I started reading Yeats on a lark, mostly because I was sick of reading mindless children's books and I needed a change. Now Sam picks up the very thick book and brings it over for me to read to her. I guess she was sick of that too. She likes the sound of the words in the poetry and the repetition. Yeats does wonderful things with the words, using staccato and lyrical words like a composer of music. She responds to it more than I thought. Yes, we still read the sesame street books and Thomas the Tank Engine, but now and then I get something really challenging to read. Pretty good trade off, as far as I am concerned.

Just to give a sample of what Sam is reading nowadays, tonight I read “The Cradle Song” by Yeats, “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson, and another Harold book that was adapted from the original, the Colors book that has panels you pull out with animal pictures on them, and a book of family photos where I tell Sam about each person or animal in the photo. She usually just has two books read, but she skipped watching Harold on TV so I had extra time to read to her.

Sam is sitting behind me in her car seat. She has on her lion coat, the yellow one with the orange fake fur trim on her collar. She also is wearing her metallic yellow sunglasses, which Daddy got for her. She loves them. I have to say, she looks pretty jazzy and cool in her finery. She takes a sip of her juice and goes “ahhh!” just as if she was tasting a fine wine or a really good bottle of cold beer. I have to crack up. She is such a person!

Martha at the gym play group said that Sam did really well at the gym this morning. She was more relaxed and seemed to actually enjoy herself. She told Martha that she needed a new diaper, and was very determined that Martha understand exactly what she wanted. Martha said she was a very determined child. I keep hearing that from people who spend time with her. I have to agree with them. She decided today that she is taking bunny with her wherever she goes, and that bunny is cold without a coat. I explained that bunnies have their own coats already that keep them warm in any weather, but that wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t happy until I had promised to make a special coat just for Bunny so he would be warm too. She is very thoughtful and nurturing to her Dolly and now Bunny. I am very proud of her.

I ask Sam what we saw yesterday and she says sheep, goats, man. She also saw a pig, a big red, smelly, roly-poly pig. A very giant cow with a very full udder and about to calve. Two beautiful chestnut draft horses, a matched pair. An older gentleman hoisting a large, plump sheep around and shearing it. That was amazing for me to see, but Sam’s favorite was not the border collie herding the sheep, it was the rooster in the goat barn. She was fascinated by the rooster and its’ hen. She could have watched them all day. I thought the three-day-old kids were pretty cute too. The goats all loved the head scratches. Some of them had very soft coats. Mitch, the docent for the goat barn, was looking to see if anyone was wearing wool. We didn’t have a stitch on us. He still let us in the barn; he was a nice man.

The event was Woolapalooza at Drumlin Farms in Waltham and it was a lovely, sunny, warm day out. We also got to taste warm maple syrup and listen to a funny story about a sheep in wolf’s clothing. When the woman had finished reading the story, people got up and left and she played some nursery tunes on her 29 string harp and I sung along with her to Sam. Sam mostly wanted to inspect the picture of a salamander and throw herself at the hot fireplace.

We must have hit the terrible twos with a bang, because I am regularly horrified by her behavior when we are out. That, or her cold is just making her miserable and she just wants to stay home and “snuggle daddy!” Unfortunately, Daddy’s back is pretty bad and he can’t hold her, so that is just another reason to have a fit. I guess I am just tired. We did have an amazing bed time singalong tonight. Sam sang the chorus for me from “Baby Beluga.” She sings “Swim so wild, swim so Freeeeee!” with such glee, I expect her to fly with it. Then she sang Twinkle, Twinkle and itsy Bitsy Spider too. She never sang anything with me before, and tonight she comes out with all of them. She also will sing the alphabet with you if you leave out the fourth letter of every sequence (she remembers all the letters on the fourth beat.) She was giggling and laughing and having a great time singing, and well, so was I. She is incredibly charming and amazing at times.

Her favorite book right now is “A little Bird.” It’s about a little bird that is amazed by everyone else’s gifts, and then learns it can fly at the end of the book. It’s pretty cute, and has elephants, giraffes and kangaroos in it. She loves those animals very much. She knows that a baby kangaroo is called a joey. She is working on her numbers. She can count up to six pretty easily now, and even remembers to say five now and then. Yesterday she told me we had 6 water bottles in the driveway, and she was right! I thought we had a bright little kid on our hands, until I met Matthew. He speaks English and French. Sam is still the brightest bulb I’ve ever seen. I’m her mom. No one else is as perfect as my little lion. She has a new jacket that has a furry collar and looks like a lion mane. She loves it when I call her my little lion, although she keeps looking for the picture of a lion on her coat. I may have to get a lion decal and stick it on for her.

Sam's new favorite expression is "I can do it myself!" She is very clear about this. She can zip up her own jacket, put on her own pants (except for the snap part) her own shoes that close with Velcro, and her own socks. She practices with Dolly alot, although Dolly mostly gets a dose of rash cream and a diaper. Sam is working on putting on her own diaper, the regular kind with tabs. She lays the diaper out flat on the floor, sits on it, and tries to attach the tabs around her tummy. She almost has it down. She goes back and forth with the pull up diapers. Some days she likes the Big Bird ones, other days she wants the Cinderella picture on the front. Other days she doesn't want anything to do with either. I ask her which one she wants and we go with what she says.

We had a nice morning on a puddle adventure. Sam wore her magic puddle boots and we romped through this large field near the Hanscom Air Force Base. There were some spots where the snow had almost melted and she could walk in the water and ice over the grass. The grass smells heavenly. We met two other people who were out walking. Ella was curious but left them alone when I asked. It was very quiet which surprised me. It is a nice, flat path and very little ice left. Sam stomped on every puddle we came across and also got to walk Ella on leash. Did I mention that Ella is a very patient and lovely dog? It was 60 degrees and sunny all day today, just a spectacular day. I played Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World” all the way home. Sam has lots of exposure to Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte. She can round it out when she gets older. :-) Just kidding, We listen to lots of classical and some modern stuff too. I just find myself having such a blast with “Day O” and “Twisting” that I keep going back to them.