Beginning of October 2010

Samantha:
Hello little one! it's been a while since I've been able to post anything, and for that i'm sorry! the last few months have been a little hectic. We didn't end up going back to the beach before summer was over, which was unfortunate, however here we are and we have lots of stuff to go over!

In October, Nanny and i took you back to Medina, TX and got your picture again with the pumpkins and animals, at Love Creek Orchards. We went to the Apple store, and this time i got you a little green "Apple Store" t shirt and some books about farms. One of them has little flaps that you can pick up, and the other one you LOVE to have me read to you every night before bed. :) it's a good snuggle time.

Apple Tree Farm

They make the biggest apple pies at the apple store you can get and i want to bring one home to your dad, but they're a little expensive. It's beautiful out there, though. The drive is pretty nice too. This year i got my dad some honey sticks, i got myself a new tea towel, and i bought a little jar of apple butter to give your grandparents. Unfortunately, you picked it up and threw it in the tub and it shattered everywhere! Ugh. Well, maybe next year!

Speaking of bed, you are still sleeping in our room, but in your crib. You have come to terms that this is where you sleep and anything outside of this arrangement doesn't suffice. When you are put in it, you (sometimes) grudgingly lay down and assume the (sleeping) position: faced down, on your pillow, hand outstretched so i can hold it with my hand through the bars of your "sleeping safety cage". if i leave before you're completely asleep you get pretty upset, but sometimes i just have to get out of there and let you rest. You only cry for about a minute, then resign to the sleeping. if i stay in there and wait for you to fall asleep, it takes forever because you play with my hands instead of going to sleep. Sometimes i'll wind the little mobile that's above your crib and let it play until it runs out. that always seems to work on your little sleepy mind. :)

Your Great-Grandparents in the valley brought a bed for you that was your Grandpa Bob's bunk bed with his sister Kathy when they were little. Apparently your great grandfather just cut it in half and gave one to your grandpa and one to your great aunt. Your grandparents gave it to us, along with a new mattress and box spring. we're going to paint the wooden head and foot board while to match your dresser, and i already went out and got your bedding at target. It follows the same tree-birdie-owl graphic i painted on your bedroom wall:

Tree/Bird mural

nature/tree/owl bedding

Owl Pillow

SO: your bedroom is starting to transform itself from a nursery to a little girls room, for that is what you are quickly becoming. as each stage of your development moves swiftly through our lives, i find myself wanting to shout to the skies at the top of my lungs "wait! i'm not ready!". such is a selfish way of being, but what's a mother to do? i heard it described so perfectly by someone the other day, that as adults we don't really change very dramatically from day to day, but as children we definitely grow and change rapidly as each day progresses, and it can be a hard reality to grasp when truly faced with it. Your dad seemed kind of sad when slowly all of the small changes in your room started to come together and surface as a different room. A child's room.

When your dad and i went in for your 15 month checkup the doctor asked us a few routine questions: "is she off of formula and drinking milk?" Check. "Is she crawling, walking?" Check!" Has she started solid foods and does she say a few words?" absolutely. "alright then, looks like we have a child now and not a baby anymore!". heartbreak. even your dad said something about it later that day...out of the blue. He must have been thinking about it too, "that was kind of dick of the doctor to say she was a kid now, and not a baby anymore". my sentiments exactly. it's almost an offense! at least we were on the same page. :) 

This post is getting a little long, so i'll leave you with this: at 27 pounds, 32 inches long with an 18 inch head circumference on October 4th, you are my absolute angel and i love you with all my heart.

~Mom

July 26th 2010

Dear Samantha:
Hello! I love you! I hope this letter is finding you well! My dear, our trip down to the valley was AWESOME!  When I got home from work that day, Dad had pretty much packed everything he needed, everything he thought you and I needed, but alas! He was woefully unprepared (as men are wont to do with Women's Needs). That's okay though, that's why were so good with each other. What he forgets, I remember and vice versa. so we drove down to Edinburg and you slept the whole way. Boy were you surprised at where you woke up!

Samantha with cousins Bella and Ariella at Great-Grandma Salazar's

We were finally able to introduce you to everyone, and we got to eat sushi and tacos,and we stayed up late and played, and you met all of your cousins.

Samantha at the beach

THEN we drove to South Padre Island and swam in a swimming pool for the first time and stayed in a condo and went to the beach! You didn't know what to do with all that sand and when I took you in to the ocean you clung onto me and then fell asleep! Right in the middle of the sea. It was so sweet. All three of us got bad sunburns and spent way too much money, but it was definitely worth it. I absolutely want to go back before the summer is over.

 

1 years old

We had such a great time! At this time you are a year and almost a month old!! We had a party at our house on Lee Hall for you, and everyone came and most brought presents. You got a whole slew of brand new toys to play with. we made a ton of food, and dad and his friends partied all night long afterwards. Everyone had a really good time. :)

You are growing into such a beautiful little girl!  You can walk and run all over the house, you can pick up your toys and you know them by name, and you can feed yourself. I'm certainly mourning your infant-hood, and sometimes pine for the incredibly tiny little baby you once were. But each day is exciting and fun, and each night i give you a bath I marvel at how big your getting.

I love you so much! Here's to the year we've spent together, it seems like it went by in a blink of an eye, and here's to another year growing and laughing.

Squeeze!!

Perfect Little Girl

May 28, 2010

Dear Samantha:
It's been a while since I've been able to write to you. I always have this blog in the back of my mind, chock full of stuff that i want to say, but it quickly becomes harder and harder to put into words how i feel about you! i want to desperately encompass every bit of our lives together and it becomes so overwhelming! Today is the 28th, and in TWO days you will be ELEVEN months old!!! you've been able to sit and crawl for a while now, i think it happened around 8 months old. You also got your first two teeth around the same time. Now you're a pro crawler and a couple of weeks ago you started walking! SOO cute! you can Frankenstein it all over the house, and you do. I've noticed that you generally like to be around us, in the same room as us and usually don't venture too far from where we are, which is pretty cute. You have two more teeth, totaling four; Two on top and two on the bottom. The two on top have a little gap in between both of them. You are starting to string together syllables and it sounds like sentences in another language when you talk. you are STILL sleeping with us at night, and i guess it will be like that for a while. Listen, i don't want you to think that i don't absolutely love snuggling with you each night because i absolutely do. i just feel like you would be better off in your own little room, having your own space. i have a feeling of guilt when i tell people that you're still in bed with us, which is hard to overcome, however it's becoming more clear that our bed is your nighttime place, and it's quickly becoming where you belong. you're still going to day care during the week, wed-fri. and your dad's parents take you mon.-tue. we're starting to really groove into a routine!
We still need to get you a Toddler car seat. as of yet your about 24-25 lbs, and your still using your baby one. They're kind of expensive, so we've had to wait a little while before we can get you an "upgrade". hopefully this weekend we'll get you one.

So we got a few seasons of "How i met your mother" and "The Big Bang Theory" and whenever the theme songs come on for those shows you always dance/bop up and down. I love it. i think you do it to "two and a half men", too. basically whenever you hear music that has a good beat, you'll bop up and down in time to it.  we went to our first fiesta with you last month! we put you in a pink fiesta dress, and put a fiesta crown on you. you were the hit of the whole parade! Your dad's god parents Sonya and Andy work for the mayors office (Julian Castro) and we got VIP seating behind the regular lines, and it was catered by Mi Tierras! we shared the bench seats with a former SA Mayor! he was there with his grandkids. i snapped a picture of him when he wasn't looking.

So you're dad just texted me a little while ago, to see if i wanted to go down to the Valley to see his grandparents, and your aunt's and uncles', cousins, et.al. i said sure. It's memorial day weekend, so why not? he's at home now packing up everything he thinks we might need, so looks like we're heading down to Edinburgh! i'll let you know how it went, i know everyone is REALLY excited to see you!

a couple of weekends mom and i took you to the Zoo for the first time! it was beautiful. we had a good time, you behaved, and we got to see a lot of the animals. My favorite part was watching you watch the monkey's jump around, and the birds flying. it was so cute to see your little head follow those little animals around their cage. :) Then i think, last weekend, Dad and me and your dad took you to Kiddie Park, and the Witte Museum. your dad rode with you on the Carousel since it was one of the only things you could go on (you're still a little small) and by the second or third go around you were hanging onto your dad like crazy, slowly falling off the horse! it got hot, so we went over to the witte, and you did pretty good- you got to walk around, and look at the different little things in the kids tree house. :) I'm not sure what we'll do next weekend, maybe we'll blow up your swimming pool and get you a bathing suit so you can swim around the back yard!

i think that'll be fun.

Samantha, i love you so much!! you are my precious little baby girl, and i can't wait to see what's  ahead for us. Your dad is simply over the moon for you, and we always miss you every day we're at work away from you. :)

I'll let you know how the Valley visit goes, and if there are any new memories for me to share with you!

Love,
Mom

February 2010

Dear Samantha:
Hello my pretty! Today is February 8th, 2010. You are about 7 1/2 months old. It just started pouring outside, and it's been raining on and off for a week now. Saturday was beautiful, however and we spent the day cleaning up the house. i strapped you to my back like a papoose, and you loved it! Every now and then you would put your little head down on my back, and it felt like you were saying "i love you" even though it probably just meant that you were tired. i would run around, sweep the house then run to the bedroom so we could see each other in the mirror, laugh, smile, then run around and mop the floors. This went on for HOURS! Of course we took a couple of breaks for your naps (2) and lunch/snack. To date you are eating cereal, green beans, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, squash and little puff banana/apple thingies. So far, I've eaten everything you have (with the exception of breast milk, because that's kind of groady) and you are growing like a weed! Monday and Tuesdays your grandma and grandpa Salazar takes you in the morning, and i meet them after work at the Taco Cabana on the Theo/Malone exit off of 35 to pick you up. Kid Swap! Wednesday thru Friday i take you to the Lincoln Heights Methodist church day care, and you love it. You always smile and laugh when you see the people there, and you love to watch the other babies crawl around.    
     The rodeo is in town! i wanted to take you there to your first Rodeo, but your grandparent think they are your parents and will probably take you instead. That's another story, of course. i love them very much, and they certainly do help us out in a lot of different ways, but there really is a high price tag sometimes, that has to be paid. When you were really little, after i had to go back to work, we had your dad's cousin Ellie take care of you. It was nice to have you so close, i was still breastfeeding you pretty regularly, and i would come home on my lunch break to feed you. It was one of the best parts of my day! there were some problems with that arrangement, unfortunately it's hard to have someone in your home, as i'm sure it's hard to be in someone else house taking care of their little girl. Often we would come home and find other people/family members in the house or had just been there, or our bed was slept in, or our shower was being used. It was kind of a relief when we put you in day care, as it was a far less complicated relationship. At your last appointment you weigh 20 lbs!! we had to take you to the doctor one morning a few weeks ago for an urgent check up. You had a major fever (at 104.5) and your cheeks were so red it was heartbreaking. You vomited on me and we gave you Tylenol until we could get you to the doctor's office. Turns out you had a pretty bad ear infection. The doctor took a look in your ear, and said it was as red as a fire truck! he prescribed antibiotics that we were to shoot into the back of your throat with a needless syringe, twice a day for 10 days. Poor thing. You did really well, however. You only cried a little bit, and it was clear you didn't feel good, but you didn't really have a "melt down" or anything like what you hear from other parents. You sure are a tough little girl! They told us that at the appointment, and whenever you have to get your shots, you never cry TOO much. You are so strong and healthy that it's incredible! We are so blessed!
     As of today, you can definitely sit up by yourself, and scoot around on your butt to get to things. you don't really crawl yet, but you can lift up on all fours, and wiggle back and forth.  One of my co-workers gave us a whole bunch of Disney Cartoons (VHS) and i used to be able to sit you on the bed, bolstered with pillows all around, with all of your toys laid out before you, and pop in one of those "princess movies' while i took a shower and got dressed in the morning.  This would keep you occupied until i got out, and then i would dress you. The other morning, i got out of the shower and went to the bedroom and looked at the spot wher you had been. I saw all of your toys, but no baby!! i looked down next to the bed ON THE FLOOR, and THERE YOU WERE! Playing with my suitcase, just as happy as can be. i couldn't believe it. time slowed down while my eyes scanned the bed, then found you. I instantly picked you up and hugged you. I felt terrible and wondered if you had cried when i was in the shower. But i was also bemused, because you looked so happy down there!  :( Oy Vey! looks like i can't do that anymore! Now we have your "fun chair" to stick you in if you wake up in the morning before i get in the shower. you are still sleeping with us in bed at night, even though you take your naps in your crib. I desperately want to get you in your own room at night, but your father is having a hard time with it, and sleeps better when your in my arms at night. You're just so little!  my fear is that you will be 3 years old and still sleeping with mommy and daddy.
     Samantha, i have to tell you how much i love you and how much my day lights up when you smile. I really thought that those stories people tell about how they sappily felt when their kids smiled at them was crap, but it really brighten the whole day. I can't wait to get you to smile, or laugh and it has turned into an addiction! You are such a good, happy baby! you rarely have fits, or cry too much, or have the dreaded melt downs. i can pretty much take you anywhere and if you are fed, clean and dry you are perfectly content to sit and watch people, or play happily with whatever is on the table in front of you. I am so proud to have you with me.  I love you so much!
     Right now you are with your grandparents, and your dad is sick at home. He works so hard for the both of us, he deserves a break every now and then. where would we be if we didn't have him! lonely and sad, that's where! He loves you so much that words can't describe it. He talks to you, and sings, and plays with you. He changes your diaper without complaint, and usually is the one that makes you a bottle. I simply cannot believe that you are almost eight months old! Your cousin Kyrsten is having her 1st birthday party in just a couple of weeks, and you are right behind her! where has the time gone?
      It's almost 5 o'clock which means, it's almost time to go pick you up at the Taco Cabana and i'm having a hard time waiting! i always miss you most on Mondays, since i spend so much time with you on the weekends. Monday's are always hard.
     I love you so much, and you are so beautiful, that i cannot wait to kiss your cheeks and have you home. See you soon, my little chickadee!

Love,
Mom.

Thinking

About your tiny little feet. theya re so soft and cute!

Also, i gave you another haircut last night after your bath. It came out...Okay. not great. we're not done yet.

I love you,

Mom

Cold January-6 months, week two.

Samantha:
Man it is really cold outside! it's 36 degrees and WINDY. i had to bundle you up this morning, and it only got colder!

There have been some changes in our lives! We had our first thanksgiving with you, as well as our first Christmas and New Years. Your dad got you your bouncy play chair as your big present this year, and you got a lot of wonderful, beautiful things from people. Grandpa Masterson got you some clothes and books, Grandma Masterson got you your own little baby head! this was subject to much discussion! she made them herself, and it was a very nice gesture, just...weird! :) we all had a good laugh over them. She made one for Kyrsten, too. Grandma & Grandpa Salazar gave you a little wooden bike from the pottery barn. It's so pretty! along with a tea set, and a pink and silver cup. (i know, it's weird, there's is only one and i don't know what you do with just that one). Uncle Chris and Aunt Erin got you your little duck/platypus pillow.

This year for Christmas, i think we're going to travel around on Christmas Eve, and then stay home, just the three of us, on Christmas day. you'll already be a year and half old then!

Yesterday we enrolled you in your first day of day care. We put you in the Los Angeles Heights Methodist day care, around the corner from the house on Lee Hall. The first day was pretty sad. I left and cried all the way to work, your dad thought about you all day and cried after he got you home. it's sad to leave your kids with strangers. you just looked so little sitting there on the carpet playing with toys. :( i just imagined you red faced and crying for me, and it breaks my heart that i can't be with you during the day. we have to be really tough! it's definitely not an easy choice, and it involves a lot of sacrifice, but it is what's best for right now.

you are growing so much! at your last doctor's appointment with Dr. Benbow,  you weighed 19 1/2 lbs, and were about 27 inches tall! he said you looked better than great, and you're doing very well.

we started you on cereal and foods!!! i was so excited to give you your first taste of vegetables i could hardly contain my self! i started with Carrots, and then moved to peas. you pretty much love them both. I think you like the idea of eating. It's fun! i'm still breast feeding, and we're still giving you formula. no wonder your growing like a weed! you're my little fat baby and i love you so much! i can see changes in you, however. Your getting longer and leaner, and your able to sit up and play with your toys! your developing awesomely, and i'm so proud of you. You are also talking/babbling and screaming more. it's so cute! Last night i just laid in bed, and just watched you play until i fell asleep. Then you shouted at me to wake up! :)  we're still sleeping together because it's been so cold outside, and we don't have central air and heat. All three of us in bed.

i'm starting to mourn the end of your infancy already, and it makes me sad. but it means that your growing and learning, and becoming a more active participant in life, and that exciting trade off is worth it.  my favorite time is still in the morning when it's just the two of us snuggled in bed together. sometimes i'll wake up after you, and i'll look down to see if your awake and your already looking at me! it makes me laugh!
:)

You're such a beautiful girl. we'll get through this beginning states of day care, and it'll be a second home for you, and you will learn and flourish and grow even more there. i have a good feeling about it.

now if we can get your dad more on board, we'll be in business!

Till next time!
I love you!

Your mom.