Kids Say

We've been so blessed to work at Pius.  Samantha knows the hallways like our house and knows where all the candy is stashed in every room.  Last year we said goodbye to Sister Ann Marie who went to a different school.  I have to say, I think I was the only one NOT bouncing off the walls excited to have Sister Maria join Pius again, simply because that meant Sister Ann Marie would not be in the classroom across from me any more.  Although I still am grieving, it's impossible not to love Sister Maria.  And she's fallen head over heels in love with Samantha.  The first words out of Sam's mouth when she comes to my room after school are,

"Can I go see Sister Maria?!"  

This may be because she has the largest candy stash in the school, but they are usually laughing so loud you can hear it clear down the hallway, so I'm guessing it's her company too.

Samantha has gotten very comfortable with Sister Maria.  The other day she said,

"My sister is a chunky monkey and I'm a skinny minnie.  

My sister is a baby.  

Why are YOU a chunky monkey?"

Luckily Sister Maria thought it was hilarious.

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She watched 15 of the 17 minutes of the speech, waiting to hear him say "I have a dream!"

Sam wanted to know why she didn't have school on the 20th and so I explained to her who Martin Luther King Jr was.  She was very intrigued.  And in Samantha fashion, she had to re-tell ME the story over and over again.  She almost has his name down, but gets lost somewhere in the "luth" part.  And she keeps talking about how he was "poked".  It took me a while to understand what she was saying.

"No, Sam, he was shot."

"Oh, he was shocked." 

"No, shot. Like with a gun."

"Like this? pew-pew!"

"Um, sort of.  But it killed him."

"And he went to heaven?"

"Yes...so, how did he die?"

"Um....he was poked."

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"Samantha (for the millionth time) stop climbing and hanging on me."

"Oh, I'm sorry *giggle* I didn't know if you were a tree or not."

Clothing

I was unsure if Sam would like this shirt when I was buying her winter clothes.  It fit the three requirements (I liked it, it was under $3 and it had something "fun" on the front that would entice her to wear it).  It was a hit.  She says the heart is her heart beating.  The other day she discovered another reason to love it.



Stand right there and show me see your shirt...

Ok, now turn around and look at the wall.

Playdate

One of Sam's besties from school came over the other day.  They are a perfect match.  They both are just as bossy and stubborn as the other.  Which is perfect!  The only time they argue is when they are hungry or one is trying to make the other one share.  And by that I mean, 

"Here, TAKE IT!" 

"No! I don't WANT IT!" 

 "BUT I'M SHARING!!"

They both have a hat obsession.  They traded on this outing and thought it was awesome.

Birthdays

My family gets together a lot.  Birthdays are big and when you're up five grandbabies- all with different birthday months- that means a big get-together most months of the year:

 

January is Jeremy

February is Joel

March is Kim

April is Grayson

May is Becca and Samantha

June is my parent's anniversary

July is Papa, Amanda and Olivia

August (yet to be claimed)

September is Mimi

October is Lucy, Charlotte and Hyunseok

November is Thanksgiving

December is Kahlan and Christmas

 

So this was January:

The new favorite game- connect four.  Sam had made up a game that Hyunseok called, "The most boring game ever."

My mom played with the babies.  Celeste, to the right, was certain that my mom was intertaining her.

Seriously, she didn't notice the baby right underneith her.  It was hilarious.

But when she did notice...

What is it with babies always going for the face?

My mom rocks at the multitasking.

Jeremy's cake, decorated by my dad.

The guys.  They play games every Thursday night and so they were equally excited to read up on Jeremy's new game expansion.

Amanda and her Boy Toy Levi.  I'd like to say that's not her normal face but...

The grandkids kept running up to Mimi to ask for more icecream and cake in their own bowls.  They knew to not go to mom and dad. 

Communial bowl.

Sam convinced Kahlan to feed her.

Charlotte watching the scene...

...and Sam jumped in for a photo bomb.

Charlotte was "done" and Grayson was doing everything he could do to get her to smile.  So sweet!

Cousins

January 10th

January 14th

It's getting harder to take pictures with a blurr somewhere!

My lovely mother with her babies.

Sam and Kahlan 2010

Flashback!  Kahlan and Samantha 2009

Electronics

Oh, electronics, how I loathe you.  You taunt me with your promise of uninterrupted quiet time, but then your effects always turn my precious 4-year-old into a whiny and clingy beast.  I was thrilled when I read this article about regulating screen-time, especially since Uncle Andrew bought her a LeapPad2 Princess for Christmas.  She calls it her "ipad" and it basically is a tablet. She can go through a set of batteries in one morning if we aren't careful. 

So after a little discussion we now have a system of "earning" screen time.  If she asks, however long she plays independently (or with Charlotte) or reads or colors, etc she can play for that amount of time on her ipad.  We set the timer to time her and then set the buzzer when she's on the LeapPad.  She has yet to "earn" more than 20 minutes and she's usually editing pictures of herself, so we're happy with the length of screen-time. It works like a charm!

 

Earning time on her ipad.

She painted

I love these watercolors as she's able to set them up and clean up by herself!

And she colored on packaging paper I taped to the wall.

"I want to read this to Charlotte"

Knock yourself out, girl!

Tummy Time Antics

These two continue to bond.  Charlotte will only tolerate tummy-time if Sam is entertaining her.  Little does she know that she's the one entertaining Sam!

This day Sam was copying Charlotte:

Head up

And down

And up



And down.  She was giggling so hard.

Stroller

Charlotte got an umbrella stroller from Santa.  Samantha LOVED it.  Charlotte was pushed around for a good 30 minutes.  And by pushed I mean PUSHED and flying down the hallway.  She didn't seem to mind.

 



Totally unrelated.  She dressed herself. She was very proud of her selection. I had to photograph.

BIG Girl Bed

In addition to the dates, Samantha also got a "real" bed.  At 4.5 years old she was finally too big for the toddler bed. 

 

Ready to "open" her present.

She knew she was getting a bed, just didn't know about the "surprises" like the bookshelf headboard and hidden doors underneith.

She got two quits.  The top one was from a great-aunt.  The bottom was a requested "Rainbow Blanket" made specially by santa's elves (cousins in Minnesota). 

It's still her favorite thing to climb into bed and get tucked in under her new blanket.  And there's no-more night fits about the blanket not covering her feet all the way!

Gift of memories

Around Thanksgiving my sister-in-law posted a link about giving memories instead of toys.  I could have agreed more since we have a plethera of junk toys.

So, for birthdays and the holidays we now try and give gifts of time and memories.  Unfortuantely neither Jeremy nor I was good about bringing the camera along, except for Kahlan's birthday gift.  I have her a ticket for a coffee date. 

 

She didn't quite get the idea when she opened it.

It had a picture of me, Samantha and her drinking coffee.  Some students of mine are in a band and play regularly at a local coffee shop.  So one Saturday I took the girls for some hot-cocoa and they got to listen to the band.  Since they started playing at 8pm I made it a pj date (so they could go straight to bed when they got home!).  Yes, even I went in my pj's.  Sorry, no pictures of that!

 

 

But boy was it a hit when she got to go!

 

Kahlan and her "coffee"

Sam gulped hers down before the first song was over.

The birthday girl and the band

They could.not.sit.still.



If there had been room to dance, I would not have worried too much...

For Christmas we continued the "dates". 

Lucy got two- one from all of us and one from her Godmother (me).  Her first was a trip to the Animal Shelter.  She wanted Jeremy to take her.  They spent a good 45 mintues there, and Lucy played with one of the dogs for a good part of that time.  Afterwards they went to HobbyTown to pick out an animal of some sort (Lucy is obsessed with plastic or stuffed animals). 

Her spiritual gift was a holy 1/2 hour with me at the chapel at my school.  We prayed a Chaplet of Divine Mercy, talked about holy images, the difference between a cross and a crucifix, sand a few hyms and then had some quite prayer time.  Afterwards she watched Turbo in my classroom.

 

For Kahlan and Grayson I took them (and Samantha) to Ager.  The girls played hard and Grayson went back and forth between following them around and trying to master the trikes and cars on the outter ring.  A few times I found him strapped in one of the cars, waiting for me to make my round and unbuckle him.  After the first hour he finally got the courage to go in the play structure.  After another 50 minutes he finally moved beyond the ball-pits.  In the final 10 minutes he climbed all the way to the top and went down the tallest slide by himself.  He was so proud of himself.  On his second time climbing up I told him he was like Spiderman. 

 "No!" he replied, "I SUPERman!"

He even helped and encouraged Kahlan to go down the tall slide, "It's ok, Sissy! I show you!"

Samantha's gift from Jeremy was a cooking date.  He showed her how to make birds in a nest.  I bought 2 dozen eggs for her to practice, but she lost interest and didn't want to touch them after a few tries. 

 

Samantha's gift from me was a swim-date to Swimtastic.  Over the summer we went swimming at least once a week.  It was such a relief to be submerged in the water with my big belly that it was well worth the extra laundry.  She was esTATIC about going swimming with me again.  She counted down the days until the swim date.  And now, it's all she talks about.  Even post-swim date.

 

Samantha also received a "Princess for a day" and a "Nail-date" from other family members.  Needless to say, these "dates" have been a huge hit with the kids.  Sam is constantly giving me ideas for dates for her birthday or next Christmas.