Sunday Night Ramblings

Today I had the thought that I should update my blog. But, about what? Nothing really exciting has happened this week. A moment later I realized that some great things had happened! I had just taken them for granted. So here I am, 9 pm on Sunday night, remembering a great week.

First of all, Jonathan had his first residency interview this week. That is a big deal because it means that very soon Jonathan will have a paying job. This week he interviewed here in Phoenix but he has 12 more interviews all over the country. He will be interviewing for the next 3 months. We are going to cancel some of them, just because we don't have the money to fly him all over and pay for his car rental and hotel. But it is a relief to know that so many programs think he is a good applicant. Jonathan is going to do a MD residency, which means we will have to go through the match process (it's a complicated process that I'll explain later when I'm not tired) so we won't find out where we're going until March. But we do know that Jonathan graduates on May 15th, on his 30th birthday. We are going to have a big party this year!

And now Janie is a bona fide crawler. She can get anywhere fast. And it seemed like it happened over night. She had been teetering for a while and now she is fast and loving it. For some reason she wants to crawl through tight places, like between the chair and the desk and gets frustrated when it's hard. She loves to get to Sami's toys and for the most part Sami is a great sport. She is pretty good at sharing. When she's not so good at sharing, Janie starts growling. If a hear a low growl, I know trouble is about to start and I had better intervene before one or both are crying.

And lastly, I have been thinking a lot lately how blessed I am to have my two beautiful little girls. They are both miracle babies in my life, and I try not to take either one of them for granted. I think it's so cool that they are so different yet so alike. And they love each other so much. It's amazing to me how Heavenly Father gave me all of the maternal love and maternal instincts for Sami as soon as she was born. I remember when we were in NC right after she was born, while she was still in the hospital, that I had a dream about her and I wanted to go to the hospital right then and hold her. And then when I had Janie, I realized that I felt exactly the same about them both, it didn't matter a bit that Sami wasn't in my tummy for nine months. They are both my daughters, gift from a loving Heavenly Father. And from a loving birth mom and her family (who I will love and be grateful for every day of this life and the next life). My life wouldn't be complete without either one of my daughters. I hope Heavenly Father has more spirits waiting to come to our family, but if that isn't in His plan for us, I'll forever thank Him for the two beautiful spirits that I get to spend every day with now. I am so blessed.

And so I end my Sunday night ramblings with my favorite picture of Janie. Last week, my sweet friend Kristen took our family photos. She is in the editing process right now but she sent me this picture of Janie right away because she said it was too darling. I agree.

Sami called me Mama!

Samantha has been talking for months and months. She can say huge words like Einstein (as in Baby Einstein, the most beloved dvds), and Grandpa, and lots and lots of little words like sissy (that's what she calls Janie), oval, baby, cat, etc. Whenever she hears the garage door open, she says "Dada" and runs to Jonathan. But she has never called me mama...until this week! One time I told Jonathan that I wished she would call me mom, but he pointed out that she is always with me and she gets my attention by saying other things like "help me" or "please," or by whining or pointing, or tapping. True. She always has been very good about getting my attention. But I wanted her to say Mama. So I tried teaching her. I would point to myself and say mama. Then she would point to herself and say mama, so I didn't try too hard after that. But she just started calling me mama on Monday and I LOVE it! Now she'll be coloring and say "Mama" and I come running saying "Yes, dear?" I know that soon I will be tired of hearing "Mama, mama," all day, but for now I relish it.

Sami's newest favorite thing is her little table. I found her some little chairs at a yard sale and then we got this little table at IKEA for $8. She sits at her table for 20-30 minutes at a time. It's great. I have two folding chairs so I hope Janie will enjoy coloring with her sister soon.

It just cracks me up how flexible babies are. I went in to check on Janie recently and found her in this position: her head is resting on her legs. I know she was playing in her crib and got tired and just decided to rest her heavy head.

Now that Janie is a mover, she loves playing in her crib. I find her in all places and positions. I'm glad she likes her crib and when I hear her playing in the wee early morning hours, I just turn off the baby monitor :).

Smarty Pants

One of my most favorite things about being a mom is watching my kids learn and seeing them develop. I am constantly amazed at how much they absorb and how well they imitate.

Sami is a little mommy. She loves taking care of her "baby." She is constantly trying to feed Janie or help me out in some other way. I get such a kick when Sami is trying to pick up Janie and move her somewhere. They are only about 5 pounds apart, but Sami really tries to move her.

Sami loves shapes. She can do a 12 piece shape sorter and tell you almost all the shapes. She loves the star, heart, and oval the best. She knows the difference between an oval and a circle and a square and a rectangle, to which I give most of the credit to Baby Einstein DVDs. She will point out the shapes in books. The other day I was getting Janie in the car and Sami noticed that there was a circle on the window roller-upper thingy. She is learning her colors, but right now everything is yellow, and she says it perfectly. Counting is coming along pretty good too. She says "one, two, five." We'll get there.



My favorite thing Sami does is tell me that she loves me. It comes out like "I wuv oo." That makes my heart melt. What doesn't make my heart melt so much is when she tells me no. This just started happening when we were in Nebraska. And for a while she was in time out a lot for telling me no when I had asked her to do something. I just dread disciplining her. I want to pretend like I didn't hear it, but then I hear in mind "randomly reinforced behaviors are the strongest." And then I try and make myself discipline her. I usually have to make her do what I asked her to do in the first place, like pick up her crayons, then she has to go to time out, with protests all along the way. She has such a strong will. I'm sure she'll need that determination to get through the trials she'll face, especially since the world is getting crazier, so her independence is a good thing. But it is a bit challenging when we both want different things. I guess you could say that the "twos" have officially started in our house.

And Janie is almost crawling! She is soooo close! She rocks back and forth and will go forward just a little...and then fall on her stomach. She is really good at scooting and rolling. I can just see in her little face how badly she wants to run around with Sami. She is at my favorite infant stage: she sleeps through the night and I can always find her where I left her. But not for long.