Survival of the Storm!

It’s been awhile. Shana, Samara, and I are trudging through apartment life with shear annoyance. For instance, I woke up one evening at about 12:30 AM to a repetitive banging on our front door. I woke Shana and, stuporously, we tip-toed into the living room and opened the door. To my surprise, a police officer flashed his light into my eyes while backing up cautiously! At the same time, a message came through his police radio…something about “looking for building 10”. The officer then stated, “Sorry, wrong building.” We should start looking for houses next month…

So, we survived the December ’07 ice storm with relative ease; we were without power for only 9 hours or so! I believe our parents were without power for 3-4 days! Ah…Oklahoma weather! It's nice to be back...

Life has been on auto pilot the past several months and we’ve been busy celebrating birthdays and enjoying extended weekends with family (a 6-day extended weekend for myself during the ice storm; Shana was not so “lucky”). Samara’s personality is growing every week; it’s hard for us to imagine that 3-4 months ago, Samara was just beginning to to walk! Her speech capabilities are amazing and she seems to be able to attempt any word we ask her to say. As a matter of fact, Shana was in the kitchen and yelled the "s" word; Samara immediately responded with her version of the word! Samara’s care givers comment every week how her speech ability is better than any of the other kids in her group. I always comment, “I’m sure you say that to all the parents!” At this point, her most frequent words (or mutterings) are eat, shoe, outside, mommy, daddy, juice, chip, broccoli, apple, sock, couch, oompa loompa, poppins (Marry Poppins), light, NO (she yells this word), yes (she always whispers this word; odd child), night night, puppy, kitty, cow, please, thank you, pop, tea, cheese, etc.

She also knows the names of friends and family…Grandma, Oma (Grandma in German), Mikey, Bubba, Jerrod, Julie, Amy, Tori, Jon etc. I’ve been teaching her to say “nanny” for my sister Shannon because that is what I used to say when I was young (I couldn’t pronounce her name). However, a couple of days ago we were talking about Shannon and Samara looked up at us and said her name! Amazing!

Although she can’t say much, she understands an enormous amount. I was at my parents place over Thanksgiving lying on the couch; Samara was playing on a tricycle-type toy. I asked her if she would grab me a pillow (because I was too lazy and I wanted to see if she understood me). She got up, walked over to the other couch, and grabbed a pillow twice the size (volume) as herself. As she was dragging it across the floor, she grunted several times before reaching her destination. I graciously gave her a hug and said/signed thank you.

Speaking of thank you, Samara is the most polite kid I’ve known, honestly. She says thank you and please whenever appropriate. One day I peeled an orange that a coworker had brought from Mexico. I explained to Samara that the orange was daddy’s but I’d give her a couple of slices. I started peeling slices and she signed/spoke “please”, I gave her a slice, she’d respond “thank you” and asked for another slice. She ate the whole orange (except for a couple of slices) and after every slice I gave her, she told me thank you. Amazing! She also repeats phrases such as “I got you”, "I love you", and “happy birthday”…

Although she is learning words quickly, she hasn’t been able to put two words together. However, she has on occasion, signed two words consecutively (other than the phrases). Signs she has conquered include more, cat, dog, juice (drink), book, want, please, thank you, bath, brushing teeth as well as her own form of outside, cookie, dad, and mom.

As always, Samara loves food! Maybe she’ll grow up to be a chef. We have to watch out when we open and close the fridge because she’ll be in it as fast as the cats scrum out the door when we get home. Her favorite foods now seem to be yogurt, raisins, chips, toast, pizza, apples, oranges, chocolate, broccoli, ketchup, barbeque sauce, ground beef, and ice.

As always, Samara loves being outdoors; however, the cold weather limits her activities. As a result, I speculate, she has taken up other activities. One such activity is watching her favorite movie: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She often finds the DVD case lurking around the apartment and brings it to us while pointing toward the TV and vehemently muttering “oompa loompa”. It is interesting to see addiction in its primitive form!!

Samara loves to dance to music; she has more rhythm than I do. Stated earlier is her affinity for Willy Wonka and Marry Poppins. An interesting thing has happened over the course of the last few months. Shana and I subscribe to Netflix and I have been renting the TV series Stargate: SG-1. For some reason, Samara absolutely loves the opening theme music! Whenever she hears the music, she comes running into the living room and starts dancing; most of the time holding her arms up and wanting me to dance with her. After the theme music ends, she screams “Yyyyeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh!” and claps her hands!

Having a child is awesome! The joys definitely outweigh any negatives! The next phase will be “having children is awesome!”

Below are some photos from the past 3-4 months:

Shana and I were invited to a coworker's house for a barbeque and bonfire. The photo was taken at dusk while people were fishing. The shutter speed of the camera was slow with a flash that captured her instantaneously. I like this because it makes Samara look ghostly.

Samara was taking a nap and Shana took a peek to see if she was awake. To her surprise, she caught Samara sleeping as if in eternal prayer. Maybe she was wishing for a Dora doll for Christmas!

Our anniversary was on September 27th and we had a weekend to ourselves. We had a nice evening at a cabin...fireplace and all. The photo above is from one of the 3 vineyards and wineries we visited. Shana was kind enough to pose in the vineyards at Summerside Winery. We also enjoyed some hiking and an afternoon at Lindenwood Gardens in Grove, Oklahoma. The photos below are from the gardens...

Samara loves the park! She finally figured out how to go down feet first...

Samara swinging away...

Samara went riding with Uncle Mikey during cousin John's birthday party...

Ahhhh! A nice day at the park...

Samara helping mommy cut veggies...

Feet first!

Nice ride!

She loves the ducks and geese!

Samara's new couch; it also fold out into a bed (handy for trips to Oma's and Grandma's house). I took this picture while Samara was waiting for us to get ready during one morning; she was watching Curious George.

Samara's Halloween costume...she likes to roar like a lion! Next year she'll be an Oompa Loompa!