Wedding #1

Here is Sammy and Mommy and Daddy at the first wedding of the year. Two more to go! This one was at a golf course south of town that straddles a forest. It's very pretty there. Sammy got all dressed up for this including her little espadrilles.

She's 12 pounds, 7 ounces today

Par 3

Yes, it was hot today. Yes, I made par on this hole. Yes, Sammy was an absolute wonder baby; no fussiness at all. Well, towards the end she was getting a little warm and Mommy took her home without finishing. But, it's amazing how she is such a good baby!

Commentary

Ok, it is so very apparent that I'm new at this blogging thingy. I was wondering why no one posts comments (except fellow bloggers) but all I hear from family is how much they enjoy this daily offering. I looked up my settings for allowing comments and well, duh, I didn't allow anyone to post a comment without signing up for a Google account. So now, I've changed the setting and you can post a comment anonymously. That means YOU! Posting a comment is free; you don't have to sign up for any accounts, and more importantly you can let the world know how much you depend on this daily photo of Sammy. Just remember that at the end of your comment, sign your name or nickname otherwise I won't know who said what. We are golfing today so Sammy's face will appear later on this afternoon. Yes, she's golfing with us!

Tiny Bubbles

Hello everyone! I'm at my very first bridal shower for my Auntie Kenna. Don't I look cute? Big hugs all around!

How Now Brown Cow?

Sammy showed up yesterday in a little dress with hoodie. An animal print hoodie, no less. This baby is stylin'! However, my question is this: is it a cow print or a giraffe print? Leave your answer in the comment section. Her expression is clearly stating how annoyed she gets when I bring out the camera. Get used to it Baby.

Snorski

Listen closely...

Such a princess!

Hands

Here are little Sammy's hands. Look at how they stay curled up even in slumber. This was taken last week. This week she is opening her hands more and more. They are starting to work their way into long hair inadvertantly getting caught up in the strands. Her little fingernails tend to grab hold of skin. Not to long from now she will focus on and discover her little digits. She will begin to hold things and reach for things, but for now, in sleep they curl up as if in prayer.

Katie, this post is for you. We are thinking of you today and sending hugs and peace. Much love.

Brothers and Sisters

Yes, I know, this is not the ABC tv show on Sunday nights (which I LOVE!) but remember, this is about Sammy. And her family. ALL of her family. The family that loves her; the family that shares the whole house with her; the family that kisses her and then swaps her in the face with their tails. THAT family. And, swaps? what the hell kind of verb is that? But that is the sound of their tails as they walk by her and their tale is wagging. These are the first of the official grandchildren: Walker the Yorkie, Ali the first German shorthair, and Maya, the second German shorthair. You may have met them. You may remember them by different names. Something along the lines of the 3 Stooges or Keystone Cops. They will answer to them, I swear. But also? They are the most affectionate of doggies that Samantha could have ever asked for for siblings. We were worried there for awhile thinking that these three would be THE grandchildren. Pheeww. They are cute and all, but seriously, who do they look like?

Surfin Safari

Meet Grampa Ed. This is Mommy's Dad. Now you know where Mommy gets her dark good looks! AND HEIGHT! Grampa Ed loves to surf, pretty much anytime and anywhere. (Except in Grass Valley) Do you hear Beach Boy music now? I do. I can just see him teaching little Sammy how to surf. I can see him surfing with her on his shoulders waving to Mommy on the beach having a heart attack. I can see both of them in matching board shorts, his in blue hers in pink. And I can also see him buying a custom made surf board, oh, about three feet in length to get her started.

OOOOHHH WIPEOUT!

OMG!

Today was Sammy's first official well baby doctor's visit. She is in the 95th percentile for her height at 24 inches long (well, duh!) and 75th percential for her weight at 11 pounds 12 ounces. To quote Baby Doctor, "She's just perfect!". We knew that. But it was nice to hear it from someone who is licensed and paid to say things like that. She how happy she is?

And see what a good baby GIRL she is when she had to get weighed with a camera ready to capture her real weight? Without her high heels on? Without holding her purse? Butt neeked?

But things took a downturn when Nurse Ratchett told Mommy that Sammy needed five (Yes! Count 'em..one, two, three, four, freaking five!) shots today. In my head I heard the Queen say, "We are not pleased!"

I don't know who was more traumatized by this, Sammy, Mommy, or Mimi. I think the afternoon will be spent sitting on the couch together holding each other.

Haute Couture

Sometimes I wonder what clothing designers are thinking when they come up with stuff like this. I mean, seriously, comfort is important along with practibility. But what 2 month old needs pockets? She doesn't even have hand eye coordination yet but they put POCKETS on baby clothes? What is she going to use it for? Her binky? Keys to the car? And what female would want so much extra material at the bottom of her outfit. Sammy can fill a diaper, no doubt in my mind about that, but not this much!

oh, and one more thing: right now she has Daddy's bowed legs, too.

Multiple Choice

Pop quiz, class.

Which are monkey toes? A.

OR

B.?

Which are raptor toes? A.

or B. ?

PS...Happy Birthday to Grumpa! We all love you!!

Mommy

This is Mommy. Mommy has long beautiful, natural curly dark DARK hair. Here she is holding her fair haired child. Mommy carried her baby for nine long months. Mommy went through an scary emergency c-section for baby to be born. Mommy was in much pain the 72 hours before baby was born. Baby looks like Daddy. Go figure. *snort* Kids.

A Rose By Any Other Name

Go ahead. I'm waiting. Get it out all the way. Laugh until you cry when you look at this photo. When I recieved this from Mommy last evening that's all I did. I spit all over my keyboard and monitor. I predict that either Mommy or Daddy will use this picture on Sammy's high school graduation party invitations. By the way, this is her new bath towel. And Mommy? If you could get a snapshot of Daddy using this towel, I'll pay good money for it!

Aunt T

Will the real Comment-ator "Aunt T" please stand up? Between the two families, we can count four individuals who could be Aunt T. And two of you have the same initials! We would love to know who you are and thank you for your daily checking in. Perhaps by a guest post or maybe a photo op with Sammy? And I don't mean to exclude anyone one else who would like to guest post. All are welcome. Please contact me by email (you have it, you know you do)

Grumpa

This particular name is loved by one and all except by the man himself. Grumpa. He's been known to be grumpy from time to time but not when Sammy is around. His face lights up and you know his heart is smiling when he sees her. He can't wait for her to get a little older to take her out and show her how to fish or catch frogs or throw a ball. But what he's really waiting for is the first basketball hoop in the driveway. And a chance to instruct her how to really say his name.

Nana

I'm going to introduce to you all of Sammy's relatives and all the funny names we've named ourselves or each other. Up first is Sammy's maternal grandmother, Nana. Sammy is the first grandchild for Mommy's side of the family as well as Daddy's side. Nana and I are approximately the same height...oh, about 5' short. But I'm much taller. Much. How she and I both gave birth to Ents is beyond me.

Geshundeit!

Experimenting with capturing her sounds as she lays in here with me distracting me from getting anything done. I love it! If this works out, you'll see and hear from her more often. I weighed her today also. 11 pounds 12.5 ounces and as best as I can tell 24 inches long.

Happy Father's Day

Mommy hosted a Father's Day dinner for Grumpa and Daddy. It was Daddy's first Father's Day with Sammy. Daddy doesn't look too proud does he? Of course Sammy took it all in stride.

The Weekend

Weekends are great, because it is always nap time!

Chubby Cheeks

So, I have some fat cheeks? So, what?

You still think I'm cute!

Dad

I love my dad!

Do I get to be with him today?

Soooo Sleepy...

Is it Friday yet?

Oh My!

Work is much better today, Samantha has been fully awake. She found out how much she will be making for working so hard. She couldn't hide here astonishment when Mommy told her what the reward was going to be for being such a hard little worker.

Work is hard

Yesterday was Samantha's first day at work and it was a grind! She was so exhausted from working so hard yesterday that today at work she slept the entire time! Getting up early to go to work was very rough for her. Her Mom had to wake her up to get her moving and get her out the door. She never realized how hard work was, but she will be awake and alert for work tomorrow.

She wants to know how much she is getting paid?

Guest Post

I am guest blogging since Mimi is on vacation. Here is what happened today.

June 9, 2008

Today Samantha is at work and we can all tell that she is loving life :-) Her mother should have brought the stinkin' tape recorder because she is making the cutest sounds today. She has been AWAKE ALL MORNING LONG AT WORK...life is good she says. She gets A LOT of attention from everyone, especially Sherill who fed her this morning. She is a great motivator for the employees...hehe

This is Samantha's work blog...hehe.

Weighing In

Here it is: Samantha's birth weight proof. Yes, she was a good size baby and I'll bet Mommy looks back in retrospect and says a little thank you for that C-section. Sammy is perfectly proportioned. She has nice round head and a long torso. It's hard to believe now, 7 weeks later how much she has filled in. She now weighs 11 pounds 5 ounces and has grown 2 inches. In looking at her Daddy's baby book, she is tracking his growth when he was an enfant. Maybe Nana can let me know how Sammy's Mommy's growth chart looked like at this age?

(I know it looks like she weighs 8 pounds 10 ounces, but if you look closely, there is a little red dot between the 1 and the 0)

Ol' Blue Eyes

Here she is, smiles and a start of a dimple...blue blue blue eyes. I know that all babies start out with blue eyes. My feeling is that her eyes will stay blue, just like her daddy's. She takes after him in so many ways already. Today has been the first in five days that she has stayed awake after her feeding for more than 5 minutes. She's been awake going on one hour now. Yippee! And that means Mimi's camera is out and working!

Bonus!

I'm sending this out because I thought that it was so endearing of Samantha's THIRD cousin to remember her in this way. The process in which it finally got to Samantha included being sent to her great grandmother first to see, then her maternal grandmother to see and finally to Sammy. A generational gift, per se. And I promise that I won't post pictures of gifts anymore. (But you have to admit it is cute...and it plays music to boot!) Also, I did blur out her last name for paranoid security reasons only. So, SCORE for you..two posts in one day!

Thunder Rolls

And you thought this would be a post about a Garth Brooks song? Seriously, if you know me, you know I don't do country music. I listen to it only when my family insists I listen to the words of some song to make me cry. They are a cruel bunch. And yet, I partake in this ritual time after time. Motherhood, the ultimate martyrdom. Anyway...back to these beautiful thighs. In fifteen years Samantha will HATE me for doing this picture but I couldn't help it. Look at those sweet thighs! And you all know that this is just the beginning of thigh-ville on her. In a few more months she will be a chunky monkey for sure! So for now, enjoy the picture.

Manolo Blahnik

I had an idea to shoot various body parts of little Sammy and I started with her feet. When I looked at the photo on the computer screen and saw her little toes my first thought was, "I wonder how big her feet will be?" You see, Sammy takes after her Dad right now. The scary part is that her Dad wears a size 13 shoe. His side of the family all have big feet. I'm hoping that at least here, with her feet, she'll take after her Mommy. Mommy has perfectly portioned feet to her heigth....6'8". JK. But Mommy also has a shoe fetish. Think Imelda Marcos. And we're not talking Payless BOGO, either. I enjoy shoe shopping and have many shoes myself but not like her Mommy does! I won't reveal here that I have bought Samantha her first pair of UGGS, or Converse tennis shoes. (What? Like a 6 week old WON'T play basketball?)

Anyway, enjoy the tootsies. Up next? Thighs.

Mouth Breather

As you can see, little Sammy is a mouth breather in the cutest sense of the phrase. She can breathe on me like this ALL DAY LONG. Of course, for day two I've done nothing but watch her sleep, feed her and diaper her. Oh, and take more pictures because I don't have my daily quota of eighty bazillion snap shots of her. This is a sickness.

Human pillows provided by her Auntie Kenna.

Beginnings

June 2, 2008

Welcome to the first ever post all about my granddaughter, Samantha Hayden. While I understand that all grandparents feel that their grandchild(ren) are magnificent and beautiful, I'm all, whatever. Because, dear readers, Sammy is that and more. I've been asked repeatedly to send more current and updated photos to family and friends. Well, now that I'm a SAHM (Stay At Home Mimi), I have the time and frankly, one of the best subjects, to write about and to, yes, brag about. Call it the new millennium's Gramma's Brag Book only mine is a blog. I will post daily photos, videos (once I have that figured out!) and audio bits that will truly sicken anyone who isn't closely related to her. The cuteness factor here will hit the Richter scale heights. This is also a way to let her mommy and daddy know what's going on while they are at work. Various family members and friends will make their appearances in the photos as I couldn't pry Sammy out of their hands to snap a picture.

Today's photo is to let Mommy and Daddy know that naps are being taken. By Sammy not Mimi. Also today's photo shows off my mad skilz of photography. Using the close up macro. whoohoo.