Barka da Krismati 2007!

Guardian "Angel"

Some kids have guardian angels; others have Spider-Man.

Sam Gets His Ducks in a Row

I love baths and I am very organized with my bath toys. I line up my ducks and boats on the edge of the tub or I stack them in my bucket. Mom says I have a long attention span and great fine moter skills. I am not allowed to take my toothbrush into the bath. I am also not allowed to pee in the tub, or splash water on the floor. Any of these "antics" gets me evicted.

Reading

Dad thinks I don't know my colors yet. B-O-R-I-N-G. Actually, I'm waiting till I can speak in whole sentences. Then we can read Hemmingway together.

Good Morning Cambodia

Good morning, Cambodia!!! I LOVE BANANAS.
I LOVE MY DINASOAR PAJAMAS.

Celebrity Moments

No comment. I'm just trying to hang out like a normal person. Get that camera out of my face. I love you all. I couldn't do this without YOU, my fans. You're beautiful. God bless you. Keep those fan letters comin'.

Breakfast arrangements

This morning Sam carried his plush red chair into the fish room (former breakfast nook). He sat in it and systematically ate all his food which was on the bench at eye level. Sometimes he twisted his head around to look at me, then returned to his breakfast.

Sam often likes to eat his breakfast standing in front of the big fish tank. (The bench simply blocks him from opening the cabinet doors and eating fish food.) I display his bananas and cheerios on the bench, and he paces up and down like it's a smorgasbord, then eats and jumps or hops and jabbers his way through breakfast.

Pool Diaries

Day 1:
Unwrap the new blue plastic wading pool. Scrub it very clean. Wipe thoroughly with Lysol. Add clean water. Put new Nemo swimming diaper on Sam. Play "This Little Piggie." Put on swimming trunks. Sing, O Do You Know the Muffin Man? Slather on several coats of SPF 50. Explain in reassuring voice about the water. Lower him slowly into pool. Nudge exciting tupperware towards him. Watch. Hover.Get splashed by Sam. Laugh joyfully.

Day 15:
Roll plastic wading pool off fence. Spray it to remove mud clods. Fill. Wrestle Sam into swimming diaper. Glob SPF 50 on nose. Put him in pool. Bark "sit down" many times. Scold him for splashing. Argue about whether or not he can get out.

Day Who Cares?:
Roll filthy pool off fence. Fill. Locate Sam who is tasting a rock. Strip him down except for diaper. Point to pool and grunt. Squirt SPF 8 in his general direction. Watch numbly as he places muddy truck, garden sprinkler, and sticks into wading pool. Ignore the fact that he is uninterested in getting into wading pool. Watch his Adamic nature bloom as he trots around the pool shouting bossily at his truck and the garden sprinkler.

The Interruption

So I've finished making dinner and, sighing heavily, am attacking a heap of dirty dishes. I dislike washing pots and pans. There are pots and pans.
Sam cruises in on his red car--one hand on the wheel, the other brandishing his sippy cup. I wonder mildly about the location of his pants. I return to scrubbing.
Sam interrupts again, this time jabbering. He pauses to strike a pose and swig noisily on his apple juice. Then he points at me and and says, "nanananana."
Silly boy.
We hang out for awhile.
Thank you, Sam.

Sam

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor
with the LORD and with men.

Sprayground

Morning News

Sam and Daddy read together about another mortgage lender going bankrupt...

Maybe Sam should worry more and Dad should have a bottle of milk.

Pazzyyy!

How absolutely wonderful to catch my dear friend Patsy and baby Esther for an hour before we left Michigan. Patsy and I had many adventures in upstate New York, Chicago, and of course Kenya (where I turned 21). We were not able to make it to each other's weddings on opposite sides of the world, so it's definitely hard to imagine each other married... and being moms!

Vrooom!

At Camp Maranatha Sam discovered... vehicles!!! His ultimate favorite was the car. Even though the front tire was twisted and the car wouldn't move, he would run right to it and sit there for a looong time, opening and closing the doors, punching the dashboard, getting out and in. He also learned to put a play fuel hose into its gas tank. (Parenthetically, his "John Deere" shirt was bought in Cambodia at the Russian Market for about 50 cents. Go figure.)

Josh

Josh is Sam's wonderful cousin. He's 10 years old and he loves the sand.

Grandpa Ed

I took the plaque off the wall so Sam could inspect his great grandpa Ed's achievements in science and life. Known as "Dr. Glue," great grandpa Ed worked in the field of coupling agents and died with 94 patents in his name. One of his accomplishments was inventing an adhesive that keeps the tiles of NASA space ships in place amid the roasting temperatures of take-off. He was voted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1988 and he authored a book called, Silane Coupling Agents. The "Edwin P. Plueddemann Award for Excellence" is still given annually to worthy chemists.

Great Grandpa's version of John 3:16: "Before he created the world, God knew that humans would foul things up and make heaven and earth incompatible, so he proposed to send his Son to act as a coupling agent between earth and heaven."

GG Plueddemann

Sam visited his very great grandma Plueddemann who lives in Midland, Michigan. At 91 years young, she is very witty and smart. Here are 4 generations of Plueddemanns from Mary Margaret to Jim to Danny to Sam. Welcome to your great heritage, Sam.

Beach Time

Queen Anne's Lace

In Michigan in summertime, the roadsides are profusions of Queen Anne's Lace or, as my mom used to call them when she was a girl in Maine, "My Lace." Its filigreed, flat flowers balance precariously like china saucers on pencil-thin stalks. They form white collars around the bases of fence posts and, in the open pastures, they nod in the wind like old ladies' faces vigorously agreeing with me. (If you've never been affirmed by a field of flowers, you must make a point to experience it.) When the air is still, it looks like hundreds of doilies have been tossed lightly all over the grass.

Maggie & Sam at Maranatha

Every July we make our annual pilgrimage to the shores of Lake Michigan near Muskegon where the Plueddemanns have a family reunion at Camp Maranatha. Here is Sammy with Maggie watching the boats and jet skis chugchug down the channel to the lake.

Samuel James Plueddemann

I love you, Sam!

Chubby Thighs

Deeeelicious.

More Cousins & an Inflatable Gazebo

So Sam went to Georgia where he met lots of his mom's cousins and their kids. They got to play soccer, bounce on a trampoline, splash in a pool, and grill out. Sam paddled around in his floating gazebo. His non-fear of water caused his parents several dozen heart atacks.

Ocean Wonders, Sticky Styrofoam

What Sam finds thrilling are spaghetti noodles, muddy shoes, and the increasingly sophisticated safety gadgets I attach to our electrical outlets to keep his fingers out of them. These household items present an unplumbed universe of smells, textures and tastables. His eyes and muscles fully engage such common wonders, sending synapses roaring across his brain like miniscule meteor showers. This is why being confined to his stroller and steered through ill-lit passageways of the Georgia Aquarium with a view of the spider-veined backs of adult knees was...boring.

Yes, he saw the rare Taiwanese whale sharks. Yes, the river gar like brown pencils floating in the water. Yes, the monstrous whiskered catfish. When we reached the 40-foot high tank of rainbow-coloured tropical fish, he pitched a royal, limb-lashing fit. So I scrounged around our things and offered him a... crumbly cookie and a... wait a second, here we are... sticky styrofoam cup.

All better.

Mystery Meal

One night the kids created a "Mystery Meal" for the adults. They planned the menu, bought it at the grocery store, and prepared everything. When the adults arrived, we each had to select items for our 3 courses from a menu in Russian. This meant we had no idea what we were getting! I had pizza crust with lemonade for one course, and pepperoni with spinach for the next.

The kids hung a shower curtain across the opening to the kitchen so we couldn't spy on their preparations. Leanna was Chief Chef. Sam specialized in getting underfoot, running off with utensils that he flailed in the air, opening and emptying kitchen draws, etc. I heard lots of, "Aunty Tabitha, would you please come get Sammy because he's in our way!" Poor Sammy.

The Georgia Aquarium

Didn't Mary Oliver once say the best sermon she ever heard was the sun? I choose the arctic baluga for my preacher till the world ends. I met this marine miracle at the aquarium in Atlanta. This watery cathedral shouts majesty majesty in the roving eyes of sea giants and holyholyholy in the gliding sting rays whose wingtips flick powdery sand along the ocean beds. Shells, fins, tails, flippers, suckers, stingers, whiskers, tentacles, teeth, gills, feathers, scales, bioluminescence, blowholes... all notes in a symphony beneath the waves. Did you know the whale shark's mouth is 4-feet wide but its throat is the size of a quarter?

Gasp.

Did you know that Africa has penguins and that these birds sprout up to 300 feathers per square inch?

Selah.

Dork Dads

Being a dork is one of every dad's Main Roles. Dorkhood is a primary way that dad's mortify their children---and mortification is an absolutely necessary developmental hoop for all children to jump through, especially during their emotionally-spastic teenage years.

Frankly, the men in our family are under-performing and/or not taking this seriously. They need to "up their game"--perhaps purchase some dork glasses or grease their hair. One of the fastest routes to dorkdom is to wear---with shorts---black socks and shoes. In addition, a true dork should have glowing white legs.

Uncle Talmage is an outstanding model of this high level of dorkdom. The rest of the males in our family would all do well to study these photos and emulate.

Recycling Center

All the cousins visited the recycling center together where they saw carpet made from recycled plastic bottles and lots of other wonders.

Fountain on The Green

Sam and his cousins play in the "sprayground" on a hot June afternoon. Actually, Sam was kind of scared by the water popping up out of the cement and squirting down from the sky. He preferred to loiter on the sidelines.

Cambodia Cousins

Sam's 3 cousins who live in Cambodia arrived on June 24. We spent an afternoon at The Green, a park in uptown Charlotte. Here are all the cousins: Tabitha, Jim, Myrna, Titus, Leanna, Phillip. In our family, we either look 100% Asian or 100% Scottish.

Fishshshshs

Sammy loves our breakfast nook-turned ocean viewing gallery. The room is painted green and thatched mats hang on the windows. Sam gets a viewing bench to watch the fish glide and dip in Danny's 60-gallon water universe.

Every night after Sam's bath and before his bedtime, when he is snuggled into his dinasoar 'jammies,' Sam and Danny turn off all the lights in the house except the ones in the fish tank, and then feed the fish together. The tank transforms into swirling dervish of colors and fins and puckered mouths slurping in plankton flakes. It's a miracle every single night and Sam watches in the darkness with upturned face full of wonder.

Droooool

Zapatos

Just shy of 17 months, Sammy still hasn't said a word, but he jabbers constantly, and he understands lots of words. The other day I said, as I usually do, in Spanish, "Donde estan los zapatos?" (Where are your shoes?). Sam ran to the dining room bench, retrieved his shoes from under it, and delivered them back to me. Suddenly I went from speaking blabber to communicating meaningful things to him. It was... A Moment.

Currently he is obsessed with putting on his shoes--or our shoes--which can absorb his focus for loooong periods of time. He doesn't ever seem to get frustrated. He just keeps trying and trying to work the shoes onto his feet, or tie them, or work the velcro, or whatever.

A Day in the Life of Sam - part II

This is part 2 in a 2-part series highlighting some of the exciting, meaningful things that fill Sam's life.

• First of all, he has a playset and a Doberman, both of which take up alot of his time and creative energy.
• Sam comes to the fence to inquire why mommy locked him in the backyard for awhile. She answers, "So I can go the bathroom without you picking all the flowers on the patio."
• Sammy becomes tired and hugs his favorite ball.
• Sammy becomes even more tired and looses his pants. He sits on his second favorite ball and twirls his hair.
• Sam has taken a bath and sits with daddy to watch some world news.