Milestones

I do a lot of worrying about Sam's development. Admittedly, he seems to be a bright kid who can be happy interacting with us or amusing himself. He babbles constantly, and has a few (about 15) words/phrases he uses. It seems that every other mother I know has an infant who knows the alphabet and the color wheel. Sam seems to know I'm concerned, because he has been showing his understanding of the world in other ways.

About a week ago, I found Sam looking at his ankle with great interest. He had a long scratch that had a small amount of blood on it. I washed it and put on a band-aid, all the time telling him how I was taking care of his "owie."

Yesterday I was watching Sam and another little boy play when the boy fell over and hurt himself. I cuddled him, asking him where his owie was, and then I noticed Sam hanging on my leg. There he was, balanced on one leg, stretching his faded scratch up for me to see.

One of Sam's favorite pasttimes is feeding our dog, Dee Dee. He especially likes finding the pantry door open. Then he can take the top off of the treat jar, take out a treat, put the top back on, shut the door, and give the treat to Dee Dee. Yesterday I heard him rustling around in the treats and then he walked out holding a small scrap of an old wrapper. He walked across the kitchen, opened the garbage cupboard, threw away the scrap, shut the cupboard, and walked back to the pantry to get a treat.

The look of pride on his face when he "helps" like this is priceless! Every night after his bath, he is responsible for picking up his towel, washcloth, and dirty clothes and bringing them into the hallway. I open the laundry chute and he stuffs everything down and then shuts the chute. Our next few minutes are occupied by clapping and dancing in celebration.

Okay, so he's not very verbal, but I have to admit he's quite a kid.

Family Vacation

Sam and I have been home from vacation for three days and we are still recovering. All of that fun and relaxation has really taken a toll on us.

Generally speaking, Sam spent the week being spoiled by my entire family. There were enough people there to ensure that no matter what he wanted to do, someone was willing to make it happen. Miranda and James were SO wonderful with him. At least once a day, Miranda took him off somewhere to have a blast while I had the chance to just sit. Sam seemed to sense the difference in James and attempted a bizarre wrestling match with him. James was very sweet and let Sam bounce on him, throttle him, and go down a slide onto his back.

We spent one full day out on a pontoon. Eric, Mike, and James caught fish after fish, which interested Sam to no end. He was allowed to pet the nice ones. Sam also busied himself playing with the bait. Thankfully, he prefers worms over leeches.

We made it to the pool several times. That was the one thing Sam wasn't too sure about. He loves baths, and he loves his little wading pool, but I think the feeling of floating was just a little too weird for him. He allowed himself to be walked around the shallow end and was passed from person to person, but he had an air of uneasiness the whole time.

All in all, Sam was a true northwoods trooper. He chased minnows in the lake, ate burgers off the grill, tried his first roasted marshmallow, and took two naps a day.

Now if we only had another week off to recover.

Up Nort'

Today, Sam, Eric, and I are headed up north with my mom, stepdad, sister, and her family. We have eight full days of NOTHING planned! We are staying at a resort which is right outside a city of 479 people, so I'm not feeling too optimistic about having an internet connection.

I will post when we get back!

Dirt

Eric and his mom, Colleen, share a passion (obsession?) with working on their yards. Colleen received a dump-truck sized load of dirt a few days ago, and she and her husband, Jose, have been bringing the piles they don't need over in truckloads.

Today Sam and I were playing in the backyard when Jose and his friend, Rod, backed the truck into our driveway. They opened the tailgate and started shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow to bring to the back of our yard.

Sam was just amazed. He watched them shovel the huge piles and stood in the way as they tried to maneuver the wheelbarrow. In an attempt to keep him alive, I got out his little wheelbarrow and let him help.

So there they were, two grown men taking turns with a professional-size wheelbarrow, struggling against the weight of the dirt. Darting past them was Sam, carrying his pink and yellow wheelbarrow so his two clumps of sod fell out every three feet. He looked so proud as they praised him and thanked him for helping. They were even gracious enough to look away when I had to use his t-shirt to wipe the dirt out of his mouth after he took a little nibble.

What a good day's work!

Children's Museum

As Eric and I were both off for the 4th, we decided to pack up Sam and (finally) check out the Children's Museum. We had no idea it would be so much fun!

As most families were presumably doing "4th" things, the museum was nearly empty. There were only one or two other families in each room we went into. This gave Sam plenty of space to explore and touch absolutely everything he saw. He loved the Curious George exhibit. It had a construction site, a farm, a store, mini golf...using the blocks at the construction site was his favorite.

The museum also has a room called Habitot, that is specifically designed for babies - preschoolers. We all went through caves, turned wheels, and walked over a drawbridge. The highlight of Habitot was Sam's determination to walk up a rather steep slide. There was a rope ladder next to it, but he wasn't going to sink to that level. He tried again and again (sliding back down on his face every time he fell) and finally struggled his way to the top! Whereupon he immediately slid back down on his face.

It was so much fun. Eric crawled through a complex ant tunnel and we moved clouds to cause a thunderstorm. One of the staff members supervised a "block party" with dozens of soft building blocks. Sam went over and built, knocked towers over, and tried to help the other kids. He never even turned around to see if we were still there.

Happy independence day, indeed!