Pumpkin Carving

Somehow we ran out of time last year to buy a pumpkin and carve it in time for Halloween, so this year was Samantha's first time participating.  She was a little freaked out by the "yucky" pumpkin, but eventually she got over it.  We had let her pick out her own little pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, so we let her decorate it with markers and stickers while Daddy was carving the big pumpkin.

Pinned It, Did It

I have gotten completely sucked into Pinterest lately.  If you're not on it, it's basically a website where you can gather all of those great ideas that you find on the internet in one place.  I'm trying to be good about actually doing some of them and not just "Pinning" them, so here are a couple of activities Sammy and I have done lately.

Here is a fun and a little different way to practice writing and drawing skills.  It's Elmer's glue and a little bit of food coloring in a Ziplock baggie, and then you write on it with a Q-tip.  I like it because it's all things that most people already have around the house.

Naturally we have to teeter on the edge of danger while trying
out this new toy

Disclaimer: Mommy drew this heart

Just squish it to start over

This is Sammy painting in the tub with shaving cream with a little bit of food coloring.  Next time I think I'll do two or three primary colors so that Sammy can see what happens when the colors mix.

We ended up with some pretty awesome green bathwater
when we rinsed off Sammy's artwork.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Pat and I bought this ridiculously adorable (and a little pricey) Halloween dress at a little boutique in Old Town St. Charles.  Sammy wore it last year, and I was thrilled when I saw it in her closet the other day and realized she could probably wear it again.  What a difference a year makes!

October 2010

October 2011

The Past Month

It's been a little over a month since I last posted,so I thought I'd do a little catch-up post.  Here's what's been going on with Team Vogt recently:

- Pat spent a month training in the desert at NTC in California.
- Sammy and I spent about a week out of that month in Hermann visiting my family.
- We got to see Jo for a night while she was out here visiting her parents.
- My parents spent a 4-day weekend with us, resulting in grandparent-spoiling withdrawal for Samantha when they left.
- We spent a weekend in Westport, WA enjoying the ocean and also spent several afternoons at the lake on post.
- Samantha is talking up a storm, and even putting little sentences together.  Her words are pretty clear, but every once in while she stumps us with an odd pronounciation.
- Pat's current Brigade found out that they are deploying.  Some of Pat's Company will be going with them.  Pat will not be because...
- HRC (Human Resource Command) has told Pat that it's about time for us to move, so we're waiting on the list of potential next assignments.  For now, our future it totally up in the air.

And of course some cute pictures because I just can't resist.

I Hiding

This is one of those posts that Samantha will probably be very unhappy about when she's 13.

Samantha is what I like to call a Poo Fibber. She doesn't like to admit that she needs to poop. She also likes to hide under or behind things while doing her business. I'll see her go into one of her pooping spots, and I'll ask her if she needs to poop. Her answer is always, "Noooooooo...I hiding." On top of her love of hiding, Sammy's also in that stage where she thinks if she can't see you (eyes closed, blanket over head, etc) that you can't see her either. All of this came together this evening when she dumped all of her toys out of one of her toy bins and put it on her head to poop. What a crazy child.

Perpetual Motion

I think that Samantha may have discovered the secret to perpetual motion. That would explain why she never. stops. moving!!!

Staying Busy

As you can tell by my recent lack of posts, summer has finally arrived in Washington State. While the rest of the country has been suffering in sweltering heat, we have been freezing up here! Now that temperatures are finally in the 70s, the Vogt family has been taking full advantage.

Samantha and I try to get outside and soak up some sunshine everyday. We'll either take a walk around the neighborhood, go play at the playground down the street, play in the sprinkler in the yard, or all three. We're also trying to do fun outdoorsy-type stuff with Pat before he leaves for basically all of August.

Sammy's language skills are developing every day. She's gotten pretty good at repeating new phrases and words that she hears, although she usually puts her own spin on them. She likes to say, "Zoom, zoom, zoooooooom!" when she drives toy cars around, but it comes out, "Yo, Yo, Yoooooo!". My other current favorite is yogurt, which she pronounces "yoyuck". This is funny because she actually loves it.

She's also very interested in whether or not different things have body parts. The other day she asked me if her poop had eyes and a mouth. Maybe this is a sign that we should stop referring to really gross diapers as poo monsters. he he

We've also been working on the idea of ownership. Sammy likes to claim a lot of things as "MINE!". I try to correct her when it's something that's not exclusively hers and tell her, "No, that's Momma's" (or Daddy's, or that little boy's). She really likes to point out Momma Go-Go and Daddy Go-Go (go-go is car in Sammy language).

I'll try to post some recent pictures in the next day or two, since I know that's the real reason that you're reading this. :-)

Nicknames

Most of you probably know that we are a nickname-loving family. While I was laying down with Sammy tonight, I started thinking about all the names that she will answer to.

Some of my favorites:

Sammy
Sam
SamSam (in response to MaMa or DaDa)
SamSamSam (in response to MaMaMa or DaDaDa)
Sassafras
Sassafras McSassypants
Sassy
Sass
Stinkerpants
Stinky Mink
Stinky Monkey
Climber Monkey

Monkey
Monkey Doodle
Doodle Bop
Doodle Bug

Doodle
Ladybug

Sweet Girl

It's a wonder that she ever figured out what her given name is!

And because a post is never complete without a cute picture, here's one of Sammy's recent outfits that she put together herself.

D-I-V-A

Diva Sammy insisted on wearing her sunglasses and boots all morning the other day. She pitched a fit when I tried to take them off for breakfast, so I let her keep them on.

Memorial Day Vacation

Pat is in the middle of three weeks of training at the Yakima Training Center in Eastern Washington, so to help keep my sanity Sammy and I went to see Grandma and Grandpa. In retrospect, two 4+ hour flights alone with a toddler and an 8 hour road trip from St. Louis to Nashville were probably not the best ways to stay sane, but everything worked out much better than I had anticipated.

First we flew to St. Louis to spend a couple of days at my Mom's house in Hermann. We took Grandma lunch at school one day, and I was able to see some of my old High School teachers. We also got to see Great Aunt Nancy and Great Grandma Rea and Great Grandpa Jim. I even got to spend a couple of hours with a close friend from High School. We took full advantage of being near St. Louis and introduced Sammy to both Steak 'n Shake and toasted ravioli. Here she is eating leftovers of both of them for lunch.

Richard came into town on Friday, and we all headed to Nashville after Mom got off work. Kurt and Abby made the trip too, so the whole family was able to spend Memorial Day weekend together. Activities for Samantha for the weekend included shrieking with laughter while playing crazy games with Grandpa.

Insisting on wearing Abby's lobster slippers around the house.

Playing with bubbles in the backyard despite the 90 degree weather.

Playing in the sprinkler for the first time ever.

And communing with nature (she watched this frog on the window for about 15 minutes).

We'll be back in St. Louis in late June/early July for a few days, and then we're heading to D.C. for a few days to see the other side of the family. Pat will get to come with us on that trip, so flying should be a little less stressful (although Sammy was a trooper and barely complained this time around!)

I'll Take That!

Sammy snagged Pat's new hat for herself the day after he brought it home. She looks so cute in it that I just might let her keep it!

She also managed to snag a pair of my underware while I was folding laundry and put them on. So silly!

Inherited Traits

I love when Samantha does something and I can totally see Pat or myself in her. Tonight she piled all of her stuffed animals on herself and pulled the pillow over her face to go to sleep. She whined when I tried to take it off of her, so I just left it (I propped a corner up with her stuffed kitty, Simon). The pillow on her head is definitely inherited from Daddy!

If you look closely in the picture you can see a little arm peeking out.

A Sunny Afternoon

Last Saturday we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day. We took full advantage of it and spent the afternoon in the backyard and at the park down the street. Samantha has quite a little rock collection going. She keeps them on the little shelf on the garden hose hanger. She goes back to it day after day to add new ones and carries some of them around with her.

We showed her how to blow the seeds off of dandelions, and she got it right away. Now she has to stop and blow on them any time she sees one.

She tries to blow the petals off of regular flowers too, but it doesn't work nearly as well as the dandelions.

Pat took the opportunity to start grooming Sammy for a promising golf career. She seemed to enjoy her first lesson, which included dragging Daddy's club around, clicking the balls together, and running up and stealing the golf balls everytime Daddy tried to chip one.

A Wink and The Wiggles

Sammy has figured out how to wink recently...well kind of. She gets what she's supposed to do, but she ends up making an adorable pirate face. She also shows off her body-part naming skills. I was trying to get her to make some animal noises, but she knew that The Wiggles were coming on soon, so she was a little distracted.

Here was her reaction as soon as she heard The Wiggles theme song.

Television-watching definitely isn't a passive activity in this house!

Miss Independent

Samantha has definitely entered the "I can do it myself!" phase of toddlerhood. She has become very interested in dressing herself and reading her books by herself. She used to sit on my lap at bedtime while I red two books to her. Now she yells "No, no, no!" if try to read them. Instead, she takes them to her bed and "reads" them herself. She has managed to put together some pretty interesting outfits with whatever clothing she can pull out of the hamper. She ran around like this for quite a while the other day. I didn't manage to get a picture, but she added her rainboots to the outfit. Yesterday I saw her run off with my socks, and then reappear a few minutes later wearing them. Pretty impressive!

A Day at the Beach x2

Apparently it's feast or famine when it comes to this blog. We'll see how long this string of updates lasts.

The weather isn't quite spring-like here yet, but we did have a beautiful day of sunshine today. We decided to take advantage of it. We went to our favorite restaurant, Jake's, for lunch and then went to a waterfront park just down the road.

Heading to the playground.

The view from the playground. Not too bad.

Sammy running full-speed toward the water.

Waiting to see the train we could hear coming.

Chooooo choooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Sammy would have spent the entire day throwing rocks into the water if we would have let her.

We had to leave the Steilacoom park sooner than we wanted to because Sammy decided to wade right on into the water and we didn't have dry shoes/socks/pants/shirt/sweatshirt for her. It was still nice outside, so we took some bread to the lake by our house to feed the ducks and let Sammy splash in the water a little more. These two ducks got out of the water and followed us to get more bread.

For a Change of Pace

A video post today! The first one is just Sammy running around and playing in the backyard. The second one is a snippet of Sammy and Mimi's favorite game. Sammy runs around the house dragging a ribbon behind her, and Mimi chases it. You also get to hear Sammy's version of "kitty" as she's climbing the slide. Our sitter thinks it sounds like she's yodeling when she says it.

More Pictures!

Another picture post. Enjoy!

Playing with bubbles in the backyard.


Soccer, anyone?

Playing hide and seek around one of our trees. Hello!

Sammy loves sitting on the bench at the park like a big girl.

Wearing Niccole's (our awesome sitter's) Ugg boots.

Wearing Daddy's PT fleece cap.

Sammy can climb almost anything, and is constantly standing on things, trying to be just a little higher.

Sammy's rainy day "sand" box (dry oatmeal inside an under-the-bed storage box)