Today Samara and I went to Greene's Field Playground. It takes her a little while to warm up and actually go on the equipment; usually she just runs around and looks at stuff when we first arrive. Eventually she will start to climb and use the slide.
After she ran around and tried everything she could safely go on, we went back home for dinner. Halfway through eating, Samara decided she was going to try to whistle and play peek-a-boo. She understands what to do with her mouth, but not with her breath. Oh well, it is still cute/funny.
Today Samara and I went to Stone Zoo, which is a cute little zoo north of Boston. We managed to catch a little talk on alligators and Samara pet an 11 month-old baby! After that, we went to the Birds of Prey show where you learn about several birds (chickens, parrots, macaws, bald eagle, and more) and they fly back and forth in the outdoor auditorium. Every time at bird flew by us, Samara would exclaim, "Ooooh!" It was super cute. After seeing all the animals we had a picnic lunch, which was next to a little train and mechanical rides. I think Samara would have parked herself in the Dino ride all day if I would let her.
Another thing Samara likes to do is to drink any water she can find - sippy cups, water bottles, other kid's sippy cups, the bath tub faucet, bath tub water, water table water, etc. Today, I brought out a toy sprinkler for Samara and she found yet another source of water to drink.
Seth just gave me some old pictures from his phone, so I will do a "throwback Thursday" post. This picture is from June 7, when Seth was giving her a bath. She took one of the blue rinsing bowls and was wearing it as a hat. Look at that face!
Samara and I took a quick trip to the South Shore to pick up Nana so she can babysit while I take a workshop for school. We visited Grampi first, and Samara had lots of fun trying on Grandma's glasses.
Today Samara met up with fellow Isis baby Jake at Franklin Park Zoo. Jake had never been there before and was really excited about all the animals. His excitement bled over to Samara and at one point they both were kicking and jumping around in their strollers. We went right as the zoo opened and had great luck as most of the animals were active and easily visible. Here is a picture of the two kiddos in front of the zebra habitat.
There are lots of nice, shaded areas to eat a packed lunch. Samara devoured her PB&J and enjoyed looking around at all the other people picnicking.
Samara loves climbing up on the chairs and banging away on Seth's computer. We need to remember to lock the screen or else Seth's email will have a bunch of random blank drafts or she will close/open random windows of various programs. She has two toy laptops and a defunct real laptop, but she knows the difference between those and ours!
First, Samara was playing with sunglasses by herself. She always puts them on upside-down.
But then Daddy came along, so she wanted him to put them on. As you can see, she thought it was funny. You can also see that she knows some parts of the face.
Samara had her last Music Together class today, which is good because she kind of hated them. Then we decided to take a quick trip to the zoo.
Here is Samara checking out some Mandrille monkeys.
When we got home, Samara had a veggie snack. For some reason, Samara really likes celery even though it is hard to eat.
Samara started throwing her carrots around, which is Samara language for "I'm done eating this." Then she started pointing at her elbow, so I decided to give her a vocab quiz.
After the quiz, she was messing around with her milk and some dribbled out of her mouth. Her response: Uh oh! I repeated it, which she found to be hilarious, so I filmed our back and forth. I like how she varies her pronunciation and her accent while saying it.
Seth and I have been helping Samara learn various animal noises. Lion, monkey, and snake were the first three she knew. I am trying to get her to learn cow, horse, sheep, chicken, duck, and some others. Here is her progress so far.
I was trying to give Samara a snack when she started looking pretty tired. She ate a few bites, but I could tell she wasn't going to eat much. I cleared the food and went to wet a washcloth to clean her off. When I turned around, I saw this:
She is just starting to fall asleep. How do I know? Her fingers haven't fallen out of her mouth yet, and her hand is still on her sippy cup. Give her another minute or so, and she will be pretty far gone.
The cup fell over when her hand slipped off of it. She looked so cute and peaceful, I debated for a second if I should keep her in there because most of the time transfers into her crib aren't very successful. It looked uncomfortable to me, so I decided to try moving her. She woke up =(.
Samara likes looking out the window at birds, bunnies, chipmunks, and people coming and going. Recently, she runs to the window when Seth is leaving. She says hi and/or bye bye and watches as his car drives away. In the video below, Seth takes out the trash before leaving, but she gets a little sad at the end. Yes, she does call him Momma in the video.
Throughout the day, Samara will up and leave to go check out what is going on outside. This is her go-to spot:
Up until today, Samara has never really been interested in stuffed animals. If she did show an animal attention, she might have briefly hugged it before pushing/throwing it away from her. Now she shows prolonged interest in them: hugging and kissing (OK, so the first picture looks like she is biting it, but whatever, she does kiss them) them multiple times. The two animals she consistently reaches for are a sock monkey and a black lab puppy.
Samara hasn't completely changed. She does still end the affection with some sort of abuse - she sits on the puppy. I don't know why it is always the puppy, but it is. However, she does follow this with some cute babbling and clapping, which maybe makes up for the abuse.
On the way back from Maine, we stopped for lunch at Boston Market. Samara has been really interested in drinking from water bottles, but she usually spills a bunch when she is releasing the bottle from her mouth. Today was the first day that she didn't have any spills.
You can see that Samara is wandering around; she was really interested in the little birds that would hover near dropped food. She didn't understand why they would hop or fly away when she got close. She would get sad/frustrated when it happened, and it saddened me to see her face when she would turn to me, silently asking "Why?"
Samara spent a lot of today exploring and investigating her new surroundings. One of the first things that caught her attention was the wood stove, which she mistook for a tap.
Then she found Grandma's slippers and wore them in a novel way while checking out the cupboards.
Samara took a break from exploring and hung out on the couch with Grampi, who created the "I'm squishing you" game.
The sun finally broke out, so we headed outside. First we played with bubbles. Samara hasn't quite figured out how to blow enough air to create bubbles, but she tried.
Ace was hanging around, but got too warm and sought out shade. Intrigued, Samara followed him.
The last thing that Samara really liked was one of the dog leashes. I am not sure if she thought it was a scarf or necklace, but she definitely wanted to wear it.
On this rainy July 4, we headed up to Maine to stay at Aunty Sarah and Uncle Steve's house. Grampi and Grandma were also visiting. When we arrived, people were hanging out, drinking, and having a good time. I think Samara felt she had to catch up, so she grabbed a can of strawberry margarita, threw her head back, and pretend chugged it.
When Samara got her fill, we hung out for a bit.
Then we headed over to Cousin Francis/Peter's house for dinner. The previous owner had a cat, so there was a cat door going to the basement. Samara was investigating it, which caught Aunty Sarah's attention. Aunty Sarah dropped to the floor and checked it out with her. Although I do not own photographic evidence of this, if you ask Sarah nicely she just might show you.
Today I left the room for a minute and when I returned Samara was on top of the activity table:
She was using it as a chair and was playing with a different toy.
She is very good at arching her eyebrow.
We played for a little while longer, and then it was time to go to open playgym at Gymboree. We had our first class yesterday. Although Samara was a little shy and wanted to observe most of the time, she did check out most of the toys and loved parachute/bubble time. I was curious to see what she would want to play with today.
She saw some other kids playing with maracas, and decided she wanted to try them out.
Then she found what has become her favorite slide. I tried finding a slide like this, but the company that makes it only sells to Gymboree. Bummer.
Samara found another slide to play on, but another kid was walking towards her, so she got scared and scurried away.
Later that evening, Seth, Samara, and I went out to dinner where Samara showed us her food dipping skills. She polished off most of the vegetables and pita herself!
The end of the school year was pretty busy for me, so I hadn't really had the motivation to take out the camera in a while.
Today that changed. I had a hoodie hanging on the back of a kitchen chair, and Samara decided to play dress up with it. She even knew there was a hood and insisted I put it on her. The result was a lot of cuteness and fun. Samara was zooming around laughing so much that most pictures came out blurry. These are the most in-focus ones.
It was a really great day out, so while Seth was playing tennis, Samara and I checked out the playground next door. When we got tired of the playground, Samara and I watched Seth play tennis. Samara is his biggest fan. She ran right up to the fence, banged on it, and was smiling and waving like a proud little daughter.
Five minutes later she got distracted by her shoe, and was content to watch the match while practicing taking her shoes on and off.
Look at the intense concentration here. Why so serious, Samara?
