Some more Sammie picts

Every morning when we go to get Samantha out of her crib, we open her door and see these two little eyes peeking up over the top of her crib. She just sits there waiting for us to come get her. Even if she's not awake when we first open her door, she stretches, rolls to her tummy, and peeks up at us. cutie.

We've rigged up Samantha's little booster chair so it's attached to a folding chair that we keep in our kitchen. She's such a big girl now, and loves eating from her "high chair." The first time I put her in the chair with the tray in front of her, she couldn't stop pounding the tray for five minutes! She now eats lots of vegetables and some fruits, as well as rice, oatmeal, and wheat porridge. Her new favorite is a little dry, sugarless cookie called a rusk. It looks a bit like a snickerdoodle, but tastes more like cardboard. She also enjoys a little teething "stick" called a bickiepeg. It is made from wheat flour and is about as hard as one of those fake dog bones. She can chew on it for hours. Today she tried a bit of spaghetti for the first time. She didn't really enjoy it -- preferred to suck off the sauce and spit the bits of noodle on her bib and on the floor and on me.

Past my bedtime -- a catchup journal entry

Well, it's almost 1 a.m. but I'm still awake (barely) so I thought I'd write a little bit. I like the way this kind of feels like I'm keeping a journal, but then Alicia can comment whenever she logs on! Cool! (Sidenote: that's just like high school, when Kerri and Amber really DID read my journal whenever they could find it.)

Okay, so my highlights for the last few days/weeks:
* My birthday was such a fun day for me! Brian was so sweet to surprise me with a very fun evening and day. First thing in the morning, he made me a chocolate cake, which we iced and ate later that night. He asked me to get a sitter for Sam, then he met me at the Tube station after work and took me to dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant, where he gave me a perfect birthday card that made me cry. Then he took me to a show, but he wouldn't tell me what it was until we got there. He knows I really like Frank Sinatra music, so we went to the Frank Sinatra show, which was awesome! It had all this swingy music and fun dancing and a band. Goooood times! Mainly it was just so nice to enjoy a relaxing, fun evening with Brian. (oh, and the air conditioning REALLY added to the ambiance.) A great surprise and a lovely memory for my 31st.

* I think Sam must be teething, but I really have no idea how I'm supposed to tell. Wouldn't it be nice if she could just say, "Excuse me, Mommy, but my mouth is really sore so I'm a bit uneasy today." That's what's been happening to Samantha this week. She's been a doll at times, and then a frustrated little chica at other times. It might just be the heat, I guess? But there were a couple of days this week where I just got so frustrated because she seemed so irritable and inconsolable. I keep feeling in her mouth (which she just loves... sarcastically) but no news of the little chompers yet. She's gone from being a supergood eater last week to being a "I refuse rice and fruit" eater. The girl would rather just live on vegetables and the occasional biscuit/cookie this week. Oh, and yogurt, we started yogurt this week, which she likes. I'm hoping this is just a phase and that she'll be craving her rice and porridge like usual come next week!

* My very good friend, Joyce, just had a baby girl last week -- right on my birthday. And, guess what they named her? Samantha! (I'm sure it was a birthday gift to me, eh?) How cool is that? And how confusing when I went to visit her yesterday and we were both sharing Baby Sam stories about our two girls! Her Baby Sam has loads of dark brown wavey hair that sticks up everywhere. It was fun to hold that tiny baby yesterday all afternoon and just remember that this overgrown seven-month-old of ours used to be that itty bitty too! Amazing!

* We finally have more guests visiting us... it's been several months since our last company! Brian's Aunt Suzanne and her two daughters stayed with us last night. They're taking a two week tour of England, Scotland and Wales, and start and end the tour at our place. Kinda fun. Today we spent the afternoon shopping, which was so much fun for me. I think they were worn out completely, but I really enjoyed it all! Samantha was an angel baby and just sat in her stroller enjoying the crowds and shops. One not-so-pleasant thing... on the bus on the way home, the lady standing next to Sam's stroller started talking to her and playing with her. After a few minutes, the lady put out a finger, which Samantha happily took. As all good seven-month-olds like to do, before long she pulled the finger up to her mouth to have a good suck! Kay, so, when Sam starts to suck my finger, I gently pull it away and tell her it's best to suck on something a bit cleaner, right? Well, this total stranger did NOT do that! She just let our little Sam start slobbering away at first one, then two, then three of her fingers. Ummm... what do we do?? Well, both Brian and I looked at each other with slightly disturbed faces, then just kind of let it be. How weird. Oh well.

Okay, I need to sleep now. But I feel like I've given a good little update. Now I'll add a couple more pictures, even though they have nothing to do with my write-up. One is of Sam poking her head up over her crib -- her usual greeting to us in the morning whenever we open her door to see if she's awake. The other is of her first meal in the highchair booster seat. She's an old pro by now, but last week it was exciting enough that she banged on the tray for a good five minutes while I got her lunch ready! hmmm... maybe not on the picts. I can't seem to get them to load this time. Oh well. I'll try again later.

g'night.

Some pictures

Okay, I'm going to try to add some pictures to this blog. One is of Sam and Brie together at my parents' house while we were home. Then one of Sam sitting up by herself at Randi's house in Seattle. Then one of Randi in her mother's silky moomoo, getting the mail. Then one of Sam eating an orange that she peeled all by herself! I'll see if those work then maybe I'll try some more in a while.

Hot Hot and HOTTER!

London has been MELTING these past couple of weeks. Or scorching, or burning, or whatever you want to imagine when I say HOTTTTTT! Last Wednesday the temp was 96 degrees, with about 98 percent humidity -- a record that hadn't been beat since 1926. That may not sound really horrible to those of you with dry heat, but imagine having the feeling of a hot steamy, sticky shower on TOP of the ovenlike temps. Oh why do we not believe in air conditioner in this country??

I spent a couple of days last week investigating different cool-down possibilities. First I thought maybe Sam and I could just spend all day at the library near by. Nope. No AC in there, so it's almost as hot as our oven we call home. So then I thought maybe shopping? Well, we went to the HomeBase store (like Home Depot). No AC. A restaurant. No AC. A grocery store. Yes, there was AC in the grocery store, but there's only so much you can do in a grocery store before your little girl gives you the "c'mon, let's get out of here" signals (ie. boystrous whimpering and growling).

We tried to buy a fan. They were sold out at HomeBase. Also sold out at Tesco. According to a friend, it's possible to order online, but we'd have to wait 21 days till they're back in stock!! So, we've got our little 12 inch oscillating fans -- one for our room and one for Sammie's room. Our's is perched at the end of our bed and has been on for the last 100+ hours without a break. Sammie's is crooning over her crib, but I'm afraid the bumper stops it from being really effective with her. She sleeps in just a onesie, and sometimes just her diaper. I've started sleeping with a wet washcloth on my head. I don't think it really helps, but it has a nice placebo effect, I guess?

On the news they've been saying London is officially in a drought WORSE than Sudan! There's a hosepipe ban, which means anyone caught using their garden/lawn hoses to water flowers or grass will be fined something atrocious. I guess that's one reason to be greatful we're on the top floor flat, with no greenery to our charge. One lady in our ward says she's trying to keep her flowers alive using a water can from the house. It takes her an hour every evening just to water everything!

Anyway, such is life in Londontown. Like the rest of the city, I'm praying for rain. Now, please.

Jet Lag

My friend Alicia once teased me about having jet lag for months after a brief trip to Europe. Here I am, five days home from the States, and I feel like a slug. Yesterday I took a nap from 10 till 1 pm. Then last night I was awake from 2 am to 6 am. I almost told Brian to bring home a pregnancy test because I felt so lousy yesterday. Sammie has it too -- couldn't fall asleep for ages last night. When I finally checked on her (during my 2 to 6 spell) she had completely turned upside-down in her crib, with her feet where her head normally is. Poor thing. Anyway, today we're helping a friend pack -- her movers are coming tomorrow and she needs help keeping the twins out of the way.

Sunny Sunday, July 9

I'm sitting in our bedroom watching the sun reflect on the wind-blown leaves on our trees outside the window. I keep getting up to wipe Sam's runny nose, since she and I both seem to have developed a cold coming home from the States this past week. Brian is downstairs preparing our FHE lesson. Welcome home, all of London seems to say to me. It was nice to be visiting family for the whole month of June, and nice to come home to Brian. I'll give some trip highlights and photos later, if this works out alright.