When Samantha isn't busy stomping in rain puddles, or chasing after frogs and caterpillars, or sitting in her bed at 10 pm with her light on and three stacks of books piled up around her (something she's been doing a lot lately), she loves to help out in the kitchen. Today she helped me measure and pour ingredients for bread, and she peeled carrots with the vegetable peeler while we were making lunch.

She's also very worried about the fact that I've wrenched something in my back again. Every time I wince when standing up or bending over she looks at me with an expression of great concern and says "Does your back still hurt? Do you need a hug? Maybe you need your crutches."

On a less happy note, she's getting fixated on pacifiers again. We got rid of all the pacifiers, but she found an old nipple from one of her old bottles in a drawer and has been chewing on it for the past day or so. Last night we had a middle of the night screaming fit because she couldn't find it again. I really don't want her becoming dependent on those things again. She knows she shouldn't use them -- she even reminds us that her dentist said they would be bad for her teeth -- but that didn't stop the screaming and crying last night.