Inside Sam's brain

"Mo-oom!"

I could tell from the way Elena said "Mom" that she was going to follow it up with some sort of grievance against Sam. I was expecting her to say he called her weird or farted in her face or something.

I was not expecting her to say, "Mom! Sam called me a non-toxic helium-filled lady!"

I told her I don't think that really qualifies as an insult, and that seemed to keep her happy. As Sam gets older, we're getting more of a glimpse into his creative mind.

Last week, he was upset because 3 of his toys had been destroyed in one week when he left them outside. (Kind of hard to avoid when you live in a neighborhood with 15 young boys - especially when one of them discovers a small ax). I had recently been reading a new book that talked about helping kids when they are upset by giving them what they want in fantasy.

I've already used this with the kids while shopping. When Elena used to say "I wish I could have that," my gut response was "No, we're not getting that." And then she would say, "I know we're not getting it. I was just telling you that I wish I could have it."  After that I usually responded by just imaging with them that they could have whatever they want: "It would be so fun for you to have a giant dollhouse to take up half of our living room, wouldn't it?" And there was no arguing - only wishful thinking.

So I decided to expand this technique. Rather than saying, "Well, you know that if you leave your toys outside, there's a good chance they will get broken,"I said, "I know it's no fun when your toys break. Wouldn't it be nice if your toys were so strong they could never break?"

"Yeah!" Sam said, "I wish when someone else tried to take one of my toys without asking, it would scan them and find out what their greatest fear is, and then it would turn into their greatest fear and scare them away!"

Or that. At any rate, it seemed to do the trick. He went off happy much more quickly than I expected.

This strategy has been less effective on Charlie, who's at that single-minded 3-year-old stage, but we'll keep trying...

And now for a sampling of my attempt at getting a nice picture of the 4 kids. I think I managed to get one.

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The one and only decent shot

Run, Sam, Run

We may have another runner in the family.  And by "another runner" I mean in addition to Seth, not me.

I'm not a runner. I'm sure I could be a runner. And maybe someday I will be a runner, someday when multiple children don't need my attention every waking moment of the day (and some of the sleeping moments, too). But not now. I'm a great sprinter, which comes in handy when I need to catch a toddler about to step onto the street. For the most part, I'm content to run after things or away from things as needed. I'll also run to a specific destination if I want to get there quickly. But the thought of running for an extended period of time just to end up back where I started? Not my thing.

But it looks like it might be Sam's thing.  Seth often invites the kids to go running with him, but they are usually busy playing with their friends and don't want to stop.  Last time he went, though, Sam decided to join him. Seth was planning to run 3 miles so he said he would bring Sam back after the first mile. A while later, they both came back together. Sam ran the whole 3 miles and kept up with Seth the whole time (it probably helped a bit that Seth had just finished biking 14 miles).  He says he wants to be up to 6 miles by the end of the summer.

Looks like we'll have to find some 5ks for him to run in this summer.

Panic Mode

Coming home from grocery shopping last week, I was in a hurry to get everyone and everything out of the car because Frankie was crying and wanted to be fed.  So as Sam and Elena each brought in a bag, I unbuckled Charlie, grabbed a few bags along with the baby and went inside.

When I came back out for the rest of the groceries, I noticed Charlie wasn't in the car anymore but I hadn't seen which way he went. When I brought in the rest of the groceries, I looked around the house and saw he wasn't in there.

So I grabbed Frankie to calm him down and went to look around outside. All the neighborhood kids were running around, but Charlie wasn't with them which was unusual. Normally if Reed is outside, Charlie will run straight to him and start playing.

So I looked in the van again, calling his name. No Charlie.
I looked in the house again. No Charlie.
I went to the neighbors' house to see if he had gone in there, but no luck.

Leaving Frankie with his cousin Brooke, I started to search more thoroughly outside with my brother-in-law Richie coming to help. After again checking the house, the van and the garage, I started to circle the entire block as well as a few neighbors' houses across the street.  I wasn't so much worried as I was confused because it's really not like Charlie to wander off any further than our corner of the block.  I was pretty sure he was somewhere nearby and just not answering for some reason. But a tiny part of me was starting to wonder at what point the police should be called because he was nowhere to be found.

Having no idea where to check next, I looked in the van for a 3rd time. This time, I stuck my head in further to get a more thorough look. Lo and behold, there he was, asleep on the back seat.

He was awake when I unbuckled him so I never suspected that he would be asleep in the car. It appears he climbed out of his car seat but was too tired to go anywhere so he just laid his head down on the seat and passed out. Unfortunately, he was situated in such a way that his entire body was blocked by the surrounding seats if I looked in the van from either side or the back.

On the plus side, all that time spent searching was saved when I didn't have to get Charlie to sleep that night.

Sammy: the early years

We were at a graduation 5 years ago when someone gave Sammy a ukelele, and he started singing Hey Jude. A woman I know (but don't often see) took a video of him. When I contacted her  later to see if she still had the video she said she had lost it.

Luckily I ran into her again this weekend at yet another graduation. When she saw me, she said she had come across that video recently but didn't know how to get it to me. I gave her my email, and we were finally able to see it!

He was just about 2 1/2 in this video.

Mr. Rogers would be proud

I came across an old cell phone the other day and gave it to Charlie to play with. Right away, he launched into the land of make-believe. He was playing "meeting guy," which I'm pretty sure means he is pretending to do Seth's job since Seth is usually "at a meeting" when he is not home.

Charlie has always had a vivid imagination. Here is what transpired.

Charlie: I'm the meeting guy. I need to make a phone call........Hi! What's your name?......Blake? Oh, hi Blake. Do you want to come over? Ok. (to me) Blake is coming over.
(walking over to the door) Hi, Blake. Come in. (coming back into the living room) Mom, this is Blake.
Me: Hi, Blake!
Charlie: No, he's over here.
Me; Oh, sorry. Hi Blake. How old are you?
Charlie: He's 3, like me.
Me: And what's your favorite color, Blake?
Charlie: His favorite color is blue. And I like blue, too! Do you want a blue cookie, Blake? Ok. I will make some blue cookies. (He goes across the room and pretends to bake a batch of cookies, coming back when they are done) Here is your cookie, Blake, and here is mine.
Me: Can I have one?
Charlie: (completely serious and apologetic) Oh. Sorry, I didn't make one for you.
(he finishes his cookie) Ok, now I can make a cookie for you. What color do you want?
Me: Purple.
Charlie: Ok, I will go make yours. I just need to get the purple.

Apparently you can run out of imaginary cookies. I did get mine in the end, though.  It was delicious.

Sweet Frankie

That explains a lot

Charlie has been starting to brush his teeth on his own, which has been great. The only drawback is that there has been a bit more toothpaste to clean up in the bathroom sink. And floor. I didn't think too much of it at first, figuring he was just oversqueezing or missing his toothbrush when he put the toothpaste on.

Then one day, I walked into the bathroom to see Charlie trying to open a new tube of toothpaste. I told him there was still some left in the old tube, and I could help him get it on his toothbrush.

"No, I don't want to brush my teeth. I want to go like this!" he said, as he held the tube of toothpaste over the sink and tried to squeeze out all the toothpaste.

We had a little talk about the proper use of toothpaste, and I gave him an empty lotion bottle full of water that he could squeeze into the sink as much as he wanted. I'm happy to report that I have not had nearly so much to clean up since then.

By the way, our new bathroom is done! What was once our library/office is now a spacious bathroom,  thanks to the hard work of Seth and my dad. My favorite feature: a bathtub surrounded by tile vs. easily water-damaged wainscoting. Bathtime is a bit less stressful now for our little splashers.

I have a few before and after pictures. Unfortunately we started taking the library apart before we thought to get a picture so our "before pictures" aren't the best.

Before:

Before (the room in the background):

 After:

And the most entertaining part of the renovation (for me anyway) was when Seth had to go into the wall to install the shelves, leaving his only point of escape a hole at the top of the wall. This video was actually taken the 2nd time he had to climb out this way because he had to check out a leak in the pipes.  

                                   

We really lucked out on this remodel project; shortly after opening up the walls, we discovered that several of the copper pipes in the house have recently sprung leaks in them and need replacing. So we went ahead and had them all replaced. If we had done this project any sooner or later, those leaks could have ended up going unnoticed and causing a lot of damage.