Sam at 20 Months

Daycare is closed today, so Sam and I are having a mother/daughter day, as Ryan is over at Great Glen for work. We had a good morning, walking around outside and drawing with our chalk on the sidewalk, getting an ear check (all clear! Yeah!), and stopping off at the Brunswick Farmer's Market before coming home. Sam got a kick out of the market. It's another beautiful day, and we walked around and got a treat, and some salad greens, and played with the three adorable 9 week old kittens that the Humane Society had there with one of their volunteers. There were tons of kids crowded around the big three-story cage, and Sam had a chance to take one of the feather-topped wands and play with the little black kitten who was being the most playful at the time. And now, well, she's sleeping and the house is blissfully quiet, the bills are paid, the house is clean(ish), and I even got out to weed the garden a bit! Wow :-)

Amazingly, Sam is 20 months old today! At this point, I suppose I should stop counting her age in months, but I can't resist using the passing of another month as an excuse to give an update on how she's growing and progressing. We most certainly have a self-centered, testing toddler on our hands right now. There is a lot of "my my my", a lot of doing exactly what we asked her not to do with a little sly grin on her face, and a lot of "no no no" to herself and to us as she starts to do what she knows she shouldn't. But we also have a truly loving, friendly, helpful and social toddler on our hands. One who loves to go to school and play with her friends. Who is learning to share her toys. And pick up the blocks when she is done with them. And even, sometimes, put her toys away after she's done using them! One who loves to give kisses, and pat my back when I pick her up. Who lays her head on our shoulders to give us hugs, and who will blow kisses when we leave the room. She's a bit more shy of strangers these days, even those people she knows but doesn't see regularly, but she's curious and still pretty social, so after a bit of head turning, eyes down and clutching at our legs, she'll turn her head and shyly smile. Oh so coyly. As if to say, I'm cute, don't you know :-)

We are spending a lot of time coloring these days (or "yaya!" as Sam calls it). She would color all over everything in the house if we let her, but she's pretty good at (mostly) only drawing on her pads of paper or her box of crayons. And now that the weather is nice, we've also been spending lots of time playing outside. Lots and lots of outside! Sam loves to walk around, picking up leaves or dirt or sticks or stones, and stomping in puddles. And shyly "playing" with some of the neighborhood kids, who think she is just the cutest little baby ever :-) (Honest, they said so!) We've also discovered sidewalk chalk, which is a lot of fun and a good source of entertainment. Sam has been getting pretty steady on her feet, and is walking around really well, even on uneven ground. She's also getting to be a bit more of a daredevil, standing up on her "bike" or the stool inside, and trying to climb up onto the chairs. She also likes to try to slither off the bed in the morning after we've gotten dressed for the day, which is super cute, given that her feet are still like a foot off the ground even when she's halfway off the side of the bed!

She continues to amaze us every day with her vocabulary. Earlier this week, she picked up a container of leftovers from the bottom shelf in the fridge, and said, clear as day, "heavy!" She tries to fit things into different containers, saying "it fits" or "it's stuck." She can now say many of her body parts, including neck, feet, eye, nose, elbow, and knee. She knows how to say the colors blue, red, black, white, pink and brown. She picks up her toy phone, and says "hello" in just the intonation I'm sure I say it when I answer the phone :-) She constantly asks "What is?" about everything around her, wanting to know exactly what all manner of things are. If we finish our breakfast/lunch/dinner before she does, and our plates are empty, she will point to them and say "more," as in, come on, you need more! Fill your plate up again! The other morning, as I was putting on her socks, I said, "one sock," to which she replied "two," in her cute little voice, while reaching for her other foot. And later, when playing with her wooden blocks, she picked up two with one hand, held them out to me and proudly said "two!" She will also stretch her hands up over her head while laying on the bed waiting to get dressed, and say "stretch"! And perhaps cutest of all, whenever we go out, and she says "Mama, Daddo" to make sure we are there with her, she then says "Gigi, Ronnie" because, well, she knows they are part of her family too :-) She's a character all right!