Photos with Mom

After photographing a 7 month old yesterday (I work with his dad, and they wanted some Christmas photos), I was inspired to do a photo shoot with Sam for the first time in forever. I had yet to set anything up at this house, and we moved in last May. Plus, the last time I did photos with Sam she wanted nothing to do with it, and just walked away or cried. Today that was not the case. She was so cooperative. She wanted to get in different clothes, she wanted to stand in the right spot, she even moved one direction or the other when I asked her to. She's way too good at that. Of course the whole thing was short lived, but hey, she's a toddler, I'll take what I can get!

This is her telling me only 1 more, then all done.

Then I got this smile.

One last shot, hugging her duck

Oregon Zoo

We made plans a week ago to hit up the Oregon zoo on Sunday, and we just happened to get great weather. It was warm enough to walk around with a short sleeved shirt on and no jacket... Granted Kevin & Mer were still in jackets, but they're not accustomed to Oregon weather yet after living in San Antonio for the last 2 years.

Sam is finally at the age where she knows the animals and can communicate with us about them. She loves elephants, the fish, penguins, and the lions. She was excited to see all the water. Every exhibit that had water she pointed it out. Funny girl. She even woke up the next morning and the first thing she said was zoo. She gets it now. She mentioned the elephants and lions over and over again. Love that girl!

 

 

Sleepy Polar Bear

Duck Football Watching Party



Saturday we finally got all the kids together to watch a Duck football game (once we found a game that started early enough!) So we all gathered at the Manson's house 8 adults, 5 kids, football, food, and all sorts of toys.

 

That's definitely one of her faces

All the kids in the playroom. Sam has reached the age where she knows where it is and goes there on her own.

Super cute peanut

Claire in her birthday gown

Sam was not having picture time, yikes!

All the kids

They didn't understand why Sam was crying... neither did we for that matter. Quinton seemed particularly concerned.

She got a cracker and all was better

I think Ella was done with the little kids

nice socks Dan

Sam was giving fist bumps to everyone in the room. Quinton thought there was something in Sam's fist, he was trying to pry it open. Lol

 

Silly boy!

Giving Ella hugs

Jammie twins, hugging

 

Samantha growing so fast

Samantha is now 21 months, and growing so fast. She can climb herself up onto the furniture now, tells us what she wants with some clarity, counts, plays, and has a blast each day. She seems to be into pretend play with her dolly. She puts dolly to sleep and talks to her. I had no idea it started this early, but it's very cute.

Lately she has also been wanting to play by herself and tells Josh and I to go, waving and pointing until we walk away. She sits in her room and plays with all her toys. It's quite cute when we can sneak a peak.

Her communication has gotten much better. She can now also count, probably by memory, but it still surprises us. For the longest time she would only say 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 over and over again. Then she busted out the 3. Then one day randomly at dinner she got all the way to 9, and then said 11. Now when she does it she always goes to 9, and then skips around after that, but never saying 10 until this morning when she counted to 12 without skipping any numbers. We'll see when that happens again.

She also tells us when it's time for night night, and if she poops, which is helpful that she can now recognize it, even if we're still a bit off from potty training.

She is still into Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby, and all other Sesame Street characters. She also has found a big interest in trains, and loves the sound, a huge plus to living where we do now. She loves her stuffed animals, and reading books as always.

Halloween 2012

About a month ago Samantha and I went to a consignment sale and she found an Elmo costume. She tried it on at home and loved it. So for Halloween we put it on her and she wanted nothing to do with it. Of course. That's how it goes with toddlers I guess. She was feeling a bit sick and just wasn't into it, but really enjoyed all the kids that came trick or treating to our house Halloween night.

A month ago when she tried it on. Happy girl.

Halloween Day