Mud and Lambs

Sam went to Liam and Oliver's birthday party today at Drumlin Farms, an Audubon Sanctuary and working farm. There were 12 children there, and Sam was one of two girls. She had a blast. She ends up being the dirtiest child and the one with the most bruises by the time we were done. (Fell into a mud puddle and out of a tree) What a blast we had, though. There were lots of adults around, so I kept my eye mostly on Joshua. Whenever I looked for Sam, she was always in the front of the line, the first to explore whatever there was to look at, like tiny lambs, kids, frothy chickens, and two mules. She really loves to dive into things. I saw her at one point in the middle of three boys, all of them acting quite rough with her. I think they were testing her limits. I was about to step in when I heard Sam say quite firmly, "I don't like this. You hurt me. Stop this now!" Smart boys that they were, they stopped and ran around some more. Another mother commented to me that Sam was really impressive with how well she could handle herself in a crowd of boys. Yep, that is our girl!

We went to another birthday party on Thursday night at a jewelrymaking/craft studio. I am so amazed by all we do for our kids birthdays around here. Both parties were wonderful. This party just had three little girls in attendance, but they knew each other and had a lot of fun role playing being a family. Sam made a gorgeous necklace with a large silver ball and some largish chunks of crystal in deep blue, red and peach. I shuddered at some of the beads, but let her make her own choices. The necklace turned out very dramatic and actually gorgeous. I was amused at the contrast between hers and the other girls. Sam had large beads and deep colors. The other girl had very light colored beads all mostly the same size. It was also pretty, and not at all like Sam's.

Joshua isn't talking much yet. He likes the word 'fish' for some reason. He yells at the dogs and cats, "OUT!" He really likes to say that to the dogs. I find it really amusing to see our little pint sized pumpkin pursing his lips, doing his best to look stern and yelling 'out!' to our dogs, both of whom outweigh him three times over. It is just about the only word that he really says clearly.

This morning Samantha had already gotten her own breakfast, but I still needed to feed me, Josh, the cats and the dogs. I gave all the animals fresh water, put some oatmeal together and set it on the counter to cool, and started to clean the dog bowls. While I was washing, Joshua got up on the step stool and started to eat his oatmeal. Or so I thought. What he really did was dip his spoon in the bowl, pour the oatmeal down the side of the kitchen cabinets and dump some in a pile on the stove. Took me almost a half hour to get *all* of the oatmeal off everything. He kept trying to help and slipping on the wet tile floor. I just kept wiping and drying as fast as I could before he slipped and hurt himself. He seemed thirsty, so I helped him put a straw in a milk box for him to drink. He quickly sat down on the floor and drank very neatly from the box. It seemed safe, so I finished wiping the cabinets off. In the time it took for me to wipe up a small section of the floor, Joshua had taken out the straw and sprayed milk in a largish puddle on the floor. He was having a blast finger painting with the milk. I applaud his ingenuity and curiosity. I am just tired from playing catch up to his messes. I guess I'll laugh about this when he is older?

Discussing Easter

I thought it would be nice to tell Sam what Easter is about, since she loves to color eggs and eat chocolate. I explained there was a man named Jesus who died along time ago, and he rose from the dead. Easter is a celebration of his return to life. I then admitted I had no idea what happens to him after that. Sam says in her teenager, 'it's obvious' kind of voice, "Mommy, he turns into the Easter Bunny." Makes sense to me.

I was filling in some holes in the side yard this afternoon, mostly because I wanted to be outside. Josh, true to form, was right there with me trying to help. I found a little green plastic bucket, filled it with dirt and handed it to him. He takes it where I've been dumping the dirt and tosses his pile on, then stamps it down. He really is wonderful how he just jumps in and tries to help. We were playing Enchanted Forest today, a board game with lots of little plastic trees and cards. He was really mad he couldn't play too. Once I let him roll the die for me and hold the extra playing pieces, he was thrilled and settled right down.

The promised picture

I promised in my last post to upload a more recent picture of Joshua soon. Here's one of my favorites (except for the fact that it's out of focus). Yes, he really does look like that!

And here is a picture of Samantha at her birthday party a month ago (before she lost her two front teeth, obviously :-)

Winsome smile

Sam's grin is adorable lately, with her big gap in the top front row. She often forgets she is a child, but that big gap is a tell that she is still quite young. She suddenly started sleeping in her own bed, and she sleeps there most of the time now. She had a bad fever last week, so we let her sleep with us then, but other than that she is in her own room. Amazing! And now I miss the snuggles. Oh well. Josh still wakes up sometimes and needs me.

Sam told me that she had a bad dream about an evil whale. It looks really, really old, but is actually young. Not being able to fathom what an evil whale would do, I asked her. She said, "mommy, it goes around and tells people not to say 'thank you!'" Evil indeed.

Josh got another haircut today and charmed everyone there. I let him have a lollipop. He made sure the wrapper went into the trash without me saying or even thinking anything about it. He then went around and tried to find other things that he could put in the trash. He cracks me up. He loves to make messes and then clean them up. He loves to follow me around with a towel and wipe up any spills, or dry things off after I have washed them off. He still loves his books. He has moved on to the book from Aunt Leslie, "Pat the Bunny," and a nursery rhyme book from Aunt Patty. Thank goodness for aunts! He is also sleeping through the night sometimes, so maybe Matt and I will get to catch up on our sleep by about this time next year.

Josh went to the Kids playground with Sam and me today. Sam went into the tunnels with him, thank goodness, because the little tornado just dashes all over the place. He is totally unafraid of the big kids and running off without me. He did stay away from the rope floors, but other than that, he was off and running. Sam was sooo good with him. She never left him alone and made sure he was safe and comfortable. What a lucky little boy to have such a big sister.

Back in the saddle yet again

Okay, so it's been ages since I've posted anything. Between travel for work (I'm managing a development team in Seattle now, which means lots of time on airplanes) and everyone having the flu most of the winter, I've had precious little time for anything at all. It's really too bad because there's been a lot to write about lately, and now I don't have time or brain cells to do more than list a few of the real highlights.

But I do have to recount the day that Samantha explained sarcasm to the dogs. I've told this story to a couple of friends and they didn't believe that a 5 year old understood the notion of sarcasm. Evidently they don't understand just whose daughter this girl is.

You see, I'd just finished cleaning up all of the dog messes in the back yard (we let them run around up there in the winter when everything is covered with snow) and let the dogs up to play. Ella promptly relieves herself in the middle of the yard, prompting me to say something like "Oh, thank you so much Ella. I'm so happy to have more to clean up."

Samantha was evidently worried that Ella might not understand my tone of voice, so she walked up to her, looked at her very earnestly, and explained "Daddy's being sarcastic. Sarcasm is when you say something but mean the opposite. Like if I said 'Thank you so much for eating my doll Ella' that would be sarcasm. I don't really want you to eat my doll. Okay?" Ella, for her part, just cocked her head at Samantha, then ran off in the snow to play with Tucker.

Other highlights of life with Samantha lately:

She's losing her baby teeth. In fact she's lost 2 teeth this week, one of her top front teeth and one of her bottom teeth. She's entering into that goofy toothless smile phase that kids go through when they turn 6.

Oh, right, she turned 6 a month ago. We had a big party for her at the local Y. Very big hit, except that half of the kids and parents there got sick afterward including Marie (who helps out with the kids part time) and both of her kids. It's been a lousy winter for people getting sick.

Sam's swimming has advanced quite a bit too. Her instructor at the Y says she should jump up a level in her classes because she can swim one length of the pool without floatation now. Sure enough, when we went to family swim time over the weekend we went in the full size lap pool and she just swims. Well, she also holds onto the wall and grabs onto me as often as possible, but she's able to swim unassisted and to tread water for a few minutes at a time. Cool!

Joshua continues to be freakishly cute and (mostly) good natured. I'll post new pictures of him here soon.