The Sam Update - Twenty Nine Months Old

Our daughter continues to become more independent every day.  I'm enjoying the fact that Samantha can go up and down the stairs on her own now.  It really reduces the level of awareness I have to maintain when she is running around amusing herself.  As I write this, though, Sam is yelling, MOMMY, COAT! MOMMY HELP COAT! because I've left her coat on and she doesn't want to take it off herself.  There are some things this girl just doesn't want to do.

Sam has painted at school many times but today we painted at home for the very first time.  The "teachers" at school have told me that Sam is particularly interested in books and art, so even though it's not my thing, I'm going to try to get the easel in the kitchen for painting a few times a week.  The best part of painting, though, was seeing Sam take a wet paper towel and clean up every last bit of paint from her belly and legs all by herself.  Cleaning up is something we don't have a problem with in this house!

In the past week or so, Sam has become more physical, climbing and jumping and squeezing and rolling.  I put a bunch of pillows out on the floor for her to jump in, but that doesn't seem to interest her.  I can't wait for the weather to break so that we can go back to the playground more often.

A favorite game right now is talking through the baby monitor.  Sam asks for BABY MA-DA all the time, and when her dad is upstairs in her room, she likes to call out DADDY-DOH-DOH, and he replies through the monitor, "Sammy-so-so."  She could do that all day.

Her memory is improving, too.  We noticed a big difference in her awareness of past events after our trip to Florida.  She is still talking about it, saying that she misses grandma and grandpa, talking about swimming and walking outside with the dog.  She picks up a candle and says, LIGHT, CANDA, GRAMPA because she remembers lighting the menorah with him, and she often raises her cup at dinner, saying, TOAST, TOAST, GRANDPA because he taught her how to toast.  She also remembers two recent visitors to our house, talking about things we did together, and she knows the names of the kids who live next door. 

Maybe my favorite development of the month, though, is my realization that Sam is beginning to look like my mom. 

[caption id="attachment_420" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Grandee's Granddaughter"][/caption]