Samantha's first blog

Little con artist

pamelamyers | July 31, 2014

Mark and I talked the other day about how manipulative Sam has been about bedtime. She knows just what to say to get what she wants. She always does. Sam has an explanation or a story for EVERYTHING. Every little thing she wants to do, she has “a plan” or an excuse or some way of trying to get you to do what you want. I guess it’s just part of being this age. Kids learn really fast how to get the adults in their lives to dance. Sometimes I don’t find it even a bit amusing, other times…ok, it’s kind of funny.

Last night, I was putting her to bed and I let her stay up just a bit late. Not too late, just a little, to be nice. She was playing nicely and I didn’t want to shove her off to bed. Finally, she did get in bed but still wasn’t really ready to sleep. I read one or two books and she was still playing games. One of these games involved one of her teddy bears, Finn. She told me Finn needed to go to the bathroom to brush his teeth. After arguing with her for a few minutes telling her that, NO, Finn was not brushing his teeth, Sam then moved on to telling me that SHE needed to go brush her teeth. Which we forgot to do. Damn. But I just didn’t care, I was NOT letting her get up. Again. I told her no quite a few times, that we would brush in the morning. Finally, I hear Sam sort of sigh and say, “Ok…..I sure hope I don’t get cavities….” Oh, man. OH, MAN. Of course I let her get up and brush her teeth. All I need is THAT guilt the next time she goes to the dentist. So off we went. As we were walking to the bathroom she said very clearly,”Yeah, I knew that would make you do it.” Wow. Yeah, you sure did, Sam. I am DOOMED when this kid hits her tweens.

On the upside, she is really funny and cute. Right before this whole bed routine happened, she threw this on over her pajamas. She asked me, “Do I look like a movie star?” You should have seen the pose she struck we she asked me. By the time we went downstairs so Mark could see her, she was just standing like this, pretty normal. If you can call this outfit “normal”….

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Here we go again

pamelamyers | July 30, 2014

Mark and I are really tired of being, well, tired. Sam has been coming into our bed in the middle of the night for years now and it’s getting old. She is just too big and too wiggly. Between my lack of space, her radiator of a body making me sweat to death, and her little feet jabbing into either me or Mark all night, we have got to try to get Sam to sleep in her own bed. We really created this monster ourselves, I know that. I never let her fall asleep on her own when she was a baby because it was just too hard to put her in the crib and it didn’t seem like a big deal when she was older because she was small. And honestly, cuddling with her little self is very nice. But now she is way too big for our queen size bed and no one is sleeping well.

Mark and I decided that we had to put a stop to it so Monday night, we told Sam she was done. No more in our bed. She is to stay in her bed and if she doesn’t, we will start locking our door and she can’t come in. Never mind that we don’t actually have a lock on our door, she doesn’t know that. And we could always add one. We made her a chart like I used for potty training and told her she could get stickers or smiley faces or whatever and if she had a long run of stickers, she could get a special treat. Well, the first night was a disaster. She was up and crying and whining a million times so we didn’t sleep. We had even put a sleeping bag on the floor next to my side of the bed where she could sleep if she was lonely, but that still wasn’t good enough. Tuesday night, she actually stayed in her own bed until 4:15 a.m.! Whoo hoo! Let’s see how this goes. I’ll keep you posted.

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Super Sam

pamelamyers | July 28, 2014

Sam loves playing superhero. She got all dressed up in her super hero costume, grabbed her sidekick, Super Monkey, and then asked me if they could watch Word Girl, because they needed a superhero show to watch, since, you know, they are superheroes! If you’ve never seen or heard of Word Girl, it’s on PBS, and Sam loves it. Sam, you will always be my superhero.

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Raindance

pamelamyers | July 26, 2014

As you know, Sam loves playing in the rain. She desperately wanted to go out and jump in puddles, but alas, the quick rainstorm we had didn’t leave many, at least not many that didn’t quickly evaporate in the heat. But…that didn’t stop her. Mark took her out and she had fun anyway.

Duck needed to join her fun because, well, he’s a duck! And everyone knows ducks love the rain!

The puddles were pretty lacking, but Sam tried anyway! I love how her hair is flying around. You can tell how hard she was jumping.

Sam soon gave up on the puddles and took Duck for a swing.

Ah! Look out, Duck! Sam’s face is priceless here.

Boy, do I love that little face, no matter what expression she is wearing!

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Tyler’s Tree House Festival

pamelamyers | July 20, 2014

It’s been a while since we got Sam outside to the park, so we decided it would be a good day to head to Tyler Arboretum. Mark had expressed an interest in heading to a park, but wasn’t particular about which one. When I gave the suggestions to Sam last night, she immediately shouted, “TYLER!” She does love that place.

We figured out that it was the Tree House Festival, which meant there would be a lot of people, but headed out anyway. I do prefer places like Tyler when the crowds aren’t around and it feels like we have the place to ourselves, but Sam really had her heart set on it. So off we went! It was packed with people, and cars, and we had to park really far away. Luckily, there were some small truck type vehicles driving around taking people to the entrance. Sam thought it was the coolest thing – riding in the open back of a truck!

Boo Boo came too, as you can see below. Sam likes this bubble machine. She doesn’t understand why we can’t have one for our house.

As part of the festival, a bird handler was there with and owl, a falcon and some other interesting birds. The owl was some European variety, and really big! His name was Owlexander. Ha. Get it?

We found out spot on the grass where Sam could see what was going on….

When all of a sudden these people sat right next to us. Mark’s first thought, was, come on, seriously, right next to us? But then we saw who it was! I guess we all had the same thought for a fun day!

After the bird show was done, it was off to the treehouses. I remember when we first brought Sam here she was too little to climb up this one by herself and had to be carried, but now she just goes right up and down. Slowly, but she does it without assistance.

It does offer a great view!

The music house is one of my favorites. Truthfully, it could use some refurbishing, but I still like it and so does Sam.

We were going to head toward more houses and Sam got it in her head to veer off the path. I am glad she did. She headed toward a more woodsy area, and it was quiet and peaceful. She liked walking across these stumps that looked pretty new.

While she and Mark were playing, I noticed this cool log and wanted to show Sam. Before I could even get a chance to do so, she came running over and said, “Look, it looks like a dog!” Yup. It does.

Sam happily trekked off down the path, not even caring if we were behind her.

She found this fun looking pinecone and wanted to keep it. Mark explained to her that you have to leave the nature in the park so she asked me to take a picture. After we did, we threw the pinecone off the path and into the woods so hopefully it will grow into a new tree.

This treehouse is always good for pictures. You are up high and the trees make such a nice backdrop.

We wanted to see the butterflies in the butterfly house, but Sam couldn’t wait to visit the caterpillar. She always likes him.

We did see the butterflies, but it was early, and there weren’t a lot to see. So, we moved on and Sam found the hammocks. Apparantly, Boo Boo was tired.

Our silly girl. 🙂

I wanted to check out the pond since it’s always fun to look for frogs and turtles. I couldn’t believe how murky the water had gotten! It never used to be like that. But it didn’t stop Sam from exploring.