The Joy of Homonyms

Great visit with Aunt Amy this weekend! AA continues in her role of Aunt as gatekeeper to forbidden but largely harmless things. In previous visits she's had a faux picnic on the kitchen floor, wherein she and Sam got to bang pots and pans and throw around plastic-ware.

This time, babysitting Sam while we were at small group, they began the evening by deliberately running around the house waving their arms and yelling like maniacs. This activity was to be repeated at other times during the weekend.

In other Sam news, he's now spotting homonyms. It's not too surprising that he gets the concept, or that he knows the word, but he's actually doing a nice job of spotting them. Yesterday he came up with shoo and shoe. And hare and hair. Even better: read, Reid (the name) and (double) reed. We'll be playing together, and he'll say excitedly, "Hey! Reed and read! That's a homonym!"

He's also been writing. At school they teach cursive, so I am not sure why we have him using capital letters at home. Last Friday he just wanted to sit and have Susan spell words for him so he could write them down. It's a little hard to read, so:

• SURPRISE
• BUNNY
• MONSTER!
• MAZE
• ZOESTER (nickname for Zoe, our cat)
• TICKLE
• SHARK
• BANANA
• GHOST! (Yesterday in church when the preacher referred to the "Holy Ghost" Sam excitedly whispered to me, "He said ghost!")
• SAM LIKES TO BOUNCE!
• COOL
• SAM COOL
• SCOOBY DOOBY DOO

Which gives you a good idea where his thoughts were on Friday, or about any other day.

He continues to love using the marble racers. Friday while thinking hard for ways to keep Sam occupied in the living room while we were talking to guests, Susan suggested we put a drafting board at a shallow angle and place blocks on it, and then let marbles roll down and bounce in paths created by the blocks. (Sort of a poor man's pinball machine.) I am sure we spent over at least an hour on marble-racing this weekend.

I thought we had seen the last of the ducks, but Saturday morning as we were sitting on the couch reading I noticed a green-headed mallard (thanks, Uncle Paul!) strolling slowly across our lawn, maybe 20' away! Sam and I eagerly watched him for some time. Brought to mind that the stream isn't the only draw for fowl: ducks sometimes like to hang out in our neighbor's above-ground pool.

You'll be glad to know this weekend I put up a disk swing. Much less noose-like.

Finally, a kitchen movie from last week! Susan was understandably not thrilled by a movie of a messy kitchen, but got on board. Walls still need to be stripped and painted, but the rest is finished, and the contractors have folded their tents and stolen away into the night. Great guys--I highly recommend them.

it's not a noose

But I'll admit it looks like one. Sam had fun today putting his foot in it and swinging off of a chair.

Then he had at least as much fun whacking at it with things, which is very much in the noose spirit, I think. Whenever he got it to rest on the back of the chair just so, he'd cheer, declare victory, and let us know he'd "killed" it.

Really, we haven't told him what a noose is or what it's for.

Dizzying movies etc.

Had a pleasant weekend which included a quick trip to the Play Museum. Sam wanted to ride the carousel which, by coincidence, was completely packed the ride before ours, but when we rode we were the only ones on it. So we tried the little circular seats which you can spin around as the carousel turns. Fun, if nauseating! The movie shows it all.

Last Friday Sam's school had a program wherein the classes each gave presentations, usually music. Sam's class sang Tomorrow from Annie. He's been singing that in the tub, practicing. In the photo, on his right, is a little girl who likes him and has been trying to drag him into crime. Alicia. Nice girl for a scofflaw.

It's swing season in Rochester. The first to go up was just a rope with a loop in the bottom. A fine first step. Only involved shimmying up our apple tree to tie the bowline. I'd show it here but (1) I didn't get a photo of Sam using it; and (2) it looks a lot like a noose for groundhogs. You can see the next one, which will involve an actual wooden seat.

Other than that... the part of the prefrontal cortex devoted to marble racers has had a sudden period of growth. Sam's been building some really nice ones for the first time.

He's also been chewing on the cuffs of his sleeves a lot. Which, again, doesn't make for a great, heart-warming photo.

And he was introduced this last week to cookie-dough ice cream. We let him have some after dinner yesterday, which prompted, "This is a good day, INDEED!"

Nana and Grandpa Collins visit!

Had a great visit with Nana & Grandad, who came up the weekend after Easter.

Some highlights:

• Nana reading to Sam the story of the foreget-me-not (shown here)
• N&G coming with us to Sam's Saturday Music-Makers class, and sitting with us in the uber-hip cafe which the Eastman students frequent (N&G shown here walking there with us)
• Sam showing off for Nana his marble racers (he's using both of his sets now, though only the old one is pictured)
• Dinner out, on N&G, at Olive Garden
• Grandad reading to Sam
• Nana's conspiratorial whispering to Sam in their row of the minivan!
  

It was truly a treat having N&G visit. :-)

counters!

Here's the latest on the kitchen, with Sam thrown in.

Easter photojournal

Happy Easter!


Aunt Amy visited last weekend and is shown here with Susan while at the YMCA's Jungle Room (which, despite the name, is not a 70s lounge attached to a bowling alley). In this photo Susan's just finished working out.

The weather's been beautiful here, so we made the most of it with sidewalk chalk in the driveway on low Saturday, and a long afternoon trip to the Zoo on Good Friday.

Though it was quite warm, many animals were still out and active.

The zoo's female polar bear has a visitor, a male over 1,200 lbs., who is here to try to produce more little polar bears. When they were first introduced the zookeepers stood by with fire hoses to separate them in case they got hostile with one another (which might make them "bipolar" bears).

The river otter also has some female visitors for the same reason. He's the oldest river otter in captivity in North America but was frolicking and generally having a great time, far more active than we've ever seen him.

I've shown before the little glass observation room in the cougar enclosure, which kids get to by climbing through a tunnel. This time, though, the cougar went right up to the glass, giving the kids a good show, before wandering back for another nap.

We also have an eagle in the zoo. It was wounded in the wild, so it's got a much better life than the whole red-in-tooth-n-claw scheme would provide. While we were watching some Canadian geese came by to annoy it. They aren't scared of much, but kept their distance when it flapped its wings and made some noise.

Despite all the activity among the animals, Sam went through the zoo as if fulfilling a duty--at least, until he got to a wading stream outside the snake/otter/lake sturgeon/tortoise building. He had a tremendous time splashing around in his bare feet and cooling off. For dessert he went to the neighboring playground and obligingly climbed into the giant tortoise shell and permitted a photo op.

At home the local wildlife was active as well. The birds were chirping, chickadees at the feeder, and for the third time we spotted ducks at the creek. This time it was a mating pair, and Susan thinks she found one of their eggs in the back yard recently. They soon strolled out of the creek, across the street, and into the culvert's water fall, where they splashed around happily. Uncle Paul, what kind are these?

Lastly, a very brief movie. If you are into appliances, you get to see the new microwave. If you need further motivation, there's Sam-in-a-box. Enjoy!

Oh, today's Sam Quote:

"People are like moving statues that are painted."