I was having a rough time today, feeling sad about Emily and the lack of a baby for us. Sam noticed I was sad and asked me what was wrong. I told her I had hoped for a sister and brother for her and I hadn’t been able to do that. She looks thoughtful, then gives me a ‘cheer up’ smile and says, ‘But Mommy, I have a sister. Cole is my sister!” Well, I had to laugh at that and the tears went away. She got a big hug for cheering me up.

Sam had a wonderful birthday party at Kids Playground in Woburn. The following people were able to come:

Uncle Alan, Kelly, Cote and Dylan Dupuis; Becky and Cole Johnson; Gary, Trajan and Lucia Parkes; Jim, Thea and Colette Frost; Meg, Scott, Benjy, Jasper and Heath Muckenhoupt; Cordelia and Juli Brazile with friend Miranda; Emma and Mom Deb; Jim, Lila, Danny and Clara McNulty; Daphne, Marc and Abbie Harris.

I was really struck by what a nice group of people, children that she has for friends, very good children who were all very sweet. Maybe everyone was on his or her best behavior, but I don’t think so. They did all seem to be having a lot of fun. Colette had a broken collarbone, but still seemed raring to go. Not much slows down Colette. Sam was thrilled to have everyone there and was quite the party girl. What else can I say? So the total of parties is now 4, and Sam is requesting one more so we can celebrate with her friends Ella, Tucker, Kodiak and Hazelnut. She has a special cake planned for them, just flour, so they won’t get sick. I think it is very sweet that she doesn’t want her dogs to be left out. Hazelnut is Drew and Bonnie’s dog, and Kodiak is Becky’s dog. She was quite upset that the Kids Playground would not let in her friends, especially Kodiak. Which is weird because she isn’t especially nice to him when she sees him.

Sam is very bossy lately. She doesn’t want me to sing most of the time, and is very precise about her books. If I get a word wrong, she won’t let me continue until I get the wording to her satisfaction. Sometimes the book changes the word slightly in a repetitive phrase, and Sam won’t accept that the book actually reads that way. She insists that I keep the same phrasing. Very precise. She is still wonderful with presents. She takes forever to open them and puts the wrapping paper in the trash when she takes it off the present. Then she wants to play with each one extensively before going on to the next one. She has to get this from Matt, because I am more of a rip them open as fast as I can kind of gal. I find myself having to grit my teeth to keep myself from rushing her. Open it, open it now! I say to myself. We did not open presents at the party. We did hand out goody bags, and Sam got one like all the others. That seemed to make everyone happy and kept the focus on enjoying the guests, not counting the loot. She loves her gfits that she got. I do have to keep explaining that today is not her birthday and she doesn’t have any more presents.
Something else I have to explain are the seasons. I mean summer. Last summer Sam, Becky, Cole and I went to York Wild Kingdom in Maine. It was a wonderful adventure for all of us. Sam went onto everything there, we thought, but as we returned to York for dinner that night, we saw a Ferris Wheel lighted in the sky. Sam was adamant that we go on it too, but we had to have dinner. I promised we would go after dinner, and she was okay with that. Unfortunately dinner took awhile and the park closed before we could get there. So I told her we would go to another fair and try that Ferris wheel. But there were no more fairs that late in the summer, as it turns out, so we still haven’t been on a Ferris wheel. The past few days, she wants it to be summer so she can go on her ‘fairy’ wheel. She woke me up this morning, far too early once again, asking if today was summer and could we go on the ‘fairy’ wheel today? I tell her that summer is days and days, weeks and weeks, months and months away from today -- she thinks that means tomorrow. I really wish it was. So, we are planning a ‘fairy’ wheel trip as soon as I can find a good fair to go to. In the meantime, I have to answer the frequent question – “Is today summer, can we go on a ‘fairy’ wheel today?”