Some Easter pics without tears or a creepy bunny...

Sit tight. Here comes a photo dump :) Did a little home photo shoot with my girl...

And a special shout out to Sam's Nana (my mom) and Papa (my stepdad), as today is their 10th wedding anniversary!!! They are such good people and just perfect together. We love them very much!!

"The bunny's not funny."

says Sam!

Tina, eat the FOOD!

Napoleon Dynamite quote anyone?? No..okay...now I feel silly....anyways...

I am looking for food suggestions for my girl! Meal time has become somewhat of a struggle and she is spitting a lot of the new foods out! I know this is just part of the process as they are all new tastes and textures. However, I would be lying if I said I wasn't going CRAZY over her weight gain or lack thereof. After our visit to the doctor's last week, where we found out she was not gaining enough, I am now really worried!! I just want her to eat :( At this point, I am fine giving her the stuff she loves over and over, just so she eats! That would be pasta and eggs. I think she is starting to love grapes now as well. I find myself preparing too much for her to eat..just to have choices to give her in case she won't eat anything. She does like green veggies too. Tried avocado but she wasn't a fan really. And she was eating green table food veggies, but eats more if I give her the puree. I even tried soy nut butter on some bread. Wasn't too crazy about it. So if any of you have faces these issues and have any tips, I am all ears!!! This week we are on her trial run mixing formula with whole milk and next week starts all whole milk if there are no reactions. The doc said we could try pedia sure next week too. Which I think we are going to do to help her pack on some pounds! Although, I am afraid she won't eat that either! Help!

Oh, hi.

(Blowing off some dust and tapping on screen) Hello? Anyone still there?

I have been a horrible blogger lately and totally sucky at commenting too! Sorry about that. Life is super busy with a very active (and awesome!) ONE year old!! Add babysitting a 3 month old full time into the mix and things get even more busy! Excuses...excuses...I know...

So I think I owe you all a one year update on my princess. She is doing great! My last post was a recap of her 1st birthday party. Which was a blast. While planning her party I kept saying "Next year we are not doing all this hoopla..it's too much..it's too stressful!" However, I am already getting excited about her 2nd birthday next year. Won't do anything crazy, but you bet your ass we are going to want to celebrate our precious girl's birthday!! The tough thing about a March birthday is it has to be inside! And being since it's almost April and we might get more snow next week, we can't ever really count on nice weather for March.

What's new with Miss Samantha? Lots! This girl does not stay still for more than a few seconds. She is GO GO GO literally from the minute she opens her eyes in the morning. Like seriously, she opens her eyes and jumps up with a smile and is ready to MOVE! She is all over the place and into everything! Which makes for a busy mommy, but secretly I love to watch her explore everything!! She will be walking very soon I think. She stands on her own a lot and walks by pushing toys around. I really think in the next few weeks we might see some real first steps! She has a few words: Mama, Dada, Hi (which sounds super cute) and we swear she says "yea." As in if I ask her if she wants to eat dinner or take a bath she'll say "yea!" She loves to pull things out of boxes or laundry baskets and put them back. I am grateful for this sometimes because it keeps her in one spot for a minute! She can follow some simple directions like " Where is your cup? Go get your cup!" or "Where is your book? Go get your book." She is giving kisses and hugs now when we ask for them. She loves bath time still! We have expanded her bath toy collection (thanks to auntie k!) so it's fun to watch her splash and play. She also loves to "brush" her teeth.

Her favorite book is this Sesame Street Bubbles book from the dollar section at Target that my mom got her! She loves it! She is getting better at sharing Mommy with her new baby friend Alex who I babysit. She was quite jealous at first but now I think she is enjoying having another baby around. Most of the time :)

Sleep is a little better but still not great! She is now taking a morning and afternoon nap which is fantastic. However, she only sleeps about half the night in her crib and then she is in bed with us or out in the living with us in a rock and play. I know this so bad the co-sleeping thing, but hey desperate times call for desperate measures. It's working for us right now anyways. And to be honest with you, I kind of love have her sleep in bed. But I definitely do not want to make it a habit and have her 4 years old and sleeping with us. Plus, right now she has a big tooth coming in. And she starting putting herself on her stomach to sleep which I think she loves, but her sleep is more restless. It's weird.

Still has the 6 chompers! But another big one on it's way! Meal time has officially become a project  interesting! We have been trying more table food as she wants to be more independent but finding foods she actually loves has been hard! In the last few weeks we have been experimenting and it's not going to so great. She LOVES noodles though. And her scrambled eggs. And of course a sweet love for Cheerios. Green veggies too. So noodles and green veggies are always on standby since most dinners lately are a fail. She LOVES drinking water from her sippy cup!

She had her one year physical this past week and we were so sad to find out that she had only gained about 3 oz in a few months! She is 16lbs 4oz. And 26 1/2 inches long. So now we are on operation "fatten Sam up." And she has a weight check in a few weeks. This scares me to think she might become dangerously underweight!! I know she is a peanut but still. Part of this is because she's so active now, but I was surprised still because she had been eating a lot more than before! So we definitely thought she gained. Her doc is easing her into whole milk since she was on soy formula. So for the next week or so we are trying it out by doing half formula/half whole milk. She seems to be doing fine so I would expect in another week she will completely be on whole milk. So the doc said just to feed her a lot of high calorie foods. Thank God she likes pasta. And we tried avocado tonight. Which she ate some of but wasn't over the moon about. He also said that if she does fine with the milk, maybe trying some pedia sure. Which I think we will do. Going to try some ice cream too :) The doctor is pleased with her development though.He wants to see her walking in the next 3 months, but other than that she is "on track" with everything else, even a little ahead in some areas. Her scar from her surgery is still very red and big but looks SO much better. And the doc said he knows it may not look great to us, that it is healing beautifully!!

Overall, our girl is doing well. We can't even deal with how much we love her! Her laugh, her smile...just everything about her is sunshine to us! Even the cranky moments! I especially love watching her face light up when her Daddy comes through the door after work! It's so cute!

We have decided to the do the March of Dimes walk in May to support the NICU. Without the NICU, we may not have been able to come home with a baby girl. So I feel it's important that we show support! Two other babies that were in the NICU with her and their families are walking that day also. So it will be a reunion!

Hopefully, I'll post again before she is two! ha!

Easter is just around the corner. Hoping to take her to the creepy mall Easter Bunny for a picture this week. It's like a right of passage.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

On this day last year I was (painfully) waddling my 9 days post c-section self to my brother and sister-in-law's wedding! I remember it was SO difficult leaving her in the NICU. I still was feeling awful and all we could think about was our poor little peanut at the hospital.

But this year our wee lass is a big girl now!

We attended a parade party at my brother and sis-in-law's house yesterday. Samantha's 1st parade!

Handprint shamrock craft I did with the girls!

An empty box? No fair!

Irish puppy that her papa got her at the parade

Cutie

Up on Daddy's shoulders

Bagpipers

Sitting on Nana's lap and watching the parade

Samantha's 1st Birthday Party!

Samantha's party was so much fun!! Here is a glimpse of her day! One year update post coming soon...

It's  my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Never really got a good pic of her birthday outfit but it was sooo cute! I ordered it through a local boutique. Her shirt had a number one and an Elmo on it with her name across it. And a matching tutu with polka dot bow. There was also a matching party hat to match the shirt and tutu!

Elmo's faves! Goldfish and crayon favors! And yes, that is a real goldfish there...

Sesame street board books from Target dollar bins! And my SIL in the background...

Samantha and her Mema (my MIL) and her new Minnie Mouse from Auntie LaLa

Land of Nod anywhere chair from her Nana and Papa!

Polka dot balloons? Yes please!

LOVED her cake! Matched the invite perfectly! 

Her monthly pics banner...

Smash cake...that didn't get smashed! ha She wasn't feelin' it...

Snack table

Oscar's Trash toss game

Sign for front door

Elmo balloon! Dollar store! She loved it.

Invite :) It says "Can you tell me how to get to Samantha's First Birthday Party?" And then at the bottom it says " This party has been brought to you by the letter S and the number 1."

Loving a mini cherry cupcake on her actual birthday!

Make a wish baby girl!