MoseleyWorld

Samantha, is almost nine months old, but has already found her love of the blues. She’s considering becoming a professional harmonica player. Watch this short movie clip and you’ll see her natural talent…I’m certain.

You may also notice her other talent - playing the harmonica, while crawling - look ma! no hands! style.

Time is flying.  This summer, Samantha will celebrate her first birthday and Saxon will turn three.

Slowly, but surely seeming to getting caught up, while actually falling more behind in the documenting of stories from the land o’ Moseley. The first set of photographs were taken during a visit to my parents (who are know known by their aliases, Gran and Yaya). We visited at the end of March. East Texas, with its dogwoods and azaleas in full bloom, is always prettiest in the spring.

Sister entertaining themselves on a mini-trampoline.

mom joins in on the fun.

and, of course, Saxon wanted to stay in the car, even after a 2 1/2 hour ride.

The following photographs were taken a week or two later, at the Dallas Arboretum, with Gran.

Saxon loves to have books read to her. And, I love how she wants to understand everything that’s happening on each & every page. Saxon has figured out most of the facial expressions she sees in books, but when she sees one that is not an obvious happy smile or sad frown, we get asked, "What’s her mouth doing? "

Seeing the photograph of her Aunt Teresa (her current Facebook profile pic) would DEFINITELY elicit a quick "What’s her mouth doing?" or "What’s Aunt Teresa doing with her mouth." Saxon really wants to know. So, we guess. For Aunt Teresa, I’d make the same face and say, "She’s saying ‘Hmm…I don’t know about that.’" Try it. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and Saxon can smell a bluff a mile away.

Samantha, who is 8 months old, really enjoys being read to as well. In fact, she’s progressed from trying to eat the book to smiling and laughing each time a new page is turned. Another future reader.

SaxonSpeak
At 2.5, Saxon has a good vocabulary, but has recently decided to supplement it with a peppering of made up words like cronconk (or is it spelled kronkonk?). The other day, Saxon burst into the bathroom. Tying the sash from a bathrobe around her head, Saxon announced, "This is my shonshrake, it protects me from monsters…I’m going to go in there," pointing toward the closet.

Playing along, I said, "Is that your castle, Saxon?" She looked at me and deadpanned, "Uh, no Dada, that’s a closet."

Samantha Update
This morning, Samantha stood, on her on, for about 6 or 7 seconds. Those first steps are going to come any day now. Carey reports from Atlanta, where she and the girls are spending the weekend with the Fassnachts (older girl cousins are almost like princesses, says Saxon), that Samantha’s third tooth - the first one on top - has finally broken through. Oh, and this week, Samantha decided to start practicing her words. So far, I can make out: ma ma ma ma ma, ba ba ba ba ba and my favorite blah blah blah blah…

Family Additions
Saxon and Samantha have a new cousin. Patrick Reed arrived April 17. Congratulations to Carey’s sister, Ashley and her husband Michael.

Some random photographs taken in the last couple of months to share with you.

samantha is seven months old now. last month, she began crawling. like her big sister, samantha completely skipped the “potted plant” (can sit up but can’t go any where) stage and is always on the go, quite frustrated that she cannot walk unassisted like the rest of us.

cutie pies

saxon with mimi

samantha  with gran

samantha

On Sunday, Samantha will be six months old. For the most part, she is an incredibly happy baby with beautiful eyes and an adorable grin. But, of course, I’m a bit biased, since I’m the baby’s daddy (isn’t that what father’s are called now? If I’m right, gimme a fist bump).

We’ve been working hard to get Samantha in a sit-up-by-yourself position for the past few weeks. However, Samantha has set her priorities of self-improvement goals and crawling and talking seem to rank much higher than sitting up (”what’s the point?” she might say).

This movie clip is from a couple of weeks ago, when she was warming up, getting ready to launch. Special note: no babies were injured in the filming of this video.

And the one below, she takes her first crawl, about a week shy of being six months old. This does not make her mommy too happy, since she thought Samantha would buck the trend (set by Samantha who also crawled for the first time at less than six months old) and actually sit up for a couple of months before becoming mobile!