First half of March

During the first half of March, Samantha has been concentrating on her walking skills- but that doesn't mean it's the only thing we've been doing.  March is such a crazy month around here- we've had snow and 60 degree days and then snow again- spring can't get here soon enough!  In the meantime, Daddy, S, and I have been trying to keep busy!

She thinks this is hilarious.  Our glass is not the cleanest.

 S is also working on her big girl cup drinking skills.  She loves holding these cups with two hands and drinking on her own.  About one third of the liquid ends up in her mouth, the other two thirds in her bib pocket.

Just finding some floss and unwinding it while mommy is cooking.  Whatever keeps her busy :)

 Investigating at Barnes and Noble.

 She loves saying "hi" to everything outside (still licking windows as well).

 She is also loving climbing in and out of her booster seat.  She even has been placing the tray back on top of her lap once she climbs in.

 We've been playing a lot in her room.  Taking all her books out of her bins is one of her favorite games.

And reading behind her chair is another of her faves.

And just wanted to also show off her beautiful new growth chart (thanks Aunt Jo-Ann!)

 What a beautiful peaceful sleeper.  This, though, is not the norm.  Usually I witness all kinds of rolling on the monitor while she is still asleep.

Daddy and Samantha have been trying out the new BOB for some runs. I cannot wait until the weather is warm enough for daddy-daughter runs all the time!

On another warm day we played on the playground nearby.  They have a cute little toddler structure.  It was Samantha's first time walking outside wearing shoes, and she did great!

And we liked the swing a whole lot better than we did last fall.

And of course there has been lots of eating.  Here she's sharing her lunchtime with her new little twin friends- Nathaniel and Elodie.

And she's working on her yogurt eating skills.  I gave Samantha her own cup and spoon.  She can get the spoon in there and lick off whatever ends up on it or get it into her mouth if I load it, but she can't yet seem to maneuver the yogurt and fruit onto the spoon herself and then get it into her mouth.

I was taking too long to load up her spoon so she just dug right in looking for those yogurt covered strawberry bits.  Sigh.  Crossing my fingers for increasing ability with utensils soon.

And finally she's also decided she does not want apple bits, instead she wants to eat it off the core.  So now I have to eat the skin off the apple while she points continuously at it, and then she very goes to work on it.  

Very happy with herself.

Hoping pics from the second half of March, will feature all sorts of outside warm weather- although I hear NJ is in for more snow tonight.  Ai yah.

We have a real walker on our hands now!

In the last week, Samantha has gone from an occasional walker to walking being her main source of transportation.  She is still crawling and knee walking sometimes, but now when you lift her up and put her down she wants to be on her feet.  It's amazing to see her grasp this new skill (and a little nerve wracking- she's a lot quieter walking than she was crawling!).

14 months old!

Samantha turned 14 months this past Tuesday, and she is a girl on the move!  The biggest change in the last month has been her vast improvement in walking.

She still is obsessed with her moving toys.  She rides on her truck all the time and now knows how to push herself forward and backward around the house. She also has figured out how to put things in the seat of the truck and get them out again.

Samantha loves looking out the window these days.  She crawls or walks up to windows in the living room, family room, and kitchen.  And she loves putting herself in corners and behind things to do it.

Samantha also is enjoying reading more and more with us.  She'll look through books for a long time (although she does turn the pages way too quickly to go along with the reading!)  She still loves lift the flap books and basically anything Sandra Boyton.  New this month- she'll flip through books for a long time before she falls asleep for naps.

Still twelve teeth over here and still eating tons of food - just not always what we want her to be eating.  Loves this month- grapefruit, strawberries, bananas, eggs, rice, pasta (penne vodka and mac and cheese are def the favorite foods of the month).  Dislikes- basically any meat, now also fish, and every vegetable besides tomatoes and avocados (which I think technically may be fruit anyways).

Samantha still doesn't have many words, but she "talks" up a storm.  She definitely says "hi" now (and likes to say hi to all her stuffed animals and any person that leaves or comes into the room).  She also points at her stuffed animals eyes and says "eyes," although I would say about a third of the time she does point to the nose...haha.  There's been a couple other times where it seems like she's mimicked sounds we have said, but we're still rooting for more language soon (come on "mama" and "dada").  Instead of words we get the bossy pointy finger with lots of gibberish - that bossy pointy finger came out in full force this month- lots of opinions on everything!

Samantha still loves music. She's gained some new music skills now, too.  She loves hitting the resonator bars in music class.  And she now often slaps her thighs to the beat (more or less) of certain songs. She also is a hilarious little knee dancer if she likes the music that's playing.

Samantha is still a super fast crawler and climber.  This month she has continued to love climbing up (and now also sliding down) the stairs. She is also obsessed with climbing onto the arm of our big chair and trying to then climb onto the half wall- yeah not the best.

And of course the big development this month is walking!  Samantha went from just cruising at the beginning of the month to pushing things around walking to taking a few steps to now walking across a whole room, changing direction and being able to walk across different surfaces.  She needs to start walking from holding onto something or someone and she's still crawling more than walking, but we definitely have a walker on our hands!

Also she is obsessed with phones or anything phone shaped (remote controller, my old phone case, etc.), and she loves holding them up to her face and saying "hi."

We love this adorable little one!

Walking better

This past weekend S's walking exploded.  Instead of just walking a few steps each day, she now probably crawls 50 percent of the time, knee walks 25 percent of the time, and walks the other quarter of the time.  She's started to be able to turn directions now and can keep walking if she changes surfaces.  So fun to watch her learn this!  I'm sure in not too long we'll have a full time walker!

Around the house in February