VOTE!

And you thought voting season was over!!

My sister's blog has been nominated for Professional Photographers Fresh Blog Contest and I REALLY want her to win! So please go here and vote for her. Her entry number is 0308.
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What are you waiting for...GO VOTE!

daycare

I love it and hate it at the same time.
This morning was a rough morning. Sam has a pretty gross runny nose and she HATES having it wiped, but I cannot just watch the snot run down her face and into her mouth! YUCK! So all morning I was wiping her nose against the worst squirming and screaming protest. She refused to eat breakfast, didn't want to be put down (which makes getting myself dressed very difficult), and threw little Sam tantrums every time I refused to let her play with certain items in the bathroom. I was reaching my patience limit with her and we had only been awake for an hour. She was just so fussy.
As I was putting my screaming child into the car to go to daycare I was thinking THANK GOD for Andrea because this is one of those days that going and sitting in my lonely, cold basement office sounds wonderful. When we got to daycare Sam could not have been more excited. She walked (with assistance) right over to Andrea, gave her the biggest smile and then when picked up hugged Andrea (head on shoulder) until I walked out the door.
While I was glad to be passing over my fussy child I was also really sad that she was clearly SO happy to see someone else. I didn't get a hug like that this morning. Was she as sick of me as I was of her? Does she lose her patience with me? I have never thought of it that way before.
I am hoping when I pick her up at noon this will be one of the few days when she is happy to see me and go home with me and NOT one of the days when she screams as we leave Andrea's house.

punishing

We have started punishing Sam. She throws her food on the floor and loves to watch the dog run in to eat it up. I hate that she does this and want to break her of it soon. So, we have started to scold her and slap her hand when she does it. The funny part is that Chris has a harder time with this than I do; which is the opposite from what we were expecting.
When we first got our dog Polly I could not punish her for anything. I spoiled her horribly, never yelled and never punished her. I hated putting her in her crate and was really bad at being authoritative with her. Chris and I have joked since Polly was little that when we had kids he was going to have to be the one that punished. That I would just say things like "You just wait till your father gets home!". But apparently I am better at punishing my child than I am at punishing my dog! I have mastered the hand slap. After only a few short days of sternly saying "Samantha we DO NOT throw food on the floor" and slapping her hand the amount of food that gets fed to the dog has drastically decreased! I am thrilled with the success but sad that my little baby has to start learning lessons and being told no. I have realized that once this begins there will only be more and more reasons for her to be punished (and if she turns out anything like me we are in for a long haul!). I think I will try to savor these days when it is just throwing food on the floor.

warm weather!

We have had several days now of "warm" weather! For us, in February, that means that it has actually gotten into the low 40s! Snow and ice are beginning to melt away and we have been able to go out of the house a few times.

We even found GRASS!!

And the puddles in our backyard (where the river use to be...) have thawed and opened up quite a bit more.

Saturday we also went to the 1st birthday party of a friend of ours Aiden! It was really fun to see Sam interact with all the little kids.

She loved the balloons!

This is Aiden the birthday boy.

They played really well together.

And Sam even got to participate in the ball toss game that Mel set up for all the kids. It was so cute.

The weekend was capped off with a great dinner out last night with friends, a bit of cards and then lots of house work today. It always makes me feel better about the coming week when the house is a little bit cleaner.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

someone asked for pictures!

I'll do you one better!






My sister inspired us to try our first art project...let's just say it did not go as well as I had hoped!


She looks just a little less than enthusiastic about the whole thing.
And she was way more interested in playing with the paper (throwing it, eating it, waving it around) then putting the paint on the paper!
But I forced her to make something kind of cute so family be watching your mailboxes next week for your first piece of SAM ART!

One Day (MORNING) and...

I ALREADY NEED A VACATION! I have only been home and with Sam for a few hours and I am ready to pull my hair out. She stayed up way too late last night and so her schedule is really thrown off. She wouldn't eat her normal big breakfast which meant that she was crying for a bottle way earlier than she should have been. She refused to play with any of her toys and wanted all of mine (computer, dishes, phone, remotes, etc.). She is crying over the slightest fall or drop to her bottom (which is does all the time since she is working on her walking).
She even cried when she couldn't pull her sock off BECAUSE IT WAS STILL ON HER FOOT AND SHE WAS STANDING! Ridiculous.
I had grand plans of doing laundry, unpacking, cleaning and a bit of relaxing today but I don't think much of that is going to happen. She is napping right now and I am too tired to do any of it. Rats.

I'm Back!

Blog world I have missed you!
I was so busy last week and since nothing really major happened to report on I did not ever do a post. Then I was gone all weekend. But I am home now and even though I still don't have anything major to report I decided I just NEEDED to come on and say hello.

I had a work conference this weekend and it was fabulous! I saw friends and colleagues that I have not seen in a while. Saw some great presentations. Went cross country skiing in some of the most beautiful country in Wisconsin. Watched lots of birds, tracked wolf tracks, found a porcupine den and thoroughly enjoyed the over 30 degree weather that we had on Saturday. Overall just a really great weekend.

Chris had Sam all weekend and it seems like they had a great time too! Their weekend included a grocery store trip, laundry, watching a volleyball tournament, going for a walk, baking a cake, a second trip to the grocery store and lots of playing.

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend!


A couple pictures that Chris took from their weekend...