My purse is not safe. She is fascinated with it, grabs it every chance she gets, then sits on the floor putting the strap around her neck, off her neck, around her neck, over and over. I have to watch her so she doesn't wrap it around her neck. Then she crawls around the house with it strapped to her. She also enjoys going through my wallet and flinging the cards to and fro. I find her in a pile of my credit cards and ids. Cute, as long as I don't lose anything.

She points at everything now. She shoves her little finger in my eye and waits for me to stop yelping and say 'eye.' She proceeds less painfully to mouth and nose. For some reason she is concentrating only on those three areas. After she eats we go to the shelf in the corner of the dining room where I have two figurines, a kitten and a cow. I ask her which one she wants, and she points. Whichever one she picks, I hold for her and let her chew on it and we make the appropriate animal noises. She very sweetly giggles at the animal noises. She 'moo's quite well for a toddler. Matt says she points to the door if she wants me to put her to bed instead of daddy. She communicates really well with that one little finger. Not imperious at all, no, not our little princess.

The one thing guaranteed to make Sam giggle is Ella's tail. Sam continues to be fascinated, and Ella is still stoic. Thank goodness for Ella's good nature. Most dogs get really grumpy about having anything near their butt. Ella isn't thrilled, but she just moves away or sits down when Sam is too much. Ella got revenge today by licking Sam's face, but Sam was giggling too hard at Ella's whiskers to make the revenge too serious. Sam also has what I call the "boxer roll" down pat. When Ella's face gets close, Sam shifts to the side and shoves. Ella can't near enough that way to lick.

Sam loves bouncing on our bed. I do the countdown, (1 2 3) and then toss her into our pile of pillows, which sends her into shrieks of laughter. Really cute kid. The bed thing is a game she made up. She kept kneeling, then throwing herself backward. She found the big ball on the sunroom and has been rolling around the floor with that too. I think the ball helps to teach her how to walk more steadily.

Sam sat on the couch and played with Ella's tail. For some reason, Ella's tail makes her giggle for quite a while. Ella was very stoic.

Samantha is so flexible, easy-going in her own way. She amazes me. I went to pick up my niece, Kelly, at the bus station today. I leave at 12:45 with a bottle of formula and some cereal for snacks. I don't walk back in the door again until 5:30. We were in the car for four hours (got out to pick up Kelly, then got out a few hours later to get a sandwich and let Sam stretch a bit). I was a half hour late picking up Kelly, and then it took 3 hours to get back home. Samantha screeched a little bit, but not much for a very active toddler with no nap. Kelly helped to keep her occupied in the back seat while I maneuvered my way through the worst traffic snarl I have ever experienced. Thank goodness we got home safe and sound. Sam immediately headed for the stairs and went up and down, up and down with Kelly minding her while I got dinner ready. Samantha was so tired she couldn't eat much. I got her bath ready right after dinner and popped her in. She fell asleep while drinking her bottle, but I still held her and sang a bit. That is such a special time that I like to have it even if she is asleep. Besides, it is good to stick with the routine. J She was so fast asleep when I lay her down that she didn't even roll over on her stomach. She lay on her back looking comatose. Poor little mite. I am blurry eyed with exhaustion too.

Another amazing thing from Samantha today. As I was trying (unsuccessfully) to get her to take a nap this afternoon we read "Goodnight Moon" again. When we got to the pages with a picture of the kittens on one page and the mittens on the facing page, I asked her "Can you show me the mittens, Samantha?" Well, she did. Pointed right at them. Then I asked her to show me the kittens and she pointed at them. We did this eight or nine times, with me sometimes asking for the same item twice in a row, sometimes alternating items every time. She always pointed to the thing I asked about. I guess this means she knows the words "kittens" and "mittens" now, huh?

It's been too long since I've written a web log entry, which is annoying since so much has happened recently. Samantha has two birthday parties, one here and one in New Hampshire, and met many of her cousins on her mom's side of the family. She's gone to her one year doctor's visit, and she's doing great. 28.5 inches tall and she weighs 19 lbs 11 oz, which puts her in the 40th percentile for both height and weight.

Friday, Valentine's Day, as a very big day for Samantha. She took three steps on her own without holding onto anything. She's been doing one step at a time for a couple of days now, but this was the first time I've really seen her look as though she's walking -- from the piano over to Amy. Amy lost it completely and started crying. She says it's a mom thing. I suppose. Personally I thought it was pretty cool that soon Sam will be walking, and then talking. She's taken a couple of steps at a time on occasion since then, too.

Speaking of talking, she did something for the first time that really surprised me last night. When we read Goodnight Moon before she went to bed, she stopped on various pages and very deliberately pointed to different objects on the page with her forefinger. She kept pointing until I said the name of the thing she was pointing at, and then she'd point at something else. Each time she'd keep her finger in one place until I told her what she was pointing at, and then move on.

She kept this up for quite a while, going through a list of objects on a page several times before she turned to another page, and then doing the same thing again. She'd also point at the same objects on different pages -- the moon or the two little kittens -- and wait for me to say what it was, and she seemed to spend extra time going back and forth between things whose names sounded alike (kittens and mittens, for example).

It really felt like she had just figured out that the words corresponded to the things on the pages, and she was trying to learn what they were called. Maybe I'm just over-extrapolating here -- fathers get to do that -- but at the time it sure seemed like trying to learn vocabulary. Let's see if she does it again next time we read the book.

Now if we could just get her to sleep through the night without a pacifier (or with one, for that matter). Last night was a very bad night -- she was up every 2 or 3 hours. I wonder if she's either cutting another tooth (she has 4 of them now, with at least one or two more on the way) or having a reaction to the vaccinations she got two weeks ago.

She climbed up onto the step stool this morning while I sat next to her and made sure the stool didn't tip over. She just stepped up it and then slammed down her hands on the top shelf. Last night she let go of the fireplace rail and walked three steps to Matt. I, being the rational, sane creature that I am, burst into tears. She is our baby, and she isn't any more. I think she is officially in the toddler range now, and has been for some time. February 14th is an important date. It's when we saw our first ultrasound of Emily, and now it is also when Sam takes her first steps. It was also the date that Mike and Darcy's son, Henry, was due, and I am worried about how he is doing. I don't know how early he was born or what his complications were. Anyway, Sam is basically walking and doing a fine job of it too. Of course, today, she will have none of that walking stuff.

I need to write about her birthday parties, but not right now.

Sam likes grabbing Ella's tail, so right now Ella is sitting on top of her tail, something I have never seen her do before. Sam digs around under Ella to try to get the tail, but Ella continues to sit, very effectively hiding her tail.

Sam is a little black and blue from the shots and blood drawing, but seems completely recovered other than a little soreness. I still have the horrors from the blood drawing, but we'll try again in three months, or I'll go to the hospital and do it there. Maybe the hospital will do it better.

Samantha and Ella are wonderful together. There was a little piece of bark on the floor, about 7 inches long. Ella wanted it after she saw Sam waving it around. I figured out why Ella is not food or toy aggressive at all, other than she is a sweetie. She thinks we are holding it so she can get a better angle to chew on it. We are serving her, as she sees it. Anyway, Sam is holding one end of the bark, and Ella is pulling on the other end, but not so hard to tip Sam over. She could do that very easily, so I know Ella is being very careful. The bark quickly breaks in half in Ella's jaws, and Sam holds the other end. Sam takes the little bit, waves it under Ella's nose, and then puts the bark between the bars of the baby gate so Ella can't get to it. She does this several times. Ella waits patiently for the bark to come back within reach, and carefully chews on the half inch showing in Sam's hand. By the time they are done, I have miniscule pieces of bark collected and they both had a good 15 minutes of fun. And Sam didn't eat a single bit of bark!

She is still screeching. At the top of her lungs with a peircing tone that will shatter glass if we aren't careful. Ugh. The squealing is quite something. Even that cats leave the room, and I would think they were connoiseurs of squealing. I just want some sleep. I wonder if she'll take a nap this morning? I don't have a lot of errands to run today. I got them all done yesterday, except for getting Sam's rattle.

Sam wouldn't go to sleep today for her nap. I put her down and listened to her cooing for about 15 minutes, went in, and she had created this little play land for herself. She had turned on the mobile music, and had her fur book opened in front of her. She was turning the pages and feeling the fur on them. It was pretty amazing how resourceful she is about entertaining herself. No sleeping, but lots of fun. I gave up, went downstairs with her, and she demolished the contents of one drawer which is now spread over the kitchen. She is now rather slowly eating her lunch and shows no signs of napping. I have errands I have to run, and I know that as soon as I get on the road, you'll fall asleep and not want to wake up. I want a nap.