These Feet Are Made For Walking

Warning: Bragging Ahead:
Wow, it's pretty amazing how far Sam has come in a few days. She is really doing great with walking, I am so excited. Today we went to the park, and I didn't carry her. She walked over to the playground, she was holding my hand some of the time, but still I was amazed by how big she seemed. Samantha climbed up the slide and went down the slide, and loved it. This week she learned what a duck, sheep, and bird says. She also knows what the dog, cat, and cow says. She is so cute when she does it. My mom taught her a song about a duck quacking and literally after hearing it once or twice she was able to repeat it, pretty amazing. Samantha just seems so big to me lately, it's so nice to have a toddler and not feel like she is a baby so much anymore. I think we have a little smarty pants on out hands. She can read us like a book, she knows exactly what to say and do to have us wrapped around our little finger, oh well, it's supposed to be like that, right? Here's a picture of her this time last year, my how she has grown!
Oh, and have I told you she is one of the smartest 15 month olds ever? I've probably mentioned it before...

Big Girl-Finally

We're finally getting some real progress with this walking thing. While she's still not totally walking on her own, she is now taking real slow steps when walking. Before she was basically running into our arms. She now goes slow, stops to steady herself if she thinks she will fall, and walks. Of course, we've been bribing her with food. But hey, it's working. As my mom said, she'll be 500 pounds but at least she'll be walking.

Laziness

One of Sams favorite toys is a Weebelot Castle. It has a moat where you put the Weebles in and it turns and makes music. Sam loves this. Today I found her pushing the button for the moat with her foot over and over again. She was too lazy to sit closer and use her finger. It was very cute though. She would press the button with her foot and turn around and smile at me and point to it. Like she is the most clever little baby in the world.

Oh yeah, and she is also climbing out of her high chair now. Which could be prevented if I strapped her in more tightly, so I guess maybe she gets her laziness from me.

Here's my seventies/mardi gras girl.

I Love My Kitty

I know I've mentioned before how much Samantha loves her cats. She is lucky they are so nice to her. I think they just want the attention. She lays on them, hugs them, and gets so excited to see them. Here she is playing with one of her kitties, the cats no longer have names here, we just call them kitty. By the way, Samantha has a bus where you can put things in the seat and she ahs the seat open right now and is sitting on the open seat riding it, it looks extremely uncomfortable, but she seems happy. Oh yeah, and she's backwards on it and saying vroom vroom. I'm not sure who taught her to say that, I don't think I did. It is pretty amazing the things she is picking up on these days. She's getting so smart, she can say and point to nose, eyes, hair, feet, shoes, and belly.

Big Girl

I peeked into Samantha's room yesterday when she went in there to play. This is what I found. She was standing next to her horse talking to it. She looked like such a big girl. She was calling him a doggy, but that's okay. She always calls horses dogs. Oh well. But she was standing next to it looking so big to me. I snapped a picture before she saw me and went into, mommy mommy mode. She's been very into mommy lately. I don't even know if she really wants me, she's just been kind of whiny and saying mommy a lot when she sees me. She also woke up this morning with a bit of a cough so maybe she's getting a little cold (I hope little). I can't wait until the warmer weather is here because I can't wait for all this sickness to end. Will it be like this every winter? I feel like Samantha is always getting sick, the kids in her playgroups are always sick, it's exhausting. I think it should be warm by the end of the week.

Blogiversary

With all that's been going on I completely forgot about my one year Blogiversary!!! I started blogging last March 8th. Sometimes I posted almost daily and sometimes I went weeks without posting. My effort now is to update twice weekly, sometimes it happens and sometimes not, obviously. Right now Samantha is sitting in her toy basket on top of her toys watching the Wonderpets. Does anyone know that show? I try not to let her watch a lot of TV but she just loves that show. As soon as she hears the theme song she laughs, when I hear it I cringe because they play it 20 times per show and it will be in my head for days to come. Oh well, at least she's happy. We've been busy, Tim is the chef at a new gourmet food store and we've been getting ready to open it, finalizing the menu, I've been calling printers to send out some PR mailing for it. I've been considering selling Mary Kay, does anyone know anything about this, bad idea, good idea? I'd love any thoughts.

Samantha is still trying her hardest to refuse walking. I'm convinced she can walk, she'll take a few steps if you really coax her, but she just doesn't want to all that much. She was 15 months yesterday so I'm really hoping she starts liking it more any day now. We go to the doctor in another 2 weeks, hopefully she'll get it by then. She's still concentrating on talking, learning new words all the time.

By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

No Postings

Sorry no posts, I was deathly ill towards the end of last week with a stomach virus and the weekend was spent recovering. And now I have to go to work. Yuck. I promise to upload my pics tonight and give you something cute to look at. Oh yeah, we also had that pesky snowstorm to deal with in the middle of my illness. When will April be here? I can't wait.
Happy Birthday Ryan and Jeanette today!

What's That?

This is Sams new favorite thing to say. It is very cute. Right now she's walking around pushing her bus with one hand, and pointing to things and saying "What's that?" with the other. She thinks it's funny, she even does it with things that she knows. She just pointed to the kitty said "What's that?" I said kitty and she said "oh, kitty" and laughed. She was saying Emma this weekend, her friend who we went to visit. Although she did have some not so good behavior when we were at her friend Jack's house and she took his toys away and told him no when he would touch them. My daughter, the bully. I think she's seen other kids do that to her, so she's repeating it with other people. I told her no and told her to share. He wasn't too upset, he got her back by giving her a good hair tug once or twice.

All About Me

I have been obsessed with Tivo'ing What Not To Wear Lately. And although Tim might not admit it, he actually kind of likes it to. It's really good and I realized that I need to go over my wardrobe. I've been dressing down lately, which I think a lot of moms who don't work in an office tend to do. Time to step it up a notch. We went outlet shopping last weekend and I got a ton of stuff at Calvin Klein, a blazer at JCrew, and jeans at BCBG. I had a terrible time finding jeans, I must have tried on 50 pairs in 2 days. I decided now that Samantha is over a year I'm over the diaper bag. So I need a oversized purse that looks cute and fits some diapers and a sippy cup. I also need some new shoes that are casual but cute looking. Between this and my new working out thing I think we're in good shape. Now I just have to stop eating Sams goldfish, those things are so addictive. I think I should stop buying them. Anyone see any cute shoes or bags, send 'em my way.

Tantrums

So, how do we feel about the starting of tantrums? I guess I mean, how do I feel about them. Samantha has started saying no, more often in the form of "no no no no". It's sort of cute but then you realize what it is she's saying. She just found a pacifier (which is only in the crib and car now) somewhere, I actually have no idea where. When I saw her with it I said, oh give that to mommy, you don't need that. She gave it to me, which I think she thought was going to be a game. But I put it away and she said no, no, no. And started going to try and get it (which she couldn't reach, so there short stuff). For a minute I thought, it's not so bad maybe I should give it to her. Then I remembered my mommy rules and stayed tough. I showed her a toy and the mini tantrum was over, she was distracted. What happens in a few months when a simple toy will no longer distract her so easily? I don't want her to have tantrums. However, the hitting I mentioned a few weeks ago seems to have stopped, so at least we have that. Enough rambling, I'm going to go play with my sweet perfectly behaved baby girl (who happens to be saying no to one of her toys right now).

Updates

Well some if you who know me know that I am struggling with this babysitting job I have. I am unable to say no to these people. It was supposed to be about 20 hours a week. Then for several months it was about 45 hours a week. They were asking me for overnights, to stay late, and I almost always said yes. I decided to put my foot down. Before my vacation I told them I didn't want to work this much. And that I needed at least one day off a week and some shorter days. So far so good. This week went well. Yesterday was a great day off with Samantha. Today I'm supposed to leave at 4. We stuck to our hours this week, I had more time to myself. I started my diet/working out and did it 2x my first week. Not too bad for your first week, I might take a class tomorrow too so that would be 3. Next week I'll be doing 3x. I hate to say it but right now, things are good.
Today we went to music class, and had lunch with a friend, then came home for naps. I'm going to sign Samantha up for swimming, it starts in the middle of April. Hopefully she'll like it, I want to bring her to the beach a lot this summer. I can't believe I'm thinking about summer when it is 12 degrees out, but I am. I feel like spring is just around the corner, it's supposed to be really warm this weekend and I am very excited about it.

TIMS PICK

Tim complained about the pics from the vacation that I was posting. He pointed out that most of the pics I posted so far were in the hotel room. He's right, I didn't even realize that. So I let him pick. I don't think this is such a great pic, but Tim does. Here's Sam in the Ergo carrier at Chichen Itza. It was incredibly hot that day and it was difficult to carry her in it for too long so we could switch around every few hours. But if you're looking into carriers I would highly recommend this one. It's a great carrier and you can use it for a long time.
Anyway, busy weekend coming up. We're going to 2 parties on Saturday, one in Westchester and one in LI, ugh.. But then on Sunday we're going to a bridal show with Katie to help her pick out stuff for her wedding coming up this September.

More Vaca Pics

It is so hard for me to post during the week. With babysitting by the end of the day I just want to relax and straighten up. But I did go to Pilates this week! First time working out besides walking since before I had Samantha. And tonight I'm going to spin class! Wish me luck. Also, today is my day off and I organized all my clothes and I'm donating a lot of stuff that I don't wear! Yipee!

Yucatan Vacation - Part 2

The second day of our vacation was really nice. We walked around Merida - got to know the area. We went to some museums, saw the cathedral and walked through the markets. I really wanted to buy something, but there really wasn't much to buy. I was disappointed. It was like shopping on Canal St in NY, everything was the same, kind of cheap stuff. Oh well. Tim got some food realted things. He's prepared for opening a new Mexican restaurant, have I mentioned that here before? I'm not sure, but we were going partially for the knowledge of the Mexican food and culture. The next day we went to the beach. It was nice, and so hot. The Mayan ruins were pretty amazing too. Oh well, I don't want to bore you with all the details. Here's another picture. Enjoy.
Oh and today Samantha took 6, yes 6 steps completely on her own.... I can't wait for her to be walking. Oh and new words, stinker. I hate that she said this, but she did. She had a dirty diaper and my mother in law said, do you have a stinker, and she said stinker. If you knew me you'd know I just don't like using words like this, I know it's wierd but I just don't like it. She also say pretty now, that's a word I like much more. She'll say pretty stinkers... great.

No Time

Googie and Pop pop are visiting so no time to post. Here's a adorable picture of Samantha to tide you over. Will post more about Mexico tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend!

Warning

Samantha is so close to walking now, I just had to tell someone. She has always liked her bus and stroller but now she is walking around with them, and not tentatively like before, really really quickly. And when we take her hand to walk now, she doesn't throw herself on the floor and scream like we're killing her (yes, she actually did that a few times). Now she is happy and walks along, again very quickly. It is the cutest and funniest thing. And many times she says, go go go while she does it. I think walking may be near. She might not crawl her way to high school. We'll keep you updated.

I know it's silly but the doctor at her 12 month check up said don't worry about walking. Then she said we'll start to worry when she's 15 months. So I don't want her to get to 15 without walking. We have 1 month to go. We'll see...