Our Lil' Monster

It's not much fun when Samantha isn't feeling well. She gets fussy about EVERYTHING! Everything hurts, she wants her nose blown now, and if she wants to do something, she wants to do it now. It gets very frustrating. Today is Day 1 of her new antibiotic (#7). I'm surprised that I can still keep track of everything that's going on, but I really hope that this one works! The insert on the bottle states "To treat reoccurring ear infections in certain children" and for some reason it makes me very hopeful.

I have been thinking about my recent posts and how they are about Sammie's day-to-day activities, but what is she really up to?
~ Sammie's favorite thing to do is play Mommy. She is so interested in all her babies. She likes to rock them, stroll them, sing and read to them. She has recently noticed that mommies cover up their babies in public, so now she covers her babies at home in the carrier, which she calls the car seat. 
~ She loves to read to Daddy, Mama, Ali, and babies. She has memorized plenty of her books and can read with you. Her favorite is Baby Dear and The Berenstain Bears, which we are now collecting.
~ She loves to dance around. She'll turn the radio up loud and dance around. Tonight, she ran to the kitchen and said "Mama, come dance with me".
~ When out in public she used to ask, "Mama, who's that?" now she asks "Mama, what's that [man's] name?" She is very interested in names.
~ She is also interested in knowing is whoever has a puppy dog, also.
~ She knows her ABCs perfectly, with the exception of L
~ She knows her shapes and how to put her clothes on, brush her teeth and blow her nose. If only she would feed herself. She loves pistachios now.
~ She will have a full conversation with you. You just keep on asking the questions and she'll give you some sort of answer.
~ When she plays doctor, she is very sincere. "It's ok. You'll be ok."
~ Yesterday she was a perfect angel at the grocery at 6:00pm. Today I told her, "Samantha, thank you for coming with me to the store and doing an excellent job." Her response, "Thank you, Mama, for coming to the store with me."

*update more later

Dr. ENT, Please Grant My Wish

We went to the ENT this morning and also met with the audiologist to check Samantha's hearing. She closed us in a sound-proof room playing sounds from both sides while Sammie looked in that direction or put blocks on pegs when she heard the sounds. There was also a window for Ms. Amber to look in and see the reactions on Sammie's face which told that she heard a sound. She also checked her ears.
Results: Some redness and fluid in left ear (the infected one), Normal hearing, Normal speech, Left ear is oddly more sensitive to sound than right one.
Weight: 27 pounds

Then we met with Dr. Jones. I immediately told him I wanted him to fix her.... without tubes and we wanted another resort. He looked at her ears and looked at her history that I wrote down (thanks to the blog). He goes by 6 infections in one year and said that tubes just buy time for kids to get older, because once they're about 5 or 6 they usually don't have ear infections. I told him that she doesn't get fevers or isn't in severe pain and after checking her ears and agreeing with the audiologist's results, he said that Sammie doesn't NEED tubes. We'll just have to deal with her if/when she gets them until the summer time (after virus season). He also changed her antibiotic, stating that it's not helping her much. It'll go for 14 days, taking us into Breckenridge!
I got the best picture of the day when we were leaving the building. There was a waterfall with some penny-wishes in it and I just so happened to have ONE penny left in my wallet, since Sam cleaned it out putting all my change into the jar, and she was able to throw that one in. My love. You know what Mama's wish is!

Lam Chop

Samantha has still been complaining about her ears hurting (tomorrow will be 1 week on antibiotic) and this morning she complained about her sinuses hurting by pointing to her face. On top of this her cough has gotten worse and I bulbed some yellowish-brown stuff out of her nose. This is ridiculous! I called and made an appointment with the ENT for tomorrow morning. We  gave Sam a warning tonight that we are going to a new doctor tomorrow and she kept asking about Dr. Lam. I had to tell her that Dr. Lam isn't able to fix her, but hopefully Dr. Jones can! Mama and Daddy really pray that Dr. Jones can help our sweet angel feel better... without getting tubes in.

McKinney

Alex has accepted a new job and the Brown Family will be transferring to Phoenix, Arizona within a couple of months, so we jumped on the chance to visit them before things got crazy here. Even Ms. Debbie was able to make the trip to see us again. We are going to miss the whole Brown/Nelson family once they are so much further away. They really have become family to us.
Sammie had such a fun time running all over the place, playing with Grant and loving on the (three) crazy dogs. There was so much to get into!

Sam got fairy gear.

 

Tickle-Tickle, Ms. Debbie!

 Gotta say Good-byes...

 Although Sam had a lot of fun and an interesting car ride home, she was happy to be back!

Buckets Of...

Grandma brought Samantha to Nate's to play and although I didn't get a chance to hear about her day, I'm sure she had a good time. She wasn't feeling well this morning, complaining about both ears, wouldn't eat much throughout the day, and couldn't sleep. Needless to say, when I got to Grandma and PaPa's after work, she was a total fuss-bucket and wound up falling asleep in my arms before 6:30. It's 10:30 and she's still zonked. I have a feeling it'll be an early morning!

Sunny Dayz

... and everything's A-OK...
 What a beautiful day! We sure did take advantage of the sun. Today Samantha didn't want to leave school, she just wanted to sit on the bench and eat her elephant cookie.

 
 After nap we went to play with Ms. Wendi and Christian at the park. Sammie rode her scooter (which she's getting-video-) and had a blast running around with Christian. They are beginning to play together instead of indepently. It was cute, they'd run after each other then tickle or hug the other. Sometimes when running one would wait for the other to catch up. They are so cute. Sammie taught Christian how to be a kitty and although he went along with it, he preferred to be a doggy.

 

Scootering!

Leaf Me Alone (Dr update)

We went to the doctor for Samantha first thing this morning. She had been acting pretty normal, except for a few minor details like not sleeping well, not eating well, and totally misbehaving~ I was putting her in time out everyday for not listening! One night she cried that her ear hurt and it made me think, then we saw her in the monitor pulling at her ear. I wanted to get her checked at least 2 weeks before we leave for Colorado so we had time for an antibiotic if needed, therefore one would be tortured on the plane. Sho' 'nuff, she has ear infection #4! (Mind you, since we figured out the cough, she has no sick symptoms besides a slight runny nose.)
Weight: 26.8 pounds

"Dr. Lam, my ear hurts."

Sammie hung out with Grandma and did a little shopping while Mama was at the doctor, then we all went to lunch. When we got home, Sam suckered me into a wagon ride around the block and after nap we played in the backyard...

 

 

Jib-Jab

Samantha has been such a jibber-jabber everyday! She talks non-stop some days!

(This is the first day I didn't take a school pic of Sams.)

Washed The Spider Out

Samantha could not get to sleep last night! She spent about an hour jumping and however long singing at the top of her lungs "Itsy Bitsy Spider", although she would only repeat the part "down came the rain and washed the spider out", with emphasis on the "out". Daddy finally went in and sung the whole song with her, but that still didn't help her to relax and fall asleep. She passed out about 11:00pm!

Shiner Circus 2013

We arrived early so we could ride the elephants and we watched the camel rides and pony rides. Samantha LOVED the elephant ride and wanted to ride again. She also wanted to ride the camels. Boy, she loves animals! The show was very good and it held her attention the whole time, over 2 hours! She waved at the clowns and at the dancers. The second half was mostly the "motor sports" (bmx-ing, dirt bikes, 4-wheelers, and the cannon) and although she couldn't understand how cool it was to see, she still watched and held her ears for the cannon's BOOM!

Elephant ride! CHEESE, Daddy!

On the floor watching the ponies

 

-Firey Tigers-

-Dancing Elephants-

Happy girl!

Sunshine!

Yay for sunshine! We were able to go to the park and not freeze! We are really trying to get Samantha to learn how to swing on the big kid swing. It looks like she's doing it, but she still hasn't quite caught on.

 

 This evening while Daddy and Mama were cooking dinner, Samantha decided she was leaving. She packed her bags, kissed us all goodbye (even Ali), got her baby carrier and keys and tried to leave... Although, she wasn't wearing pants. Later, she put on pants and shoes and said she was leaving. First she said she was going to Nate's, then said she was going to Target. This time Ali was going with her and had to sit in the backseat. She started pulling for me to go too but when I told her I couldn't, she got upset. This started a downpour of emotions and her not feeling well and continued to cry throughout the night. She's been saying that her ear hurts.... Lord, I hope not!

Elephant Brunch... Yum!

To start off our day, Samantha tried to play doctor first with Ali, then with Mama. She was a great doctor, although Ali didn't like the medicine- hee hee. With me, she checked my boom-boom and my ears. She kept telling me "It's ok" and "I get water for your throat". She made me close my eyes when she checked me heart beat. 

We missed the elephant brunch last year, so Mama was prepared this year! We went early and found a great spot behind a stroller, which became even better when the daddy left taking the stroller and opening up some room~ Then we had first row viewing! It sure is tiring and complicated holding Samantha and trying to take pictures. The tightness of the crowd reminded me of Mardi Gras!
It was really cool watching the four elephants chow down on a table full of apples, bananas and pears. Sammie was so excited just watching, but upset that she couldn't feed them herself. Afterwards, we high tailed it to the back stage gate to watch them put the elephants away and we got a glimpse of the camels and some mini ponies. Sammie wanted to see the baby camel, but there wasn't one.

 

Watching the el's go back in.

Camels

After nap, in honor of the elephants, we made some delicious elephant sugar cookies! YUM!

 

 

After taking care of Ali and wanting to feed and ride the elephants, I asked Samantha if she wanted to be a zoologist. She said no. Maybe a vet, then?

Rotten

Another day of Samantha wanting to go home when we got to school and another day of her crying when I put her belongings away. I gave a hug and kiss and bolted out the door. I passed her classroom not even 5 minutes later and I heard the crying had stopped- Yay! The teachers say that she has a good time so I just don't know what's going on in that little head of hers.

 

It's Thursday and I assumed it was Long Nap Day, but boy did that backfire! She napped maybe 45 minutes and refused to go back to sleep, although she fell asleep in my arms. What a night! She was so rotten and whiny, and just didn't listen. I'm tired of having simple talks to her like "don't play around a hot iron", "don't jump and scream like a maniac in your bed", "stop pinching off the cream cheese", and my favorite "you need to listen!" What a night! I'm glad she fell fast asleep within a minute of me sitting in the rocking chair!