We just had an adventure together, complete with treasures and fearsome beasties. Sam walked down the steps saying, “walk, Walk” so we walk up the street. She spies a large ball, glistening purple about a foot around, at the intersection. Nearly unhanding me in the middle of the road, she runs to the ball. She picks it up and takes it to Sue’s house, but Sue isn’t home. So I manage to persuade her to come home, still carrying the ball that is half her size. We meet up with two fearsome beasties, Ella and Tucker, who couldn’t wait for their pirate princess to return home and decided to take matters into their own hands. Er, paws. So they dash towards us over Marshall’s yard, obviously drunk as good pirates should be, although in their case I think it was the freedom rather than a special libation. Samantha gave me her ball so we could get home faster. We met a nice man who offered to help get the beasties home, but they were actually waiting at the gate already so it was fine. We all got home safe and sound, complete with new treasures. Now I need to get this sniffly pirate princess fed and to bed.

Lest you think we deprive this girl of the basic necessities, we got Samantha a ballon yesterday. She promptly let go of the string so now it adorns the ceiling of Starbucks. Hopefully it doesn't close off their air conditioning vents. Trader Joe's gave me a replacement as long as I promised to tell Sam that I climbed the sky to bring it back to her.

When Matt got her up this morning, she was talking and singing to her balloon in her crib.

Sam started crying this afternoon and what with her being tired and the strength of her sobs, she threw up all over Matt and the bathroom. She even pulled on his t-shirt so she could throw up inside his t-shirt. Daddy loves his little girl so he held on tight and cleaned her up when she was done. Poor daddy doesn't feel well either, so it was really hard on him.

All is sweet smelling again and both are sleeping soundly, like angels.

She saw a blimp today and screamed "Balloon!" When we came out of the restaurant a half hour later, she wouldn't leave until she had scoured the sky for any signs of "Balloon!" We will go to Trader Joe's soon and get her another balloon.

She's still talking about the balloon

I come downstairs to see Sam with her fire hat on her head and one rain boot on her foot. She is such a big girl! Okay, so it was the wrong foot, but at this point I am impressed with the right limb.

Still talking about the balloon.


We went to sing-a-long this morning. It was fun. Samantha danced and talked about her balloon.

Still asking for the balloon, at the end of the day and after her nap. Her new words today are cocoon, egg, and antenna.

Sam went to bed last night talking about her Story Land Balloon. She woke up crying in the middle of the night talking about Tubbies, Doggies, and Balloon. Sounds like some kind of creative dream going on there. She wouldn't settle in her crib until Daddy showed her that both dogs were fine and sleeping and she got to curl up next to us for a few minutes. When she woke up this morning she was still talking about the balloon and tubbies. Unfortunately, the balloon had started to die, and Tucker helped it on its' way. I had to tell Sam it went for a long sleep.

Right now I don't know that I want to ever get her another balloon. She is fixated.

Samantha and I just got back from girls’ night out. We went with a friend and her toddler to NH to Story Land. We stayed overnight at her in-laws house and I don’t think Sam said a word to them the whole time. She just stared at them. She really didn’t know what to make of Cole’s grandfather, although she was curious. And there were no dogs! She kept yelling Daddy, Daddy, Ella, Daddy when I tried to put her to bed. I told Matt this, and he didn’t seem comforted that Sam said Daddy more often than she said Ella.

Story Land was great. She loved the ball room, just entranced with walking around holding the foam balls and watching them fly down from the ceiling. She even got a kick out of putting them in the hose where they got sucked up and shot out of the cannon at the top. I had a blast too. Cole didn’t like the noise, so we left pretty quickly. When we went on the safari ride, they both were antsy waiting in line. I asked the driver where they put the spectator animals during the safari, and he, without missing a beat, said “in the cage.” Sure enough there was a cage with bars and he closed the gate. Sam loved it. She got to stand up and watch everything and walk around as the cage went around the track. She also loved the merry go round ride. It went up about 20 feet in the air and I had to hold onto her to get her to not stand and peek over the edge. No fear of heights here.

She got fixated on a balloon about the time we were heading out, (they both lasted about 5 hours). I bought one for her and she was in heaven. I also bought her little Indian princess leather moccasins, but that was my indulgence.

She had two hours of sleeping the day before, about 8 hours at night, and a half hour nap in the car on the way to the park. She did not sleep a wink on the ride home, but was mostly happy licking her lollipop and driving Cole crazy by playing with her hinge puzzle. She was thrilled to see her daddy and made both of us put her to sleep. We sang and danced with her for a bit, read her the bunny story (Guess How Much I Love You). She pointed to the crib and said “crib” so I laid her down. She snuggled in and has been quiet as a bunny ever since. I am going to sleep the sleep of the best mommy tonight.

We are going down the stairs to let the doggies in and she yells "doggie" and as we go down the stairs, she gives me her hand and says "hand." Then she says "step" as she goes down the steps. When we get to the bottom she says "Shoe" as she goes to put on Daddy's shoe. Lots of new words and concepts.

The last page of "The Mitten" is red. The last page of "The Muffin" is green. She pointed to the green page and said "red" a couple of nights ago. I told her that was green and showed her the other book with the red page. Last night I read "The Muffin" to her again and when we got to the last page she pointed to it and said "Green." She will also ask for music sometimes when she goes to bed at night.

This is an amazing process to me, to get to see more clearly each day what kind of person is in there. She is very vibrant and can focus completely when she is engaged. It is like watching the actual wheels turning she is so deliberate. She has a great sense of humor, and a laugh that lights up her whole being. I guess having a daughter is like a marraige, you just keep getting more in love as you go through the years.

Samantha kept saying "It's stuck" for things that she couldn't get apart, like lids off jars. She is just mimicing everything, and then pops out stuff on her own. The cutest thing she does is her elephant imitation. Matt taught her this. She raises her hand and does a raspberry with her lips, her version of the elephant cry. We just crack up. This is a really fun age.

Today was an amazing day for Samantha. The words just poured out of her. We got to the doctor’s office and she started yelling “Fish” before we even got out of the car. She remembered there was a fish tack in there and ran to it when we got in. I went through the names of the fish(which no longer matched the fish – clearly a high risk job to be a fish in a doctor’s office) and she yelled Pinky and Goldie at all of them, (the list is Pinky for the smallest, Whitey for the white one, Goldie for the big really deep gold one, and Spot for the one with a white spot.) While we waited for the doctor, she kept trying to find the fish again and it was all I could do to keep her in the room with me.

During her bath she pointed to her boat and said boat, staring right into my eyes and waiting for me to confirm what she said. Later she added Toy and Towel and Wash to her words. When we sat down for her nightly bottle and story, she said Monkey Book and pointed to the “Five Little Monkeys Jumped on the Bed” book. She said Music, and Light. I managed to get her to bed only with Daddy’s entrance and he put her down in the crib. Last night when she woke up in the middle of the night she was talking about doggie and tubbies. She didn’t go to sleep until I brought her to bed with me and showed her where the doggies and daddy were sleeping. She relaxed then and went right to sleep in her crib.

The doctor said she might be waking up in the night because she is having very vivid dreams and just needs some comforting. This sounds right to me. Physically she looks perfect to the Dr. McCarty, so that worry is gone. No earaches at all. Sam also is very conscious now of a wet diaper and does sleep better when I change her daiper.