Wow! Samantha is so tall, so fast, and so loquacious! They say that time flies when you're having fun, and while I do feel like the past 18 months have flown by, it also seems like my precious girl has been a part of my life forever. It's hard to remember what life was like before she came along! I'm so proud of her, and I know her accomplishments are not really anything to brag about (everyone learns to walk, talk, and eat with a fork, after all), but I feel proud of her, anyway. At 18 months she's using around 115 words by my count and she's putting two words together to make her own unique sentences. ("More milk." "No want." "Mommy shoe." "Bye-bye, Daddy." "Kitty night-night.") She can also count to three, though I'm not sure she knows what she's doing when she does so. This kid can run, too! Yesterday I followed her all over the neighborhood while she ran a half mile! That is not an exaggeration. She really ran half a mile, talking the whole time, before she got tired and sat down. As for the fork, well, she won't be invited to a dinner at the White House anytime soon, so at least we've got some time to develop her skills in that area.
Bragging aside, parenting really is a humbling experience in many ways. I thank God constantly for allowing Andrew and me to raise His precious Samantha. We don't always know what to do in every situation, but we are constantly in awe of her unconditional love and her childlike faith that life is as it should be. As much as she has to learn, we have just as much to learn from her in the years to come.
