the reason for the delay

...

and she hasn't stopped since :-) and we are loving every minute of her curiousity around the house!

Other big developments going on right now:

- she's pulling up and getting ready to walk

- she has two teeth coming in up top

- she's becoming a champ at eating her big girl food

- she's a talker like her momma :-)... shocker!

Sorry for the delay.... been busy

Miss Samantha has been keeping us VERY busy lately. Seems like the minute she turned 9 months, she took off developmentally!
- sitting up really well on her own - on the verge of crawling
- trying to pull herself up to stand - babbling her little head off... and ours :-)
- enjoying the heck out of bath time! - eating stage 3 and table food

Sammie had her 9 month check up a couple while back and she did very well. She's right on target with the growth chart for height and weight for preemie status... HOWEVER, our sweet daughter has inherited her father's big head! She's in the 95 percentile for head... fabulous. Only issue when we were at the dr is that they are continuing to hear a heart murmur. This is something that was noticed while she was still in the NICU, but due to Gregg's heart issues and his concern for the issue - we are going to go get it checked out tomorrow to put him at ease.

We recently took a video of Sammie enjoying her bath time - just had to share as I think it's so darn cute! Hope you guys enjoy. (Marcy & Kris... Austin CANNOT watch this video He's too young to see his girlfriend in the tub!!! HA HA)

Bath Time!!!

Samantha is really enjoying her bath time... even more now that she has discovered the toys in the tub with her! Enjoy :)

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

Em

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. I personally could not have asked for a more perfect 1st Mother's day - Gregg and Samantha set the bar pretty high this year!

We started off by all sleeping in and then we heading out with the rest of Louisville to my favorite breakfast spot... Wild Eggs! :) :) By the time we finished with our 1 1/2 hour wait for a table we were able to partake in my mother's favorite event... Brunch! But, it was great to sit down, have a drink and enjoy a great breakfast/brunch with my two favorite people in Louisville (sorry all of my other favorite people in town, but it was Mother's day!) Next, we jumped in the car and headed to the ballpark and had a wonderful afternoon at the ballpark. It was a perfect day to be there... not a cloud in the sky and the temp. was perfect!

Then, just as we were leaving the park, we got a call from some very dear friends of ours that were downtown as well and we all decided to meet up for some early dinner... well, all of the restaurants still were working on the 2 hr wait policy so we decided to go eat were few moms would go eat for mother's day... Hooters :) :) It was great... no crowds and we were able to talk and take our time eating and not feel rushed to get out and get our table to another family... this might become a tradition with the Franklin family !!!! HA HA

Anyways - I guess it wasn't until I had a child of my own that it hit me how special of a day Mother's day really is... SO - mom, I'm sorry for all the times that I forgot about this day and had to run out the morning of and get you some flowers before church and then act like I had them the "whole time" :) :) I know my turn is coming with this little munchkin. However, I love you momma and I hope that you had a good Mother's Day even though I wasn't there to spend the day with you and take you to Brunch! I thought of you fondly all day while I was enjoying the day with Samantha

mimi

8 months old!

Happy 8 months Samantha! I look at you and I wonder where the time has gone. I also look at you and see the joy and happiness that you have brought your daddy and I. We love you with all our heart and I honestly don't know what our lives would be like if you had not come into it.

Thank you for being you - you always seem to know how to put a smile on everyone face! We love you unconditionally and I promise that will never change (even when you start to question it later on when the discipline kicks in)

Ear tubes - April 15th

Samantha had ear tubes put in on the 15th and this was a day that I was both happy about and dreading. Samantha had been dealing with one long ear infecting since the 1st of Feb. and it had never gone away, but being the trooper that she is, she never really fussed (except for when the infection flared up) and she stayed the happy baby she has always been.

Gregg took her to the ear dr and he said she needed tubes asap, not something I was wanting to hear. But, we knew we had to do what was best for Sammie and we scheduled surgery for the following week on the 15th. Well, morning of the surgery came and I was a nervous wreck... the last place I wanted to take our little girl again was to the hospital - even if it was for a 10 minute procedure. However, I put on my brave face and toughed it out with Sammie (I figured if she could do it, I could do it). Surgery went great and she has been doing great with the tubes ever since.

just waking up after surgery

more misc. pictures :)

I have become addicted to hats for my child... this is one of the latest that I have purchased for her :) She needed a summer hat - what can I say? :)

Sammie is also now big enough to wear the robe that my aunt and cousin got her... she was modeling it this particular night

The other baby trying to figure out why I am not cuddling up in bed with him... poor thing is sooo neglected - HA

We are so blessed to have such a laid back little girl - she loves to just hang out and relax with us on the weekends... in her pjs of course :)

hanging out at Grandma's house watching her get dressed... there's nothing like watching momma and her mom get ready in the morning to make Samantha feel girly for the day :)