Our little indian girl!

Samara is enjoying day care; as I call it, school! Shana took these photos one day while dropping Samara off. The day care facility is on the Federal Center campus, so Shana can walk over to feed Samara whenever she wants. It's worked out great! We couldn't take any pictures of Samara playing with other children without parental consent!



The photo to the left is Samara's crib at daycare; notice the photos of us taped to her crib.





Samara has begun crawling, as most of you have seen the videos on our myspace account, and follows her teachers around her room. So far, she is the only one (out of 8 children) who can crawl; she's also the oldest. Her best bud, a boy (I'll have to get the shotgun out now) named Anson, gets aggrevated watching her crawl around the room while he watches. Samara has also learned to show affection towards people by watching us kiss her or each other (like when we leave for work). However, she doesn't understand the whole mechanics of this action and delegates herself to licking things/people that she wants to show affection to. One of her teachers commented one day that she was crawling up to the different children and licking them, so Shana had to explain.

Samara has also learned to wave bye, which may seem odd for a 7-month old to learn. But, nevertheless, it is quite obvious she's waving. She has also learned the white-man's version of the "indian battle cry", where you yell and repetitively put your hand in front of your mouth and take it away. In addition, she has upgraded to the "transitional" car seat where she can see out the window etc. etc. She had grown too long for the infant car seat and yelled at us for extended periods of time while riding in the car.

We're not too sure if she's learn some words, but she definitely mimics da-da, kittie, duck, etc. Shana thinks she said cracker one day... She knows what a kittie is because we'll say "kittie" and she'll start looking around in the room for Orion and/or Cassie. Speaking of kitties, one of her favorite pasttimes is to chase Orion around the room while laughing...it's hilarious to experience. I'll try to get a video of her chasing him and post it on myspace.



Samara's hair keeps growing and growing; I took some photos of her laying on her back while taking a bath to show her flowing, majestic-looking hair; it reminds me of something you see in a movie!

We went to some friends house to watch the NFL divisional championship games on a cold and snowy day (who would have guessed). While there, one of our friends who is a Chicago Bears fan thought it would be cool if he cut a letter "D" out of cardboard and couple it with her favorite toy, a white fense. So, throughout most of the game,she had the letter "D" in one hand and a fense in the other; "defense, defense".


Shana found out about an "Indian Market" that runs annually in Denver and we decided to go. We saw a lot of Native American artists from various tribes, Native rock bands and dancers, authentic reservation food, live birds (bald eagle, owl, and a hawk), etc etc. Our highlight was meeting Steve Reevis, a Blackfoot Native American from Montana who has played in movies that include Dances with Wolves, Last of the Dogmen, The Missing, Fargo, The Longest Yard, etc etc. Some people may know him as the naked Native American in the movie The Doors! He autographed a photo (for my sister) and I shook his hand (I'm such a dork!)! Samara also enjoyed the Kiowa dancers; she was very ecstatic and flailed her arms around while trying to dance (I think that was what she was trying to do - she's only 7-months old!).

Samara now eats "people" food; she has totally rejected baby food and grunts when she sees us eating. That is an indication that she wants a bite of what we're eating (already learning to communicate). It is odd though, because she has no teeth; she just gums the food or swallows it whole. But, she enjoys it! At the daycare, she eats three times during the day and has had such items as quesadillas, mashed potatoes, nutrigrain bars, cheerios, grilled cheese sandwich, etc etc! Impressive. She's been on this diet for quite some time now; maybe since before Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, we went sledding shortly after our Christmas break...

I've also added a couple of new videos of Samara to our myspace account of her crawling and waving bye...check it out! Click on the "videos" link below our picture...

The Greatest Gift!

Oh the joy! We were scheduled to leave the Denver area on Friday, December 22nd for our Christmas trip home; however, a lovely snow storm moved in on the 20th and dumped 33 inches on us! I ended up shoveling the driveway 3 times; as they say, it's better to shovel 11 inches 3 times than 33 inches once! Samara was able to enjoy the wonderful weather and appeared to tolerate us (see pictures) posing her on the snow mound we had shoveled. By Friday, I-70 had been opened and we left the house at 11 AM, making our arrival at around 2AM CST. This time we didn't have an accident, unlike last year.

Our trip home was great! We were able to see many of our friends and our families. Before Christmas day, Samara was able to visit her great grandma and grandpa...








Grandma Mashburn and cousin Samantha.








She also snoozed...











...and relaxed with cousin Sheldon!

Christmas day was terrific! We enjoyed spending the morning with Shana's family and the evening with my (Chris's) family. Samara sported a new dress that Shana had found specifically for the occassion; I suppose you never get tired of dressing your dolls! Unfortunately, after a short while in the dress, our little furnace became overheated and gave us the "I'm hot" squawk, promting us to undress her!

Samara had fun ripping the paper from the wrapped gifts. It seems, in her short lifetime, that she has grown to like the sound of paper...or anything that sounds like it...and subsequently sticking it in her mouth, which is typical for babies! We actually had a scare at Shana's sisters place! Samara was lying on the floor (back facing the floor) and had been playing with one of her toys. She started gagging and trying to gasp for air; She had something lodged in her mouth!! Shana quickly jammed her finger into Samara's mouth trying to get whatever Samara had attempted to eat! After a few seconds, Shana pulled out a piece of tape (about an inch long) that Samara had pulled off of some wrapping paper. Frightening! Samara's face was red, her eyes watery, but soon returned to normal!

Over the first 6 months of Samara's short life, we have noticed very distinct character traits. One of those traits is portrayed when she has a rattley toy in one hand and begins to vigorously shake it while looking at us with an air of pride. When she realized that her new hammer (picture on the left) made "noise" when she shook it, she became ecstatic!

The piano she received may be one of her new favorite toys. She likes to bang on it (maybe a set of bongos would have been better) and if the piano is overturned and within reach, she will actually turn it upright just to play it!! An amazing feat for an entity only 7 months old!

We also were able to visit with a lot of our friends from Oklahoma! Shana, Samara, and Glenda (a dear friend of Shana's) trekked to the hospital to see their friend Jennifer and her new "wee-one". What an experience!!

Samara met a whole slew of new faces, particularly little faces. She met Liam (Jerome and Nadia's not so little one anymore) for the first time. Liam's new best friend?

Samara found some new pals in while visiting Brian and Kelli: Collin, Gabe (Brian and Kelli's nephew), and Griffen. Maybe in a couple of years Samara can "rough house" with them...

We ended up spending 47 hours in the Jeep (thanks to an internal timer) and drove 2500 miles during our Christmas trip; a one-way trip from Louisville to Tulsa is about 750 miles!! We were able to visit with many of our friends and enjoyed our time immensely! The image on the right is of the drive home. What makes this photo significant is that this was the first time (that we know of) she held a cup all by herself and subsequently drank from it. Growing up so fast!!

I had to take this picture of Samara! Her first Christmas celebration was a success. Who know what will happen next year or what events will take place within the next year! So far, Samara has been the best gift of our lives! I will end with a quote from Samara's 2-year old cousin Tori upon see her stocking on Christmas morning, "This is the best birthday!!"