Sam is finally sleeping, after being up most of the night and a good portion of the day playing and fussing. Sam’s version of playing is to try climbing up our chests, perhaps standing with a bit of help, kicking her legs out, waving her arms, and staring at things. Sometimes she even manages to do all those things at once. She is a very active girl. Then she just collapses and it is like someone turned off a switch, there is an immediate change from whirlwind to zephyr. I like her alert and wide eyed look. She really takes it all in at once, and seems to be working very hard.

Matt is outside worried about our two black cats that snuck out the door tonight, and I am inside worried about Matt. I tried to convince him that no one catches black cats at night that don’t want to be caught, but he is determined. We would be very upset if something happened to them, that is true, and it is very thoughtful of Matt to try to bring them in. I just think we need our sleep more.

There is a swing here now for Sam. I hope she likes it. She sat in it tonight and didn’t start crying for about 15 minutes, which so far means she liked it a lot if we compare it to other things we were trying. I bounce her on my tummy, hold her on my chest and pat/rub her back, hold her laterally across my arm and bounce my arm. I also try zooming her up in the air (with appropriate sound effects, of course) and sometimes I just rock her back and forth. There is a large green ball that I bounce on while I hold her that seems to be a hit with her, but it is hard on my back.

Found some socks and mittens with rattles on them for Sam. Can’t wait to try them out on her. She may be too young for them, but what the heck? I’ll give them a try.

Did I mention that Ella is my diaper barometer? If Ella sniffs her diaper a lot, I know I need to change Sam. These new diapers are really absorbent and it is hard to tell sometimes if she has a dirty diaper without Ella’s help. There, see, I didn’t mention p**p once, not even now.