The Book of Liz

Still Kicking!

2012-01-21T07:13:00.001-06:00

Our family has not completely dropped off the face of the planet, our lives have just been incredibly hectic lately! I'm not going to try to catch up with everything since the last post, but I'll try to hit the high points.

We spent a really nice Thanksgiving weekend in Bellingham with some of Pat's family. I even got to meet his cousin Lisa for the first time. Uncle Don and Aunt Mary let us crash in their guest house since Grandma and Grandpa Burgess' house was pretty full. We were really glad we were able to see everyone because shortly after Thanksgiving we began what has become the L-O-N-G-E-S-T move ever.

We decided not to try to drive from Washington State to Washington D.C. with Sammy and the cat, so Pat had to do that long roadtrip alone while Sammy, Mimi, and I flew. We took a pitstop in Missouri to visit family and then got to Pat's parents' house on Christmas Eve.

We had inteded to stay with Bill and Jo for a week or two, but the house hunt proved to be much more complicated than we anticipated. We found a really great neighborhood, but kept barely missing out on houses. Apparently BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is brining a lot of people to Ft. Meade, which is very close to the areas where we were looking.

We finally found a place that would work for us, and scrambled to get an application in before anyone else. After about 4 anxious days we found out we got it (Yay!), but that the current tenat wasn't moving out until mid-January (boo). Bill and Jo were amazing enough to let us keep staying with them. A couple of days ago, we moved into a hotel so that we wouldn't have to do the D.C. to Baltimore drive while looking for daycare centers for Sammy, picking up the keys to the house, etc. Our furniture is scheduled to come Monday, and I can't wait to finally spend a night in my own bed!

Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the new house up soon. I just have to figure out where I packed the charger for the camera! lol

And now to your favorite part of the post....adorable pictures of Samantha. She has been a champ during the move, but I know she's ready to be in a house with all of her familiar things again.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

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

2011-10-29T10:44:00.001-05:00

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

2011-10-24T21:44:00.001-05:00

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

2011-09-25T00:13:00.002-05:00

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

2011-08-19T22:13:00.008-05:00

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

2011-08-06T11:13:00.002-05:00

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

Staying Busy

2011-07-31T10:31:00.002-05:00

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

2011-06-15T22:36:00.003-05:00

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

2011-06-09T19:52:00.003-05:00

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

2011-06-01T22:33:00.006-05:00

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!

2011-05-13T15:54:00.003-05:00

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

2011-05-10T22:32:00.005-05:00

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

2011-04-29T19:13:00.002-05:00

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

2011-04-19T23:45:00.003-05:00

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

2011-04-10T11:07:00.004-05:00

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

2011-03-19T23:26:00.003-05:00

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

2011-03-18T14:08:00.003-05:00

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!

2011-03-15T22:39:00.005-05:00

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)

Picture Post

2011-03-04T22:40:00.004-06:00

It's been a little bit since I've been able to post, so I'm going to catch-up on posting pictures. I'm afraid this will probably be a little short on narrative. Sammy hasn't been sleeping well lately, so I only have little snippets of time to get things done before she wakes up again.

Playing Guitar Hero with Daddy. We let Sammy have her own (broken) guitar.

We had a wonderful visit with Bill and Jo. Sammy was fascinated by their smart phones.

Climbing her slide.

It's not every girl who can pull off a hockey jersey, tutu, and Grandma's slippers.

We actually had some snow stick on the ground, so I took Sammy out to play in it.

I told Sammy to smile before I took this picture, and this is the face she made. :-)

Chatting on her cell phone.

I think she's plotting something. I just wanted to snap a picture of her pig tails before she inevitably pulled them out.

Sammy is showing some early signs of being ready to start using the potty, so I got her a froggy potty!

Checking out some heavy machinery with Daddy.

Slide!

2011-02-13T10:39:00.002-06:00

Samantha has been practicing her climbing skills on practically anything that will hold still. Every time I turn around, she's figured out how to get on top of some new piece of furniture. Pat and I decided to get her something a little safer that she could climb on.

Since we live in where it rains a lot, we wanted to get something that she could use inside. We headed out to Toys R Us and ended up getting her a little tikes slide. She loved it right out of the box, and completely understood what it was even before Pat assembled it.

Once Pat got the slide put together, Sammy barely stopped using it until bedtime. I'm hoping that it helps burn off some energy on those rainy days when we can't go play outside. I love that she claps for herself after she slides down.

Fearless

2011-02-01T23:16:00.004-06:00

Sammy and I decided to take advantage of the sunshine today by bundling up and heading to the playground down the street. Samantha seems to be oblivious to the cold, but I try to keep her warm anyway.

She used to be a little timid when climbing around on the playground equipment, but she's completely fearless now. She headed straight to the stairs, climbed up, bypassed the small slide, and slid down the big slide all on her own.

When we got home, Samantha had a good time playing with her hat. She would wear it for a little bit and then pull it off to examine the bears on it. Then she'd bring it over to me so that I could put it on for her again. She went to check herself out in the mirror a couple of times. I'm still not sure if she understands that she's looking at herself, but she found it pretty funny regardless.

A Fun Day with Sammy

2011-01-27T22:58:00.006-06:00

Pat has been working extremely long hours this week, so he's barely been able to see Samantha. She's been extra-fun these last couple of days, so I've shot some videos and pictures to share with him (and all of you!).

Her current favorite things to do are climb all over the furniture, hang out in the windows, and run laps around the ottoman while I chase her with a pull-along cowboy that she got for Christmas from Grandma and Pops.

Maybe her energy for all that climbing comes from all of the yummy foods she loves to eat! Dinner tonight was chicken and broccoli. She saw me eating my broccoli with a fork and decided that she needed to use one too. She didn't get too much of it to her mouth with the fork, but she's getting better at it.

After dinner it was time for a bath. Samantha is loving bath time now that she's out of her baby tub and gets the entire bath tub to play in. She runs laps back and forth, splashes, and flops onto her belly. It's all quite entertaining even if I usually need dry clothes after she's finished.

So opinionated!

2011-01-25T21:49:00.005-06:00

I am amazed at how well Samantha is able to express her opinions to us already. She can't speak in sentences yet, but today she made it very clear that she wanted to wear her rain boots.

She also has definite opinions about when and what to eat, when it's time for bed, what toys to play with, and when it's time to play outside (this would be always if she had her way). I believe that this strong-willed trait will benefit her later in life, but it might keep our lives interesting while she's young.

New Words

2011-01-22T21:44:00.003-06:00

Sammy seems to be adding new wordsto her vocabulary. Here are some of my favorites:

Bah = Ball

Bur= Bird

Noonoo = Noodle

Uh-oh = Her response to almost everything

Bellbahbah = Bellybutton

And my most favorite new word..................................Whoa!

15 Month Well Child Visit

2011-01-10T17:31:00.003-06:00

We went to Samantha's 15 month well child visit today. Everything went well, even the 4 shots she had to get. :-( Poor baby. We had a few tears, but she was smiling again by the time we left. Sammy weighed in at 22 lbs and was 30 inches tall. I could tell that she had grown just by the way she can reach all those things she's not supposed to have that used to be out of reach. She has figured out how to climb onto the chair in the living room and then onto the end table so that she can repeatedly turn the lamp on the end table off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Off and on. Welcome to our world. :-)

Knitting Again

2010-12-30T22:51:00.002-06:00

I hadn't picked up my knitting needles since shortly before Samantha was born. I saw some cute wine bottles on a Christmas cooking show, so I decided that our bar needed some accessorizing. I'll probably make a couple more. They're fun because I can get one finished during one of Sammy's naps.

Christmas in Jamaica

2010-12-30T22:30:00.006-06:00

First of all, Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family! We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Christmas in Jamaica this year with my parents and brother, Richard. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it was so nice to spend a few days enjoying the sunshine.

I wasn't sure how Samantha would handle the trip, but she was a champ. She did really well on all the flights and was a little charmer once we got to the resort. We took Sammy to the beach our first day there, and she loved it so much that she cried when we had to leave to get cleaned up for dinner. She was completely fearless, and would have run out into the ocean if we would have let her.

She also really enjoyed all of the yummy drinks. Here she is sharing Grandpa's virgin Pina Colada. I think they were her favorite, followed closely by these delicious fruit shakes that all the bars made.

On Christmas Day, Santa arrived by boat. He was ready for a vacation after a long night of delivering presents.

Sammy missed his arrival because she was racked out on a lounge chair on the beach. All of that playing is hard work!

Grossly Overdue

2010-12-21T00:10:00.004-06:00

I am grossly overdue for posting to the blog...my appologies! Things have been a little crazy around here trying to get ahead of everything before our upcoming trip to Jamaica. This post will mostly be pictures that we've taken over the last few weeks.

First is Samantha modeling her adorable new rain boots. She has a little trouble walking on the carpet in them, but she's willing to suffer for fashion.

And here's Samantha showing some unit pride in her Daddy's 18th Engineer Co t-shirt. Pat took command of the 18th last week.

A couple days before Pat took command, we attended the 18th's Christmas party. Sammy was not particularily thrilled about seeing Santa. On the upside, I guess I should be relieved that she's not willing to sit on some strange man's lap.

The Christmas party was at the skating rink on post, and Sammy absolutely loved when Pat would take her for a couple of laps around the skating rink. I managed to snap this picture as they went flying by.

And finally, here's a picture of Sammy's favorite new game...piling toys on whoever is sitting on the couch. Your role in the game is to sit still and not move any of the toys. The game is over either when she takes all the toys off of you and piles them on the floor or when she gets distracted by something shiny and doesn't notice you getting up.

Reading is Serious Business

2010-11-18T22:34:00.002-06:00

I love when Samantha sits down to "read". She looks so serious while she's doing it. I think it makes her look very grown-up.

What is she doing?

2010-11-13T23:17:00.004-06:00

Sammy has developed some quirky behaviors lately. She likes to eat with one foot propped up in her high chair. I think it makes her look very cool and laid back. ha ha

She also has decided that the most fun game is to take all of her toys out of the toy bin and then climb into it. The game is messy, but adorable.

Your fortune is...

2010-11-11T23:09:00.002-06:00

We ordered chinese food for dinner tonight and ended up with three fortune cookies (possibly because we ordered enough food to easily feed three adults...I love leftover chinese). Pat opened his cookie and got this fortune.

I sassed the fortune cookie gods by saying that we already know that we're going to Jamaica in December, so it wasn't much of a fortune, and they responded by giving us this fortune in the third fortune cookie.

In my face.

First Words

2010-11-09T22:12:00.002-06:00

Samantha has officially said her first word, "Hi". She started routinely using the word correctly and waving while she said it a couple of days ago. Yesterday she added "Bye" (with a wave of course) to her repertoire. You can tell when she's babbling that she's trying really hard to put other words together. The harder she tries, the more guttural she gets. It's pretty entertaining. It's amazing how much older this talking thing makes her seem. We're working on getting some video of it, but she's being camera-shy for now.

Samantha's 2nd Halloween

2010-11-01T17:19:00.004-05:00

Samantha's 2nd Halloween was a big success! She was actually able to participate a little this year. We had an FRG (Family Readiness Group) Halloween party for Pat's Company on Thursday, and Samantha was quite a hit in her clown costume that Grandma made for her. I especially love her little matching bag.

For Halloween itself, we put her in this cute little jack-o-latern dress to run errands during the day, and then back into her clown costume for trick-or-treating. She wasn't too keen on going to the neighbors' houses, so she helped Mom and Dad pass out candy. I was pleasantly surprised that all of the kids in their costumes didn't bother her at all.

This Post Brought to You by the Letter P

2010-10-23T19:03:00.002-05:00

Pigtails and Pajamas!

Penguins and Polka Dots!

Tips From a Veteran Beach Bum

2010-10-16T15:33:00.005-05:00

In honor of booking our Christmas trip to Jamaica, I thought I'd share some tips that Pat and I have picked up through our travels.

1. Make sure to bring an ink pen on the plane with you. You'll need it to fill out your customs form, and it also comes in handy for doing the Sudoku puzzle in the in-flight magazine. You'll earn major points with your seat-neighbors when you let them borrow it, too.

2. This one goes along with number 1. You'll also want the address of the hotel where you'll be staying handy. You'll need it for the customs form.

3. Anyone who offers any kind of help at the airport expects a tip. This includes helping with your bags or showing you to your shuttle.

4. Pack a bathing suit, sunscreen, and a cover-up someplace that's really easy to get to (in your carry-on or the outer pocket of your checked bag). About 50% of the time, your room isn't ready when you get to the hotel, but they'll give you your all-inclusive bracelet right away, so if you have your suit you can head straight to the pool bar. The front desk will hold onto your luggage for you and probably even take it to your room when it's ready.

5. Bring a hat and sunglasses and use them both. Discovering that you burned you part while shampooing your hair is not fun, plus you end up looking like you have dandruff when it starts peeling a week later.

6. Bring stronger sunscreen than you think you'll need, and bring more of it than you think you can use. You can buy some in the gift shop if you run out, but it's crazy expensive.

7. Put on your sunscreen before you go down to breakfast. It takes 30 minutes for it to start working, so you want to give it plenty of time before you hit the beach/pool.

8. Reapply sunscreen liberally and often. Especially the first day (learned the hard way in St. Lucia). There's nothing worse than getting really burned your first day at the beach and then having to hunt for shade the rest of the trip.

9. Bring at least two swim suits and cover-ups. This lets you avoid that awful feeling of having to put on a cold, wet bathing suit in the morning.

10. Don't bring the super-cheap flip flops to wear to the pool. They get really slick when they're wet and can be hard to walk in.

11. Don't wear your wedding ring to the pool/beach unless you are positive there is no chance of it falling off. We've watched more than one hopeless individual searching the sand for a missing ring. They never find them.

12. Keep all of your valuables locked in the in-room safe (passport, camera, jewelry, wallet/cash).

13. Bring a cheap disposable camera in addition to your digital camera. Get some good shots with your digital camera and then lock it up in the room. DO NOT leave it in your beach bag on your lounge chair. Bring the disposable one with you to the pool/beach.

14. Be adventurous and try the local dishes. They are usually the best things on the buffet, and if you happen not to like it, you just go get something else.

15. Nothing makes me sadder than seeing a family on vacation, completely ignoring each other at dinner whith their phones out. Turn off your phone, relax, and enjoy the people you are with!

Let Her Eat Cake!

2010-10-10T18:10:00.004-05:00

I posted the mushy birthday post on Samantha's actual birthday, so now it's time for the fun one! We celebrated Sammy's first birthday with just our little family. Pat is working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week right now, so we waited to start the celebration until Pat got home from work (not until 7:30). Samantha got to open one present, a See 'n Say from Grandma and Grandpa Pankau while we were waiting to keep her occupied.

When Daddy finally got home, we ate a quick dinner, and then it was time for cake! I made a carrot cake with carrots from the farmers market and cream cheese frosting from scratch. It might not have been the prettiest cake in the world, but it was delicious!

Samantha started off eating pretty delicately.

But she quickly discovered how fun it was to squish the cake, stash it in her high chair, and chuck it over the side. At one point there was a piece teetering on the edge of her tray that finally fell off, which Samantha thought was hysterical.

After cake (and a bath), we let Samantha open the rest of her presents. While she was occupied playing with shredded wrapping paper, we stashed most of the new toys in a closet, to be rationed out over the next few days.

And finally, an adorable picture of the birthday girl just for fun. :-)

Happy First Birthday

2010-10-07T17:35:00.002-05:00

Dear Samantha,

Today you turn one year old. In that year, you have blossomed into such an amazing little person. You are constantly busy learning and exploring the world around you. When you fall down you might cry a bit, but after a quick snuggle you are up and running again. You love being outside and looking at the rocks, trees, and animals. You invent new ways to play peekaboo, and then fall down because they make you laugh so hard. You love your sister-kitty, Mimi, more than almost anything else in the world. You shriek with delight when she comes in the room and try to pet her and give her kisses. You also shriek with delight when Daddy comes home from work. You immdeiately want to play with him and get annoyed that you have to hold still for some hugs and kisses. You are either wide awake or sound asleep. There is no in-between groggy period for you. You wake up immediately ready to face the day. You make the best faces! My favorites are your concentrating face and your scrunched-nose face. You are so close to saying your first word. For now, everything is either Ma, Ba, or Da. I'm excited for you to finally be able to start sharing your thoughts with us.

Daddy and I love you so much and want to wish you a very happy first birthday. We can't wait to see what your next year brings us!

Love,
Momma

Helicopters and Pumpkin Bread

2010-09-29T19:37:00.005-05:00

I think we may have a budding aerospace engineer on our hands. Won't Daddy be proud? Samantha is completely enamored with flying helicopters. She has learned to recognize the sound of them and stops everything she's doing to run to the window whenever she hears one. Today she even stopped nursing so that she could look out the window and see one fly by. It takes a lot to interrupt a nursing session!

Now that October is almost here, I'm really starting to get into the fall spirit. I've been loving all things pumpkin lately (I blame Starbucks for advertising the heck out of their Pumpkin Spice Latte). I decided to bake some pumpkin bread, and it turned out super delicious. It's pretty heavy on the spices, but I like it that way. In case the picture convinces you that you just have to have some yourself, I'm including the recipe. It's slightly modified from the Food Network. Or you can just come visit, and we'll gobble up the one that's safely tucked away in the freezer.

I may reduce the total sugar and substitute some brown sugar for some of the regular sugar next time and try applesauce instead of oil. That way I won't have to feel quite as guilty when I eat the whole loaf in 3 days.

Ingredients

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs , lightly bean
15 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 9 by 5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating. Divide batter between two loaf pans. Bake for about an hour or until cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool.

An Awwwww Moment and a Funny

2010-09-25T10:50:00.002-05:00

There are moments that make all the rough patches worth it with Samantha. Sammmy's 4th tooth is just about to break through, and it's made her a real grump these past couple of days. Yesterday evening we were hanging out on the couch nursing. Sammy popped off, sat up, and gave me a huge kiss. My heart just about melted.

Samantha has also become quite the little copy cat. This morning she let out a huge toot while playing and then made a big farty noise with her mouth. I'm not sure if that's more or less socially acceptable than when she laughs hysterically after farting.

Random Pics and Videos

2010-09-20T16:49:00.004-05:00

No real theme today, just a bunch of cute pictures and videos that I keep meaning to post, but haven't had the time to do yet.

Eating breakfast this morning in her silly monkey pajamas.

We took a quick trip up to Bellingham while Jo was in town, and took this picture on a walk in the park by the Burgess' house.

Our little daredevil has decided that standing on her car is almost as fun as riding on it.

The first birthday card I made with my Silhouette!

Here's a video of Sammy being silly. She likes to put things over her head, especially her mesh laundry bag. I think she's also trying to eat the bag. Crazy child!

And finally, we were hanging out in the backyard yesterday, and Sammy was running around with her arms up Superman-style. It was too cute to not catch on video.

100th Post!

2010-09-06T19:24:00.004-05:00

This is my 100th post on the blog! I should have baked a giant cake like they do when television shows reach their 100th episode.

Instead, I'll just write about Labor Day weekend. We've had a nice weekend just hanging out and doing whatever we feel like. We opted to stay close to home this weekend in case Pat got called in to deal with any problem soldiers.

Pat started off the weekend right by making meatballs from scratch for dinner on Friday night. After a slight catastophe involving marinara sauce all over the stove and floor, dinner ended up being deliscious! Samantha was equally thrilled with the meatballs. She shoveled it into her mouth as quickly as I would put more on her highchair tray.

It's been pretty chilly around here lately, so we didn't plan any outdoor activities for the weekend. A new restaurant opened at the marina just down the street from our house, so we headed there for lunch one day. The food was good, and they have 12 different kinds of gelato, so we'll be back frequently.

We also managed to take advantage of some of the Labor Day sales. We got a couple of cute fall outfits for Sammy since the weather is already pretty cool here. I also got her an adorable pair of owl pajamas (if you haven't guessed by the blog design, I've been on a bit of an owl kick lately).

Today we spent some time letting Samantha explore the backyard. We have quite a bit of moss in the yard, so it's a pretty soft surface when she falls down. Her favorite thing to do is pick up pinecones and hand them to us.

Flips

2010-08-31T20:54:00.002-05:00

Sammy likes to do sommersaults, but she's not coordinated enoough yet to do them on her own. Instead she "assumes the position" and waits for us to flip her!

That's Crafty

2010-08-27T16:50:00.005-05:00

As I've posted before, I've had a strong desire to get in touch with my inner crafter since becoming a mom. My own mom was always very crafty growing up, and we had elaborate Halloween costumes (I seem to recall an impressive pair of Popple costumes) and enviable teacher gifts to show for it.

Unfortunately, my artistic talent is pretty limited. Well, I think I may have found my perfect crafting tool. It's called a Silhouette SD. It looks a lot like a printer, but you hook it up to your computer, create an image using it's software, and it either cuts it out or draws it for you. It's like a die-cutting maching and plotter all in one, and I am in love!

I got it all set up in about 10 minutes yesterday, and then put a little embellishment on Samantha's crib using adhesive vinyl in about 15 minutes today. It looks like I stenciled it on there, but if I ever want to change it I can peel it right off. The only thing stopping me from decorating every wall in the house is the fact that our walls are so textured that I don't think it would look right. I plan to try my hand at making some cards next!

5 Year Anniversary

2010-08-25T22:21:00.003-05:00

Five years ago (tomorrow) I started the day off at the hair salon during a torential downpour while Pat was getting soaked on the golf course. It was not the most promising start to what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. By some miracle, the sun was out by the time my veil was in place and we were ready to leave. The rest of the day has the golden hue of sunshine in my mind.

Year 1 of marriage was hard, but not because we were deciding who got the bigger closet or which person had to give up their furniture that wouldn't fit in the newly-merged space. I spent the first year mailing care packages and waiting for the phone to ring while Pat was risking his life every day.

Year 2 brought Pat's return (Yay!) and the purchase of our first home. Now we got to bicker over closet space and furniture. :-) Years 3 and 4 were spent making our home in Waynesville. Life was good, but we began to feel that someone was missing from our family.

Year 5 was eventful! We moved across the country and welcomed our beautiful baby girl into our life. I feel so lucky to be living the life that I'm living, and I can't wait to see what the next 5 years have in store for us! Happy anniversary, Pat. I love you.

Dancing

2010-08-20T22:47:00.004-05:00

We keep the TV on in the evenings, but Samantha usually completely ignores it. The only time she watches is during a specific commercial. Any time it comes on, Sammy stops what she is doing to dance. Thanks to the magic of DVR, we were able to rewind the commercial and catch some video.

This was the first one we shot...do you think we might have a little D.J. on our hands?

The second time through got her on her feet.

(Kind of) Walking Videos

2010-08-09T23:23:00.003-05:00

I got a couple of videos of Samantha walking yesterday evening. She was getting sleepy, so she fell down a lot, and then the camera died. She's a lot more stable when she's well rested.

10 Months

2010-08-08T11:10:00.002-05:00

Miss Samantha turned 10 months old yesterday! She's working really hard on cutting her third tooth (by which I mean nursing constantly and needing lots of cuddles) and started walking two days ago!!! She's managed to put about 6 very controlled steps together a couple of times. She doesn't do it too often because it's still faster for her to crawl where she's going, but we're working on catching it on video.

Operation Meet the Family Part 1

2010-08-06T21:52:00.003-05:00

We're home and (mostly) recovered from our trip to Missouri. We had so much fun introducing Samantha to family and friends! It was a trip of firsts for Sammy. During Operation Meet the Family Sammy:

- Took her first plane trip
- Cut her first (and second!) tooth
- Went swimming for the first time
- Had her first visit to Steak 'n Shake
- Attended her first wedding
- Stayed in a hotel for the first time
- And most importantly, met lots of people for the first time

Before we left for St. Louis, we drove up to Bellingham to visit some of Pat's side of the family. Samantha had so much fun playing with Pat's cousins. We got to celebrate Emma's birthday, and Samantha met her Great Aunt Karen and Tina and cousins Ben and Jake. Here's Samantha at GG Jim and Dorothy's house playing with cousin Margaret.

Our first stop in Missouri was Clayton for the wedding of one of Pat's Army buddies (congratulations Mike and Jen!). We got to see several friends that we hadn't seen in a while, and it was so nice to catch up with them. After the wedding, we headed out to Hermann to spend a couple of days with my family. We probably had about 20 people over to the house on Sunday to meet Samantha. She was a trooper and played happily the whole time we were there. Clearly she has no problem being the center of attention. :-)

Samantha had so much fun playing with all the toys that Grandma had rounded up for her. I think her favorites were the balls and the xylophone.

Since having Samantha I've felt this need to tap into my inner crafty side. I got this idea to make some fleece diaper soakers for Samantha out of some strawberry fleece that I found on sale. I had used a sewing machine before, but don't own one, so I asked my Mom if I could use hers while we were visiting. The pattern was just 4 pices....simple, right? Thank goodness she was there to help me! I ended up doing some of the sewing, but left the trickier parts to her. We ended up making this cover and a little t-shirt to match.

After the visit at my parents' house, we headed to a hotel in St. Charles as a home base to see some friends for a couple of days. The hotel had a pool, so we took Samantha swimming for the first time. She had so much fun splashing Mommy and Daddy! We have a cute video of her in the pool, but Samantha got a little enthusiastic pulling on my suit, so it's definitely not going on the internet. ha ha

All clean after my shower!

Wow...this has been a long post. More to come later!

Future Guitar Hero

2010-07-18T18:06:00.002-05:00

I had to take a break during my last post to shoot this video. Do you think we have a future Guitar Hero on our hands?

9 Month Well Baby Visit

2010-07-18T13:19:00.003-05:00

Samantha had her 9 month Well Baby Visit on Monday, and everything checked out great! This visit was especially good because Pat was able to come with us, and Sammy didn't have to get any shots!!! Her next round of vaccines aren't until 12 months.

Sammy weighed in at 21 lbs and was 27.5 inches long. She's getting tall enough to reach most of the things we've tried to move out of reach on end tables. Pretty soon we'll have to put it all away.

Samantha continues to eat well and enjoy trying new things. She feeds herself applesauce and oatmeal with her own little pink spoon. Last night she was enjoying big juicy bites of peaches that we bought at the farmers market earlier that day. Here she is chowing down on a pita chip!

Today kicks off 2 weeks of visits with friends and family. Aunt Corky and Uncle Harry will be at our house shortly for a visit, and then on Wednesday we're heading up to Bellingham to see Jim, Dorothy, Don, Mary, Emma, and Margaret. Karen, Tina, Ben, and Jake will be in town also, so we'll get to see them as well! On Friday we're flying to Missouri to introduce Samantha to tons of family and attend a wedding. I have a feeling we'll be absolutely exhausted at the end of the trip, but we're so excited to see everyone!!!!

9 Months

2010-07-07T16:18:00.005-05:00

Time really seems to be flying now. Our baby girl turns 9 months old today. She goes in for her 9 month Well Baby Visit on Monday, but I know that about a week ago she weighed 20 lbs 11 oz and was 27 inches long.

It seems like there have been some big changes this month. After months and months of only sleeping while being held or laying next to me, Samantha is finally turning into a pretty good little napper! Her separation anxiety seems to be getting better, and with it her sleep is improving. She is now routinely sleeping for 1.5 - 2 hours in the morning and the afternoon. Sometimes I have to nurse her back to sleep after about 45 minutes, but she goes back down easily. It's so nice to have some time to be able to do things around the house that are tricky with a mobile baby (like update the blog or paint my toe nails!). I snuck in and snapped this picture of her zonked out just a couple of minutes ago. I know that I was risking the fury of the sleep gods by using the flash, but Samantha didn't even flinch.

We've also moved Samantha into a new car seat. Her infant one was only rated up to 22 lbs, so now she's in a big convertible car seat. We'll be able to keep her rear-facing all the way to 35 lbs, and then she'll finally get to face forward. I was hoping that the car seat change would make her a little less fussy in the car, but no such luck. At least I'm able to sit in the back with her most of the time and keep her entertained.

We took Samantha to see the fireworks on the 4th, but they didn't hold her attention well. We watched them from pretty far away so that it wouldn't be too noisy for her. We were all bundled up in jackets and blankets because it was in the 50s. Brrrrrr! Luckily, Samantha seems to have inherited Pat's tolerance for the cold instead of mine. (Actually Pat says the credit goes to Pops!)

Playing

2010-07-04T14:52:00.003-05:00

Samantha has been pulling up on everything, standing on her own, and even trying to take a couple of steps. We decided she would enjoy a push toy, so we headed out to Toys R Us yesterday to get one. Our choices were fairly limited, so we came home with a truck. It has headlights that spin around and make noise, and Samantha spent about 5 minutes solid spinning them yesterday. Here's some video of her walking with it. Sometimes she needs help standing up with it, but I figure she'll be a pro in a few days.

I also took some video of Samantha playing one of her favorite games. She likes to crawl around the ottoman so that she can't see us and then "find" us. She screams hysterically when she gets us. It's pretty adorable.

First Haircut

2010-07-03T14:26:00.003-05:00

Poor Samantha has been dealing with her bangs in her face for weeks now, so I finally took her to get them trimmed. I was going to have her baby mullet trimmed as well, but Sammy wasn't having it. She sat on my lap, but got a little upset when the stylist started combing her bangs. I think Samantha thought she was going to try to put her hair in a ponytail, which she has started resisting.

"What does this lady thing she's doing to me?"

"I don't think I like this"

"Hey! I know that baby!"

"I can finally see again!"

Breakfast for Dinner

2010-06-27T23:42:00.003-05:00

We had breakfast for dinner tonight after 2 weekends of not finding the time to have breakfast for breakfast. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to let Sammy try some scrambled eggs and homemade pancakes (made from scratch with Grandpa Rick's recipe...yum!).

Sammy's mini-breakfast

Checking it all out...

Devouring the pancake

The aftermath...

Pancakes and eggs definitely go in the list of "likes". Hopefully I don't regret letting her eat so much of them after tomorrow's poopy diaper.

Enjoying the Weather

2010-06-26T21:35:00.003-05:00

The weather was gorgeous today, so we decided to spend some time playing in the yard. Pretty Princess Samantha was not pleased when she would touch the grass. In the first video, we were trying to get her to crawl on the grass, but she kept pulling her hand back everytime she touched it. We managed to capture the icky face she makes when she touches the grass in the second video.

Eventually she overcame her disgust and crawled to Daddy so that she could steal his hat.

Silly Sammy

2010-06-20T19:37:00.003-05:00

More of Samantha's silly shennanigans! She managed to get herself completely inside of Mimi's "house". Lucky for her, Mimi was not at home.

Where's Sammy?

Samantha has started to give big, sloppy kisses. This video is of her kissing the other baby in the mirror.

Sammy the Explorer

2010-06-18T22:04:00.003-05:00

Sammy is enjoying spending her days exploring different objects in the house. This week she has discovered that she likes eating magazines and pulling the toilet paper off the roll. She has attempted to "explore" the water in the toilet several times, but I've managed to stop her.

Today she kept pulling her arm out of her sleeve, so I stripped her down and let her play in just her diaper. She was pumped. She spent quite a bit of her naked time exploring the underside of her bouncy bounce.

She's fascinated by all of Mimi's things. We've moved all of the cat's toys out of the living room, but we've left Mimi's "house". Sammy likes to pull it onto her head and try to drag is across the living room while Mimi is in it.

Sammy likes to sneak into the dining room and crawl around under the tables and chairs. She does this adorable thing where she scrunches her face up and breathes in and out through her nose really fast. I snapped a picture of her doing it while she was playing with her highchair.

And finally, this video is too cute not to share. There's a plastic ring on Samantha's bouncy bounce that she's been trying to chew on. I think she looks like a baby bird waiting for food when she tries to get it.

8 Months Old (a day late)

2010-06-08T18:56:00.003-05:00

Miss Samantha turned 8 months old yesterday. I once again cannot believe how fast she is growing. She can crawl amazingly fast, pull up on anything that will hold still, and locate the TV remote no matter how well we think we've hidden it. Pat swears she can sniff it out! It is so amazing to watch her learn new things. We're definitey past the "Out of sight, out of mind" stage. Now when we take things away from her, she goes looking for them.

All of these new physical and mental milestones have brought some separation anxiety with them. These are the times when I'm so greatful to be able to work from home, so that when Sammy is having a "velcro" day, I can stay close. I take it as a good sign that she's so attached to me, and I know that this phase will pass. I may even miss the days when she would cry when I left the room...eventually.

Here's a short video of Sammy looking adorable with her pink diaper and pig tails.

This is a good video of Sammy laughing. She loves playing hide-and-seek right now, so I was ducking down behind the couch and then popping back up. I could listen to her giggle all day!

Pulling Up

2010-06-05T22:24:00.004-05:00

Samantha is currently spending about 90% of her awake time pulling up on things. She's a bit of a daredevil and will let go to try to stand or take a step on her own. This is terrifying for me. She definitely gets this trait from her Daddy. I am so not ready for her to be thinking about walking. Hopefully the cruising stage lasts for a while. I guess I should just be thankful that her favorite thing to pull up on is the cushioned ottoman and not something solid and sharp.

Almost there...

All the way up!

Pig Tails!

2010-05-24T16:42:00.003-05:00

I have finally found some rubber bands that stay in Sammy's hair (at least for a little while). Now I just have to work on my speed at putting them in because she doesn't like to hold her head still for long.

Bathtastic

2010-05-23T10:18:00.004-05:00

It occured to me the other day that I have yet to post any black-mail worthy pictures of Samantha in the bathtub, so I asked Pat to snap a few. Sammy absolutely loves taking a bath. She gets super excited as soon as I start taking her clothes off. She has recently become a bit too fascinated with the running water coming out of the faucet, which is making it difficult to keep her in her little tub as she tries to reach it.

All clean!

In addition to looking adorable in the tub, Sammy has been mastering all kinds of new things in the last two days. She has started waving back at us when we wave at her, she has managed to pull herself up to standing using Daddy's legs and the couch, and she has figured out how to get water out of her straw cup. Naturally, we think she's very advanced. :-)

Look Out World

2010-05-14T22:43:00.003-05:00

Sammy is on the move! It feels like she's been on the brink of crawling for quite some time, but she finally put it all together today.

I also took some video of Samantha playing her favorite game, Where's Sammy?. Basically she puts anything over her face, goes crazy while we say, "Where's Sammy?", and then uncovers herself. The crazy child loves it!

Enjoying Spring

2010-05-13T18:49:00.004-05:00

We have been enjoying the beautiful spring weather we have been having lately. Mother's Day weekend was absolutely gorgeous. We spent Saturday in North Tacoma exploring the farmer's market and shops in Procter Square. We had lunch at a cute little cafe where Samantha charmed the pants off everyone.

On Sunday, we decided to do a little Geocaching along the Sequalitchew Creek Trail. The trail follows the creek down to Puget Sound, where we stopped for a family photo.

We've been seeing a lot more wildlife outside now that the weather is warming up. Samantha likes to watch the birds in the backyard, and was especially excited yesterday when this pair of ducks waddled past!

After all of our fresh air and excitement of late, we've been laying pretty low in the evenings and hanging out as a family. Here's Samantha sunggling on the couch with Daddy and the boppy.

Random Pics from the Weekend

2010-05-03T19:33:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures I took over the weekend. Pat had to work all day on Saturday, so I decided to do a little photo shoot with Sammy. She's wearing a sweet little dress from her Grandma Pankau.

The dress camde with a hat, but Sammy wasn't having it. I love how she looks a little guilty in this picture for pulling it off.

Later in the day, I put her in her crib to play for a few minutes while I scrubbed the toilets. I had draped the dress over the side to hang up later, but I came in and found Sammy "wearing" it again. I guess she likes it!

Sammy is eating all kinds of new and exciting things. Last night she had fun playing with asparagus and linguini noodles. I didn't expect her to like the asparagus, but she surprised me and chewed on it for quite a while.

Inch Worm

2010-04-30T16:05:00.003-05:00

Samantha is working really hard on crawling. She has finally figured out how to move forward instead of backward, but it's not very graceful. She kind of pulls her legs up under her and then flops forward. We call it the Inch Worm.

Thank goodness we have the baby gates on stand-by. They're ready to go up as soon as she figures this whole crawling thing out. Mimi is already not pleased.

And the winner is...

2010-04-30T15:43:00.003-05:00

We got invited to a dinner on Tuesday hosted by United Way because Pat was a finalist for an award for his work with the Combined Federal Campaign. I was nervous about going because we had to bring Samantha with us. I'm so glad that we decided to go, because not only did Samantha behave beautifully the entire time, but Pat won!!! Now we just have to find a place for his big, shiny award.

Hair, Hair, and More Hair

2010-04-20T19:05:00.002-05:00

Samantha is currently sporting the most awesome baby mullet. I realized that in most pictures you can't really see how long it has gotten in the back, so I snapped this one after her bath the other day. The next time I go in for a trim I'm going to ask my stylist if she thinks it's possible to give Sammy a trim too.

And here are a couple of cute pictures of Sammy wearing some of the bows that Grandma Pankau got her.

Sitting Pretty

2010-04-16T22:15:00.003-05:00

Today Samantha decided that maybe it would be fun to sit up while she played. I impulse bought one of those shape sorters when I was at the PX today, and it has been a big hit so far. She mostly just chews on the shapes, but it kept her entertained for quite a while this afternoon.

Easter and Turning Six Months Old

2010-04-15T18:53:00.002-05:00

We enjoyed a nice visit from my parents and younger brother over Easter weekend. The weather was pretty miserable, but luckily they were happy to just hang out at the house with us (by "us" I mean Sammy). We did get a chance to take them to Jake's, our favorite local restaurant and do a little bit of shopping. They got Sammy what we lovingly refer to as a Bouncy Bouncy, and she's been enjoying it daily since. This is her one of the first days we got it. She's a much more aggressive bouncer now.

Samantha also managed to turn 6 months old this month! She recently began sitting pretty well on her own when she feels like it. She really enjoys sitting and looking at her refelction in a mirror...so vain! She had her well baby visit on Monday, and everything looked good. She weighed in at 18 lbs, 4.5 oz, and was 26 inches long. She's meeting all of her milestones and is doing great. She had to get 3 shots, but calmed down pretty quickly after they were over.

Now that she's 6 months old, she finally gets to add some real food into her diet. The solid food is really just for fun and learning right now. She still gets the bulk of her calories from me, but we're getting her used to new tastes and textures. Her first food was avocado. It was almost too smooshy for her to get to her mouth, so we gave her a hunk of pear to gnaw on next. She's also tried peach and carrot, and there's a sweet potato waiting for her in the next couple of days. So far she hasn't really loved or hated anything, so we're just going with the flow. Here's some video of the avocado experience.

Latest Moves

2010-03-28T19:19:00.003-05:00

Today Sammy assumed the push-up position. She's been able to get into crawl position for a while, but she gets frustrated that she can't go anywhere. This is what happened when she tried to push forward today.

Rolling Over

2010-03-12T18:06:00.003-06:00

Sammy appears to be a much bigger fan of rolling from her back to her tummy than the other way around. I've had no trouble catching her on video. I have yet to film her rolling the other way even though I've tried several times. Enjoy!

And because I think it's cute, here's Sammy watching herself. he he

5 Months

2010-03-09T20:53:00.003-06:00

Miss Samantha is now 5 months old! She celebrated by rolling from her back to her tummy for the first time yesterday. She'd been rolling over to her side for quite a while, but she finally figured out how to get all the way over. She's also starting to be more mobile. She can push up almost to a crawl position and then she either falls down or pushes herself backwards. She can make it a couple of feet before I notice and move her back onto her blanket. I guess it's time to baby proof the living room!

Sammy always wakes up in a such a good mood. She hangs out on the floor while I'm eating my breakfast and is adorably crazy. I snapped a picture this morning. I hadn't attempted to brush her hair yet, so you're getting the full effect of what we wake up to.

So Much Going On

2010-03-03T16:07:00.004-06:00

Sometimes it seems like Sammy is growing and changing right in front of our eyes. Her hair is getting longer and longer, so I'm experimenting with ways to keep it under control. I tried barrettes, but she got really mad while I was trying to put them in. I found these headbands that look adorable but don't stay on for long. The search continues!

In between bouts of teething she's been working on sitting up. The boppy is perfect for cushioning her falls when she topples over. She looks like she's not quite sure what to think of her new vantage point in his picture.

Finally, Samantha was delighted to finally figure out how to make the music play on her bouncy chair. Luckily I don't find the song too annoying (yet, ha ha).

New Pictures

2010-02-22T16:55:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted, and I've had a request for some pictures of Samantha, so here's a little update. Sammy turned 4 months old earlier this month and had her well baby visit. She did great and was only upset for a few minutes after getting her vaccinations. She weighed in at 15.8 lbs and was 25 inches long. She's such a big girl! She's also enjoying all the new sounds she can make. She has figured out how to screech with a big raspberry at the end. Mimi is not amused. She's also spending a lot of time playing with her tongue. She sticks it out at us constantly.

The weather here has been gorgeous, so we've been taking advantage of it with afternoon walks. I realized that Samantha was not pleased when the sun was in her eyes, so we got her a big floppy sun hat at the PX. I think she loves it. She grins whenever we put it on her.

Change of Command

2010-02-01T13:24:00.003-06:00

Pat officially took command on Friday (finally!). They had the ceremony outside and then we had a little reception where I got to meet some of his soldiers and collegues. Samantha did very well during the ceremony and even flashed a few smiles at Pat's Batallion Commander. Apparently she's already figured out the important people to charm. This new job will keep Pat much busier than he's been recently. Sammy and I will miss having him around (especially at lunch time), but I know he's happy to be back to doing "real" work. Here are a couple of pictures from the ceremony. For those of you who aren't used to finding your loved one in a sea of ACU pattern, Pat is the left-most person in the pictures of the formation.

New Discoveries

2010-01-14T19:23:00.003-06:00

Samantha has recently figured out that she can reach out and touch some of the tempting toys that have been dangling above her. This is exciting fo me because it means that she's able to entertain herself for a couple of minutes! Hooray for being able to fold laundry without stopping to make the toys swing!

Go Blues!

2010-01-13T17:51:00.003-06:00

I think we have a little hockey fan on our hands. Samantha can sometimes see the TV from her play gym. She's been going crazy whenever a hockey game is on. I don't know if it's the contrast of the players on the white ice or what, but she loves it. We got some video of her the first time she did it. We also got some video of her sporting her Blues jersey from her cousin CJ. Hopefully the two of them will get to go to a game together sometime!

Holiday Pictures

2010-01-08T17:10:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful, low-key Christmas and New Year this year at home with our little family. Pat was able to take leave the whole time, and it was so nice to have him home.

Christmas just isn't complete in the Vogt family until someone has a bow on their head. This was Sammy's inaugural year.

We also felt the need to put her in one of the ridiculous hats that came in the poppers on New Year's Eve. She was a pretty good sport about everything until one of the poppers scared her and she had a bit of a melt down. A few hugs and kisses from Mom and Dad fixed her right up, though.
And finally one last cute one to show you what a chunk she is. She wighed in at a whopping 13 lbs 11 oz on Tuesday. I'm sure she'll be over 14 lbs at next week's weigh-in. She turned 3 months old yesterday and is changing so much already. She has started carrying on very intense coversations with Pat and me (and the ceiling and her toys). Her little eyebrows are so expressive and she looks very serious the whole time. I just wish we could understand these fascinating stories that she is telling us! I'm going to try to get some video of it, but the camera usually ends up distracting her.

Some Thoughts

2010-01-06T18:37:00.002-06:00

I read a great blog entry today about responding to your baby's needs with compassion no matter what time of day (or night). It got me thinking about Samantha and what I am willing to do to ensure that she is happy and healthy.

Pat and I told people for years that we were not going to have children. We both honestly felt that way and did not expect our feelings to change. I think that if I had gotten pregnant during that time that there would have been some level of resentment toward the baby. I absolutely would have loved the baby, but I was still too selfish to be the Mom that I am able to be today. I'm so glad that we waited until we were truly ready to welcome a child into our lives.

Samantha is such a joy, but she definitely has her difficult moments. Whenever she has a fussy time, I'm able to be patient and loving with her. I would gladly wake up a hundred times a night if she needed me. I know that the difficult moment will pass and she'll be back to my happy, smiling baby soon. For now, I'm enjoying every moment of watching her grow.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T18:18:00.004-06:00

I had really good intentions of sending out Christmas cards this year, but it got trumped by showering, eating, and loving on Samantha. We did, however, manage to take some really cute pictures in a Christmas outfit that Grandma and Grandpa Pankau got for Sammy. Enjoy!

Tummy Time

2009-12-21T12:23:00.004-06:00

Samantha used to absolutely hate tummy time. She would squirm and fuss and only tolerate about a minute or two on her stomach. A little over a week ago she started to be able to push herself up a bit. This morning, she pushed her chest all the way off the ground and spent a few minutes looking around and smiling. I can't believe how quickly she is growing and changing.

New Noises

2009-12-18T17:26:00.002-06:00

Samantha has been working on some fun new noises and is learning how to blow spit bubbles! You get to enjoy them without getting covered in spit. :-)

Bed Head

2009-12-13T17:31:00.002-06:00

Here's some video I took of Miss Samantha first thing in the morning. She had especially awesome bed head this particular day.

2 Month Well Baby Visit

2009-12-11T18:12:00.003-06:00

Samantha had her 2 month Well Baby visit today. It was at the clinic here on North Fort, which was so much nicer than having to go to the hospital. The clinic is about 3 mintues away from our house, and there is plenty of parking and a lab and pharmacy on site.

Samantha is doing great. She weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds and measured 20.75 inches. She's meeting all of the developmental milestones she should be, and is just pretty happy in general. Sammy was all smiles until we got to the vaccines. She had to have three shots today, and I've never heard her cry like this. It was just awful, but I was able to feed her right after, so she was only upset for a couple of minutes. We gave her some baby tylenol afterwards, and she's now napping peacefully (all by herself!).

Belated Thanksgiving Update

2009-12-09T18:04:00.002-06:00

We had a great time during Samantha's first Thanksgiving. Bill and Jo made the trip out to Washington on Saturday and spent a few days at our house. We all headed up to Bellingham on Wednesday to stay with Jim and Dorothy. Samantha was definitely not a fan of the car trip. We got stuck in traffic, which woke her up, so we had to pull over to feed her.

Once we got to Bellingham, her mood improved dramatically. She enjoyed meeting her Great Grandparents and her Great Uncle Don, Great Aunt Mary, and cousins Emma and Margaret. We had a delicious meal on Thanksgiving and got to spend a lot of time relaxing and catching up with everyone. On Friday, we were pleased to wake up to sunshine, so we decided to take a walk in the park near Jim and Dorothy's house. Ok...park seems like such an understatement. The area is beatiful and full of trees and ferns and even some waterfalls. Samantha napped in her Moby wrap the whole time.

Pictures as Promised

2009-11-21T17:01:00.003-06:00

I managed to get a picture of Miss Samantha mid-grin this morning. She was wide awake and ready to start her day, even though Mommy would have liked to sleep in a bit.

I also took a picture of her modeling one of the fancy outfits she's been given. I think she looks particularily adorable in this one, but I might be biased.

We Have Smiles!

2009-11-17T19:18:00.002-06:00

Samantha is finally smiling for real. They're not always predictable, so we haven't managed to snap a picture yet. She seems to smile most consistently while having nakey-butt time when she's getting her diaper changed. Should I be worried that she enjoys not wearing a diaper so much?

Here's a picture of Sammy sleeping soundly until I can get a good grinning one. :-)

Crazy Hair

2009-11-13T16:28:00.003-06:00

Samantha's hair is totally out of control, and there's nothing I can do to tame it. It is curly when it's wet, but it gets straight as it dries. Here's a picture of her crazy curly hair, and one of how it looks after I brush it. Luckily she doesn't seem to mind how it looks.

One of My Favorite Pieces of Baby Gear

2009-11-06T20:55:00.002-06:00

Samantha is super cuddly and snuggly when she sleeps, which I love until it's time to do something around the house. When she needs some Mommy-time, but I'm desperate to do some laundry so that I have clean socks to wear, I can throw her in our Moby wrap, and she's sound asleep after about 2 minutes of walking around. It is seriously saving my sanity. I can get two hours of solid nap time on a good day.

I swear I don't feel as bad as I look in this picture. Also, ignore my remaining baby weight, which seems to all be in my cheeks!

We've Made the Switch!

2009-11-05T16:32:00.003-06:00

We have officiallly made the switch to cloth diapers for Samantha. I'm loving the ones we finally settled on. They have several rows of snaps, so you can adjust them to fit babies from 8 lbs - 35 lbs. I snapped a couple of pictures of Sammy showing off her cute pink cover. I think she looks pretty pleased!

In other news, Samantha is continuing to gain weight well. She was 8 lbs 11 oz on Tuesday. This means that she'll be over 9 lbs at her weight check next week. She also passed her newborn hearing screening with flying colors. Woo hoo!

Samantha's First Visitors

2009-10-29T12:22:00.003-05:00

We enjoyed a really nice visit with my parents over the weekend. We were excited for Samantha to get to meet her Grandparents for the first time. We weren't able to get out and do much, but we did go out to eat and take my parents on a little tour of post. We also hit the PX and the Ft. Lewis museum. It was nice to know that if Samantha hadn't done well on the outings, we had 4 adults to try to soothe her instead of just Pat and me. Luckily, Sammy was a champ! She spent most of the outings sleeping. If she happened to wake up, all I had to do was feed her to keep her quiet and happy.

Speaking of feeding her, after a slow start, Samantha is now gaining weight well. At her lowest, she had dropped to 7 lbs, 6 oz. A week ago, she was back up to 7 lbs, 10.5 oz. I was a little nervous when I took her to get weighed yesterday (it's hard to tell how much milk she's actually getting during each feeding), but she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs, 3 oz! It makes some of the marathon nursing sessions we've had totally worth it!

I was planning on posting a family picture that I had my Dad take, but when I downloaded them to the computer I was shocked to see just how sleep deprived Pat and I look in them. So much for using it for the Christmas cards this year! We'll try again after a good night's sleep. For now, you'll have to settle for the family minus Mommy.

Taking a Walk

2009-10-19T18:55:00.003-05:00

We decided to bundle Samantha up in her stroller yesterday and take her for a walk around the neighborhood. It was nice to get out and get some fresh air. She stayed awake the whole time, but she definitely looked perplexed by the whole situation.

Samantha's Birth Story

2009-10-13T18:05:00.002-05:00

So much for first time labors lasting a while! I had some cramping off and on all evening on the 6th, but didn't really think much of it. I went to bed like normal and slept until about 2:30. I was in complete denial that I was actually in labor. My contractions were about 7 minutes apart, and I decided to do anything I could to slow them down, assuming it was false labor. I got in the tub for a while, drank a big glass of water, and laid down on my left side. No dice. Finally, around 5:00, I decided I better wake up Pat and call the midwife and my doula.

The doula was going to come over to the house to help decide when we should head to birth center, and then we were going to check back in with the midwife. Before my doula got to the house, my water broke, and the contractions got really intense. We called everybody back and told them just to head straight to the birth center.

The car ride to the birth center was awful. I was already fighting the urge to push. When we got to the birth center, I was fully dialated already, so they put me straight into the tub. Pushing only lasted about 35 mintues. The cord was around her neck and her little hand was by her face as she came out, so the midwife was amazed that it all went so quickly. Labor only took about 6 hours total. It was painful and intense, but totally worth it now that we're home with our sweet baby girl.

Introducing Samantha Marie Vogt!

2009-10-09T21:45:00.004-05:00

Samantha was born at 8:04 AM on October 7th. She weighed in at 7 lb 13 oz and was 20 inches long. Her entire birth took less than 6 hours. I was worried that we weren't going to get to the birth center in time! Pat got us there safely, and now we're all at home doing well.

We don't have a ton of pictures yet, but I wanted to post a couple. We'll work on getting some more up here over the next few days as we (hopefully!) settle into a routine.

The first three were taken at the birth center right before we headed home. The last one is from today.

More Excitement Than We Bargained For

2009-09-25T19:58:00.003-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been a little crazy baby-wise. It all started with a couple of bad appointments at the hospital on post. I was not crazy about how long I waited to get into my appointments or the amount of time that the doctors spent with me. At the first one, they completely forgot about me and left me sitting in the exam room for 30 minutes. At the next one, I had to remind the nurse to take a sample for a lab test. I'm all for taking charge of my own healthcare, but this was ridiculous. Then I was handed the standard procedures for Labor and Delivery and they didn't give me a warm-fuzzy feeling either. The worst one was that Pat wouldn't be able to stay at the hospital with me overnight once I have the baby. They kick all the husbands out at 10:00 PM and don't allow them to come back until 9:00 AM. The thought of this made me a little weepy (although some of that might have been hormones).

So, I started looking into alternative birth options, and we've decided to go with a midwife at a free-standing birth center (amazingly, it's covered by my work insurance!). I was 100% sure of my decision after my very first appointment with her. She spent a full hour with me at the appointment, and had found some areas of concern in the records I brought from the two military hospitals where I'd been seen. It turns out that I was severly anemic, and even though it was noted in my file that my iron stores were low when I was 7 weeks pregnant, no one had ever put me on a supplement or retested me. The midwife started me on a pretty high dose of iron immediately, and after 1.5 weeks I already have more energy. Low iron stores put women at risk for hemorrage during labor, so we're hoping to get mine up before Blasto decides she's ready to come out. She also saw that there was a note about my amniotic fluid levels being low at my 20 week ultrasound. No one had mentioned this to me or rechecked it, so the midwife sent us for an ultrasound on Wednesday.

Luckily everything turned out to be fine, but the ultrasound tech said that she would have sent me straight to the hospital if she had done the 20 week ultrasound. There's always a chance that the estimated was incorrect, but it bothers me that no one questioned it. I feel like I'm being cared for on a much more personal level now, and I have a lot less anxiety about my upcoming labor. Another good thing to come out of it was that we got a little peek at Blasto during the ultrasound. She was sucking her thumb the whole time, and was not very pleased about being poked and prodded. At the end, she absolutely refused to budge when the tech was trying to turn her to get some more measurements.

Here's one of the pictures from the ultrasound. You can see her little face with her thumb in her mouth. I can't believe we'll be meeting her in person soon!

The New Ride

2009-09-22T22:19:00.002-05:00

Jo requested some pictures of the new car, so I thought I'd post them on here. We definitely feel like official Washington State residents now that we own a Subaru. It's an 06 Forrester for those who are curious. I'm just excited to be driving a car with an automatic transmission and 4 doors! Tomorrow we tackle installing the carseat.

Back to Nature

2009-09-13T12:44:00.006-05:00

We've been enjoying some really lovely weather here in the Pacific Northwest lately. It's pretty much been sunny and warm, with the exception of Labor Day weekend. One benefit of all this nice, sunny weather is that we've been able to see a ton of Mt. Rainier. It's visible from all over post, and it's actually kind of startling sometimes to make a turn in the car and seeing it looming in the distance. It's so much taller than all the other mountains around it that it looks like it's all alone on the horizon.

We've actually been impressed with most of the scenery on post. Our neighborhood backs right up to a lake. There's a swimming area and a place to rent paddle boats and canoes. We had plans to spend the day there yesterday, but unfortunately all the fun stuff shuts down after Labor Day. Hopefully next summer we'll be able to take advantage of it all.

Since our lake plans didn't work out, we headed to a town just a couple of miles away called Dupont. We took a picnic lunch to enjoy in one of their parks, and then explored a couple of their walking trails. The first one took us along the golf course and had some nice views of Pugest Sound.

The second trail wound through a wooded area and was nice and cool because of all the trees and shade. We had kind of been going back and forth about getting Blasto a jogging stroller, but the trails convinced me. They're so nice and convenient, but a lot of them are gravel, so I think the jogging stroller will definitely be worth the money.

Mini-Roadtrips

2009-09-12T18:27:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Pat and I decided to do some exploring in Seattle. We started with lunch at the Pike Place Market. We found a little place with a nice view of Puget Sound.

From there, we walked a few blocks to take the train to the Space Needle. We wandered around for a bit and then headed back to the market. We stopped at The Crumpet Shop and had some crumpets and tea. The crumpets were delicious and came highly recommended by one of my co-workers.

We found some good buys at the market. We found a fun little spice shop where Pat got some smoked paprika. We also bought some Snapper at the famous Pike Place Fish Market where they throw the fish. All the produce stands feed you as you walk by, so we bought some "Oh My God" Peaches that were super yummy (that's seriously how they were labled on the sign). And on the way out we got a huge bunch of flowers for$5!

Over Labor Day weekend we drove up to Bellingham to visit some of Pat's family. We stayed with his grandparents and also got to visit with his Uncle Don, Aunt Mary, and cousins Emma and Margaret. We had so much fun with them all. We got to explore Bellingham a little and even got to see Don and Mary's house. We went for a walk in a gorgeous park that is only a few blocks from their house, and I'm still kicking myself for not bringing our camera with us.

The trips are probably on hold for the next month or two. Blasto is full-term today (Yay!), so I'm getting to the point that I don't want to venture too far away from home.

Road Trip

2009-08-25T18:43:00.007-05:00

We've found the box of camera chargers and cables that I forgot to set aside before the move, so I'm finally able to post some pictures from our road trip to Washington and the new neighborhood. The road trip itself went pretty smoothly. The drive across Iowa was brutally boring, but the scenery just got prettier and prettier as we went. Montana was absolutely gorgeous, although we weren't prepared for a high temperature only in the low 60s. Washington was no disappointment either.

We probably saw 300 signs touting the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, so we stopped in Mitchell for lunch to check it out.

We also took a little side trip through Badlands National Park. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area. We would have liked to have spent more time there, but the weather was rainy and we still had a couple of hours in the car until we got to our hotel.

On the way to the Badlands, we stopped an area where you could feed prairie dogs. They were so cute, but obviously well fed. They were much fatter than the "wild" prairie dogs we saw in the park.

Mimi was a trooper through the whole trip. She stared at us angrily from her crate for most of the first day, but after that she would lay down and nap for most of the drive. Hopefully we won't have take her anywhere for a while.