2 1/2 weeks later...

I'm sorry! I've been terrible at finding the time to write a blog post over the past few weeks. This post isn't going to be very heavy on the pictures, because I don't have many good ones to share.

Samantha is almost a year and a half now, which is crazy because I'm pretty sure she was only born a few weeks ago. She's really starting to figure out what's around her, and is saying a few (hard to understand) words.
She can say "hi" and "bye" and for the most part uses them in the right context.

"Yucky" and "uh oh" get tossed around, as do "Mamamama" and "Dadadadada".
Then there's "clock" and "duck", which pretty much sound exactly the same. You just have to pay attention to which one she's pointing at.
She says "ball" a lot, and she barks like our dog Bandit.
She's starting to say "wheel" and "happy", but those aren't as common as the others.

This past weekend we went to Oak Lawn to visit with my family. My parents have a pool in the back yard, and Samantha couldn't get enough of it. She was dunking her face in the water, spashing everybody, trying to wiggle away from whomever was holding her...basically being a major water bug.

The weekend before that Samantha and I got to spend pretty much all of the day Saturday with our friends' daughter Clare. Clare is 6 months old, so it was a challenge for me to keep both of them entertained all day, but we had a good time. I took the girls for a walk in our jogging stroller (the only double stroller we own) which resulted in very quiet content little girls. Samantha actually fell asleep on the walk. Clare just really enjoyed checking out the scenery. Last night my crazy kooky daughter decided she wanted to wear her raincoat with her purse. I wish I knew what this kid was thinking some of the time. When she realized I was taking her picture she thought it would be a great idea to poke the camera every time I held it up. Never a dull moment. Except for maybe when she's sleeping...

Just another weekend in July

Whew! What a weekend!

On Saturday we did a little running around, visited my boss and his wife at their garage sale, and then took a break for a couple of hours so Samantha could nap. After lunch we went over to a friend's house to swim. She has a HUGE swimming pool in her backyard. Seriously, this thing has got to be about 3 times the size of my parents' pool. Samantha had a great time splashing around and sitting on the floaties. (Chris stayed home to work on the bathroom, which is the reason I don't have any pics from swimming. It's hard to take pictures and keep a 1 1/2 year old from drowning at the same time. I chose to avoid the drowning over pictures.)

Saturday night we went to a wedding reception for our friends Nick and Ashley. We weren't able to stay too long because our monster skipped her afternoon nap. The time we did get to spend there was fun though.

On Sunday we went back to the petting zoo. It's nothing extravagant, but Samantha really likes running around there. She especially likes the dog, calves, and anything with wings.

And now, in honor of our Nikon camera finally coming home, here are some randoms from the weekend! Notice all of the peas randomly scattered on the table...she picked every last one out of her noodles and refused to eat them.
I think she's laughing about it here...
It's been awhile since we've taken any pictures of us with Samantha. Every picture of her with Chris had a blinker in it (either Chris or Samantha). Open your eyes you two!!!

She's 17 months old!

Holy cow! Where did the time go? Samantha is one month away from being a year and half old...which means she's 7 months away from being 2...which means I'm not too far away from sprouting gray hairs...scary.

I don't have any wonderful new pictures to share, so here's a so-so one from the other night. She woke up screaming about an hour after she went to bed, so I brought her downstairs for a little bit. We watched some of America's Got Talent in the dark. She's actually giggling in this picture even though she looks like she's sleeping.

All of her pajamas were dirty, that's why she's wearing those rediculously mismatched clothes to bed. She doesn't care, and they're probably even more comfy than her actual pj's anyway.

P.S. We got our point and shoot Nikon camera back today! Finally! I'll be sure to get a new blog post up with lots of pictures soon!

4th of July Weekend

Well, our 4th of July was pretty much a bust. Saturday was super hot and humid. Sunday and Monday were filled with rain. We had plans to take Samantha to see the fireworks on Sunday, but they were postponed until Monday, and eventually cancelled all together. I guess we'll have to wait to take her until next year.

On Sunday we took a trip to Barnes and Noble and PetSmart. Samantha had a blast flipping through books and looking at the birds & fish.

She has recently started to really like coloring with her crayons, so we set her up in her tent to color yesterday.

She decided to read one of my Harry Potter books, but the lack of pictures caused her to lose interest pretty quickly.

Here's a picture from a couple weeks ago. She loves swimming, and it was a hot weekend. Man, I can't believe how big she's getting.