Sorry it is getting longer in between updates. With the foster dog and life in general, I don't get a chance to sit very often. Samantha has been learning words at a rapid pace lately. She knows: "sky, tree, all done, all gone, hat, cup, shoes, cheese, Mommy gone, ba (ball or bottle), Lat (light), bana (banana), hot, up." Today she told Tyson, "Come," and clapped her hands. He ignored her like he does with us, but we were stunned. She points to objects in books and names them, like hat and cup. Pretty smart cookie. Matt and I will quote a line from a book to her, and she will go and find that book and bring it back to us to read to her.

We have a monkey for a daughter. She is a whiz on the playground. Yesterday she climbed up the metal bars to get to the slide. On the way to the park, she starts saying "whee" when she recognizes where we are going. She loves climbing and sliding and swinging very much, anything that keeps her moving. I am astonished at how strong and fearless she is, and I hope she stays that way. She walked across the metal bars that were four feet off the ground and a foot apart. I held onto her clothes so I could make sure she didn't fall off, but she doing all her own balancing. Giving her mother grey hairs!

Samantha has been working on the concept of pockets lately, and she just learned how nice it is to stuff wet cereal and buttered toast down the front of her onesie. Very creative child. It is hard to say no and sound like I mean it when I am laughing.

She also is working on words, and has been going around calling every animal 'cat.' So far the dogs have been very patient.