Mouse Trap

Sunday Sam and I went to the Strong Museum of Play. This time he was eager to go to the museum's collections upstairs, to show them to Max (the literal hand puppet--see earlier posts). This collection is row upon row of glass cases, and we ended up lingering in the row which had Twister, Atari game machines, Rock-em Sock-em Robots, and many other games... including Mouse Trap.

Now, Sam loves anything that involves balls rolling down chutes or tubes or what have you. We have a "marble racer" which he has spent a huge amount of time with (though mostly we build and he plays). So he was immediately fascinated by Mouse Trap. The curators have the game set up just as is shown in this photo. We spent a good 15-20 minutes just sitting in front of this glass case, until the museum closed, Sammy asking me how it all worked and getting me to describe where the ball goes and what happens next. He was fascinated. He also wanted to know whether we could play it and why it was locked behind glass!

His fascination didn't diminish after we left. Until we saw mommy, whom he just had to tell all about this, he kept asking me for the name of that game, so he would get it right.

That evening as I was reading to him preparatory to putting him in his bed, he asked me if the Play Museum was still open, and then asked--I think he asked--if the people who work there play Mouse Trap at night! Now, I think he's a little young to appreciate the game, so I am not going to scour eBay for a 30-yr-old copy. But I love the idea that he is drifting off to sleep picturing those museum workers huddled around Mouse Trap watching that ball roll down the stairs, knock the bowling ball through the tub and onto the see-saw, etc...

Sam the Menace

For a personal, toilet-related victory, Sam was given two foam swords as a reward. This is a very big deal, since he's immersed himself in Disney's Peter Pan, where swordplay is central.

So perhaps it was inevitable for him to calmly ask yesterday, "Can I kill Alex?"

Alex is one of our cats (shown here), Zoe being the other. They get along fine with Sam by virtue of their willingness to leave the room when things look dicey. They have coexisted reasonably well, occasionally even venturing into positive territory when Sam manages to pet one of them in a non-violent fashion.

The answer, in case you are wondering, was No, you may not kill the cat. I mumbled something about stewardship of nature, but I don't that that sank in any more than the other things I say!

Tim

Driving on air

We are into the "why, Daddy?" phase of Sam's life, and it's taking an interesting form of late. Occasionally he will ask us why we don't drive on X. X can be anything. So he started asking Susan why we don't drive on air, or on rocks, or on food, or on light. Susan handled them pretty well til the last, which was a little too esoteric!

Now he asks these questions to make conversation. Why don't we drive on cars? Fine question. Why don't we drive on people? He's asking because it's fun to ask, now.

Sort of the way he's always made conversation by asking "what happened", often at the funniest times. So, for instance,
he will throw a tantrum and then ask us what happened. Well, Sam, you threw a tantrum! It's like it's all a blur to him and he needs us to help him figure out how he got from the land of At Peace With Parents to exile in Frowny Parent Land.

Tim

The launching of "sammy notes"

This blog is for the purpose of recording the occasional saying of Sam, as well as posting the occasional photo.

This is for the Friends of Sam(uel Stuart Steve Collins). Feel free to post your own notes, comments and photos as well!

The first Sammy quote:

Susan's recently made a sock puppet, Max, to play with Sam. This has been a lot of fun, though it's sometimes exhausting maintaining an alter ego for Sam to interact with. But he absolutely loves having someone to tell things to, someone who (a) doesn't already know everything he knows, and (b) doesn't make him do things he doesn't want to.

Once recently he wanted Max but I didn't have the sock puppet along, so I suggested I just talk to him with my hand as the sock puppet. He was fine with that.

So we've gotten in happen of occasionally using a hand sock puppet to interact with Sam. Which is what we were doing yesterday when driving to the Play Museum. Sam was talking happily to Max (my hand), when he was quiet for a minute and then ask Max if he had a sister who was driving the steering wheel--by which he meant my other hand!

I informed him the other hand was actually a brother, and the Susan jumped in and started introducing her hands, cousins of Max, but then they became kissing cousins and it started to get a little strange.

Anyway, thought you might be amused!

Tim