Sam at 3 years, 3 months

Sam is at an amazingly fun and frustrating stage right now.  Although Sam's body is identical to Brad's body (long and skinny string bean -- at 3 years he only weighs 28 pounds), his personality is strikingly similar to mine.  He is social and loves to strike up conversations with pretty much any person he sees.  People walking down the street, strangers in a store, people at the pool - it doesn't matter.  He goes up to them and says "hi my name is sam, what's your name? How do you spell your name?"  And this is accompanied by him extending his hand to shake their hand and saying "nice to meet you." He is left-handed, so he tries to shake hands with his left hand which throws people off a bit, but he is quite the social butterfly.

He gets very excited about small every day things.  Yesterday's conversation included an exaggerated "Mommy, I loooooooooove waffles" -- which he ate for lunch.

Sam can be quite dramatic at times (gee wonder where he gets that from).  When I drive the car through roundabouts to enter/exit the highway, he is convinced that he is going to fall out of the car and wants me to slow down (even though I'm only going 25 mph).

His stubborn streak is quite familiar and we frequently go head to head with our strong-mindedness and stubborn natures.  He is constantly testing limits and pushing to see exactly where the boundaries are.  I am convinced he is going to be a lawyer when he grows up because he is an excellent negotiator and knows how to manipulate situations masterfully.  Our current debate is that he tries to find ways daily to convince me that he "needs" to have popsicles for breakfast.  "Mommy, I am so very very hungry. I NEED to have a popsicle for breakfast."

His latest tactic is to tell me that he is scared of something in order to get out of doing something he doesn't want to do.  Yesterday, when I reminded him that he is not allowed to leave the dinner table without clearing his plate he informed me that he cannot clear his plate because he is scared of his plate (which is plastic -- and a chore he has been performing for 6 months now).  Nice try Sam -- now go clear your plate.

Like me, is quite impatient.  People tell me that this is part of being 3 years old, but I'm an adult and I'm still quite impatient!

He loves to play outdoors and is very skilled at riding his two-wheel bike with training wheels or zooming down the sidewalk on his scooter.  He LOVES to wear his helmet all day long.  He wears his helmet to walk the dog, eat lunch, play on the swings.  Our latest argument is that he is not allowed to wear the helmet to sleep -- I'm such an reasonable mommy.  These are the times when he tells me: "Mommy, you are very very mean to me.  I'm mad at you!"

He has endless energy and can play outdoors forever.  This summer we have been very busy building sandcastles in our sandbox, playing in the water table (although he has had some timeouts for dumping a bucket of water on Noah's head), exploring local water parks and spragyrounds, swimming at the pool, climbing in the castle in our backyard (our swingset which he calls his castle), playing in the plastic house in the yard where he "cooks" dinner for us, running through the sprinkler, trying out the slip n slide, and learning to play sports.  He is very athletic and coordinated -- he has mastered his wiffle ball tee ball set, is learning to kick the soccer ball into the goal, and has become quite proficient with the plastic golf set.

I'm continually amazed by how Sam notices EVERYTHING.  During this weekend's crazy derecho storms (winds of 80mph knocked out electricity to 1.5 million people in the DC area), many of the stop lights were out which Sam noticed each time.  We were driving on the parkway and a silver Nissan Murano was stopped in front of us.  Sam excitedly yelled "Is that Mimi??"  I was on the phone with Brad who informed me that yes, my mom drives a silver Nissan murano which she just bought a few months ago.  If you asked me (Or my mom!), we both would be able to pick out a silver small SUV and know that it is what her car looks like -- but there is no way I could identify a silver Nissan Murano and know that is what my mom drives.  Unbelievable.  Sam notices when someone gets new tires on their car.

His child care provider thinks that he will be the peacemaker when he grows up.  His empathy and concern for others is incredible.  When another kid is hurt or upset, he has to comfort them and tell them that "it's ok, I'm here, it's ok."

He is starting some pre-reading.  Since he was 2 years and 3 months, he has known all of the upper case letters of the alphabet.  He now knows all of the lower case, numbers, and shapes and is starting to put them together.  He loves to sing songs and regularly serenades us with "Welcome to Music" from his music class.

Life with Sam is never dull.  He is high-energy, high-fun, and full of love and sweetness.


 

Blogging = Capturing the Memories of My Kids' Childhood

Lately i have begun to realize that as much as I think I will remember every adorable thing my kids do, my memory fails me more times than I care to admit.  When I try to think back on what Sam was like at 15 months (Noah's current age), I am so grateful to have my blog and FB pictures/videos to help me remember.  So, that being said - I am committed to once again using this blog to capture the funny things that my kids do and say.

If you're not interested in hearing about the crazy antics that are daily occurrences in my house, feel free to stop reading.  But if you're looking for a good laugh about the hilarity that is my life -- I welcome you to join me as I increase the frequency of my blogs in an attempt to record the "I can't believe he did/said that" moments in the Geller-Cheney house.