Samantha is 33 months old. That's two-and-three-quarters years old to you and me. May was a busy month for her. She had visits from both sets of grandparents so we did a lot of fun, new things. Everybody jokes about grandparents spoiling their kids, but what I've found is that I am the one who spoils her when they visit. I don't seem to be able to carry on a conversation and pay attention to the details of how I relate with Sam at the same time. So I let her get away with interrupting conversations, I pick her up if she screams, I spoon food into her mouth if she doesn't want to eat, I let her run around the house with sippy cups to avoid spills, and all sorts of other things that I don't normally do. It's a good reminder of just how much effort goes into all of these little things that make up allowing her to be independent. We loved having the grandparents around, though. It was a great month.
Samantha is doing a lot of new things this month. She has always made up "conversations" for her dolls and Little People, and acted out scenarios with them. Now, she has started telling stories. It's pretty basic and the sequence of events doesn't always make sense. She might say something like:
ONCE PON TIME. LI-DA BEY-DA [that's Little Bear] LIVE COTTAGE WOODS WIT MUDDA [mother] BEY-DA, FADA [father] BEY-DA. LI-DA BEY-DA PAINT YELLOW. FALL DOWN. WANT GO FISHING WIT FADA BEY-DA. MISS FADA BEY-DA. SAD. CRY. MUDDA BEY-DA TELL FADA BEY-DA BACK TOMOWOW. LIDA BEY-DA SLEEP. WAKE UP. FADA BEY-DA HOME. YEA! DEEEEEE END.
Sam has also taken to adding DOT-COM to the end of many sentences, which I find hilarious. She must have picked it up from radio commercials in the car. We adults don't notice it much, but if you don't know the meaning of all our words, you might think DOT-COM means something like, "Thank you, goodnight," or "The End."
Sam can spell her name. I mean, she can say the letters, S-A-M because she has heard them in that order so many times. I know, it doesn't mean anything, but I still love it. Here's a clip of her "spelling":
I am now certain that Samantha loves piano music. She's been asking for PIANO for months, but I was never sure if it was just the only instrument that she knew the name of well enough to ask for when she desired any music. But it has become clear that she knows a piano when she hears one, and that she likes it better than anything else. She loves all kinds of music, but piano just sends her off the deep end of joy. I hope I can get a video of a moment when we are flipping through radio stations and we come upon some classical piece with a piano. She'll close her eyes, lift her head, raise her arms towards the sky, and start spinning in her special Samantha dance. It's a beautiful thing.
Sam has long been pointing out things from her car seat, but lately she seems to always know where we are when we drive around. School, the ice cream shop, the playground...she practically gives me directions. Maybe we didn't need to buy that GPS device after all.
Sam has three new teeth coming in. Don't let doctors tell you that it is a myth that teething symptoms include fever and diarrhea. We weren't totally sure, but it's been a long time since she had a new tooth and we clearly saw these symptoms, along with drooling, biting, and general testiness, before we figured it out and stuck our fingers in there to check. Yup, teeth numbers 17, 18, and 19 have made an appearance. Number 20 is the last of the baby teeth (which were supposed to be in about 9 months ago), and then we'll get a reprieve for about 4 years when that crazy thing happens when the first set falls out and you have to do it all over again. Then you get braces.
Samantha had her first major "I hate mommy" phase this month. Well, she didn't hate me, but she certainly liked everybody else better. It didn't last too long, but it was hard on me. When it was over, it was over, and we've been getting along better than ever since then.
Another big development is Samantha's new fears. She has become afraid of lawnmowers, walking in the street where the cars go, and thunder. Luckily, so far, she is not terribly afraid. She just cowers a bit and wants to be comforted. But the other night, a thunderstorm hit just as she was going to sleep. I heard her start screaming in fear when it was booming, so I broke my usual rule and went to her room. She was scared enough that I let her come downstairs and watch TV with me until the storm had passed. When I told her that the thunder was gone and it was time for her to go back to her room and go to sleep, she started kicking and screaming and saying, MORE THUNDER! MORE THUNDER! So much for that.
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