More summer

I added two weeks of riding for Samantha too, and cheerleading. We met the cheerleading coach and she is someone we already knew, a really nice lady, and her daughter, Alec, used to swim with Sam on the YMCA Summer Swim Club. So, Samantha will have a very busy summer.

Ellen started teaching Samantha about a diagonal trot today. Something about knowing which horse leg is in front as you are on the rise of the post. I couldn't follow it very well, but Samantha immediately got the concept. She actually did it once, changing diagonal, but she will be practicing for a while longer. Ellen said this isn't something you learn in a day. I am so proud of Sam. THis is hard stuff she is working on, but she keeps at it, staying patient with herself, the horse and Ellen. This is a particularly hard thing for Sam to do, but she does it very well in the ring. She listens carefully and tries really hard. She rode Madame Allbright today instead of Frosty, the tall pony. Samantha spent most of the half hour trotting and really working Madame hard in pretty hot sun. Ellen runs right along with them. They deserve high praise for all the good stuff they do.

Josh opts for humor

over bad taste. Hard to believe in a three year old, isn't it? He asks, "were you gassy?" Yes. "Why didn't you point your butt somewhere?" Why? "Cause it's funny!!!"

First Day of Summer!!!!

Of course, Samantha is up at dawn. None of that sleeping late for her! She comes into our room when we are all awake at 8:30 am and presents us with a menu. I will try to up load a scan of it later for posterity. The list is quite extensive. My goodness. If this is what she does on the first day, how will I keep her occupied for the whole summer? She fully plans to cook all of this herself too, and I am sure would have already except she has too much common sense to use the stove and knives by herself. Thank God.

Matt walks into Joshua's room to find Joshua sitting on the floor, many books on the floor with him, and flipping through his favorite book. Joshua looks at Daddy, "Leave me alone, I am reading!" Well. Okay then.

Joshua isn't signed up for much besides swimming lessons later in the summer. Samantha has Drumlin Farms for two weeks starting Monday June 28th. I plan to enroll her in riding camp too, if there are still spaces left. Oh, and Samantha has a cooking session at Drumlin Farm for four days in August.

Media Ban

Samantha was beastly to Marie on Wednesday, Marie's day to pick up Sam after school. I had to do soemthing to impress on Sam that she cannot try to hit Marie because she wants me there instead, so I took away all tv, computer and Wii from Wednesday to Saturday morning. THis makes it harder for me in a way, because I have to think of things for her to do, and I am feeling pretty up against the wall already with my coughing and Joshua's diarrhea, but lessons are lessons and don't wait upon my timing issues. So, Sam was pretty upset about not having tv, and I was not entirely okay with the disconnect between the punishment and what she did, so I told her the ban can stop Friday afternoon if she can think of at least five things that would help her with her strong feelings when I am not there to pick her up. She is a bright girl, I figured she could come up with better ideas than I would. This is what she wrote:

Say "Marie, I wanted Mom to come."
Ask if we can go home
Bring and read a book
Take a deep breath
Say "oh Well"
Forget about it
Go home and lock myself in my room

I think there are some pretty darn good ideas in there! So, tomorrow afternoon we will be having movie time. Possibly with popcorn. And Daddy should get home around 5pm, maybe earlier. Joshua is staying home tomorrow because of his pooping today. Poor little guy.

So, what does Samantha do when she isn't spending time on the computer, tv or Wii? She made a windmill with Tinker toys, cooked dinner for the three of us, started weaving a cloth for a purse on a loom her grandmother gave her, wrote a nice apology to Marie and addressed it, ran to help her brother when he fell and got him a cup of juice to make him feel better, read part of a very long book titled "Eldest" about dragons, played jacks, brushed her teeth and went to bed with no fuss at all. She was really fun to be with very interesting and motivated. I felt like things were in the right place, everybody was happy. Hey, all this and the dishes are clean too. I am woman hear me roar!

Once bitten, Twice shy

No we are not speaking of love. I refer to a dog bite. Not our dogs. Let me start this again. Samantha is okay today, mostly pinched, scraped, and does have a shallow, small puncture wound. I was dropping her off at at Marie's house last night. Samantha opened the front door and Bella leaped out and bit her. Poor Samantha. It is about two inches square and looks all black and blue. Thankfully Bella is all up to date with her shots, so there is no chance of rabies. I took Sam over to Dr. Pangburn for him to take a look. He read up on the most recent literature and said for now, lets treat it with warm soapy water and bacitracin. Dog bites are very unlikely to fester, so she should get away with no antibiotics. She got home, had a bath, we wrapped it up, and she fell right asleep. She wanted to go right back to Marie's house where she had just been bitten! She insisted on calling Marie while we were in the doctors office to reassure Marie that it wasn't Marie's fault. I talked to Marie this morning and she said she was up most of the night worrying about her mother who was hospitalized last night for complications from the chemotherapy and about Samantha. Marie should not have let Sam open the door, but she was distracted by talking to me and it was an accident. Bella is not a mad, bad dog. It was a combination of bad timing, fear of thunderstorm and overactive guarding instincts.

Samantha is so brave, compassionate and thoughtful. I am so impressed with her kindness to Marie and her bravery going to the doctor. She is a remarkable young woman.

Yarzheit

It is that time of year again. We went to Emily and Lee's gravesite on Monday. I cleared off Emily's headstone so there is no grass growing on it, added my pebble. Matt and Leslie said Kaddish. Joshua asked what all the stones were. We kind of stuttered and said something about the people here. He said, "oh, they live in a house under there? But I can't hear them!" Can't help but laugh at that one. Makes sense, in a way. Sam and Josh found a dirt pile off in the corner, and just had to be King of the Hill. Sam found some sweet smelling white flowers and put those on the stones with some clover. I love my children and I am grateful for my blessings.