Thanksgiving

Our annual Thanksgiving thanks note:

Well, I know this log is about Sam, but I have to say, I am really thankful that I have a wonderful husband who can forgive me for denting his car’s fender and losing our digital camera, all in one week. He has been a trooper.

When asked, Sam says she is thankful for her Daddy, Mommy, puppies and cats. I am not sure I have the wording right, since she told Matt when I was out.

We had a very peaceful and bountiful holiday. We spent the morning sleeping late while Sam watched Harold and the Purple Crayon. One of the episodes is about Harold learning to appreciate other people’s opinions and learning to eat squash, which helps to prepare Sam to eat squash. She loves it now. We had reservations at Henrietta’s Table for 1 pm. Oh my. We had such a feast.

Roasted Tomatoes, fingerling carrots, roasted blue potatoes with leeks, mushroom and artichoke salad, mesclun lettuce with three kinds of salad dressing, roasted baby onions, fruit salad with a cinnamon dressing

Breads, cheeses of all kinds, crackers, bagels with smoked salmon, lox, whitefish, with three kinds of cream cheese, capers, onions, horseradish, extra large shrimp, oysters on the half shell

Roast Turkey, Roast beef, roast pork, mashed potatoes, squash, roasted sweet potato with some sweet lemony sauce, brussel sprouts, roasted potato chunks, nut/raisin rolls

Dessert: pumpkin pie, chocolate swirl cheesecake, chocolate mousse cake, 7 layer carrot cake, pecan pie, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, raspberries, blackberries, roasted apples, and bread pudding with rum sauce.

It was heavenly. Sam wore her blue wool dress with her blue wool coat including the beret and furry mantle. Matt let us off at the front door and when he came in, asked to be seated with his wife and the most adorable three year old ever. They knew just where to seat him. Sam and I played the silly game for a bit, “You’re a silly sunny bun!” we laugh then she says “you’re a silly billy bun!” and we laugh some more. She said Gordon was sitting with us and he liked to play the stinky cheese game. Both Sam and I laughed pretty hard while we waited for Daddy to come back, and I could see other people smiling along with us. Sam has that affect on people, she is such a sparkly little girl and so beautiful. Of course, they missed the part where she had to show Mommy and Daddy her well chewed piece of turkey gristle, or the milk bubbles she just had to blow in her milk. She was very careful not to have the bubbles overflow the rim of the glass, so I left her to it. She was incredibly well behaved and we had a great time.

She was very tired when she got home, and actually asked Daddy to put her to bed. She is sleeping soundly wrapped around her Tigger.

ice skating

Sam and I have survived our first experience together on the ice this Tuesday. She was a trooper and just glided onto the ice. Mrs. Nichols, the teacher, was very good about giving pointers how to help Sam stand up and how to introduce her to the sliding feeling. We mostly worked on falling and getting up again. Sam giggled through that whole part, thank you very much. Something about seeing mommy deliberately falling down made her giggle hysterically. I was laughing too, until the next morning when the sore muscles came through. We sat down for about a five minute break, then we were off again. I had one real fall, and Sam had several. She did stand on her own for about thirty seconds, and walked quite a ways with my help too. She was very determined to get the hang of it all, and was amazed when she saw Mrs. Nichols skate like a feather around the rink. Her eyes got really big and said she wanted to do that when she was a woman. I told her she could learn to do that this year if she wanted to, we just had to work at it. At that, we got up and went on the ice to fall some more.

They have us wear special helmets so we are pretty safe out there. It really was fun. Who could resist Sam giggling? So I fell one more time just for good effect.

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Sam spent this afternoon and evening Oliver this afternoon. They went to the Kids Playground

http://www.kidsplayground.com/

late morning, and I went to pick them up at Angelika’s house midafternoon. Sam was heartbroken at leaving, and Angelika very kindly offered to let her stay, so I did. That meant that Sam wasn’t with me when I picked up Matt at the airport, but he said he was okay with that (brave Daddy gritting his teeth against the disappointment, or just too tired to cope). I am just as glad Sam wasn’t with me. The traffic into Logan was fine at 5pm, but the wait at the airport took forever, mostly since they lost Matt’s luggage. (Virgin Atlantic promises to deliver it tomorrow night) It would have been very hard on Sam to wait that long as tired as she was. Angelika fed her dinner and we picked her up around 7pm. She was ecstatic to see Daddy and wouldn’t let go of him for about 15 minutes. She tried sitting on his lap for the whole dinner, but was willing to sit with me for a few minutes while Daddy ate. This is one happy girl to have her daddy back home.

lots of stuff

Kayaking

Sam and I went kayaking a few weeks ago on the Sudbury River out of Concord, a place called ‘Calf Landing.’ The trip was run by a group ‘Still River Outfitters.’

http://www.stillriveroutfitters.com/index.html

Matt thought about coming but felt that it would be too tippy for someone his height. He ended up burning himself on his palm the night before, so it was just as well he hadn’t planned to kayak with us. We did miss him. The river was very full, so they changed our trip to a slower river. It was clearly also overflowing by a good eight feet up the banks, but there were no rapids. It was a cool, 55 degrees, day, with a spit of rain now and then. The birds were mostly gone, but we did see a heron now and then. The Hanscom AFB provided lots of planes which Sam loves as much as herons. She was very quiet for much of the trip. I sang songs to her and told the bear family story a couple of times. She paddled the kayak with me for a little bit, until she said the paddle was too heavy. At first she was in the front by herself. We stopped halfway through and John gave us hot chocolate and brownies. When we went back in, Sam asked to sit with me. She held the paddle with me too, but it was too awkward to manage that for long. She was so good in the kayak. She didn’t move much, and when she did she told me beforehand and stayed in the center of the boat. I couldn’t ask for a better boat partner. We had a lot of fun. The guide was amazed, as was the rest of the group, when I told them she was three. He said the trips he does for the mommy groups are usually in mid summer and a third the length, and even then most of the little ones are screaming by the end. Sam was just enthralled with the water and the trees and being outdoors. Definitely an experience we need to repeat. ‘Still River Outfitters’ also has a boathouse in Windsor, VT, so I am sure we will be using them up there too.

Skating

Sam and I start Ice skating Tuesday morning, Nov 8^th. She has never been on the ice before, so this will be interesting. I am not sure I can stand up, so it may actually be really funny. She is very excited. She loved doing gymnastics with Donna, whom I consider a gifted teacher, but I want her to try lots of different things this year to see what she likes. I can’t wait.

Halloween

Sam dressed as a Ladybug Fairy. She had ladybug wings, a hat with antenna, and a wand with a ladybug on the end and ribbon streamers. She was adorable. I dressed her in red pants and shirt and stuck on black circles here and there. We took her to her pre-school Halloween party the Saturday before and hung out there for a bit. Her friend Benjy came as the Green lantern, which I thought was very creative. Sam was just feeling better the day of Halloween. We were worried because she was still feeling yucky and she was too excited to take a nap, but she persevered. She went to three houses with Oliver, who came dressed as a spiffy cricket. I dropped off the sugar cookies that Sam had made and decorated, and the chocolate cows we made with the cow mold. After oliver went home we went to a few other houses, just on our street. Honestly I was worried to leave Matt home with a fever more than 103 degrees, but I also didn’t want Sam to miss Halloween. She has been so looking forward to this. She ate quite a bit of candy and threw up in the middle of the night, but she seemed much better after that.

Pumpkins.

As part of Halloween, Sam has continued her love affair of pumpkins. She reassured the pumpkins as U scooped out the innards. Picture little Sam, standing next to the pumkin patting it and saying “It’s okay, Bunny. You’re all right. It doesn’t hurt. It’s okay Bunny.” She named the big pumpkins Bunny and the little ones Boggle. If I called a big one Bunny, she would say, no, this is ‘Other Bunny!” So next time when I met it I would say hello, other bunny, and she would say, No, mommy, this is Bunny! I felt like I had been through a “Who’s on First” skit. She sat on the front lawn and talked to the pumpkins, but she wouldn’t tell me, because they were not telling secrets she shared with the pumpkins. She gave one of the pumpkins a stuffed snake she had won at the Topsfield Fair so it would have someone to talk to, and she grouped the pumpkins so none of the scarecrows or the pumpkins would be alone. She was very attached to them, so much so that I was worried what she would do when they got moldy and I had to throw them out. Turns out she was fine, didn’t seem fazed at all. She did wave goodbye to them when the garbage men came and took them away, but that was it. Now and then she asks me what they are doing, and I say they are making the dirt ready for next year’s pumpkin seeds. Seems to be fine to her.

School

Doing well, making friends

Sam has outgrown her pants again. She must have had a growth spurt recently because she is definitely out of size three, wearing size four perfectly, and looks comfortable in Size 5. She has her daddy’s height.