Dinner Date

Samantha and Connor had a dinner date

The menu consisted of carrots, avocado, pasta, cheerios and green beans

The dress code was "Clothing Optional"

8 Months Old

Samantha is 8 months old today! Here is what's new with Samantha:

- She pulls herself up to standing and has begun to cruise around. This makes it particularly challenging in the bath tub as well as in her crib. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, she will now hold onto the railings and walk around her crib. It is pretty difficult trying to get her to go back to sleep. Here she is demonstrating her crib pull-up:

-She may be a track star one day. She likes to hurdle the exersaucer. I am pretty jazzed about this trick as this toy has been the best investment we have made. Not only will she still sit in it and spin around to play with the toys, she will eat a snack in it, cruise around it and then hurdle it. Here is a video:

- She LOVES books. We have a bookshelf in our house that provides hours of entertainment. She pulls the books off the shelf, turns the pages, eats the pages, eats the pages, and eats the pages.

-Lollipop has become her best buddy. When she was first born, I was so hesitant about all the affection Lollipop was giving her (kisses all over), but both Todd and I have relaxed on the issue. Lollipop is very motherly to Samantha and now that Samantha is mobile, they will often wrestle a toy together or chase each other. Samantha has also learned how to push Lollipop away when she has had enough. Here is some footage of the two of them:

-Samantha loves the beach. I found the beach a bit challenging in the beginning - lugging all the gear, setting up "camp", trying to keep her from eating sand, getting her to take a nap at the beach, lugging all the gear back up to the car. Now, I have relaxed more...I pop a pacifier in her mouth to keep her from eating sand and I let her go at it.

-Samantha loves play dates (so do I). Here are a few shots of her with some of her best friends:

Isabella and Reese

Jak

Rick Jr.

Connor

-Her second bottom tooth has come in and now her smile is so darn cute!

-The sleep training is working (for the most part). The only issue is that she wakes up WAY TOO EARLY! And it does not matter if she goes to bed at 5:30 PM or 10:30 PM, she still wakes up between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM and there is NO getting her back to sleep. When she is up, she is up to play.

"I'm up Mom and Dad - Let's Play!"

-She likes phones, keys, remote controls, shoes, water bottles, plants, laptops, sunglasses, Lollipop's water dish, cords and any other items she should not be playing with or worse, chewing on!

-She does this funny thing where she crawls crawls crawls then she will stop, look over her shoulder and pose.

-Samantha is a big fan of Costco. She loves going up and down the aisles and eating the occasional sample. And then when we get home she helps me unpack everything and is happy to crawl around the kitchen with one of the empty boxes or other fun packaging we get from there.

-Samantha loves her daddy. She is with me most of the day so when Todd comes home she is beside herself with happiness.

Sam and Lolly

Here is what I deal with each time I feed Samantha. Lollipop bobs up and down from every possible angle around her chair waiting for a morsel of food. Samantha giggles at the dog and feeds her cheerios. I know I should probably separate the two of them during mealtime but Lollipop is part of the family and Samantha gets such a kick out of her. Plus, I love the fact that there is less to clean up because Lollipop does the vacuuming!

Bath Time

Every night before bed, Samantha has her bath. She loves bath time and gets so excited when I pull out the baby bath tub and turn on the water.

July Fun!

We had a great 4th of July at the beach and Samantha managed to stay up and watch fireworks. That was her last hurrah of staying up late as we have decided to implement a bedtime for Samantha, sometime between 5:30 PM and 8 PM depending on when she gets up in the morning. We are hoping to alleviate the "up every 3 hours routine" that has started to happen for the past few months and are using the book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" to help us. The book is based on the theme that Sleep Begets Sleep. This means at least 2 naps for Samantha and an early bedtime. We are on day 3 and we are seeing some definite improvement. The first night she woke up 3 times in the middle of the night, the 2nd night only 1 time, and she is sound asleep right now (bedtime at 6:00 PM) and I am hoping she goes all through the night!!!

The weekend continued with a bbq/pool party at Holley's house and then Tuesday was Todd's birthday. And today was the last day of YellowBird Music Class for Samantha.

Here are some pics:

Todd surfing Miramar

Does this look like a guy who just turned 40?

Hanging with Daddy at the BBQ

We color coordinated for the party

Yes, Todd is eating a cake that serves 50.

Samantha and Isabella at Yellowbird

What's Going On With The House?

Friends and family have been inquiring about the progress of the house. Todd has been working extremely hard - working all day in Calabasas on a Fallon Artistic project and then going directly to the new house in Santa Barbara in the evening and on the weekends. We can't wait to show everyone the AFTER pictures in a couple months and have a housewarming party!

Here are a few pictures of the progress:

The backyard is piling up with plaster and lath boards that Todd is removing from all the walls. The removal of this will make way for new drywall throughout the house.

This will be the dining room. The built-in cabinets have been torn out and eventually there will be french doors leading out to a back deck.

This used to be a small laundry room but we are turning it into a half bath.

Todd standing proud in the kitchen which has been completely gutted. A wall has been knocked out to create a more open kitchen. The future kitchen will have all new appliances, cabinets, and a peninsula. I can't wait to have a nice new kitchen!!!

Finally A Tooth!

Samantha got her first tooth today. A bottom tooth has broke through. We have been blaming any fussiness she has on teething since she was 3 months old......maybe we were jumping the gun.