[caption id="attachment_1736" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Does the recorder sound different when you blow it into a jar?"]
[/caption]Sam is going through another growth/development spurt right now. She is constantly hungry, she is sleeping a lot, she is bursting with energy, and she is doing new things every day. Just in the past few days I noticed that her communication skills shot through the roof. For example, yesterday when Adam got home, she asked him plainly, HOW WAS WORK, DADDY? and she expected an answer. She is also saying things like ONE BLANKET FOR EACH BABY instead of BOTH BABY HAVE BLANKETS. There are other things that have struck me, but they happen so fast and furious that I never seem to get them down on paper.
Her imagination is booming too. She seems to have a good grasp of pretend versus real, at least for her age. She tells me when things are pretend now, like when we play monsters or ghost. Sometimes I'll say, "Oh, are you putting your doll to sleep?" and she'll respond, NO, JUST PRETENDING. She has interesting thoughts like, when I noted that the dog was sniffing the air, she said, MAYBE TOBY GOING HUNTING FOR FOOD. Where does she come up with this stuff?
[caption id="attachment_1738" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Pretending to be angry"]
[/caption]After months of counting ONE FOUR SIX TEN FIVE THREE EIGHT! Sam is finally starting to count to ten properly. As a matter of fact, she can count to twenty, as long as you go along with her conviction that fifteen is The Number Which Must Not Be Named.
As I've already written, Samantha got through her first weekend without mommy and daddy this month. This is a bigger milestone for us than it is for her, but I'm proud to report that she handled it very well.
Somehow, Sam decided that she didn't need bibs anymore this month. She used to demand a bib - it was just part of eating - but overnight, it seems, she dropped it and we let it go. And you know what? She doesn't spill as much as she used to. I wonder which was the cause and which the effect there?
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[/caption]I'm not sure if she's grown any taller, but Sam's feet grew almost 2 sizes in the past few months. I had to buy a second set of summer shoes for her, and that is a first. Shoes (and clothes) had always lasted at least a season, and as a matter of fact, she is still wearing a lot of her clothes from last summer. I sometimes worry about how small she is, but hey, somebody has to be in the 10th percentile. At least her small stature is not interfering with her independence as much as it used to. She can now reach most sinks with a stool, she can use the short drinking fountain at day care, and she can reach doorknobs. I know she'll still have challenges growing up small, but both Adam and I have experience in that area so hopefully we can help her through it.
We're working on the potty training in earnest now. As of now, all it means is that she wears underwear for a few hours each morning and she sits on the potty sometimes. It seems like she now knows how to hold her urine as I haven't seen a puddle in a few days, but she still hasn't peed on the potty. I might just break down after all and buy a book to tell me what to do. Maybe. If I'm really desperate.
In retrospect, I know that we did indeed experience the terrible twos. The reason I'm only sure of this now is that Sam is going through another willful phase, complete with all the usual tantrums, but now with the added bonus of whining mixed in. Once she started on this spree, I realized that the past several months had been very peaceful, and I saw the contrast with January and February, when things were tough. I know that this won't last forever but it's sure not fun. I'm back to having a wet right shoulder most of the time from all the crying that goes on there.
A fun development is that Sam now likes to shower with us. It's not always convenient in our tiny tub/shower combo (I'll shave my legs again someday, I suppose) but it's great to see her wanting to get clean just like mommy and daddy. Today, I finished my shower and Sam wanted to stay in for a while so I got dressed and puttered around the bathroom for at least 10 minutes while she showered all by herself. Really, the only help she needs is a hand to step in and out of the tub and someone to turn the water on and off. She soaps and rinses pretty well all on her own. She even dries herself with a hand towel all by herself, propping her feet up on the toilet to dry her legs, just like I do on the vanity. The first time I saw her do that I just about wept with the realization of how much of the things Adam and I do will become a part of her forever.
[caption id="attachment_1735" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Swimming"]
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