Allowance

| July 8, 2017

Sam has been bugging the heck out of us for an American Girl doll. She knows there is a “Samantha” doll and now she is even more into the idea of owning one. I have told her a million times that they are ridiculously expensive so, no. I am not buying one. She asked me if she could earn money to buy one herself and since, frankly, she is old enough to be doing chores anyway, we said yes. We created a weekly chore chart of things that Sam is responsible for on a daily and weekly basis (helping to feed the cats, keeping her room neat, emptying upstairs trash, setting and clearing the table, dusting downstairs, etc.) She worked so hard this week that she earned her first allowance of $3.00 per week. You’re on your way to that doll, Samantha!

Still Swimming

| July 8, 2017

It was a bit hard getting Sam back into the groove of swimming this year. At first, she didn’t want to go underwater, didn’t want to wear her goggles, and basically, wouldn’t do anything. After a lot of prodding, Mark finally got her back into it. Once she started, she couldn’t stop!

Mark always does handstands for her which she finds endlessly fascinating. She hasn’t tried her own handstand yet, but I am sure she will. She has a hard time getting all the way to the bottom of the pool to retrieve diving rings and things on her own because she just floats right back up! How she would do a handstand, I’m not sure, but we’ll see.

She was all dived out after a while. Time to chillax!

Did I mention the chillaxing? Yeah, they look beat. Oh well, that’s what the pool is for!