Oh the places we will go.

I'm pretty sure that line comes from a children's book, but I can't quite put my finger on which one.  My blog homepage says that I haven't blogged since November 10th, but it seems like forever ago.  Since December is just a day away I had better catch up on some things.

Samantha has the crawling thing down to a science.  She crawls from one end of the house to the other and loves to follow me and her daddy wherever we go.  She is pulling up to her knees with no problem, but pulling up to her feet is pretty wobbley.  This past week she has began to grasp the concept that she MUST HOLD ON.  This concept was very elusive over the past few weeks.  Tonight she pulled right up to her bouncey-horse and this weekend she was trying to pull up on her Great Grandma Jenness' walker.  And as you can probably imagine, crawling = into everything. 

Most times you can tell her no and she stops and then looks at you.  After a couple of no's she stops whatever it is and is on to something else.  Always busy.  However, there have been quite a few times, especially with me, that she just looks at you and giggles.  Literally giggles.  and then does it again.  Oh my! It is SO hard not to laugh because she is just so darn cute and the way that she giggles....like I said... oh my.  I have had to put the plugs into the electrical outlets and the one cord that is showing in our living room is being blocked either by her baby tub or her Baby Einstein exersaucer. 

She has been doing the mama babbling and sometimes it sounds like yumyumyum and other times its num-num-num.  She kind of puts her tongue to the roof of her mouth sometimes so it just varies by where he tongue is placed.  A weekend or so ago she was in her high chair at my mom and dad's and she did this smile, with her head tilted back, and eyes squinted.  Of course, we all giggled and laughed and thus a "trick" is born.  So we call it her "cheese" face.  She is quite the little ham.  Ever since she could smile on purpose, she would smile just to make you smile back.  Now she does actions to get you to smile. 

This weekend we found these little thigns called lil'crunchies from Gerber.  We have been giving her Gerber Puffs as fun snacks and this weekend we tried the crunchies.  I was a little nervous because they aren't bite sized.  At first I tried to get her to bite them, and she did a little bit but she mainly just wanted me to hold it while she sucked on it.  So I just break the bigger ones in half and the smaller ones she does just fine with.  And in all reality she does fine with the big ones but her problem is that she likes to goof and when she does that with a mouthful she has been known to choke.  Her goofin' consists of making a funny face or smiling goofy.  She also used a straw for the first time this past week.  JM picked up a straw sippy cup this past week on Thanksgiving break.  She LOVES it. Man can she drink a lot with that straw.  I remember reading that it is "best" for babies to not use bottles or cups that require them to suck on them (like a nipple) after 9 months.  This is because of jaw, mouth, teeth development and structure.  They promote straws and open cups.  While Samantha does pretty good drinking out of my water bottle, I'm not going to just let her have one.  She can work the straw sippy cup so much easier, because she doesn't have to tip her head which in some high chairs is kind of hard to do. 

Thanksgiving was great!  We were able to see both sides of my family and most of the Jenness side of JM's family.  Kansas schools went monday and then were out at 2:15 on Tuesday.  However, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is Turkey Butcher Day at JM's Uncle Joe's.  So Monday evening we made the 3 hour and 15 minute drive.  Samantha did great.  We fed her supper and gave her her bath before we left.  The hope was to get her into the house without her waking up and I ALMOST succeeded.  Oh well.  She played with Aunt Debbie from 9:15ish until 11ish.  She didn't do too bad sleeping either.  I think she only got up once.  We started butchering around 8:30 and were finished around 1:30.  We ended up leaving their house around 2 and made it home be 6.  The next morning JM went to work until noon and I packed up our stuff to head south.  We had our family christmas photoes in Carmi at 4.  Then we were done driving for awhile.  Thursday was our Thanksgiving feast at the Kautz household.  We were able to meet my cousin Ella Grace for the first time and Samantha was able to "play" with Jackson. He was pretty concerned about his train set but thankfully he had out his wood one and we were able to all play together.  Playing consisted of Samantha taking apart the wooden tracks and chewing on it and Jackson at first being concerned, then intrigued by how much STUFF she wanted to put in her mouth.  Then he got tickled at all the random stuff she tried to crawl and shove in her mouth AND that she could open up all drawers and cabinets.  The fun part came when I put her in her walked and let her zoom around the living and dining room.  When she is in the walker, no toes are safe.  NONE.  Jackson would help me turn her around and then off she would go.  I don't think she is going to walk first, she is going to RUN. 
Over the meals, Samantha had what we had!  and she loved it!  She had chunks of noodles, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread, stuffing, green beans, and even a few small pieces of meat.  She loves to eat like a big girl.  We are also eating the 3rd level of baby food, which has chunkier pieces in it.  My goal this week is to make more baby friendly meals so that Samantha can eat with us.  It is really hard to get out of the mind frame of her eating "baby food" and finding more baby friendly foods.  Add to that, I want to start her off "right". I want to give her the strong, healthy foundation of food.  That is why it really important to me to not give her over-processed, dye-infused, sugary foods.  If you start off not being addicted to the sugary junk in our American diet, her health will be better.  My brain already recognized the high that you get from eating "junk". I hope that I can help provide her with the ability to choose fruit over junk.

We are working on other words, like dadadada, but she just looks at you with this "I don't want to and I don't have to" kind of look. I really expected her to pick up talking very quickly because she's the only kid and we're ALWAYS talking.  However, maybe we talk too much?  But I don't think that's true because I always talk to her, ask questions, read books, etc.  I am now working on "where is your nose?"  She just looks at me like I'm crazy, or tries to rip mine off.  She is really bad about grabbing at people's faces.  I don't get it, but we're working "be nice".  She just thinks that it is funny. I half way wonder if it is because she gets attention when we say no so that is why she thinks its funny?  Who knows? I fear that I have that kid that says " go ahead. spank me.  it won't hurt."
Lord help us!

=)