March 29th and 30th, Dorothy's New Home

Sam and Adam found an abandoned turtle last night. The poor little thing was in a dish that was barely big enough to fit him, in water that was so grossly murky.

So we made him a bigger home to swim and googled for some answers on what to feed these little guys. Turns out that they eat veggies and meat, so we fed him carrots!


Sam named him Dorothy and called himself Elmo (Dorothy is Elmo's goldfish)...here's some pretty cute videos. What's not so cute? Sam had a really rough night, he kept waking up and telling Dorothy stories:

"Hi, I'm Elmo and this is Dorothy. I'm going to tell Dorothy a story..."
Here he'd say like two sentences...totally incoherent...
"And that's the end, Dorothy. Now I need to go to sleep."
He'd sleep for 45 mins, then wake up and start again.





We planned to walk up to the gardens and leave it there, with a note asking the gardeners to consider adding him to the turtle pond, but our friends Nikki and Eliza welcomed him into their aquarium!

Sam is having a hard time letting him go. The whole walk he kept saying how he misses Dorothy and wants to play with Dorothy at our house. Hopefully, he'll get over his loss soon, although he's currently crying, saying, "I don't want Nikki to have Dorothy! I want Dorothy!"

March 29th, Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today's my brother's birthday. As I type, they're all playing Scrabble (Michelle is losing and trying to cheat and Mike is swearing to never play with her again...some things never change :)), getting ready for Mom's turkey dinner (for some reason, everything is better when my Mom cooks it), watching a little Twilight in the background...I wish I was there!!!

Sam sang Uncle Mike, "Happy birrr-th-day!", but this picture is from his conversation with Nannie. It appears that his phone strike is over!

March 28th, More of My Outdoor Kid :)

Sam loves his little cars! He's getting a kick out of lining them up, a little game that he hasn't played in a while.

March 26th, The NEW Park

We drove to a new park with Rachon and Max today. I had called Adam to tell him where we were going. Sam talked to Daddy (something he hasn't done for a couple months now) and Daddy told Sam that he'll ask him at supper what colour the slide was.

We had a great time at the park. Lots of sand digging and running and sliding and climbing! On the way home, I asked Sam the colour of the slides and he answered "red." Somehow I asked him the name of the new park. He looked at me like, duh!, and says, "the NEW park." :)

March 25th, High Energy Hijinks :)

March 25th, The Red Park!

Sam loves the RED park (he names the parks according to the colour of the twirly or dominant slide) and today, we met Rachon and Max there. Sam's been going wild this past week, running faster, climbing harder, jumping higher, etc. I wasn't able to capture Sam at his new energy level, but here's what I did get :) I missed Sam head-butting the soccar ball (I asked him to do it again, but he wouldn't). Oh, did I mention that Sam is tiring himself out again and taking full 3 hour naps :)

March 20th, Thank you, Nannie! Nannie sent Sam some of his favorite snack, since we can't buy them here. As you cans see, he was very excited !

Last Weekend at the Sugar Bush...

My Uncles have a 'sugar bush' which consists of a grouping of maple trees (they have 100) that they tap for sap, where they collect the sap in the big white drum, then concentrate it down by boiling in this oven-type wood furnace they rigged up to produce maple syrup...

March 19th, Spring has Sprung!

Winter has a few days left, but temperature-wise, I'm afraid that winter is over :( Last night, we had to sleep with the air conditioning on and, today, Sam wore shorts. This time next year, I'm sure I'll be wishing for this heat, but right now, I'm just sad to feel the California heat hitting so strong already (and the air was nasty today).

Sam sporting his shorts for the first time in 2009...


Sam climbing some roots of a tree...


Sam spied some snails...


Sam did some bike riding. He's so fast now!










Here's a few short videos...two really short ones that show you how fast Sam is these days and one one minute video of Sam exploring...

March 18th, Learning Left and Right!

Adam and I appreciate that Sam, like most kids his age, is a sponge for knowledge. But, I don't know if we'll ever get used to seeing Sam's take on things :)

March 16th, Memory Lane

I've been doing some scrapbooking lately and came across these pictures taken when Sam was 15 months old in San Diego. We were in the International Village in Balboa Park watching some music and dance acts from different countries/ethnicities and Sam was curious :)

March 14th, Hurray!!!

I left things on a negative note, so I thought I better give a good news update :)

So, I pushed nap back by 40 mins (Sam woke up 30 mins early, so he was really tired by nap time) and Sam slept 3 hours! Yeah! Then the moods (mine and his) were excellent. So, we went all day Friday and today so far, we've had tantrums! We even had a great time at the park this morning with Ashton and Ryan (and Tami, of course).

Sam's been doing these testing periods with intermittant good days for the past month and a half...it's been rough! But we'll get thru it :)

March 12th, Oh, He's in the Dog House!

Today was ruff (ha, ha!). Sam's been testing like mad. Just as I am writing this, the accused was tip-toeing, wearing nothing but his Georges (curious underwear), carrying an open glass of milk...milk that he's poured from his cereal bowl to a cup he got out of the dishwasher...all the while watching me for my reaction. He knows that he's to keep all open glasses at the table. Anyway, that's nothing, just an aside.

So, Sam's been taking half naps (or no nap one day) since the time change. It'd be fine if he was outgrowing the 3 hour nap...if after 1.5 hours of sleep he didn't wake up and scream for the next 30 minutes...if he didn't completely melt down 2 hours after he ended his nap. Today, he wanted me to make a small ball out of a large amount of playdough, without breaking the playdough. I tried to explain that it's physically impossible to make a small ball out of large hunk of playdough and that his options are are a large ball or two small balls...this sends him into a tizzy where he cries/screams/flails for the next 45 minutes. Lovely. Atleast I have these photos to prove that the day wasn't a complete right off!