Samantha....

A friend of mine wrote a post about her little boy who is a little older than Samantha. She reminded me that I have not written much about Samantha and Samantha is constantly changing. So here are some things about our youngest. (warning - long post ahead)

Samantha can almost say "Ali" - we figured that Alexandra might be a bit much for Samantha. Ali is pronounced A-ya. If Alexandra goes to preschool while Samantha is asleep, Samantha calls for her sister for a while after she wakes up. She is ready to play with her sister. Alexandra is part friend, part playmate, part rival - as it is with all sisters. Today we had to go buy another baby doll exactly like Alexandra's because Samantha wanted a "baby" and only one like her sister's would do. Samantha kept touching the doll in the bag and would say "baby." She really likes baby dolls. She gives them hugs and goes "Awww..."

Samantha has just started walking. She still can't decide if she really wants to or not. Crawling is much faster and she has to keep up with her sister. Alexandra moves fast. Samantha has found a comprise between walking and crawling - she walks on her knees. However, Samantha becomes more sure on her feet everyday. I am sure that she will running soon. She is also a huge climber. If we had steps, she would have mastered them at least a month ago. Anything is far game to climb on.

Samantha is also our nature girl. She adores going outside and touching everything. She gets upset if she can't touch all the bushes leading up to our door. If she is upset, we can just take her outside and let her touch a bush or a tree and she calms down. She loves the different textures of all the bushes and grass. Sometimes, Samantha will sit (or stand) at the back door and just watch all the activity in the woods behind our house. Samantha also is crazy about animals. I have the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? memorized and I think that she does too. We must read it once everyday. She likes doing the animal sounds. She is very good at woofing, mooing, and roaring.

Samantha astounds us with her vocabulary. She knows over twenty words. Most of them involve food. Samantha seems to learn a new word every few days. She also LOVES to read, especially lift-a-flap books and animal books.

There is SO much more that I could say about our little one. She is constantly changing, yet so much of her stays the same. She keeps us guessing and wondering at her. The pictures are from the end of February 09 to now (end of May 09). As always, click to make large and read the captions.