Frustration and its sister, the fake cry.

Sam is at an interesting age right now. She can't quite crawl yet (though she makes her way around quite well). She can't quite eat yet - but she loves to put everything in her mouth and try. So her days involve a lot of frustration. Mainly when she can't fit a whole toy in her mouth.



She's developed a great fake cough/cry. And then she'll belt out with the full-on cry....but upon careful inspection you realize there's no tears. Yep, she's already manipulating her father. Got him wrapped around her little finger. One of her finest performances:

Playing with Dad

Just playing

Fresh from the Bath

Just a couple cute pics of Sam after her bath.

Drumming

This girl takes after her dad for sure. Here's Sam playing the drum on dad's lap.

The Cheeks!

We think Sam got her cheeks from Aunt Christy. What do you think???

Happy Birthday Aunt Christy!

Amicolola Falls State Park - Keith's Trek Begins

Kirk's oldest nephew, Keith, came to visit us this week. He is through-hiking the Appalachian Trail this summer. For those of you not familiar, the "AT" runs from Georgia to Maine - 2,175 miles!

Keith took Greyhound from Ohio to Chattanooga and stayed with us for a week. He helped us out around the house and with watching Sam - which was great. We took him to the store to pick up the last few things that he needed to begin his trek. Then we drove him down to Amicolola State Park in the north Georgia mountains - which is the Gateway to the Appalachian Trail - and is about 1 1/2 hours from our house. Here's the family at the bottom of the falls.

As you can see, Sam was mesmerized by the waterfall. Kirk, Keith, Sam and Rosco climbed a couple of hundred stairs to start the trail. I drove the car to the top and met them there.

We decided to hike the first few miles of the trail with Keith. Here we are on our way.

About 2 miles up the trail, we turned around and left Keith to head off on his own. We hope to see him in about 2,170 miles! If anyone is on or around the AT this summer, keep an eye out for "Huck Finn" (everyone through-hiking the AT goes by trail names).

He's hoping to finish up in September. Since we'll be living in Maine then - we hope to meet him to hike the last few miles with him (and buy him his first "I've hiked the whole AT" beer). If you want to live vicariously through Keith (like we are), you can follow his journey on the AT here: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=263500

Favorite Winter Hat

Here's our girl all bundled up in her favorite winter hat.


Ready to go for a stroll with the family!

7 months old!

Sam is 7 months old today! We can't believe how fast these months have gone. People always say that babies grow up too fast - but when you experience it first-hand, you really understand what they mean. Kirk and I say to each other almost every day, "man, she's such a big girl these days!" She has all kinds of facial expressions and reacts to you. She seems to be less like a baby and more like a little person every day.

Sam sits on her own without a problem. She scoots around and is on the verge of crawling. She still loves to stand up and can support herself and balance on the edge of a table. If you hold her by the hand, she will kind of stomp around. She doesn't really head in any one particular direction so you can't really call it walking, but she's well on her way. She has 3 teeth on the bottom and it seems like TONS of teeth are about to pop through on the top. She babbles a lot - no words in particular but she definitely makes herself heard. Her favorite person in the world is still her brother. She smiles so big when he comes around and wants nothing more than for him to get close enough that she can get a big handful of his fur or grab his tail. He tries to keep his distance but she gets him from time to time.

Anyway, here's our big girl!

Playing in the Crib

Sam will sometimes wake up from her nap and play by herself in the crib. We've started leaving just a few toys in there for her and she seems to like it. I got some great pictures of her playing today.
She still tries to put everything in her mouth. You can see in this video that she's trying to get the bear's foot in her mouth. She's not crawling yet but we think it should happen any day. She definitely gets herself around by creeping and rolling.

Ready for a Walk

All bundled up for a walk during the most recent cold spell.


We can still carry her in the Baby Bjorn for now (and she still LOVES it). But it's definitely getting tougher. We're currently researching our next big purchase, the backpack carrier!

Owen comes to visit

My sister had to go out of town for the week so we are watching her dog, Owen. He is wonderful with Sam! He lets her climb all over him and pull his fur and ears as long as she lets him lick her face all over. It seems like a fair trade.

New Tub

Our major renovation for the house was the bathroom. We've been putting it off and off and off -- for the last year and a half. We fretted a lot over whether or not to do it ourselves or hire a contractor. The contractor option won out -- mainly because we only have one bathroom and if we've learned one thing, it's that every project takes MUCH longer than we would have imagined when we do it ourselves. So we hired a local contractor to do the big stuff but figured we (meaning Kirk) could do the drywall, paint, and trim it out.

The contractors took out the shower stall, installed a bathtub and surround, a new slate tile floor, a new toilet, and replaced the sink we already had (with new hardware). All in 4 days!!! We're still working on finishing the drywall, painting, and trimming 2 weeks later... I'll be sure to post pics when it's all done.

But we do have a real tub now for Sam to play in. Which means we have some great new bath pictures!



We didn't have the hardware on the tub yet so the water was just coming out of a pipe. Sam loved to stick her face in the water spout - it was really funny!

Giggles

Sam has been exploring the upper limits of her vocal range lately. Here's a sample of her giggles and screams.

All worn out

Watching Sam all day can really wear you out! Well, that and renovating the bathroom, and trying to get the house ready to go on the market, and dealing with the Army, and working with the Veteran's Administration on compensation and pension. Kirk's had a busy few weeks!

Plus, I thought everyone could use a new picture of the best dog in the whole world. ROSCO!!!