Sam, Ella and I are in the hallway upstairs waiting for the rug guys to finish putting down our newly cleaned rug in the den. Sam, perhaps bored with the waiting, leans over and pulls Ella’s nub of a tail. I tell her to stop that, so she leans over, I think to bite her. I ask her what is she doing, and she says in an unusually clear and loud voice, “Mommy, I’m sniffing Ella’s butt!” I have to explain in a firm voice that girls do not sniff dogs’ butts, only dogs do that to each other. This is definitely a conversation I would rather have had in private, but these kinds of discussions only work if they are immediate. I am quite sure the men had a great laugh as soon as they got to the van.

Okay, so it's been ages since I've posted anything. Samantha's language skills keep racing ahead, as do her other abilities. She walks around the house reciting the alphabet to herself and counting to 11. No, she has not been raised on "This Is Spinal Tap" -- I swear, it's just a coincidence. She's also picking up new words that I haven't heard many 2 and a half year olds use, as evidenced by the following conversation yesterday when I picked her up from day care.

Me: What did you do today, Samantha?
Sam: I played with Danny and Clara and Emma cried.
Me: Did you eat a good lunch?
Sam: Yes, Jim made lunch and I had a sandwich later too and it was very messy so Jim washed my hands.
Me: Did you say thank you to Jim?
Sam: Apparently I did.

"Apparently I did"!?!?! Where did she get that one? Well, I know where she got it -- from listening to me. But I had no idea she'd not only picked up the word, but figured out where to use it.

She also recognizes most or all of the letters of the alphabet now and names them as they flash by on the screen on her favorite videotape. It's actually a tape of the San Diego zoo, but in order to be able to sell it as "educational" it has a couple of sections involving letters and numbers. Anyway, I've been thinking she's about ready to start learning to read, and that I should find some resources on how to teach a preschooler to read.

She may be way ahead of me, though. I think she just read her first word about 10 minutes ago. I was putting her to bed and we were reading "Where the Wild Things Are" (accompanied by her best "wild thing" impressions where the wild things roar their terrible roars, and gnash their terrible teeth, and roll their terrible eyes, and show their terrible claws"). There's a page where a private boat comes by for Max, the hero of the story. Samantha looked at the page and said "It's a boat. It says Max on it."

I asked here where it said that, and she pointed to the word "Max" on the side of the boat. So I asked her what each of the letters was in turn, and she told me. Finally I asked her "And what does M, A, X spell?", to which she replied iin her adorable two year old's voice "M, A, X spells Max, daddy. Don't be so silly."

This is one scary smart child. Now if only she'd grow out of the terrible two's. But that's a posting for another time.

Sam and I are reading Wind in the Willows together and just got to the point where Toad falls in love with cars. He is nearly run over by one, and all he can do is sit dazedly in the middle of the road and softly say "Poop, Poop" in mimicry of the car's horn. Sam has fixed on this and is wandering around the house saying the same thing, especially when sitting on her potty. Cracks me up.

I get to brag a bit here, right? Sam goes to Papa Bear Day care one day a week from 8 am to 4 pm. When I picked up Sam this Friday, she was wearing the same pair of pants that I put on her that morning, a completely dry day in someone else’s house, at her insistence. (Today she insisted on diapers. Whatever.) Jim told me she was sharing very well, too. Liam went to her and asked, “please may I have that toy?” Sam gave it to him, Liam said “thank you,” and Sam said “you’re welcome!” I think it warmed the cockles of Jim’s heart to hear it, and I think it says something about the kind of place he has that the children do this sort of thing. I am so proud of her. She shares really well when she knows that the sharing will be reciprocated.

She also drew on a few pages of a coloring book and is clearly starting to understand the concept of drawing a shape. She loves swirls right now.

Sam had a busy day this morning. We went to the Kids Playground in Woburn. After a quick spelling correction on a few signs at the front, (Yes, I was a spelling terrorist! Defacing property in a good cause!), I let Sam loose to get down to the business of climbing, sliding and jumping. She is very clear about what she wants to do and sets off to do it. What a gal. Then we went to a local plant nursery that offered free pony rides, and Sam was just tickled. She told me that Lady was taking a nap, that’s why Abbie’s pony wouldn’t be at the nursery. Okay, sounds good to me. Personally, I think Lady has too much class to be in a place like that, but that is just my opinion.
Sam said she didn’t want to see Uncle Cliff or the loon. She wants to see Lady. Lady seems to have eclipsed all other relatives. She is a special pony, but not as special as Sam’s Uncle Cliff. I promise she will return to sanity before her 20th birthday. :-) Well, I hope she will.