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?