Sam Loves His Ba

This is what poor Sam has to resort to when his bottle gets left in his crib. He tried to pull it out first, but it wouldn't fit through the slats. Must be kind of like having your best friend in jail.

Abby's First Day of Kindergarten

I just dropped Abby off at school for her first day of kindergarten. The rest of the kids started school a week ago, so she has been anxiously counting down the days since then. She is in afternoon kindergarten which doesn't start until 12:40, but she got up this morning and was dressed before anyone else. Of course, she had to get undressed again to get a shower, but she still gets an A+ for effort. After she was re-dressed and had her hair done, she put her backpack on, and she has worn it for the rest of the day. When I got home from taking Sarah to school at 9:00 this morning, Abby came out to the car and said, "I'll just wait in the car" (for 3 1/2 hours). She has pestered me all morning about when it will be time to go, so I finally showed her on the clock: when the short hand is between the 12 and the 1, and the long hand is on the 5, it will be time to go. That helped a lot! Since then, she has complained that the clock moves too slow (if only . . . ) and reminded me every 5 minutes that it is almost time to go.



Abby was a little worried that I was being too slow to get dressed, so I asked her if I should just go in my slip and underwear. She gave it some thought, and decided I'd better put clothes on so I could walk her to the door. After I got my skirt on, I asked her, "Do you like my skirt." (It's new.) She said, "Well . . . " I was beginning to think she must not like my new skirt, but then she said, "I think it will look better with a shirt." Oh, of course. What was I thinking!? On went the shirt, and then she liked my new skirt just fine.

We got there early enough to take her picture in front of the school's sign, and then off she went to her class. And I'm trying not to cry.

This Would Never Happen at Steven's House

Steven showed up at my house a little over a week ago when I had been gone for about a half hour. That's all the time it takes for my house to be completely taken apart. He walked in just a few minutes before I got there to naked Sam, flour all over the floor (Yes, that was about the 8th time - slow learner that I am, I finally moved the flour out of reach.), flour all over Sam's nether regions, various kitchen items and papers strewn all over the floor, countertops, etc., and several loads of laundry waiting to be folded in my living room. As I diapered Sam, swept up flour, and pulled out my hair, Steven tried in vain to help. He had a very concerned expression on his face the whole time he was here. I think he's worried about me.

Sweet Anna

Y Sugar and spice and everything nice - that's what little girls are made of.

My Big Brave Boy

Sam, my brave big boy, tried to follow me down the stairs last night, but a few steps from the bottom, he started crying and whining, and he refused to go any further. There was a costume monster hand on the step just below him that he was terrified to get near. I had to lift him over it while he twisted around in my arms to look back at the hand and make sure it wasn't following him. Then, when he went back upstairs, he had to press himself as close to the wall as possible to get past that scary hand and whimpered the whole time he was touching the step it was on! Click on the scary hands to see us torture him.

Father Of The Year

Steve gets the Father Of The Year Award; he got 16 month old Sam to do chores!

Sam's very favorite thing to do is to move things. He especially likes to move shoes. We find shoes in the bathtub, in the dishtowel drawer, in the trash can, in the dog food . . . He moves pan lids to the basement, measuring cups to the toilet (that one went straight into the trash), mixing bowls to the trash, dirty diapers out of the trash, and tampons all over the house (it's been over a month since that day, and I'm still finding tampons in random places) . . . Yesterday, he got into the 5 gallon flour canister and made a big pile of flour 3 feet away on the floor. He went back and forth and back and forth moving flour by the handful until he had the equivalent of at least a 5 pound bag piled up. Of course, he was covered head to toe as well (too bad the camera wasn't handy).

Steve wanted to clean out the garage yesterday, but I needed to try and regain some sanity for a few hours. So Steve kept Sam and didn't think he'd get anything done. But he was able to harness Sam's passion for moving things and got him to “help” clean the garage. Sam contentedly hung out in the garage with Steve moving tools and boxes for a couple of HOURS. I really think we’re on to something – we’re going to try him at sorting laundry next.