Baby AJ's growing

Here is our most recent ultrasound. Baby "AJ" is approximately 5lbs 5oz. already and we have about 5 weeks to go. I don't know many more details from the ultrasound yet, but I see the doctor on Thursday. I feel better knowing AJ is already that size. In this 3D picture, the baby put her/his arm up infront of his/her face.

Samantha got her first hair cut this weekend. Initially she was a little freaked out but she did fine and was pretty happy in the end.

Dickens of a Christmas

Every year Franklin, TN has a Christmas celebration downtown called Dickens of a Christmas. The vendors and many entertainers dress up in vintage clothing. They walk the streets singing, playing music and dancing. They sell chesnuts, sugared plums and cider. This is the first year we took part in the celebration. Ms. Susan, from Vanderbilt, went with us. Samantha enjoyed watching all the people and seeing so many dogs. She was alittle afraid of the big horses, but she road a pony for the first time and she seemed very pleased with herself. (you can see my big belly in these pictures). Her pony's name was Ms. Honey. She was sweet!

We are having yo-yo weather here. One day its 40 and sunny and the next thing you know its 65 or 70 degrees and raining. Looks like that is what is in store for the next week too- more ups and downs.

My teaching is wrapping up for the semester. I spent 3.5 hours grading just 8 papers tonight! Yikes. I hope the next batch goes faster. The second dresser should be moved out of the baby's room tomorrow afternoon, so the 'making room for baby' story is to be continued in the next week also.

St. Nicholas Day

Today we celebrated the memory of St. Nicholas. Samantha woke up to find apples and oranges and a treat in her shoes! She also got a special gift from Grandmommy and Granddaddy- a book and a Raggedy Ann Ornament/Doll. Great Grandma Norma sent a fantastic outfit for the holidays! Samantha tried it on and well, she loved it so much we had a meltdown trying to get it off when it was time for pajamas.

This is a first attempt at posting video. Samantha getting down at Lotties in her PJs. Its from our digital camera, not a camcorder because although we broke down and got a camcorder we cannot find the charger- I know, I am really organized right now! :)

I am going to try to post a predictor on here somehow and for everyone to predict the baby's arrival date, gender and weight...

Busy Bee

Our busy Bee...in Memphis, in Holly Springs, MS, at the gymnastics club, with her cousins, with Daddy. Having fun this Holiday season!

Making room for baby

We had a good, quiet weekend at home. We did not do much, but are in the planning stages. Losing our office/guest room for the new nursery is requiring a multi-step change. We plan to make the room a nursery with an extra bed in it but the desk and large dresser must come out before the crib and baby's dresser can come in. So, first we are trying to sell the dressers then we are going to move the bookshelf out of our room to the garage and then we will move the desk out of the nursery into our room. What did we get done this weekend? We got the bookshelf cleaned off, the old TV sold (Craigslist) and one inquiry on the dresser...lots to do before we have room for baby but we still have about 9 weeks!

Samantha has been a sleeping queen this weekend. I don't know is she is fighting something but she slept 13 hours Saturday night and still took at 2 hour nap Sunday afternoon. She is enjoying a new book "Gigi, God's Little Princess, The Pink Ballerina" and she is requesting to play with Legos alot. We are looking forward to some time with the Algood family for Thanksgiving.

Everyday life

I don't feel like there is alot to report on in the life of Samantha. She is bringing alot of joy to her mommy and daddy right now. She likes to play puzzles and read books and she even jokes around with us. She has been reading in the car on the way to daycare every morning so my battles over music have died away for the time being (at least I don't have to listen to Elliston the Elephant 5 times a day). Samantha's hair is getting really long, but when I ask if she wants her hair cut she says no. I think I will take her to the salon and see how she reacts before having it cut. I don't want to tramatize her the first time. Maybe if she sees other kids getting their hair trimmed she will do it. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week and Samantha will get to attend her first little girl's tea party next week too. This weekend I think we plan to have a laid back time and maybe start to put the nursery together. Anybody want an armoire? or need a 27inch TV?

Happy to you, versary!

I was trying to teach Samantha to say Happy Anniversary on the way home last night and she kept saying, "Happy to you, versary". I think she thought that Anniversary was a person and it was their birthday.

Daddy, Mommy and Samantha went out for mexican last night to celebrate our 4th anniversary. Afterwards, Daddy got Samantha straightened out and she said "Happy Anniversary, Daddy". It was very cute.

Big Girl!

Well, last night Daddy set up Samantha's big girl bed. She seemed, ever so slightly, apprehesive about it but when we put her down for night-night, she whimpered for about 3 minutes and then she was quiet. Daddy was convinced we were going to go in and find her on the floor, but she was nice and snug in the bed.

She doesn't like the covers on her when we put her to bed, but we sneak in later and wrap her up. Daddy woke up about 3 times last night thinking he heard her crying. I woke up once and thought I heard her and then was even convinced (in my blindness and in the dark) that she was standing at the door staring at me. Unfortunately, I didn't fall back to sleep.

Conclusion: Some transitions are easier on kids than on the parents! It was very weird seeing our 'baby' in a big girl bed! (Daddy even said a little sad)

But obviously the crib won't be down for long. Next step setting up a nursery in the guest room! (don't worry common visitors, we are going to retain the guest bed in that room for awhile and our bed will be available when there are visitors, we will sleep with the baby...and Samantha's big bed is actually a bunk bed so we have another bed for visitors already set up (no ladder yet- we aren't that daring with a 2 year old!).

Another transition to Big Girl is happening right now too. Samantha has always been very cuddlely with mommy during evening prayers. She had her routine...blanket on mommy's left shoulder and head down. During the last prayer, she would hand the blanket to Daddy and then go to him for the conclusion of prayer and then he would take her to bed. The last couple evenings she has wanted to stand on her own during prayer and hold Elmo or Duppie as her baby. She even rocks them like I would rock her. This too is a difficult transition for Mommy, but probably good since my belly is making it harder to hold her for long periods of time.

Congratulations to Aunt Mindy (Daddy's sister) and Uncle Mike, Lydia and Mary Wren. They welcome the first boy of this generation (on the Algood side)...Nicholas Michael was born Nov. 6th around 9:30am. He was 8lbs. 4 oz. and 20 and 3/4 inches long. We look forward to meeting him in just 2 weeks! Aunt Mindy and Uncle Mike also just welcomed a new nephew (on the William's side) just one week ago...those boys are going to have some fun together!

Happy Halloween!

Samantha got her first taste of Halloween this year. She went trick or treating with Daddy and the Beasley's (mommy had to teach). We did not dress her 'up' for daycare but she did wear a T-shirt Aunt Heather handed down. She really looks like Daddy in that picture!

Samantha is really alot of fun right now. She has her 'moments' don't get me wrong, but its great to her personality develop. Last week she wanted to 'kiss the baby' and she was blowing on my tummy and then laughing so hard. This week she was being Miss Polite at the dinner table. She was saying "Yes, please." and "Thank you, mommy" at the most perfect times (I hope this lasts and that we continue to be this polite to each other all the time!) Oh, another great little tidbit. Yesterday morning I was dropping Samantha at Daycare and I grumbled about my pants falling down (I know they should be staying up over my big belly, but they just keep sliding down) and I was complaining that I was walking on them. Samantha stopped looked up at me and then reached over and tried to pull up my pant leg to help me out...how sweet. She obviously hears everything and is learning so much right now. Its fantastic.

I have decided to start a count down to the due date rather than counting up....<12 weeks to go. Baby AJ will be here before we know it....but we are still awaiting our new neice or nephew (Samantha's new cousin). Daddy's sister's baby was due yesterday...

2 Year Check up

Amazing its been two years.

My 8lb. 6oz baby is now a 22.5lb, 33.5inch little girl!! Samantha saw Dr. Davis yesterday and loved all but 20 seconds of her visit. She talked him through a book and showed him her eyes and ears and nose. She even let him listen to Dora. She wasn't so crazy about him checking out her mouth and she cried for about 10 seconds after she got her flu vaccine and her Hep A vaccine...no more vaccines until 5!!!

Samantha is about 50% percentile in height-- yeah! I hope she is taller than mommy one day. And I think she is about 15% in weight, but I am not sure. I did not get a good look at the chart. She is doing fantastic. Her verbal development is taking off. She is counting and singing and trying to learn her colors. She is becoming a parrot so we have to watch what we say. I hear alot of "oh, goodness" (which she gets from mommy). Samantha doesn't sound like an adult though and some phrases don't sound like they should. Funky House...is horrible. Problem is -its hard not to laugh and then she thinks its funny and repeats the phrase over and over again. A.J. is getting into my ribs so laughing isn't so fun right now--what a contradiction!

We'll post a picture for Halloween soon. Have a great day.

Wow! What fun we have been having!

I am so sorry to all of you who have been waiting for Samantha's birthday pictures. Its taken us some time to get everything together. We have been very busy, but enjoying every moment. We just got back from Ohio where we celebrated my parent's 60th birthdays, Clare's baptism and Sophie and Samantha's birthdays. I am not going to say much, but just post some pictures. Enjoy.

Clare's baptism. Daddy and Aunt Heather with Clare.

Samantha with Clare...she keeps touching me?


Cousins with "Uncle Matt", nothing like 6 girls taking turns blasting off a rocket.

Concentration...nesting dolls and puzzles. This is what I like.

And a swing or two in a good - old, Akron Goodyear tire.

Celebrating birthday with Sophie (who turned 4 today). Look at the cute tea kettle Aunt Heather made me and my cousin...and our individual 'tea' cups.

At Pumpkin Farm in Franklin, TN with friends. This is 'Alex'.

"Happy to you"

Samantha's newest favorite things to do include: singing "Happy to you" (she leaves out the birthday), singing "Banana Phone", watching any video on Noggin.com, and standing on her chair at the kitchen table.

She still hasn't let go of some other habits including pointing out everything YELLOW, eating raisins (every chance she can get), and requesting mommy "hold you" at my weakest moments.

She is increasingly talking about airplanes and was excited to hear that we are planning our next trip to "OHIO" (which she equates with where Poppop, Grandma and Duppie live).

We had a great weekend with Amy. She came down from Pittsburgh. We visited the Factory, went to an art show (without Samantha), went on some walks and got to catch up. Amy brought Samantha a PITT shirt with the characters of Seseme Street on it and Samantha wouldn't take it off for about 24 hours.

New Tricks

Wow! Has it really been 2 weeks since I updated everyone?So much has happened.

Samantha is adjusting to being in the 2-year old classroom. It was not an easy transition for her and she went through a period of testing the waters at home because of it. She has also had some pretty strong separation anxiety lately. We have found it difficult to watch her go through these transitions.

She is learning her ABCs, and can almost count to 10. She knows some colors, but she seems to like warm tones better (yellow, red). She still doesn't do as well with blue or green.

She is learning how to undress and dress herself- she thinks its funny to be naked (we are hoping this stays in the house). In the picture to the left, Samantha's diaper fell off...literally!

We are getting ready to transition her to a big girl bed and I think she is ready too, but we have to find the time to actually go shopping for the mattresses and bed...oh, time.

We were really blessed to have the Hartman's visit this weekend. We headed to the Nashville Zoo for Harvest Days. Samantha really enjoyed playing with Matt, Amy and Luke. She liked Luke's toy Octopus and Luke really liked her push car.

Baby A. J. (thats Algood Junior)

David would probably prefer I prefaced this title with a note to say that I am calling the baby A.J. (short for Algood Junior). He doesn't want to call the baby by any name or nickname until he knows whether we are having a girl or boy and well, he is going to have to wait about 4 more months to find that out.

We had the ultrasound today and A.J. appears to be right on schedule. There were no abnormalities found and the baby's activity level is good (I could have told them that). Here are a few pictures of Samantha's sibling.

Work of Art

We always thought Samantha was a work of art, really a work of God's hand. Now we literally have a work of art capturing Samantha at the beach. Samantha's Grandmommy painted a portrait of Samantha at Gulf Shores, AL. Its fantastic. Now we are trying to figure out where it looks best in the house. Samantha recognized herself in the oil painting- so its true to life.

Grandmommy and Granddaddy spent the weekend with us. We really enjoyed having them. We visited with Samantha's Great-Great Uncle Rueben and Great-Great Aunt Alice! We also enjoyed a stop in dinner with Samantha's Great Aunt Sally, 2nd Cousin Teddy and Lottie (Great-Grandmommy).

Science in mommy's life

Although my blog is primarily focuses on the events in our family life and especially Samantha's life, I wanted to share with you some news from my scientific life.




I received a letter today notifying me of the acceptance of a scientific paper that it took me years to put together. This paper focuses on the bodies early immune response to the bacteria, H. pylori. I used a mouse model to study how rapidly the body recognizes infection and specifically tries to fight the bacteria. H. pylori, seen in the photo above, is known to colonize the stomachs of approximately50% of the world's population and to be a major risk factor for gastric ulcers and gastric cancer.

The editor said, "I am pleased to be able to tell you that your manuscript, detailed above, has now been accepted for publication in our journal. Thank you for taking so much care with the revision. I hope you will agree that it has improved substantially."



This was a huge relief.

My scientific life is not just focused on research at this time, I am also teaching science. The semester started yesterday both at Vanderbilt and at Columbia State Community College. I will be a 'mentor' for the General Biology Labs at Vanderbilt for the first 5 weeks of the semester, and I will meet the students I am mentoring in lab next week. I am also the microbiology instructor at CSCC. I met my students at CSCC last night and I think its going to be a great semester.

Time with friends

Today I feel very blessed. We really are surrounded by such loving friends and family. We have had so many visitors this summer and are looking forward to even more as the fall approaches. Unfortunately for Heather and Ben who visited this week- its hot as blazes down here. They say we are going to get a cool down (we're talking 95 degrees as a 'cool down'). Anyway, I hope everyone has enjoyed their stay as much as we have enjoyed having everyone. Samantha was able to go swimming with Heather and Ben on Thursday and on Saturday we went to Opry Mills and Opryland Hotel. Samantha was such a trooper walking around with us all afternoon/evening. We were so exhausted and she was just beside herself. Poor thing got her head stuck between some rails trying to look a big fish. She loved the riverboat ride in the Delta and the horse both at Opryland and on the Merry-go-round at Opry Mills.

Ups and Downs

The last 24 hours have been full of ups and downs. Brad (my brother-in-law)'s parents were affected by the flooding in Ohio and they had 4 ft of water in their basement with all of their pictures, antiques and family heirlooms. His mother, Mary Ellen, fell at the end of a long day of cleaning and damage assessment. Praise God that her injury was not more serious (although she was unconscious for some time). She is home from the hospital recovering and some family and friends have now organized some clean up help.

Good news : My long-time friend, Shannon and her family (Joe, Michael, Anna and Benjamin) welcome the newest member of their family today. Alexandria Grace was born. She weighed in at 5lbs 10oz and 18 inches long. Both Shannon and Alexandria are doing very well. God is good.

A few tid bits...

Time flies when you're having fun. We had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Memphis with David's sister's family. Samantha was able to participate in Lydia's 5th birthday party (where they all dressed up as princesses). She had fun reading and playing with Mary Wren and Lydia. She is starting to get used to sleeping in the car...but we think she needs a pillow...what do you think?

The girls also enjoyed the Finley-Mashburn wedding, well most of it. We told them Princess Sarah was marrying Prince Joel and they thought that was cool. Samantha did not like the music -- she got really scared when the music started. We had to take her outside...and then when we dared to bring her back in all we hear from her was 'too loud, too loud'.

Coming home late Sunday made the transition into this week a little rough. In addition, David left for Sweden Tuesday morning so we were in a mad rush to get laundry and packing done. Despite that we did take a trip to the ice cream parlor Monday night for some family time before his trip. On the way there a soccer team was practicing and Samantha kept saying 'soccerball' without our prompting...maybe its in her blood! Hope so.

This week has some fun events planned too. My roomate, Heather, from Mount is in town and will she and Ben will be staying with us Friday and Saturday. Moreover, we are looking forward to George (our friend's baby's) baptism. Then on to next week....my teaching begins! Hope I can keep up with the Blog.

Family Ties

Today I am downloading my pictures from our trip to Ohio last weekend. The family is getting bigger and its really alot of fun...and tiring. We had a great trip to Ohio. It might not have been worth flying (time wise), but we really enjoyed seeing everyone and meeting Baby Clare. Samantha was much more timid around the dogs, but she did warm up to Doppie and Chesney again. She would say, "Come here" and signal with her hands. Grandma asked her if she was Italian. Samantha also enjoyed the pool at Aunt Heather's and playing dress up with her cousins. She played Tinkerbell on Saturday and Snow White on Sunday. Anna, Isabelle and Sophie really enjoyed showing her the ropes. Samantha cannot get enough of her Papa. He sang many songs to her and gave her piggy back rides. We celebrated 2 birthdays over the weekend too...Uncle Bobo turned 29...oh, goodness is he really my little brother?...and Anna turned 7, wow! The weather in Ohio was a great break from the heat here. We are still experiencing temperatures in the low 100s. On Wednesday, Grandma ever so gently told me it was 80 there when I called to tell her it was 107 at the Nashville Zoo!

Our next trip to Ohio will be for more happy family times....a celebration of Grandma and Grandpa's 60th Birthdays and Clare's baptism. Heather and Brad asked David to be her Godfather! We are so excited about that. Here he is holding Clare. (Well, theres a lot of Clare sleeping peacefully.) Doesn't she look like a Porcella girl!
We are headed to Memphis this weekend. We are looking forward to spending some time with David's family in the next couple of weeks. David also is headed to Sweden next week so please pray for his safe travels and my sanity.

5 Years since I 'borrowed' Ian's car

Most of you know the story of how David and I met while getting off the Pittsburgh city bus (PAT) one July evening. Well, after meeting on that day (and talking for just 10 minutes), we never made plans to see each other again. It was on this day, August 8th, in 2002 that I (with some encouragement from friends) left a note for David on a car with a Mississippi license plate. Little did I know it wasn't David's car, but Ian's car. Luckily, Ian delivered the note to David and well....the rest is history. Thanks Ian!

Chef in the making

Samantha has taken an interest in cooking. She spends more and more time in her kitchen, especially when I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. This weekend we very gently introduced her to the art of baking and food preparation. First, she used (store bought) cookie dough to make cookies. Then she helped clean the corn on the cob, and finally she enjoyed both!!

Its sort of fun to think of ways to get her to help in the kitchen, but it also leads to some disappoint now. Samantha always wants to help and when it involved boiling water----we're just not ready for that.

We are headed to meet Clare this weekend. I think Samantha will be thrilled to see both PaPa and BoBo again. She asks for them at least every other day.

No longer fearless?

If you have been following my blog, yesterday I wrote about Samantha's lack of fear in the pool. But her fearlessness has been exhibited in other areas of her behavior also. She grawls at thunder. She sleeps without a night light. She likes to check out bugs and then she stomps on them. She would walk on all furniture and jump off if she were allowed (and she does try). Samantha loves animals of all kinds even ones that are bigger than her. She will talk to any stranger that waves or says hi. Obviously, I am glad she is not 'afraid'. On the other hand, in my motherly protection role, I worry she is too bold and too friendly. But today at dinner I saw fear in Samantha's eyes. The ice maker was clicking (or knocking) periodically and she had this look of fear on her face. I said "Its just the refrigerator", and she said "no, door". I said "no, its the ice maker. Its nothing." She wimpered and said, "no, door". I said, "Samantha, really its okay. There is nothing behind the door," and she started to cry, "Door". So I went over and opened the door in the kitchen (it leads to the garage) to show her there was nothing there. She said "OKAY". I decided to point out other background noices in the house, "do you hear the clock?" "yeah" and from then on the knocking ice maker was the clock. I guess she didn't see the connection and possibly because she knows what a clock is and doesn't know what an ice maker is, she felt she could now identify the sound. She now probaby thinks there is a clock in the refrigerator and that the ice maker is something in the garage of which to be afraid. Don't you wish you could read their minds?

Fearless and Feeling good!

Samantha is feeling better after her brief illness last week. When we went to the doctor, we found out that she is 21lbs and 6 oz. I was shocked. I think I am getting weaker or something because I really thought she was gaining weight and this is about the same weight (within a few ounces) as 3 months ago at her 18 month check up. I do think she is taller and stronger (which are obviously not measured) so maybe its that holding this wiggle worm is becoming more of a challenge for my short body. She really likes her doctor- and he is really good with her. Before he checked her throat, which he knew she won't like, he checked her leg reflexes. She thought that was the funniest thing ever! Then she proceeded to try to take the rubber mallet and try to do it to herself...I had to stop her for fear that she would give herself a new bruise.

We went swimming last night at our friend's house and Samantha decided (without thinking of the consequences) that she wanted to retieve a ball that was about 3 feet from her floatation device. She jumped right off the device and into the water. I was only about 3 feet away and picked her right up. She had held her breath so she was shocked but not scared and wanted right back at the ball and on to the float. No fear.

Samantha's new cousin

Welcome Clare! Clare Elizabeth and Samantha will forever share their middle name! Samantha loves to look at this picture of baby and I am happy to say that she very clearly can pronouce "Clare", and was very excited when I told her we would be going to meet her in 2 weeks.
Watch out Clare, here we come!

Family and more family

As I ponder what as occurred over the last couple of weeks since I found the time to blog, I realize how much fun we have had. Today we are forced to slow down because Samantha is under the weather, but the last month has been full of visitors and fun. After Grandma and Grandpa left we started anticipating the arrival of my sister, Heather's, 4th child. Little did we know the anticipation would build so long. Claire Elizabeth (spelling of Claire is undecided right now, I think ) was born July 26th, just one day after Heather and Brad's 9th wedding anniversary. We only have one picture of Claire so far and when I get a higher resolution photo I will share the picture, but she is beautiful - Grandma says she looks exactly like Heather did when she was born.

Amidst the anticipation, Uncle Joey (BoBo) and Aunt Amanda came to visit for almost a week. They toured Nashville, listened to music, did some shopping and played some golf. We enjoyed our evenings together and playing with Samantha.

Samantha (besides her cold today) has been doing great. She is very active learning her colors and shapes. She is talking more and more and loves singing songs, clapping and dancing. She fits in well in Nashville with her new Titan's jersey from Larry (at Permobil). More people tell us these days that she looks like her Daddy. We posted about 30 pictures on Imagestation so if you want to see more of Samantha go to the "Samantha heading for 2!" link.