Happy Valentine’s Day!

| February 13, 2015

Sam was super excited about Valentine’s Day, just like she is every year. We bought cards for her classmates and she had tons of surprises for Mark and I. Doing her cards this year was so much easier than last year! She is so good at writing her name now it was no big deal at all. Last year, she signed her name to each card, but I wrote her friends’ names since she could barely get through her own! This year, I offered to write her friends’ names and she quickly shot down that idea because, “They are my friends, Mommy, and the cards are from me!” Well. There you go. We had Frozen cards for the girls and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards for the boys. She carefully picked each one for each student. She even wanted to make cards for her teachers, Mrs. Dunbar and Mrs. Hayes. Sam didn’t think it would be right to have them excluded. She is such a thoughtful little girl. It is one of the things I love most about her. Here are the cards she made. She even drew pictures on each one of her giving a valentine to her teacher. I did write the teachers’ names on the cards so it would be easier for Sam to figure out which card was for which teacher. She can’t really spell their names but she knows what letter their last names start with from the sound, so I made sure she knew to look at the letters.

DSC01604

Sam got all decked out in her Valentine’s Day finest. She was ready for her party at school! Best looking girl in her class, and certainly the most Valentiney!

DSC01607

Mommy’s Little Helper, Indeed!

| February 13, 2015

Sam can really surprise me sometimes. Last night, she actually stayed in her own bed (not even in her sleeping bag on our floor) until after 5:00 a.m. She then climbed into our bed (I showed her on a digital clock that until the first number is a “5”, she can’t come into our bed) and with all her wiggling kind of kept me up at that point, but she left on her own around 6:30.  I heard lots of noise downstairs (but not enough to concern me) and she came back into our room a little after 7:00 holding a can of Zephyr’s food. She said, “Can you open this so Zephyr stops going meow meow meow?” I popped the top and handed it back to her and she went off downstairs. I got up a few minutes later and after brushing my teeth and such headed for the stairs. Sam was on her way up and she wouldn’t let me go downstairs. I finally did go down and found that not only had Sam fed Zephyr, but she also changed both water bowls, emptied her litter box, chucked the bag of litterbox waste outside (we do that when it is more than urine), cleaned up all her Legos, and straightened her doll house (she knows I can’t stand it when the dollhouse looks like a hurricane hit). I was so proud of my big girl for doing so many things to make my morning easier. She acted like it was no big deal, which cracks me up. Sam acted all nonchalant, like she does it all the time. Her only real comment was that she doesn’t like emptying the litter because it’s too hard.  Why is it that kids are so willing to do things when it’s their idea, and not yours? If only we could somehow manipulate this to our benefit, how easy life would be….