We are thankful
We are thankful
For our food
For our food
On Thanksgiving Day
You will hear us say
Thank you
Thank you

Brian took a bunch of pictures, but for now, I’ll just post this video.  Samantha is in a red shirt in the middle of the “Indians.”  She is next to a little boy in yellow, and a little girl in green.  (She’s at least a head taller than both of them.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MMzq_Gu12Q

EDIT:

Here are some pictures too.

The doctor tried to look into Samantha’s ears first thing, which she has always been resistant to let anyone do.  She has always been very sensitive about sounds or ANYTHING in/near her ears.  So, Ellie went first so she could be the example for Sam to watch.  Ellie is still long and tall, but is evening out a little.  She’s a little slow on speech, but can understand a surprising amount of what we tell her.  It’s surprising to me, but I’m sure it’s normal.  Just the same, it’s that amazing?  Sam was the same way.

Samantha’s check up went well too.  The doctor asked her 4 safety questions (which he told me were the top 4 unfortunate accidents – or worse – for children) like “What do you do when you get into a car?  Buckle up.”  And so on.  She knew all of the answers and gave a good High Five to the doc.

The nurse came in and gave Ellie her 2 shots.  She was consoled very easily.  Then, a strange animal that I had never seen showed up.  Was it a bucking bronco?  Was it an octopus, with 8 flailing arms?  Was it a growling wolf, showing its teeth?  Was it a screeching owl?  All of the above.  It was my Sam.  She got 5 shots (ouch).  She knew she was going to get them and backed herself into a corner, displaying the above said tendencies when it was time.  The nurse asked me if I needed some help to pin her down.  (She is surprisingly strong for her age and always has been, but at this point, I’m used to being a bit forceful when needed.)  The sounds coming out of her were from a possessed horror movie.  It was unreal.  I had never seen anything like it before.

Glad that’s over.  Until next year.

Samantha painted a pumpkin again this year, and it looks almost exactly like last year’s.

And as usual, I carved my pumpkin.

And our little ghouls were Wonder Woman and a lady bug.

Hm. Which one?

(This was originally posted a while ago, but got partially lost in the hard drive crash.  I’m just getting around to fixing and reposting.)

And check out this great picture from Lizzie’s blog.  Boy, Sam sure does love pumpkins.  I guess it’s good that she’s an October baby.

We started out by playing hard, so after a while, we had to take a break.

Then, Batman showed up.  Seriously, Samantha asked me later “Why did Batman come to my party?”

We enjoyed pizza and fruit.  (Easy, right?)

Ellie even played hard!

After a while, we sang “Happy Birthday.”  Later, Samantha told me that she didn’t sing for her birthday song.  But she could sing for my granddad’s birthday song the next day.  (How did she know not to sing for her own song?)  She was so sweet while we were singing.  I wish everybody could have seen her face.  Nana put it best when she said, “It was like Samantha really knew that everyone was singing for her and that this was a very special occasion!”

Enjoying some great gifts!

(Sorry about the picnic table, Hallie!  I should have been holding it so it wouldn’t have crashed down on you!)

And of course, the hopper.  After she opened her gifts, she carried around the hopper box for the rest of the time.  She literally walked over to some rocks near by, but away from everyone else, so she could sit with her hopper box.  It reminded me of the ukelele incident from last year!  Here’s the hopper once we got home and got it blown up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC8i4TKuZAw

For her actual birthday, I went to school to have lunch with her.  It was nice to see her in that environment.  And now I can understand more about what she tells me when she comes home!

I had promised her that she wouldn’t have to take a nap when she turned 4, because she hasn’t taken one in a while.  These days, she’s usually not a basket case by bedtime, so I reluctantly caved.  However, I still make her go upstairs so I can have some “mommy time.”  She has to play in her room, quietly, so she doesn’t wake up Ellie.

We had dinner on the porch, one of Samantha’s favorite things to do.  And she got to eat on her new picnic table.  Then she opened up her present from us.  Rollerskates!  I have no idea where the idea came from, but she was adamant that she wanted rollerskates for her birthday.

Samantha is doing well in school.  I’m amazed at how quickly she’s learning.  She can write her whole name, say the “Hail Mary,” knows about weekdays (5 days) and weekends (2 days) and much more.  She’s creative, thoughtful, funny, outgoing, and becoming such a big girl!

Then, a month or so later, Samantha randomly asked me on the way to the babysitter’s house one morning, “Why is Doctor Dolittle stuck in Africa?”  I knew it was time to continue.

So, I took it upstairs so we could read it before bed.  And it wasn’t long until we finished it.

I really was amazed at how Samantha picked up on the characters (with funny names like Jip the dog, and Dab-Dab the duck).  I think she really did enjoy the story.  Somehow she knew there were more books, so she immediately asked about the next one.  Next up is The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle.  It’s considerably bigger, but we’ve started.  She doesn’t want to read it every night, but I love to curl up with it when she asks for it.  We’ll see how long this lasts.

I bought 2 booster seats recently (online of course) so we had a few big boxes laying around.  One of them got 2 eye holes cut out and is used as a box monster.  One got used as a present that we open up, revealing said soon-to-be-4 year old.  And the other?  It got taken upstairs and is now used as a bed.

Yes, Samantha is sleeping in a box.  She says she sleeps well.  I can’t really say.

On Friday night, we were all hanging out on the driveway.  As it got dark, Brian laid down and started gazing at the stars.  The next thing we knew, Samantha had run upstairs, pulled out her sleeping bag, pillow and animals and brought them all down.  She wanted to lay down too.  Since it was pleasantly cool, we told her that we’d try to camp out on Saturday night.

Well, Saturday came and was busy.  We didn’t get home until late, so camping didn’t happen.  Needless to say, she was ready for it on Sunday night.  But she didn’t understand what “school night” means.

Brian relented and set up her tent on the porch.  At first, she was not cool with the fact that we were going to sleep inside, but was soon calmed by “Let’s Talk” with Daddy.  We talked about coming inside whenever she wanted, and other such things.  We read a book using a flashlight, but then she asked for her night-night music.  I told her that the bugs would be her night-night music tonight.   Brian said he thought she’d stay out there for 15 minutes.  I thought she’d stick it out.  Brian and I walked by that kitchen window for the next few hours wondering what was going on in there, but we never saw the flashlight.  Finally, at 10, we opened that noisy, creaky storm door to check on her.  She was sound asleep.

At 5:55AM, I heard the door open and little footsteps run to the potty.  But then, back outside.  She was a trouper.  In the morning, I asked her how she slept, and she said “not good.”  I never got an answer why though.  We promised that we’ll all try it again soon.

Swimming at MamaLinda’s

Walking in the rain

Trying on a Burger King crown

Visiting the McWane Center

Celebrating a 90th birthday

She was eager to get out of the car during carpool and had to be prompted to turn around and wave goodbye to me.  It’s a good thing I got my hug and kiss before then!

When I picked her up, she told me the things she did today.

1. Learned how to sit criss-cross applesauce.
2. Read a book about a panda.
3. Learned how to raise your hand.
4. Colored with crayons (but not paint or pencils).
5. Played on the playground (slide, but not swings).

Her lunch was mostly eaten, and I was left to clean up that used-to-be-shiny-just-hours-before lunch box.  I just read today about a few lunch box ideas so we won’t get in a PB&J rut. I haven’t fully checked them out yet, but maybe they will help: ThisLunchRox and Wendolonia.

Now off to gymnastics!