pooh boots, for posterity

project sam—a quick, or perhaps lengthy, update

it's hard to know exactly what to say about sam, there's really so much to say. so much. really, there's too much. sam is sometimes just too much. too awesome, too exasperating. just generally a lot. (as you can see in the video, sam is an instigator of loud and silly, and lucy reaps the benefits regularly.)

things that sam is really into doing as of now: 
- making stuff. we have so many papers and things sitting around the house that sam has made that it's completely ridiculous. not only does he bring creations home from school, but i think it the last four months or so he's gone through at least a ream of paper (most of which mike pulled from the recycle bin at work) making all kinds of things for everyone. some of the things are given away to friends, but lots seem to have accumulated all over the house. sometimes i wish i could keep everything, but most of the time i feel a little drowned in all of his artwork. a few examples of sam's prolific creativity:

 the strawberry gum drawing for his friend in honor of the fact that his friend had given him a piece of gum

 illustration of a glass of water

photo of sam with a tie bomber (or perhaps a tie interceptor) that he crafted in honor of mike's birthday

i should also mention that sam is also a bit of a creativity instigator at school, which has resulted in a proliferation of artwork sent home for the express purpose of being given to lucy. i can think of at least three friends who have made things to come home to lucy. this is enough of a thing that sam's teacher has mentioned it multiple times in his daily reports!

- the new friends. sam recently discovered that over the long, cold winter two boys have moved into the house that backs on to our newly purchased empty lot. the boys (ages six and four) have quickly become his reason for getting up in the morning (or at the very least, a reason to put on clothes). and though i'm really glad that sam now has playmates in close proximity, it also means that there is a lot of distress when the new friends aren't able to play (or we have plans that would conflict with playtime). hopefully the fact that his friends will "still be there tomorrow" will soon take hold, and the fact that they're not together all the time won't be such a cause for alarm.

- riding his bike. we recently came into possession of a hand-me-down bike with training wheels. it was a long time in coming, as sam was loathe to be too grown for his beloved big wheel, but he could no longer pedal in comfort, as his knees were constantly bumping into the handlebars. 
we were really lucky that there was a bike to be handed down, and though there were a few issues at the outset, he's become quite fond of pedaling up and down the driveway and on short walks to the playground. there have been several excited exclamations about him being able to ride his bike to school next year. which means a) we're going to have to build some time into our commute to school come fall, and b) we either have to get sam a bike lock, or i need to figure out how i'm going to get lucy and a bike home from school each day.

- and speaking of school. wednesday will be sam's last day of preschool. i think this year of preschool has been about the best as i could have imagined. sam has made several really good friends, and has learned a lot. we're looking forward to attending his open house this tuesday. at the conference with his teacher, i got a sneak peek of his journal that he's been talking about all year. it is definitely something for the "keepsake box". his teacher was specifically impressed with the "detail" in his drawings, and it was interesting to hear about sam from her perspective.

- writing. for the past couple months sam has been working on sounding out words and writing things down. he's still not all that interested in reading books, but he does enjoy sitting down and trying to write out things that he's drawing or are of particular interest to him (mostly making books dedicated to the different kinds of star wars ships). one of these days i hope he'll find reading to be of more interest, but his teacher said that doing things this way works too, and at this point not to put a lot of pressure on him. still, i'm working on encouraging him in any way possible.

- t-ball. we signed sam up to play t-ball this summer. right now we're struggling with the fact that games and practices take away from "hanging out with neighbors" time, but i'm really hoping he'll warm up to it a little bit more as the summer goes on. once he's there, i think he's generally glad to be out with other kids, but the fact that some of the kids have more skill than he does right now is frustrating for him. i'm also hoping that he'll realize that sometimes just doing your best and having fun is good enough and not everything has to be about winning and being the best. that lesson is a hard one, even for grown-ups.

happy monday—a few videos to perk up your day

i know i've posted this one of sam on facebook, but i want to spread it around because it's awesome.

and here's one of sam speeding off on his bike. i want to remember him with his legs pumping like crazy. every time he goes zooming off, i think it's the cutest thing ever. (i don't usually worry about the zooming because he's been trained to stop at the corners and wait for a grown-up. sometimes he gets off his bike and stands with his arms out waiting for a hug.)

and here are a couple of videos of lucy being lucy. i love how she does that hop and slide thing in the jumpster. she doesn't get a whole lot of time in there much anymore (i even took it down last week so we could build a tent in the doorway).

two videos

because i just figured out how to get them off my phone. and because my kids are cute.

sammy clip which i thought was longer, but is still cute

i thought i'd taken a nice long video of sam using his training chopsticks (he was doing a great job until he decided that the chopsticks were a spaceship. this happens with his utensils often.) i guess not. i'm posting it anyway. so there.

apropos of nothing

can i see your 3po?

i took this video of sam showing me how c3po walks the other day and posted it on facebook, but i thought i should post it here too.
if i haven't emphasized sam's star wars obsession to the proper degree, any conversation you have with him will do so. about half the things that come out of his mouth these days have to do with star wars, or one of the characters. tonight he told us that his name is "sammy luke skywalker" and mike's name is "daddy luke skywalker".

lost and found

i was attempting to clear some stuff off the camera's memory card and found these little gems from last summer. enjoy!

homebound, but not earthbound

we've had about five inches of snow in the last 16 hours or so, which means we're staying inside again today. it also means we're left looking for fun activities to do around the house (that don't include watching wall-e or cars for the billionth time). this morning we made a rocketship (with an astronaut and an alien and some stars to hang in the sky).

oh my! oh my!

daddy and aunt missy will probably appreciate this one the most, since they know the book that's being referred to (what color is your underwear?). i'm very excited to finally get video of this because, unless you couldn't tell, i had to sneak up on him before he realized the camera was there—it all goes downhill once he notices (and it never takes long!)

the actual lines from the book are:

"what color is your underwear, elephant john?

oh my! oh my! i forgot to put mine on!"

his other favorite from this book:

"what color is your underwear, harry horse?

cherry red boxers, of course."

(to which sam responds "course!")

for anyone who doesn't do facebook

i shared these videos of sam on facebook earlier today.

this boy cracks. me. up.

just in case this needs a little clarification, he was listening to "five little monkeys" and singing along.

here he was watching the tractor tipping scene in the movie cars. notice how he tips over his tractor as the tractors in the movie get scared and fall over. also, you can hear him repeating some of the dialogue.

he knows this movie by heart, and often he'll tell us what part is coming up next and he'll recite the dialogue as it happens.

fun with grandma elaine

sam had a great time with grandma elaine—and he's still enjoying. we've watched this movie about a million times now.

clever boy

i wanted to try out the imovie app on my work laptop, so decided to record sam stacking his cups.

he can also put the wood donuts in the right order (just saw him do that for the first time today)!

itsy bitsy

this week we discovered that sam knows "the itsy-bitsy spider".

a special post for grandma elaine

note: he did this for several minutes before i was able to find my camera (and then again after i stopped recording, and again now while i'm posting).

thought maybe i should explain this for non-grandma people: grandma elaine (mike's mom) has told us that she used to see mike lying on the kitchen floor rolling cars back and forth and watching the wheels turn. so when i saw sam doing this i immediately thought about that. like father, like son.

all i really want

i know i should probably do a post with real words and stuff, but all i really want is to do is watch sammy dance. this kid is a million miles of awesome.

hey, uncle pete!

guess who's holding sam next.

or does it only count if he can ride forwards?

(sam's uncle pete says he only holds kids that ride bikes)

i'm obsessed

with taking videos of sam.

video evidence

of sammy showing off some of his skills.

breaking news

apparently it only works when his pants are off. but as uncle jj says, pants are overrated anyway.