Books: Samantha's enthusiasm for reading books (.. I mean, having someone read them to her) has not changed. Her requests for someone to read her a book or "Babook" in Samantha talk, has not diminished since the day she started to walk ... instead of saying "Babook" in an attempt to elicit an affirmative response, she used to fetch the books from the coffee table and place them in your hands.

Just the other day, Samantha surprised me by pointing to the flowers in the flowering cactus (drawing in a book) - I responded very knowledgeably with "cactus" - Samantha, was not happy with this response and continued to point to the flowering cactus again and again - expecting a different response. Finally, recognizing that she was not going to get the response she wanted, she said "ower" for "flower" - who could argue with that!!!

I'm sure that as a result of her love of books, she is able to recognize a lot of animals from both photos as well drawings. We also have a medium sized magnetic board and "magnetic animals" so that Samantha can place various animals on the board. Samantha is able to recognize quite easily the zoo animals such as; zebra, elephant, snake, giraffe, turtle, panda as well as farm animals such as horse, sheep, dog, cat, pig. Some other animals she also knows are: ant, rabbit, fish, frog and owl to name a few.

Language Development: Ever since Samantha said her first word, her vocabulary has been increasing quite quickly. We've noticed that she is now attempting to saying new words.

Samantha's vocabulary mainly consists of the following words at the moment (some of which only Mum and Dad can truly recognize): Sounds made by farm animals Horse says "Neigh", Sheep says "Baa", Cat says "Mow", Dog says "Buh" (ummm not quite the "woof" we were expecting"), Donkey says "eh eh". She trying to say a few animals as well "ow" for "Owl", "ah ah" for "Ant", "bee" for "Bee" , "bay" for "butterfly", "Duckie" for Duck, "Birdie" for Bird, "Turte" for Turtle and of course there's the food: "ma ma" for "milk", "eggie" for "Egg", "tato" for "Potato", "tow" for "Toast", "appeh" for "Apple", "sausa" for Sausage. How can we forget her first real word - "up" which she first started saying back in March.

Some of the other words Samantha is using at the moment include: "Shoo" for Shoe, "Waa" for Wall, "Door" for Door, "owwer" for Flower, "Me" for Plane (Figure that one out!!), "Baby" for Baby (and any other young Toddler for that matter!), and "Wee" for Slide (since she says "wee" when she goes down one).

For some time Samantha has been able to point to various parts of her body such as Hair, Ear, Teeth, Nose, Hand, Elbow, Tum Tum, Belly Button, Knee, Feet and Toes. However, now that she has started to speak she is trying to name the body parts as well.

We mustn't forget the other word that Samantha says very clearly "uh oh" with much relish. For a couple of weeks Samantha loved to say "uh oh" and every opportunity she got she would say "uh oh". Initially, she would say "uh oh" when something accidently fell to the floor ... after a while, when she threw something on the floor on purpose she would also say "uh oh" - cheeky little brat!

Mummy's little Helper: Samantha gets a lot of enjoyment out of helping Mum with the daily chores - don't ask us why - but, we'll enjoy it while it lasts - I'm sure that as a teenager things won't be quite the same!

Currently, she helps with putting away some of the cutlery and plastic tupperware, putting away Daddy's sock in his drawer and Samantha's socks in her basket, transferring cloths from the washing machine to the dryer and putting items in the rubbish bin. Now, the one we currently get the most enjoyment out of, is that Samantha will get our shoes for us when it's time to go outside and even put them away when we get back....

She helps Mum with the shopping by pushing the shopping trolley around the grocery store as well as handing the groceries from the shopping trolley to Mum so that she can put them onto the checkout. Recently she has been wanting to do a bit of her own shopping and adding some extra items to the shopping trolley - Needless to say Mum ended paying for these items because she forgot they were in the shopping trolley. One day, Samantha completely took Mum by surprise when she decided that she wanted to have a go at swiping the card through the machine ... ummm, we better keep a close eye on our credit cards in future!

Some of the other things, Samantha is keen is help with at the moment are: open the front door of the apartment using a key, clicking the seat belt strap into the lock, putting her dirty diapers in the trash can, and after Mum finishes wiping her hands clean she'll check to make sure she is satisfied with the job done.... you can't pull the wool over her eyes!

Sleep Umm ... sleep is something that every parent dreams of when their children interrupt their sleep patterns. Fortunately for us, Samantha is generally very good with her sleep habits and of course there is the occasional night where she'll wake up crying in the middle of the night (a hug and cuddle from Dad to calm her down and she'll go back to sleep in her crib).

We went through some challenges when she was younger in going from two sleeps during the day down to one sleep. However, that's all been sorted out and she sleeps anywhere from 1.5hrs to 2.5hrs.

I guess seeing is believing ... Samantha usually goes to sleep around 9pm nothing unusual there. However, in the mornings Samantha is very kind to Mum and stays in her crib without making a sound (hugging Teddy and sucking her thumb) until Mum goes into her room and gets her up for the start of the day (somewhere between 7am and 7:30am).

Bath Time: This is usually a special bonding time for Samantha with Dad. Thanks to the efforts of Dad, Samantha loves having cupfuls of water poured over her head - she'll have her eyes open and be splashing the water with her hands. The real bonus is that she doesn't get scared when we dip her head under the water in the pool. After coming out of the bath, Samantha loves to give me a big hug before going to get her diaper.... not that she necessarily wants to have it on!!! I'm sure that this is as a result of a predictable routine.

Play Time: She loves swimming, walking along the wall, playing at the tot-lot (going down the slide)(Samantha calls the slide "wee" as this the sound we make when she goes down the slide), playing in the sand, walking up and down the stairs, getting Mum to blow bubbles.

Immunizations: Samantha has finished her immunizations for now until she's much older. We are thankful that Samantha did not experience any allergic reactions. It was interesting to find out, that children in America receive the "chicken pox" vaccination (around 15-18 months) which does not appear to be a standard Australian vaccination (at the time that we were given the Australian immunization schedule).

Teeth: Samantha now has four top front teeth and four bottom front teeth. Recently, her molars came through on the top (both left and right hand sides) ... the main symptoms we noticed was that there was a lot of drooling action and Samantha's appetite diminished quite significantly and has not returned to her usual veracious appetite.