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)

Picture Post

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!

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

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.