I treasure when I think about my childhood and things I continue to treasure- from our fancy Christmas and Easter dresses, to my Samantha American Girl doll and all her accessories, to an awesome skeeball machine that we had in our basement for years, to helping pay for my college and even our home.  I just feel blessed beyond belief by these gifts-whether material or her time- that she gave me over the years.  I am so very thankful she got to spend time with Samantha before she passed, but words can't describe just how dearly she will be missed.  We love you, Grammy, and wish we had more time to spend with you!



























Thursday, January 9, 2014

12 months old!

Samantha continues to grow and change, and it is so fun to get to take part in it.  At her 12 month appointment, Samantha weighed 18 lbs, 8 oz and was about 30 inches long (I say about because S wouldn't really stay still long enough to be measured!).  She's still in the 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for length.  So in one year she has exactly tripled her birth weight and gained almost a foot in length.  Good thing the growing slows down a little bit now!
Samantha continues to smile all the time!  We love when we come into the room to get her after a nap and she is standing in her crib and beaming at us!  
She continues to wave and clap if you ask her to do it.  And she'll hand you a toy if you ask for it and put out your hand.
She is so squirmy still!  When you pick her up and she wants to be crawling, she lifts her arms up by her head so that it's hard to get a good grasp on her.
She is still crawling soooo fast.  And she is pro at climbing right over us or any of her friends that are in her way.
But in addition this month she has gotten good at cruising and climbing. She can cruise the whole length of the couch quite quickly.  And she can even switch back and forth from cruising on the coffee table to cruising on the couch.
 And she not only pulls up on everything constantly now, but she also has turned into such a climber.  She loves climbing into her pink chair, and also loves climbing on us.  If her chair or our laps are near to the couch or ottoman, she climbs right up and gets on the furniture.  She even tries to climb off the sides of the big chair to get things off the ledge.  She especially loves my purse these days- taking things out of my wallet seems to be one of the most fun activities out there.
 She is still eating a lot, and she started on whole milk this months (I've dropped the two day time feedings since she turned eleven months- only nursing at wake-up and bedtime right now).  But she definitely is getting pickier.  Likes- mac and cheese, avocado, all fruit, eggs, pasta; Dislikes-Meat!  She literally picks the meat out of things and throws it off her chair now!  Starting to wonder about discipline now!
 Upside down, sideways, and on our shoulders seem to be her absolute favorite. Wonder if this means we'll have a little dare devil.
 This is the only shot we got of her laying next to the bear this time. She will not stay on her back!  Diaper changes and getting dressed have become an Olympic sport.  
 Samantha loves to play these days. She's playing with stuffed animals- babbling to them some.  And she's starting to really like reading- she'll sit on our laps for book after book- well at least if the books have feeling or flaps- she loves flaps these days!  She still loves her musical instruments, and has started really pushing around her wagon and taking out all the wooden puzzle pieces.  She also loves her leapfrog picnic basket.  And finally this month she's started putting things back into containers, rather than just taking things out.
 Samantha is also still loving music- she bounces up and down when music is on and moves her head back and forth. She's great with the shaker eggs and has started hitting her resonator bar with mallets to make noise.  So fun!
Can't believe we have a little toddler now!  And so ends the monthly photos!  What a great year it's been, and it's so amazing to think of all the skills Samantha has gained in the last year!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Samantha's Birthday

Samantha turned one this past Saturday!  Despite illness keeping away my family, a snow storm the day before, and a wedding that day which Andrew and I wanted to attend, we still were able to celebrate with her.  We tried to make staying at home as fun and celebratory as possible for our baby girl (is she a toddler now?), and we were so lucky that Colleen was able to come on short notice to watch her while we went to Darius and Cate's wedding (which we somehow forgot to take pictures at, oh well-congrats, though, guys!)

When I was younger my parents always decorated my door for my birthday, so we thought we'd start that tradition here early on!

Her birthday was so cold, and a snow storm the night before her birthday had dumped six inches of snow on the ground that was still hanging around the next day.  I felt so thankful that last year there was no snow storm the day I went into labor!

We had filled the family room with balloons.  Samantha hadn't ever seen balloons before so she was trying to figure them out!

She opened her presents.  Her first backpack!
And read some cards.
And then Daddy made her two special "S" birthday pancakes.
Delicious!
High Chair streamers!
After breakfast and morning nap. We finished opening presents and played with the balloons.

And someone modeled her new birthday girl shirt and tutu!


And she rode around and pushed her wagon.

Oh and her lego car!  She really liked taking all the legos out of her new duplo bin.
Then we had lunch and a birthday cupcake- Samantha's first real taste of sweets.
She was confused by the candle.
And by the cupcake in general.

But then she decided she wanted to share it with daddy!


And then we snuck in a few pictures with the birthday girl before we snuck off to Cate and Darius's wedding.

We love this little one so much!


Happy Birthday sweet Samantha!  How did we get to be parents of a one year old?