big news...

Sam slept through the night!!!

For the first time ever Sam slept from 7:00pm until 5:30am. Now I know that may seem early to some but at 5:30am she ate and then went back to bed so really her day began at 7:45am when she was really ready to be up. But if her day had started at 5:30 I would still consider that a full night of sleep and a small victory. Now the funny part about this is that I was so uncomfortable from not having fed her that by 2:30 I was wide awake, soaking wet and had to get up and pump. I was worried that she would wake up and need to eat at any minute so I didn't pump that much, just enough to make me comfortable, but I still had to be up for 20 minutes or so dealing with that. So even though Sam slept through the night I did not; oh well that will come.

And for your viewing pleasure my new beautiful nephew...

Cousins in diapers...what could be cuter.

All four grandchildren!

Grandma trying to get all four grandchildren happy and ready to smile.

The Allen kids
An 18 month olds smile...priceless.

no more pulling hair!

The long hair for me was just not working out anymore. Sam's little fingers seemed to find it every time I was holding her and boy could she hold on! So I decided enough was enough and I got a hair cut!

Aren't we a cute pair?

Schedule

Someone PLEASE tell me how to get my daughter on a schedule that works for more than just her. Someone PLEASE tell me is it better to let babies sleep when they are tired and seem to need to sleep or keep them up so they sleep when they are suppose to sleep. This is just too hard.
Right now Sam naps in the morning, then by 12:30 or 1:00 she wants to nap again for about an hour. Another nap is then wanted around 3:00 and this one can last as long as 3 hours or so. But when she takes that long nap, which she seems to want and need she doesn't go to bed until late. The long late nap also means that Chris only gets to see her while we are trying to get dinner done and she gets fussy before bed. He gets home from work around 3:30 and would like for Sam to be awake and happy so that he can spend some time with her before she goes to bed. I understand his wants and would love for him to have at least a couple of hours in the evening to see her when she is happy. Right now he only seems to get her during the sleepy, fussy times; but is that normal for the working parent? At what age do babies normally start taking the regular morning nap and afternoon nap and stop just sort of sleeping whenever they want? At what point is there a designated nap time and they just know they have to sleep at that time? Someone PLEASE tell me that this schedule thing gets easier soon cause right now it is driving me nuts!

Okay enough complaining, here is Sam after a little while in the Jumperoo. She tends to get tired after a little bit and her head rests on the cushion. Just today she started actually sucking on the cushion! Turn the volume up...the noises and determination on her little face are priceless.

My Grandpa's River

So this spring right before Sam was born I lost my grandfather and grandmother in two weeks. My grandpa had been fighting cancer in many different organs for about seven years. He lost the battle this spring when the cancer went to his brain and he was just too exhausted from the brain radiation and actually aspirated his morning eggs. So I guess technically it wasn't the cancer that killed him but the eggs! My grandmother had dementia and had not been herself for sometime and she just seemed to know that it was time to go two weeks to the day after grandpa had died.
Anyway, why I am bringing this up you ask?
Well, yesterday as I was changing some things in my profile I realized that you could search for other blogs by clicking on the interests that you list in your own blog (a pretty cool feature, try it!) and I came across a blog that really struck me. So I felt I needed to write about it.
When my grandpa was younger he floated the entire length of the Missouri river, starting at the headwaters. He always called it "His River" and would constantly ask me "What are you doing to save my river?". He was concerned about all the dams that had been built and about all the pollution that was now in the river. I never really knew that much about what was going on with the Missouri River so I always nervously smiled and told him that I would see what I could do. I always felt kind of bad that I really never did anything for "his river".
So yesterday I found the answer. The Missouri River Relief is an amazing organization working to clean up and maintain the ENTIRE Missouri River. I checked out the blog and got excited. Although it is probably not something I can do right now, someday, someday hopefully soon, I would love to get involved with this organization somehow so that I can finally have an answer for my grandpa. I would love to be able to tell him when I see him again what I did to help save "his river".

Okay, pictures and discussion of the amazing weekend in St. Louis will be coming soon but for now I will leave you with a few pictures of Sam and the family (no pictures of Grayson yet, my new adorably wonderful nephew, to see him go to my sister's blog www.jodified.typepad.com).

Samantha playing with cousin Parker and PawPaw.

Sam and Pawpaw napping together.
More pictures to come soon!

JUMPEROO!

So I guess I didn't realize that videos could not be rotated like pictures can (MORON!) so this is sideways. hahahaha But it is still a cute look at Sam as she experiences the Jumperoo for the very first time. Her little feet are just barely touching the ground but she was so happy to just play and sit there watching the blinking lights yesterday. So cute.

cute bad habit

There are so many new things that Sam is learning to do. Hopefully soon I will catch all of them on camera but here is one new "skill".

It was time

Chris was finally convinced that it was time and WE CUT HER HAIR! Okay not all of it, just the mullet that my sister claimed Samantha was growing. But it was a big step for us. So take a look at the progress and the after picture (I forgot to get a good before picture, but if you look back through the blog I am sure you can find a picture of the hair somewhere!).
Don't you just love her little toes sticking out of the bumpo!

We know its not perfect but it certainly an improvement and looks much better.
And take a look at her new skills and her new toys!

Seriously?

I thought I was having flashbacks...I thought life had suddenly lapsed back in time...and I certainly thought hell had frozen over when I heard the guy on the radio say that next up would be a song from NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK!! Seriously? Their back? But yes, they are in deed back. I looked it up on YouTube and the song is horrible! Ahhh, just like old times!

Go check it out and see for yourself or better yet just tune your radio to your local pop music station and they are bound to pop up!

Two month visit

Sam had her two month doctor's visit on Monday afternoon. She is more than two months old I know but we got a great Pediatrician who just happens to be very popular so she is very busy. Anyway I just wanted to update all the family on how Samantha is doing.

She got a full exam and everything looked great. They measured her head and she is in the 95% for head size. The measured her height and she is 23 3/4 inches tall and in the 95% for height. And they weighed her; she weighs 12lbs 10 oz and is in the 90% for weight. So the results are in...Sam is a big girl! But they say she is normal and healthy. They even told me that she doesn't have even the hint of a flat head! That was a relief for me.

She also got a whole serious of immunizations. I have never heard her scream like that but she calmed down fairly quickly afterward and has had no fever or major issues from the shots.

The big news for me was that on July 25 we go back for her four month visit. After that visit she can start eating cereal! The doc says that once she is on cereal she will need to breast feed a lot less. So my new goal is to make it with the breast feeding until that visit. Not saying I will quit then, just pushing myself to make it to that visit. Can't wait to see her eat cereal!

All in all it was a good visit and Sam did great.

Our Weekend

Here are a few of the best photos from the weekend with the Enlund family.

Meet Uncle Carl.
Well, he will be Uncle Carl in September.

Don't you just love those lips? And could that little double chin be any more adorable?

Do you see Sam's bizarre colic and bald spot?
It was a great weekend with a wonderful wedding shower for Lori and Carl.

Okay, apparently being the winner of the contest this morning is catching up with me...time to go to bed.

I beat my sister!

It's not often that I can say I beat my sister at much of anything, but this morning I beat her. In the contest of who's daughter woke them up earlier, I beat her! While she was still sound a sleep at 4:45 I was attempting to get my little Samantha to take her pacifier and go back to sleep. That failed so we got up, she ate, and I watched Army Wives (which by the way is an amazing show on Lifetime; I know I know Lifetime?, but it really is a great show about a whole section of our society that I know very little about, military families). So, Jodie while I feel for you that you were awake at 5:00am I BEAT YOU!

This is not a contest I would like to win again.

Also, could everyone please pray, keep their fingers crossed and/or think good thoughts that Grayson Richard Allen decides to enter the world today or sometime very soon. My sister NEEDS for the false labor and crazy series of contractions that she has been having for the last two and a half months to finally come to an end. And I don't think my mother can handle any more labor scares. He just needs to be ready to be born already.

My camera/computer connection is not functioning properly this morning so I can't get the pictures from our weekend up here yet but stay tuned for some pictures and to meet Uncle Carl!

Happy Friday!

What a week it has been...

went back to work and that is great. I jumped right back into things at the office and have several big projects I am already tackling for the organization. Sam is doing great for the nanny. It is amazing how much I miss her after just a few short hours.

I put a swim suit on this week!! YUCK! I had to do a lifeguard/waterfront training for the camp that I use to work for which required me in a swimsuit. I have some work to do on this body before that becomes a regular thing. It would also be nice if this stupid dark brown line that runs down the length of my stomach would go away. I have been told that it will fade over time but so far it is as dark as it was when Sam was born.

Today I am trying to get us all ready to run out of the house and hit the road as soon as Chris gets home for work. We are headed to Bloomington, IL to see Chris's family. His sister is having a wedding shower this weekend and all kinds of out of town family will be coming in for the event. Should be a lot of fun but it means I have a very busy day.

Hope you all have a great weekend and just because I can here are a few cute photos of Sam to enjoy.

Okay, gotta get packing!

Nap time

During a fabulous nap-time today I got motivated!

Here is the front of our house.

It did not look like that before nap-time. I ripped out five of the worst bushes that were ever created. They were red, thorny, barberry bushes. They were bad for us on so many levels; thorns suck, their branches are weak and constantly break under the weight of snow, they had overgrown the area and were killing off the grass. So now they are gone. I love that you can actually see our front door, but I don't know what to do with the area. This is where you all come in .

Here are my questions, concerns and issues with the front of my house. Please ignore the butchered bushes that are still there; I hacked them to pieces last fall and they are just starting to come back, but we like those and can't afford to replace everything. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, or advice.

In the picture below you will see the mulched area where the bushes use to be. I would like to plant something in that area that will flower, spread quickly and stay low to the ground. It is a partially shady area but does get full sun for a portion of the day. We have a lot of hostas around other areas in our yard; I don't want more hostas. Any other suggestions?

OR


Do you think it would look better to eliminate that rounded out portion of the garden all together and return that area to grass? We could simply have the mulched, landscaped portion end right in line with the retaining wall. Is it weird to have the sidewalk just end at the yard? Or would that be better and easier that planting something else there?I am also thinking that a bench and large flower pot of some kind would look good right in front of that small retaining wall in the picture above. It would be a little sitting area right in front of our front door. What do you think?

Another issue that I have is a planter box that is to the right of the picture above. It is directly to the left of the front door (in the first picture) and right behind that white column that has the address numbers on it. Nothing seems to grow in that planter box. We have tried different types of flowering annuals, they die. We have tried shade friendly ferns, they die. It gets really no sun and because it is in a bricked in box has limited water and nutrients. Can anyone think of something that would look good in this box, either alive or something else? I will take any suggestions.

Okay, I stink at landscaping and knowing what to plant where so please let me know what you think! Thanks!