Best friend

Sam is a character. We are reading Charlotte’s Web, which has a lot about death in it. The spider dies, and the pig is likely to be killed when cold weather comes. She is fascinated by the story and eagerly awaits each chapter. E.B. White arranged it perfectly, I must say. Each chapter is a good length, not too long, and has some great action.

Sam has a new friend. Her secret buddy is Captain Soul, somewhat modeled after a Bernstain Bear character who is an old lighthouse captain pretending to be a ghost to protect his now defunct lighthouse. I have to dry Captain Soul’s hair, and he changes size from as tall as Daddy to just Sam’s size. I have to ask Sam first how tall he is so I can make sure to dry at the right height. She had Matt put out pull-ups and pajamas for him tonight too. Captain Soul is a very rich character, sometimes a person, sometimes a pretend ghost with glowing feet. I just try to keep up as best I can.

Jim, her day care person, told me that Sam has very good hand-eye coordination. He said he threw the ball for her today, and she hit it with a stick -- gave it a good whack. Most children her age can’t hit with even the big bat, and Sam was just using a stick she had found on the ground. She did it two more times, missing a few too, but the first whack wasn’t a fluke. We’ll have to get her a t-ball practice set while the weather is still good. Yesterday we played soccer a bit and she was great at headers and dribbling. She loves to do sports stuff. We had a great time.