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.
  

A Day in the Life of Sam - part I

Sam leads a life full of important, busy things to do. Here is Part 1 of a 2-part series on the sort of interesting, helpful things which Sam does. In this clip:

• Sam coaches Lexie in rawhide chewing.
• Sam shoots some hoops.
• Sam picks the new blooms off a hosta plant and mushes them.
• Sam gets a time out in the wading pool.

Pool

Sammy loves water. He loves splashing. He loves tasting the water. He loves stacking tupperware. He loves kicking. He loves dunking cheerios in the water. He loves shouting "da!" to the dog who watches at a safe distance with her stubby tail jerking around doing its stubby-tail wag.

Yard Sale

We hosted the mother-of-all yard sales on May 19 with tons of friends donating stuff and helping since 5:30 a.m. The purpose was to raise money for Marc and Amy who are adopting an orphan baby girl from Ethiopia. Their adoption fees are running around $17,000. We broke the 4-digit mark and raised $1289.75!!! Big success!

This is Chad out on the corner. He was a landmark for miles and brought in tons of curious shoppers. :-)