What's New with Samantha

It's like "Toddler Boot Camp" around here. First off, potty training is working! Consistency is really paying off. When we are home, Samantha is in her Elmo or Yo Gabba Gabba panties and we have been very diligent about making her use the potty and half of the time she is asking to go on her own (the licorice and Hershey kisses are a huge draw). She is doing both #1's and #2's throughout the day on the potty and prefers to bring her potty out to the family room to do her business, privacy is apparently not a concern for her yet. The fact that we are going through half as many diapers a day is motivation for me to keep this going as well as the thought of having only one baby in diapers come February.

The other big news is that we got rid of the "MiMi" (pacifier). I actually wasn't too concerned about the pacifier because at 18 months we limited it to just nap time, bed time and car rides. We did not allow her to walk around in public with it and she has shown no signs that it was hindering her speech. I was getting a little concerned about her teeth but I can't tell if that is genetics (I was an orthodontist's dream with all the metal I had in my mouth growing up and Todd had braces too) or the pacifier making her have a little bit of an overbite. I realize she will lose her two front teeth but not until she is about 6 so I want to try and keep her teeth from moving anymore. What does concern me is that when the new baby comes I will give her/him a pacifier (the best invention ever) and I have visions of Samantha constantly taking it out of the babies mouth and putting it in her mouth. I just figured it would be easier to get rid of it now.

On Saturday I decided to clip the end off the "MiMi" for nap time. She was confused and kept saying it was "broken" and "get a new one" and "fix it". I told her Daddy would fix it when he got home. That seemed to be all she needed to hear. She sort of just held it and chewed on it. She struggled a little bit to go to sleep but it wasn't that bad.

Later that night we went to Laurie and Chris's for dinner and she wanted to take her broken "MiMi" with her to see if Chris could fix it (Todd had been out of town for work and she associates men with fixing things so Chris was next in line). Thankfully, Chris was no help and Laurie beat the pacifier with a meat tenderizer in front of her which made her laugh :)

I have explained to her that "MiMi's" are for babies and I list off all her friends that don't use them. And I tell her that we can give hers to the new baby. She has even taken hers and put it in my belly button :)

It's day 4 and she has not asked for it and has gone to bed just fine. I can honestly say that I was dreading the day I had to take away the pacifier and was hoping that she would wean herself off of it rather than me taking it away. It has been a way easier transition than I thought it would be. She just doesn't really seem to care. I think I cared more.

The other new thing with Samantha is her nap time. She now naps from about 2pm to 5pm, THREE hours! Basically when she gets up from her nap it's time to get ready for dinner and then the bedtime routine. She still is going to bed around 9 PM which is the same as when she was napping earlier and she wakes up at about 7:30 each morning.

Here are some photos to embarrass her with when she is older:

Party Party!

Our December has been filled with lots of fun celebrations. We attended Chris and Laurie Stone's 5 year anniversary party at Stella Mare's a couple weeks ago. It was such a great evening.

The celebration continued the following week when Chris and Laurie renewed their vows at the Santa Barbara Courthouse. I was honored that Chris and Laurie asked me to attend their private ceremony. I did have a job to serve as photo stylist and baby wrangler, but that job was easy since they looked good already and Connor was more than cooperative, so basically I got to be the honorable guest :)

The other celebration was Holley's annual Holiday Party. Holley can cook, entertain and throw a party better than anyone I know. Our friends Nick and Maria came up from LA to attend the party as well and stayed with us. It was so great to see both of them and have them meet Samantha.

And yes, I am wearing the same dress at all three events. It's hard to find something nice to wear when you are 7 months pregnant!

Big News on #2

No not Baby #2 but Samantha did her first #2 in the potty tonight!! And she has been very consistent on going #1 about once daily (and we have been very consistent on making her try). I know we still have a ways to go but I really feel like we are progressing finally with how much interest she is showing in wanting to use the potty. She definitely is associating getting treats with going potty because now she will say, "Treats. Take my pants off. Diaper off. Go Potty." I don't care that we are starting off our mornings with Hershey Kisses or Licorice, we are on a roll!!

Next step is to try putting her in panties (while we are at home). I found some Yo Gabba Gabba panties the other day. Who would want to have an accident on DJ Lance?

Holiday at the Ranch

We went to 'Holiday at the Ranch' at the Stowe House in Goleta this afternoon. Samantha went on a supervised date with Connor. They danced to live Christmas music, made gingerbread shaped sugar cookies and crafted fancy ornaments. The highlight of the afternoon were the "Rein-Goats".

Santa Claus was also there but Samantha cried, "No Santa!" over and over the closer we got to him so we decided not to traumatize her by making her sit on his lap. On the other hand, Connor was excited to see Santa but being the gentleman that he is, he did not make fun of his date for being afraid and showed no signs of disappointment when we skipped the long line to see him.

How cute are these two?

Tick Tock

Let the countdown begin! I am already a couple weeks into the 3rd trimester. When I told Todd this he asked, "Is that the last one?" TRI-mester Todd, there are only 3! Maybe he still needs the Baby Books for #2!

Despite bouts of insomnia (I guess this is preparing me in advance for the sleepless nights), heartburn and a bit of pain right around where my belly button is, I feel pretty good. I am still working out but I am getting weird looks from some people especially in Spinning Class. I am not that graceful trying to get situated on the bike and my knees are basically tapping my stomach each time I pedal but I am not ready to slow down just yet.

I think we better start getting serious on baby names. The hard part about not knowing for sure whether it is a Boy or a Girl is that you can't just focus on names for one gender. And although we are (well at least I am) confident that it is a girl, we better come up with a boy name just in case.

Grandma's Girl

Both Samantha and I have been very lucky lately, Dancing Grandma has been helping us out A LOT by watching Samantha quite a bit lately.

Here she is playing the piano at Grandma's (she looks so big in these pictures!) and thanks Isabella for the cute sweatsuit.

Checking out Grandma's Christmas Tree and holding on to her new makeup that Grandma bought her. Apparently she would not let go of the makeup and even slept with it.

Here she is showing me how to put eyeshadow on.

Thank you Grandma :)

2 Year Checkup

We had Samantha's 2 year checkup the other day and boy was it a disaster. Samantha definitely knows the difference between going to the doctor for Mommy's baby and going to the pediatrician. As soon as we approached the parking lot she freaked out.

She cried for 90% of the appointment and she didn't even need any shots! Todd and I basically had to pin her down to let the doctor do anything. The only stats we got for her was her weight because Todd was able to get on the big kid scale with her and then he got on alone and we subtracted her weight from his.

So we know Samantha weighs in at 25 pounds which is the 30%. We are going to do her height at home but I am guessing she is in the upper percentile for height. She is long and lean.

The only time she stopped crying was to say, "I want a lollipop now please!" This prompted the doctor to comment on how great her vocabulary was for her age. However, the doctor wasn't very amused and said she could have a lollipop after her finger prick to test for anemia (I was a little taken back by this - I normally just give her one or two lollipops anytime throughout the appointment just to make her quiet). The doctor even suggested we reschedule for another time when she was more calm. I highly doubt she would be any calmer on another day, she just doesn't like going to the doctor.

We basically left with instructions that Samantha should be on a better nap/sleep schedule, she should be potty trained before the new baby arrives (which is less than 3 months away) and how to handle "time-outs" better. Both Todd and I didn't agree with a lot of what the doctor had to say and when we found out the doctor isn't even a parent them self we have decided to switch pediatricians again (hopefully third times a charm). There is something about a pediatrician not having kids of their own that just seems off to me, they just can't possibly understand what it is like to be a parent no matter how much schooling they have had or how many patients they have seen. And I know some of you are thinking this is an unfair judgement as there are plenty of doctor's out there that haven't experienced the medicine they practice firsthand but in my mind I feel this is at least one instance where having the actual experience makes a difference.

Since I don't want this post to be entirely negative I thought I would share a major positive. Samantha took a record 4 hour+ nap yesterday and still went to bed relatively early that night.

How's that for a sleep schedule doctor?! :)

Here is what sleeping beauty looked like when she woke up. Bed head is an understatement!

We are going to start getting serious about the potty training though. How fabulous would that be to not have two kids in diapers!!! I will keep you all posted on our progress.