Sam vs. Food

What do you get when you put bowls of food in front of Sam? Usually, you get a kid whose hypoglycemic anger quickly turns to happiness as sugar hits his blood stream. But every so often, and this seems to happen more with foods that stain, you'll end up with Sam wearing the contents of the bowl.

The first two shots are of Sam contending with a serving of spaghetti. At first glance, you'd think the spaghetti won. Such is not the case, however, as shown by Sam's irreverent jamming of his finger up his nose and donning of the bowl as a hat.

The last two shots are of what's left of a bowl of chili. Sam liked the chili, so it didn't end up on his head. Instead, we get a glimpse of what he will look like when he's old enough to sport a goatee.

Ben's Burden

One burden Ben bears is the utter adoration of his sisters. This will prove to be a strength to him in time, but until then, he won't understand the concept of personal space for years, because he won't have any.

Letting Sleeping Bens Lie

Little Ben sleeping. He speaks for himself.

More Lichen and Barnacles

I've shown how this happens before: if you leave anything alone for too long in our house, it begins to sprout ornaments, like lichen on a weather-beaten chunk of rock, or barnacles on the hull of a ship.

Such was the case with this cabinet we had in our family room for but a couple of days. We decided we didn't want it there, so I went to move it back to the garage. But before doing so, I peeked inside. Sure enough, the girls had made a little display of necklaces and bracelets inside. Though, it does look quite a bit like a shrine...




















This is perhaps the most extreme example. Ben remained too still for too long. We came in to find that the girls had draped some shear, blue cloth over the structure of his play mat, and had even piled stuff animals on his chest (you can see a turtle in there). Ben, for his part, didn't seem to mind.

Sam's Dilemma

Sam has a dilemma, what with having three older sisters. We and the family have supplied him with plenty of your traditional toys for boys, but that doesn't mean that he isn't allowed to partake of his sisters'. Such is the case as seen below, where he can choose between his cars or his sisters' tea party cart. He doesn't know it's a dilemma, really, so maybe it's my dilemma.

In the end, he usually chooses the cars. And when he uses the cart, it's usually employed as a ramming device. Though, none of that speaks to his love of pink flip flops and headbands.

Chasing Ducks

Little Sammy, like his sisters, is an animal lover. Little Sammy, unlike his sisters, has no fear of animals. Dogs, cats, tortoises, no matter the beast or the size, the animal will get more than its fair share of Sammy if we let him have too much rein. Such was the case when we recently took the family to the UCD arboretum to feed the ducks.

Sammy ventured far and wide in his quest to corner a duck. He chased this poor hen up a hill...



















...and then right back down. It turns out that ducks have a knack for avoiding toddlers moving at 1 mph without evening having to take to the wing. Unfortunately, not simply flying away encouraged Sam to continue the chase, long after said chase had become a variant on the wild goose theme.



















The lady duck eventually made good her escape, so Sam turned his attention to two mallards, much to the ducks' dismay. He chased them across the field...



















...and then chased another pair of ducks back across the field.



















Sam's quest for ducks only reached an end when he had chased the last of them into the water. He was philosophical about it, just standing there for a moment to watch his prey escape onto the murky-green surface of the duck pond. He then ambled his way back to mommy, who was seated at a nearby bench.



















As he turned away, though, I second guessed myself. Maybe it wasn't his intention at all to catch one. Maybe he was instead something of a duck herder, and he didn't see his task complete until all of his charges had been driven to the safety of the water.

Well done, little duck herder.