Samantha can write her name now…kind of. She writes “Samo”. Don’t ask me where the “o” came from. But lately she’s added an extra circle to the end as a period. So now she signs her name “Samoo”.
But she has requested not to be called that.
Nor, sadly, Samwise Gamgee.
I was noticing as I got out the winter clothes a couple of weeks ago, that Clare now fits (although barely!) in the dress I bought for Samantha for Dad’s funeral. It’s funny the way time works, and the things that remind us.
Regarding a diaperless Clare…
Lucy: “That is a pretty big bottom. I’d like to keep looking at it. ’Cause it’s pretty big.”
To Clare playing in the living room…
Samantha, in her sweetest cajoling mommy voice: “I appreciate you doing good. Thank you.”
I was innocently, or at least unsuspectingly washing dishes. The girls were playing outside. Lucy came in to finish preparing the “tea” for her tea party in the back yard, and she calmly announced that Samantha was on the truck.
“On top of the truck?” I asked, sure she must mean something like “tricycle”. ”The one we drive around in?”
“Yes.”
I blinked in disbelief, and headed for the door. Sure enough, as I walked out, Samantha was sliding down the windshield. She didn’t make a fuss, just slid down off the truck like she had done it every day of her life.
Me: Would you like some broccoli?
Samantha: I don’t like broccoli.
Me: What do you like? Besides cookies and candy.
Samantha: I like ice cream and cake. And icing on cake.
My mom claims she gets it from her, and that she got it from her mother. I think it’s time to start making some “nutritional” cookies. ;) (= sneaky mommy face)
That was Samantha’s explanation. Now for the story.
I was next door at Bob and Mary Lou’s house, with Clare. I thought that Ben and Helen (Craig’s parents) were at the store, and Lucy and Samantha were swimming with Uncle Sean. When I came back, I found that Ben and Helen were back and Samantha was in trouble. Apparently after they had finished swimming, she had put on a pair of Nana’s shoes, which meant she was Nana, with all the rights and privileges accompanying that. So she unlocked the back door, went out and got herself a beer out of the mini-fridge by the pool, because, as she said, “I thirsty.”
I only have a couple of pictures, but here are some of the Christmas festivities. A couple of weeks ahead of time, Craig made a gingerbread house. It never did get decorated!
Christmas was two days after I got out of the hospital from the original bleeding episode, so no pics of me! But here are the girls, dressed and ready for mass.
The mini-guitar has made a reappearance the last couple of days, and Samantha has been handling it well enough that I don’t have to fear too much for its safety now. Funny things that go with the guitar: Lucy used to call it a hot-tar, and the pick a pickle. Samantha has the pick right (although Craig now calls it a pickle…) but she says “but-tar”. It’s held Samantha’s attention better than anything else I can think of recently, and today she was strumming and making up songs. One included monsters, and I think she sang, “Monster, monster, don’t come get me!” Another repeated, “Grandpa died, Grandpa died, now in Heaven” over and over. I’m waiting to hear tomorrow’s songs…
You tell me. The last one was shortly after an extended screaming session last week. She laid in bed with me and Clare for a bit, then announced that she had to go potty, and when I got up (Clare had already napped and didn’t want to lay down any more) this is where I found her.
Homeschooling journal:
We had a good trip to the zoo with Katie, Cylis, and Micah this morning. Lucy told Cylis about the Spanish moss, and we saw the tiger and black bears moving around and the white alligators up close. Most of the time we let the kids play in the water at Monkey Hill, then the thunder started and we had to make a run for the shelter in the swamp exhibit. Lucy panicked at the thunder. We finally walked back in the rain after lunch, and got to the gates just as the sun was coming back out.
Loyola Kids Book of Heroes: Stories of Catholic Heroes and Saints Throughout History by Amy Welborn
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks (Penguin Classics) by Unknown
The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day by Robert Ellsberg
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the by Sam Kean
