Thanks, Santa!

Happy Holidays

Let's catch up a bit from the last few weeks....

Samson had his 3 year check-up and he's now in the 80% percentile for height (39 inches) and 75% for weight (34 lbs). Dr. Dudley was very impressed with his verbal and math skills, which of course made us giddy with nerdly pride. Guess we can safely say that the preemie status has been put to rest.

We had our family photo shoot with Alison Eden in mid-November, and it's just incredible how much Samson has changed and yet still looks the same in the 2 years since our last professional portraits. I've uploaded the whole set of recent ones to our Picasa Web album, but I'll share a few favorites here.

With just 5 days left till Christmas, we're busy at home getting ready for our whirlwind tour to visit family over the holiday break. This year, we're heading down to San Antonio for Aunt Kelly's annual Xmas Eve party where we'll get to see lots of Mama's family and Samson will be spoiled rotten as the only child in the whole group of 15+ loved ones. Then it's back to Austin for waking up in our house for the Thomas & Friends extravaganza that Santa will bestow. After that, we're back in the car for the trip to Houston for more spoiling at Pawpaw & Grandma's house. Whew! That's a long while in the car, but since Mama finally gave in and bought a portable DVD player for the backseat, Samson has become a champion road tripper - 2 Thomas movies watched (with headphones on so grown-ups can chat freely) and we're there.

It has been a lot of fun this season sharing all of the holiday traditions and stories with Samson now that he is old enough to understand and participate in what's going on. He loves retrieving the daily treat from the Advent calendar and turning on the lights on the tree and decorations outside. He even got to meet Santa at a toy drive in Pawpaw's neighborhood. And it seems that we have at least 2-3 conversations each day about the actions and attitude required to remain on the nice list and stay off the naughty list. The only wish that he has for Xmas morning is to receive Emily and Molly and their respective coal tender cars... I must confess that Santa & his elves may have reserved just a few more engines and other Thomas paraphernalia for Samson than just those two items....

If you haven't kept up with our Twitter posting, you may be unaware that Samson has gone full on obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine (aka Thomas & Friends) since about the end of the summer. It began with reading the same two books over & over, which led to Mama recording the single weekly episode off PBS so that Samson could enjoy the characters on-screen, too. After that, the stockpiling of toys began, with Duplo sets for his birthday, and then going bonkers for the Take Along engines and playsets (which are more small, portable, and durable). Since then, Samson's daily routine involves waking up to play with his engines, coming home from school to play with his engines, and before bedtime - you guessed it - putting all the engines in a bucket to move from the living room to his bedroom where he has more tracks for playing with his engines. We've been amused and surprised at the level of adoration Samson has for these toys, and it definitely comes in handy when we need a carrot or stick for behavior modification.

Speaking of behavior modification.... we missed out on the Terrible Twos but we're making up for it by getting slammed with the Tyrannical Threes. Samson somehow recently learned (can I blame one of those bad seeds at preschool?) that there's really nothing stopping him from refusing any parental directive or request. We've had to adapt with an expert level of mind-games (aka cognitive behavioral tactics) to stave off wild-eyed tantrums that occur when Samson feels as though his will is being ignored. Samson insists on independence and wants to do things for himself, in his own way, and on his own time table. When transitions don't occur according to these preferences, the "I'm very displeased" jig is performed (imagine an angry leprechaun), complete with coordinated head, arm, and alternating foot hops accompanied by a piercing howl. Mama and Daddy must be very careful to hide our amusement at this passionate display. The top 5 situations (if not skillfully orchestrated) likely to lead to the angry leprechaun dance lately are:

• Requiring that a coat be worn before going out into cold weather
• Requiring that hands be washed prior to eating
• Requiring that PJs be removed and school clothes be put on in order to go to school
• Requiring that the evening TV watching session be ended and that bath-time begins
• Requiring that Samson get into his carseat without dilly-dallying

Could you say no to this face?