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Sam's Story: Week 120 May 14, 2006
I often like to throw curve balls at Samantha. I mean, not literally, because I'm not that athletic, but when she and I are talking I often like to ask questions that I think may be just outside of her mental capabilities to answer. Take yesterday for example. I held up a stuffed dog and asked, "Sammy, what kind of animal is this?"
"That's a dog!"
"Yes! That's right! What kind of animal is Daddy?"
"No.... Daddy isn't an animal. He a person."
I was impressed. Somewhere along the line she had learned the idea that objects can belong to multiple classes. An orange and an apple are both round fruits, for example, but a ball can also be round without being a fruit. That kind of strutting down the path of psychological development really fascinates me.
And just as you might have expected, I started to beam like any slightly self-deluded father would. I mean, she also plays chess and the piano for crying out loud (though not well; I can still beat her at chess most games). Have I on my hands some kind of genius? Someone sprinting towards adult intelligence instead of waddling?
No, as it turns out. Apparently not.
Later that night when I gave Sam a bath I finished off the bubble bath bottle and threw it into the tub along with her other toys. A few minutes into the bath Sam took the cap from the bottle, scooped up a generous portion of soapy water and bubbles, and attempted to snort it all right up her nose while looking me square in the eye. This action was followed by the immediate reactions of choked coughing and the explosive expulsion of what seemed to be several cubic feet of Elmo's Wet 'n Wild Watermelon Bubble Bath from Sam's sinus cavities. And apparently the makers of this fine bubble bath mixture put "For External Use Only" on the bottle because snorting it hurts like blue blazes despite the wonderfully fruity scent. So Sam was sputtering and crying and I was freaking out over the fact that she had just tried to inhale water, an act that tends to be taboo in most human cultures.
So that's my Sammy: Generally a perpetrator of whit and sophistication studded by acts of inexplicable goof-balledness. She's definitely her father's daughter.
Here's some pictures.
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Let's hope next week is a little better.
Comments (4) |
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File under:
Parenting ,
Samantha
Tags: Bubbles, Samantha
Comments
Posted by bethany on May 15, 2006 10:39 PM:
Jamie, I saw that Ben MacNeill of The Trixie Update (www.trixieupdate.com) mentioned you recently, praising your blog and stating his intentions of doing weekly updates similar to yours. I just wanted to say, as someone who's been visiting this site regularly for almost two years now, that I totally agree with him. Your site *should* get more attention. You write well, and your site is well-designed and -maintained. You also take great photos. Good job overall! (By the way, I hope all is going well with the move and that you're settling in nicely to your new home/job/neighborhood.)
Posted by Jamie on May 16, 2006 5:20 AM:
Thanks, Bethany! It's good to know that there are some people out there enjoying the site. The move has gone fine so far. We're just waiting for our place in California to sell before we buy something new out here, and the market is kind of slow at the moment.
Posted by Addison on May 20, 2006 4:13 AM:
Hey, i saw you mentioned on trixie update to, i just wanna say this is awesome, ive spent a while looking through all your stories and pictures, this blog is brilliant. You write so well, and as for your daughter she is such a little cutie. Keep up the good work! I will be definatly coming back quite often.
Posted by Jamie on May 20, 2006 5:34 AM:
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. I'll tell Sam that she's cute. :)