Sam's First Halloween!

Last year we stayed home to pass out candy and were sorely disappointed to find that no one really trick-or-treats around our neighborhood. We only had one family come by the whole night. So this year, we took the whole family down to Atlanta for Halloween. My sister lives in a great family neighborhood (otherwise referred to as a suburb) where there are TONS of kids and her neighbor across the street does up his whole house for Halloween. The combination of these factors means that trick-or-treating is wild at her house. We headed down early Friday afternoon to get the full feel of the night.

Sam had a cute Halloween outfit on all day.

And Grandma Hughes had on a festive Halloween outfit too.

During the evening, we sat at the end of my sister's driveway handing out candy and drinking beer. In her neighborhood, the adults walk around with beer and wine while their kids are trick-or-treating. That's definitely my style! We didn't take Sam around to any houses but we showed her off to everyone that came up to my sister's driveway. As you can see, she made a quite adorable bear.

Rosco was dressed up as a hot dog - pretty fitting for a dog that only stands about 6 inches off the ground but extends back like 18 inches! The kids in the neighborhood loved his costume. He, on the other hand, simply stood there staring at us with the "are you finished yet?" look on his face. Not being masochists, we didn't make him wear the costume too long. Just long enough to get a few family pictures.

Overall, it was a successful Halloween for all.

Parents' Day Out

On Sunday, we had our first "Parents' Day Out" at Six Flags Over Georgia with our friends Chris and Rhys. My sister was nice enough to watch Sam and Rosco for the day so we were able to frolic about the park baby-free! It was a beautiful fall day and Six Flags was blissfully empty. The longest we had to wait in line for a ride was about 45 minutes and that was only once for the coolest ride in the park. The other lines were anywhere from non-existent to 15 minutes long. We rode all the roller coasters in about 4 hours and had some good eats. We have learned that the best time to get things done here in the South is on Sunday mornings - that goes for errands as well as amusement parks. Most people here spend Sunday mornings in church but for us heathens, we like to hit up the amusement parks.

Sam's First Party Trick

Sam is getting more and more interactive and fun each day! She's been smiling and laughing for a few weeks now but never really in response to anything that we did. For the first time, when I came home from work on my lunch break on Wednesday and Sam saw me, she smiled! Talk about a great feeling - to think that she's really recognizing mom and dad - and that she's happy to see us (guess we better appreciate that while we can!) Kirk swears that he got her to laugh at him by singing. I think she was probably more likely to cry at his singing but I digress...

She's also started to play with things more. She will occassionally bat at the animals hanging off her bouncy seat. And if you put a rattle in her hand, she will hold on to it and shake it - though I think that the shaking is pretty unintentional. We also have a play mat that she gets tummy time on and can lay on her back and bat at animals. One of them plays a song when she gets the ball to spin. It scares the hell out of her when she gets it to work but it's pretty entertaining to watch. Here is Sam playing on her mat (the video cuts off just before she starts to wail!):

The Sleep Wars....

Well, we're fighting the good fight down here in Chattanooga. At the end of last week, Kirk started working really hard to get Sam to take naps on her own during the day. Sam was not such a big fan of that plan. She likes to be held and doesn't like to nap unless she's touching one of the two of us. That wasn't too much of a problem when we were both home all day. But now that it's just Kirk, he needs a little more flexibility. Here's how Sam would like to sleep 100% of the time:

And it's tough to put her down when she looks so cute! But, like I said, we're fighting the good fight to help her establish some independence. Unfortunately, the result is that when you don't let her nap with you, she refuses to nap altogether. When she refuses to nap altogether, she gets overtired and starts fighting sleep - even at night. And that's not good for anyone...

So we have a girl who used to be a pretty good sleeper (especially at night) and she's become a real bear when it comes to naps and bedtime! We now have to work for anywhere from an hour to two just to get her to sleep at night. Then when she wakes up, she doesn't like to go back to sleep. It's been a long week of trying not to cave in to her desire to sleep with us or to be held when she naps.

I think we have started to turn the corner - she is definitely getting better at comforting herself without needing Kirk and I to run in each time she makes a peep. I also think that Kirk and I are also getting better at recognizing when she is just talking to us (or cussing us out more likely) and we can let her be for a few minutes and when she is really upset and we need to go in. We have learned that our baby monitor has the remarkable ability of picking up every little sound and making it seem like she's the most miserable baby in the world - then you walk in and she's actually asleep. Did you know babies could cry in their sleep? Amazing...

Month 2 Photo & Video

Each month Kirk is taking a video and a picture of Sam in a 12 month onesie so we can compare and see how she grows. Here is month one:

Compare to month two (crazy huh?):

And here's the month 2 video!

Two Month Check-Up

We took Sam to the doctor on Wednesday for her two month check-up. Sam has grown so much! She was an average size baby - 19 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 14 oz. Now she is in the 90th percentile for both her height and weight! She is 23 1/2 inches long and weighs 12 lbs 9 oz. She's barely fitting in 0-3 month clothes and some of the 3-6 months stuff we have fits!

You can see that she's getting the baby fat folds in her legs - it's so cute! The doctor didn't really appreciate our sense of humor and didn't like the fact that we referred to her as "Chubs" and "Fatty". He told us that, because she is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight, she is proportional and healthy - not overweight. He also said that it's good to have a bigger baby at her age because, if she does happen to get the flu or some other sickness, she has some weight to lose without worrying too much.

The doctor was really pleased with her development and said that she is reaching all of her milestones. As you can see, she is very alert. She loves to look at you when you're talking to her. She grabs hold of things pretty firmly and doesn't like to let go. Her favorite object is Kirk's chest hair! When the doctor put her on her chest, she pushed her head and chest up off the table. He warned us not to leave her alone on any raised surfaces because he thought that she could roll over at any time. She's always been able to kick her feet and get herself over from back to front but it was never intentional. The pushing herself up off her chest is intentional and she'll be rolling around before we know it! She's also able to support her own weight on her legs if you hold her upright. In fact, her favorite thing is to stand on your lap.

Also at our 2 month appointment, Sam got her first vaccinations. Here's the before shot, getting ready for the first poke:
And here's immediately after:

You can see how much she liked that! She cried for a few minutes but I was able to nurse her and she calmed down pretty quickly. Apparently Kirk and I are heartless parents though. As we were walking out, everyone was asking how we were. We responded that Sam had cried some but was doing okay. They then asked how we, meaning Kirk and I, were doing. Another person asked if "mom and dad" had cried. Nope, we were fine. Guess a lot of parents have a really tough time when their kids get vaccinated. Kirk and I were fine. Girl needs to learn to be tough anyway - might as well start her early!

Unfortunately for Sam, she's going to have to get used to getting shots. Kirk and I are following a modified vaccination schedule instead of going with the standard schedule (much to our doctor's chagrin). Basically, instead of getting 4-5 shots every 2 months, we're taking Sam to the doctor every month to get 1-2 shots at a time. This way she gets all of her vaccinations but she is not exposed to as much each time. It means Sam has to get shots more often and we have to pay more co-pays but I think it is worth it to spread out her exposure and give her immune system a chance to deal with things in smaller doses. For those who are interested in more inforamtion about alternate vaccination schedules, check out "The Vaccine Book" by Dr. Sears.

Back to Work

On Tuesday, I headed back to work - no more maternity leave. I had mixed feelings about going back to work. Part of me was happy to get back to using my brain for more complex tasks than "how long has it been since I changed her diaper" and "what time is Gossip Girl on?" But the other part of me was sad to not get to spend all day with my favorite girl (and my fabulous husband). This was the scene that I left (see why it was hard to go!)



It was like the whole family (even Rosco) was plotting against me!


Overall though, I was able to go back to work without any tears or feeling too bad. I think it was much easier for me than for others who have to drop their kid off at day care. We are lucky enough to be able to afford to have Kirk stay home with Sam all day. That made it SO MUCH easier for me to go back to work!
Getting back into the swing of things at work took a day or two but by the end of the week it was like I had never left. I have a new co-clerk and he is really great. He moved here from Chicago, having went to law school there and worked at a big firm there, so we're able to reminice about all the good times spent in the Windy City.
Kirk spent the week trying to begin to establish a bit of a daily schedule for Sam. She loves to nap in the Baby Bjorn or in the stroller while on walks but isn't so great about staying asleep when you put her down in the crib or the pack and play. She sleeps on her own fine during the night but during the day she seems to want someone to hold her or to be touching someone when she sleeps. Kirk is trying to break her of this habit so that he can have some time to get things done but it's been a somewhat exhausting process! She'll stay asleep for about 20 minutes after you put her down but then she's back up. Hard to get much done in 15-20 minute increments!

Getting Big!

Just a few pictures to show how big our girl is getting! I can't

wait to go to the doctor this week and see just how big she is - it sure seems like she's grown a ton in the last month! She's able to sit up for a second if you lean her just right. And she's definitely reacting more to Kirk and I and is full of smiles. We're still working on capturing that great smile but here are our latest efforts. Doesn't she look sneaky in this last picture?

Grandma Hubbard and family visit!

For the past few days, we have had visitors. Kirk's mom, Sally, Kirk's niece Tara and her daughter Lilly came down from Ohio for a few days. We took them over to the parks near our house and Lilly (age 2) and I rode on the carousel together. The carousel near our house is unusual in that it has all kinds of animals on it and not just horses. Lilly chose to ride on a cat (I wanted to ride on the frog but the two year old won that battle). It was a blast to see how much fun she had on the carousel. Made me even more excited for when Sam is able to do that kind of thing!

We also took everyone over to the Tennessee Aquarium. The aquarium is just across the river from our house (about a 15 minute walk) and Kirk and I have a yearly pass. We love to go over and wander around the exhibits. The newest exhibit is "Penguins Rock" - a great exhibit that has two kinds of penguins frolicking around. Sam had a little chat with a gentoo penguin while Lilly got "Happy Feet" and Kirk yelled "Surf's Up" and Jamie went marching. Sorry, too many bad penguin movie references...

Our absolute favorite exhibit (by far) is the butterfly garden. It is in this glass pyramid on top of the building and it is magical. You feel like you're in a fairytale when you're inside! Only downside is that they keep the tempature ridiculously high to simulate a rain forest. There are something like 100 different kinds of butterflies inside and they release new ones every day.

Overall, we had a great visit with the family and Sam was thrilled to meet Grandma Hubbard! Thanks Tara for bringing her down!

Three Sisters Festival

This weekend was the Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival in Downtown Chattanooga. It's a free festival that takes place just across the river from our house - about a 15 minute walk. It's a 2 day festival - Friday night and all day on Saturday - paid for by one of the big real estate developers in Chattanooga. He plays in a bluegrass band and loves the music so much that he decided to put on a festival and make it free for everyone. We went last year and had a blast and were super excited about the festival this year. We were not disappointed!

We went to the festival Friday night for a few of the bands. We bundled up Sam in her new pink hoodie and headed out into the fall night (that whole lack of head control thing makes it tough to get a good picture sometimes!) Unfortunately, we weren't able to get close to the stage because we had brought Rosco with us and they wouldn't allow him to be in the park where the festival was being held. We were relegated to the sidewalk surrounding the park and couldn't really see the stage from there. Chattanooga is not a very dog friendly city - one of our major complaints about Chattanooga.

On Saturday, we went over during the day for a couple of bands then went home to get dinner and rest up for Saturday night. We loaded up the stroller with blankets, baby essentials, and homebrew (what did we do before we had the stroller?) and met up with some friends over at the festival site. We got there in time for the last three bands and they were all awesome! For those of you who only know bluegrass music from "O Brother Where Art Thou", you will appreciate that the guy who sang "Man of Constant Sorrow" was the closing band. It was essentially Allison Krauss and Union Station - but without Allison Krauss (she's touring with Robert Plant). Kirk and I were up dancing for most of their set. I had to tame my moves to accomodate for Sam in the Baby Bjorn but we all had a good time. We will definitely miss this festival next year!

Cloudland Canyon - West Loop Trail

The weather has been unbelievable and I only have another 1 1/2 weeks off of work so we're trying to get out and see as much of the area as we can. Especially since we know that we'll be living in Maine this time next year. To that end, we headed down to Georgia today and visited Cloudland Canyon State Park. It's actually part of Lookout Mountain (where we hiked yesterday) but this state park is around on the other side of the mountain.

The trail was about 5 miles long and a semi-loop - the first and last mile were the same but the middle section was a loop. Basically, the trail started on the East side of the canyon, went down to the bottom, crossed the river, went up the other side, followed the Western ridge for a while, and then looped around off the side of the ridge. The hike was gorgeous and we were treated to amazing views of Lookout Valley and of the canyon in general. Unfortunately, due to the draught down here, the stream that cut the canyon was really low and the waterfalls were just a trickle.

Rosco loved the trail but was a little mad at mom and dad because we actually followed the rules for once and didn't take him off the leash. There were quite a few people on the trail with us (as well as other dogs) and there were tons of major drop-offs. The temperature was in the 70s in the sun but colder in the shade. We noticed on our other hikes that Sam's hands sometimes get cold when she's in the Baby Bjorn so we brought along these cute little froggy gloves. She kept them on relatively well - but we only made it home with one (no surprise there if you know me and Kirk). Thankfully, we have about 4 sets of these exact same gloves!

Sunset Rock Trail

Today we went for a hike on Lookout Mountain. Lookout Mountain (it's really more of a ridge than a mountain but we won't quarrel with the geographers) is only about 10 minutes from our house. It was the scene of a major battle during the Civil War and there are old encampments and Civil War paraphenalia scattered about on the mountain. Major parts of the mountain (including the entire trail we were on today) are preserved as part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

We chose the Sunset Rock Trail - a 4 mile up and down trek. It was our first time hiking on Lookout but it won't be our last! The trail was great - lots of interesting trees and plants as well as the coolest rock formations. And the views from the top were amazing!

Kirk carried Sam in the Baby Bjorn and had to do some tricky moves to get up and down the trail. Crawling under a tree with a baby strapped to your chest is easier said than done! I could barely get myself under the tree so I don't know how Kirk did it!

Again, Rosco was a daredevil and went right out to the edge of the cliff. He was nice enough to pose for a picture with mom though. He wasn't happy about it but he humors me from time to time.