My kids make me laugh

-What is it? What’s it do?
The other day I thought I would keep a tally today of how many times Samuel asked me these two questions. I lost count by 10 am.
I love it but his curiosity is killing me! I've never had to explain so much in my life, everything from the remote control to the Velcro on his shoes is fair game. He just wants to know--"What is it? What's it do? "

Sometimes, he'll find something I can't explain very well. Like the other day we were in the bathroom and he found a few products under the counter that were of a feminine nature. The conversation went like this:

Sam: "What is it?"
Me: "Ummmm...Well..."
Sam: "What's it do?"
Me: "Well, Sammy it's hard to explain."
Sam: "Oh, why?"
Me: "I don't know, it just is."
(silence for a moment)
Me: "I'll tell you when you're older."
Sam: "Okay."

Two days later--(We're in the bathroom again)
Sam: "What is it?"
(I look down to see him looking in the cupboard again.)
Me: "Oh, remember, I'll tell you when you're older."
(Silence ensues and he's got a funny look on his face)
Sam: "I older Mommy." (I'm pretty sure he was just copying my words, like when I say he needs to be good to get some candy, he'll say "I good Mommy.")
Me: "Oh, ya, you're right, you are...
Go ask Daddy! ":)

-Proof that we see a lot of our new president on TV and in the media.
After dinner the other day Ryan asked Sam if he wanted to watch TV for a few minutes with him before taking a bath. His enthusiasm was apparent as they went in the front room to turn the TV on. Ryan asked him what he wanted to watch and he said “Are we going to watch Barack Obama?”
Needless to say we were a bit shocked. We've never even talked about Barack Obama in front of this kid. At least not that we can think of, so I guess it’s time we start filling him in on current events:)

-Where does he get this stuff?
I was working on dinner or something in the kitchen and Samuel and Russell were playing in the front room. They were playing happily and I didn’t hear much from them for a good 10 minutes or so other than playing noises. Then the phone rang. When our phone rings, the phone base rings first and then the cordless phone rings after it but almost simultaneously. So I can hear the base ring and then I listen for the other ring to find and answer the phone. This time I heard no second ring. “Hu, that’s funny?” I thought to myself. I swear I just saw the phone, so I went in the front room to listen for it there.

Well, what I found was Samuel, building what he calls a “Mountain” or “hill”.

Whatever it is, what it means is that he’s collected any item in the room that is either not fixed to the floor/wall or too heavy for him to carry, and he’s piled it in the center of the room, making a “Mountain”. I watched him for a few moments as he attempted to scale his creation, which had to be at least 3 feet tall. Blankets, pillows, blocks, toys and without seeing it I just knew the phone was in there too. Where else would it be? Right?
Sure enough as I got closer to his mountain I could hear a very faint ringing coming from the depths therein. I began to dig, and dig and dig, following the sound of the ring that got louder and louder as I unearthed it from the mass of toys he not only collected from the front room but the entire house.

He got in a bit of trouble for making such a mess but I couldn’t punish such creativity for long. I really should know better than to leave this boy by himself for longer than a minute or so, even if I can hear him from the other room. It makes me smile even now remembering what I saw when I first walked in the room. Sam was of course, attempting to scale the mountain but although I had no proof of it (no crying) I was sort of concerned that Russell was somehow lost in the mess as well. But no need to worry, pretty soon his little head popped up from the other side of the hill and the look in his eyes made me laugh out loud. It was like if he could talk he would have said, “Check this out Mom, my brother is so cool!”

A few more random thoughts from the past few weeks...

-Samuel enjoys playing his harmonica. I am very selective of the days I give him his harmonica because I have to hear this all day long when I do...

I am pretty sure he's the only kid I know that doesn't get bored with playing after a few minutes. Maybe he'll be a musician someday.

-We went to the zoo last week with some friends. Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the outing.

Checking out some swans.

I love this picture by the manatees.

Sam loves sharks

This picture is great, Sam isn't looking but they all have the best grins on their faces. I had to share it. Thanks for letting us go with you guys!

-Last Sunday Samuel was eating his lunch before we left for church. A grilled cheese. We have a resident squirrel who lives out of our garbage can. He's quite fat actually, so he is doing well. Anyway, he was sitting just outside our back door looking for some food and Sammy saw him. Ryan suggested to Sam that if he's not going to eat his sandwich, he may as well give it to the squirrel. I think he was trying to get him to eat it but it didn't work. Samuel was so excited about this new prospect of feeding the squirrel that Ryan had to help him try. The squirrel is somewhat frightening to me. When we open the door a crack he comes right up to us, I am afraid he's going to dart inside the house! Ryan helped Sam throw the squirrel a piece of his sandwich. It was almost like hand feeding him, he came so close. My favorite thing to ask Sam right now is, "What do squirrels eat?" Cause he always says, "Grilled Cheese!"

A bad picture of the back of our friendly squirrel. I'll have the camera ready next time.

-A few pictures I've taken of Russell lately...

Here he is enjoying bath time

Milk is good

Almost Crawling. I have been enjoying my last few weeks of immobility.

Pick me up mom, don't take my picture.

-I know I've mentioned a few times how glad I am that Sam and Russell are so fond of each other, but here's a few pictures to prove it.

Blurry, but so cute!

Similar interests already.