I see brown stuff on Sam's face and I think oh, her face is dirty. But I washed her face after breakfast and nothing she ate was brown. It's chocolate. Where did she get chocolate? . I walk into the breakfast room and there is my answer. My favorite bakey, my favorite cookie, is smeared across the floor and on the chair. Yesterday Sam figured out how to move chairs around to where she needs them, and that she can use the chair to get onto the counters and tables. This morning she used this new ability to eat half of my favorite cookies, and leave Matt's favorites with nary a nibble. Does this mean she is daddy's girl or she just has mom's taste in cookies?

I haven't been able to keep Samantha away from all the telephones, but at least now she is carefully putting them back in the cradle, so carefully, in fact, that they are recharging. She's very focused, this little bean.

Samantha is definitely a Dupuis at heart.

The other night at the dinner I was writing about yesterday, Amy had a glass of red wine. Samantha, as is her wont, kept reaching for everything on the table including Amy's wine glass. So Amy dipped a finger into the wine and let Samantha taste a drop, figuring that she'd make a sour face and then lose interest.

What actually happened is that Samantha tasted it and then spent the rest of the meal trying to grab the wine glass, or grabbing Amy's finger and dragging it into her mouth.

French Canadians and wine -- what are you gonna do?

We took Sam to a local restaurant that's very child-friendly the other day. So child friendly that it has a whole play area full of toys, train tables, etc. She was fascinated by all of the new things, and very cute in her attempts to turn on the faucet in the toy sink. (She likes to play with the water in the downstairs powder room sink at home -- with close adult supervision, of course.) She also got along well with the other kids who were there, even the little boy who kept taking the toys she'd picked up. His parents made him apologize at one point, and he said "I'm sorry" and then very sweetly kissed her on the cheek. Great -- 15 months old and she's already breaking hearts.

In the course of the meal we found a whole variety of new things she likes to eat -- marinated olives, hummus and pita bread, feta cheese, grilled asparagus, and even corn on the cob. She found a plastic toy ear of corn and was biting it just as you would a real one; since I happened to have a real one as part of dinner I broke off an end and gave it to her. She made a valiant attempt at eating it! I guess those first few teeth are really coming in handy.

Well, it's been far too long (again) since I've written a web log entry about Samantha, and once again it's like living with a completely different person. There have been so many developments, so many firsts ... sometimes it seems like every day she learns something new or tries something different.

For one thing, she's been walking everywhere for at least the past few weeks. I don't remember the last time I saw her crawl anyplace. She's gone from toddling along unsteadily on her feet to toddling along quite steadily -- she doesn't quite have the smooth walking movements down yet, but she can get where she wants to go with surprising speed. She also climbs every piece of furniture she can get a hand or foot onto. I walked into the den one day and found her sitting in the blue reclining chair just like a little miniature adult.

I swear she's got the engineering gene somewhere in her makeup as well. She takes things apart to figure out what's inside them, and if there's a button or lever or control on anything -- no matter how well hidden -- she will find it. She has a new toy that you push balls down the middle of through a tube, and on the way down they press in a small button on the side of the tube that causes lights to flash and music to play. It wasn't more than 5 minutes before she'd reached down the tube, found the button, and pressed it repeatedly while "dancing" (bouncing up and down on her heels with her knees bent) to the sound of the music.

She's also doing all of the usual toddler stuff like stacking things, putting things into containers and taking them out again over and over, and so on. She did surprise me the day she learned to unscrew the cover from a small juice bottle and then screw it back on again.

And she simply loves the outdoors now that the weather is improving. When you carry her outside or take her to the park her whole face lights up and she giggles or shrieks with delight. Now that she's finally over that miserable virus and feeling herself again we get relatively more shrieks of delight and fewer of pain or frustration (unless, of course, she wants to get at something you're keeping her away from!)

More little tidbits from life with Samantha:

• She's getting into cutlery. She used a fork for the first time around a week ago. Before that she'd eat from a fork if you put it in her mouth, but last week she actually picked up the fork herself and brought it to her mouth to eat what was on it. She even managed to skewer a piece of food or two herself. Now it's a week later and she's eating yogurt from a cup with a spoon. She's progressing by leaps and bounds.
  
  
• Two weeks ago I was concerned because Samantha didn't seem inclined to hold her own bottles or drink from a sippy cup. My, how things change! Now she drinks from cups, from juice boxes with a straw, and from a little sport bottle I got her the other day. She still hasn't mastered the skill of keeping all the liquid in her mouth, but the change in the last week or two has been dramatic.
  
  
• She often holds long conversations with herself either in her crib or in her high chair. She's not really using words intelligibly yet, but she has the rhythm and cadence of speech down pat, and sometimes she'll start "talking" to you and look very serious at some points, then burst out laughing at others. It's clear she thinks she's said something very funny; we just don't understand her language yet.
  
  
• On the other hand, she did say "bye bye" (sort of) and waved goodbye to the wait staff at the local Thai restaurant earlier in the week, and she said "Bye" and waved to me as I left for work this morning. I can't wait until she really starts talking.
  
  
• Samantha loves books. She'll make you read them to her over and over, and will sit on the floor next to her bookshelf, or in her crib, or in the den, and leaf through book after book.
  
  
• Perhaps the cutest (and most baffling) thing I've seen her do lately is this:
  
  

  She has a little school-style desk, a chair with an attached writing surface that you can draw on with chalk. She loves sitting at the desk and looking at books, being a little too young to do much in the way of drawing. Yesterday morning she walked up to the desk, stood for a minute, then toddled off to the kitchen.
  
  

  She opened the drawer below the ovens where we keep all the dish towels, took one out, carried it back to the desk, wiped off the seat, took the dish towel back to the kitchen and put it in the drawer, closed the drawer, came back to the dining room and only then sat down at the desk. I couldn't believe it! I'm sure that neither Amy nor I has ever wiped off a chair in Samantha's presence (and have probably never wiped off a chair at all, for that matter), so where on earth did she learn that one? It's a mystery.
  
  

With Samantha around, there is never a dull moment.

Mother's Day with a toddler is an interesting experience. We have all been sick with some nasty virus that drags you down with a sore throat and achy body, and in Sam's case, a high fever. She napped part of the day and I got to nap with her because Matt took Ella to the park. I also don't have to do laundry this week because Matt did that too. I think those two things were my favorite Mom's day gifts. We went out and bought the MacClaren stroller that I had lusted after, and it is really cool. It doesn't fit our standard diaper bag, but it is very light and I can manage bag, stroller and Sam without too much trouble at all. A pretty special day. I was sad for parts of it because I can't help but miss Emily, but Matt had those special bear hugs handy and he somehow knew just when to apply them. I imagine because he missed her too,.

Today I had to go to the doctor's office and I left Samantha with Matt to shop with Ellen. Dangerous combination. He came back with this gorgeous taffeta dress that cost more than I would ever consider paying for a dress, even at 70 percent off. It is gorgeous and I love it. Samantha was exhausted from her experience and is now having a much needed full-fledged nap.

Well, just call me the toy goddess. I wrestled that Zebra bouncy seat from bits into a working bouncer in one half hour. Yee Haw! Now I want to go wake her up so she can play on it and I can watch her play on it. How did my parents ever wait until Christmas morning to see us with those special presents?

I met a friend for coffee this morning, and Sam was flirting with the 4 year old boy next to me. I think she liked his rain boots, actually, but she kept acting coy. She also was playing peek-a-boo with the elderly lady sitting behind me. I had to keep grabbing her to keep her from running around the coffee shop, and I thought she was going to climb up the wheel chair in one agonizingly embarrassing moment, but it passed and she kept walking. The guy in the wheelchair completely ignored her. Hmph! How anyone could ignore a sweetie this cute, I just don't know. Big smiles for everyone.

She had fun with our babysitter today too. When she got up from her nap I told her that Colleen was coming, and she gave me a big smile and waved her hands around. Ella ran to the door. I guess Colleen is a big hit in the household. I still got lots of smooches when I got home, so I feel pretty good. She was sitting on Colleen's lap having a book read to her, so I thought that was pretty cool. It is such a relief to have someone fun to watch Sam for a bit so I know I'll get a break during the week. It isn't long, but it makes a huge difference.

After dire threats of rain by the weather service, today became sunny and balmy. I dumped the dirty dishes in the sink, rang Sue, and off we all headed to the park for a hike. Samantha was pretty tickled. She waves her arms and laughs with just when I open the door to the basement, pretty much just as excited as Ella gets for the same reason. We got to the flat rock for a picnic and everyone had a good time throwing Ella's ball, although Lucia decided for a while that it was her ball, which was fine with Ella. (it was pretty cute, actually) Ella thought she was supposed to chase Lucia and try to get the ball away. I was watching her like a hawk, but Ella kept her big paws on the ground, or at least off of Lucia, and a great time was had by all. Sam and Lucia crawled over Ella, which seemed to be fine, and Trajan found a great rock to sit on. He had a compass and binoculars so he wouldn't get lost. He managed to not get lost, although both Trajan and Lucia were very worried about Ella whenever she left the path and would truck right up the hills after her. It was really sweet to see those two little people so concerned about steady Ella, who can bound up sheer cliffs at lightening speed and come right back down again with no slips. Samantha found several rocks that seemed to have the right flavor and size, so we took them home with us.

We stopped in Winchester for a sandwich, and sat outside Starbucks with the crew and Ella. Sam did fine with Sue while I got some coffee, but she started screaming when I had to go back inside for something. Poor Sue, she has had Sam screaming with her far too often. I am really grateful for her patience. Once Sam got more comfortable with her surroundings, she started walking over to the next table and to the street if I had let her. She was waving at people. She is quite friendly and outgoing, once she gets settled in. The cutest thing was when Sam leaned over Ella to give Lucia a really big hug and a kiss. I think she learned that from Trajan and Lucia. They hug her all the time.

It was a special day. I have to say that in addition to being very proud of how well Sam is walking and interacting, I also was very proud of Ella's behavior. She didn't jump on anyone who didn't expressly ask her to, and she lay down next to me on the sidewalk while we ate. I am really enjoying her as an adult dog. I miss the puppy stage, but I really appreciate her better sense of control and good judgment about when it is appropriate to play and when it isn't.