He sleeps!

Though I hesitate to write about it for fear of a jinx, I simply must share with our readers the small triumph of Samson's sleeping through the night for FIVE STRAIGHT NIGHTS!!!!  

This is the best streak we've ever had (yes, all the way at 21 months -- that's right, people, Mama has not had a decent night's sleep for almost two years; no wonder she's a bit cranky).  Who knows why now is the time that Samson is sleeping better. We only hope that it continues....

Oh, and apologies for our pitiful record of blogging for the past couple of months. Life has become so busy with Samson going to school 3 days a week now (at least when he isn't sick) and Mama catching up on lots of household projects.  We've been taking pictures, but they just haven't made it on to the web recently. We'll do better this coming week, promise!

In other news, Samson had a full blown attack of the hives yesterday. Poor little guy was covered in welts and itching like crazy. Doc says it's a common occurrence at his age and we may never know exactly what (possibly even a virus) caused the allergic reaction. All we can do is give Benedryl every 6 hours for the weekend and then monitor to see if the hives return, administering more antihistamines as needed and keeping an eye out for anaphylaxis (which leads directly to the ER). Yikes! 

One might think that the Benedryl would help with our whole sleep situation, but not exactly. The stuff dries you out so much that you wake up with a terrible thirst. Last night, Samson made it until 4:30a and we couldn't bear to make him suffer by waiting it out to try to encourage him to go back to sleep. So, we may be getting up early for the next few days, but at least we'll be getting 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted rest. Halleluiah!

Things that make me go, "Grrrrr!"

Lately Samson is becoming much more demonstrative about his frustrations in life. He has Mama's quick temper in a body spiked with Y chromosomes and testosterone, without the vocabulary to adequately express himself verbally. No surprise then that what would seem to be a minor inconvenience to people over 30 can flare into a major protest with little warning. Today's tantrum report:

9am............. Getting ready to go anywhere with a small child is always a big production. One must make sure that all necessary gear for the outing has been packed (at the very least, diapers & wipes, a full sippy cup, & an emergency snack), the child is reasonably presentable (cleanish clothing, fresh diaper, hair free of rats' nests, and face free of food, dirt, and mucus), and that you build in enough extra time for dilly-dallying. Samson's preferred dilly-dally activity these days is pretending to drive the car. Every time we go into the front yard, whether we plan to leave or not, he wants to get into the car, stand in the driver's seat, and try out all the buttons, mirrors, and moving parts. Once he has had his fill of "driving," he also must be allowed to climb down out of the front seat and climb up into his carseat in back. He does not appreciate being rushed, thank you very much, and if one should make that error, one will experience what Mama did this morning: a rigid body, resisting all attempts to place it into the carseat for buckling, emitting mournful wails and displaying a very frowny face. Realizing that we were in no real hurry this time, Mama put him down so that his dignity could be restored. He then happily got into his big boy seat, Mama buckled him in, and we were off.

10:15am...... After enduring two trips in the car, sharing a berry yogurt smoothie and a complimentary snack bar (thanks, Whole Foods Kids Club!), and having been a very good sport shopping for 60 minutes through two different grocery stores (HEB for staples, then Whole Foods for the fancy health foods and that hard-to-get Jaime's salsa), Samson finally loses his cool. The sight of stacks of Snapea Crisps cruelly displayed at floor level in the checkout lane turns him into a tearful, screaming banshee, kicking and contorting to escape the Ergo carrier to get down there and claim his treasure. Never mind that we had four bags of the stuff in our basket (Mama knows it's your favorite snack, boy!), he had to have it RIGHT NOW. Bless the quick-witted checker who whipped out some scissors and opened one of our bags. Crisis resolved. Samson did not let the precious things out of his grasp until we had made it home and half the bag was in his belly.

3pm......... Like most kids, Samson wants to do things for himself (see also: carseat story from 9am). His recent obsession with the contents and cool breeze emanating from the refrigerator means that every occasion the fridge must be opened turns into a 5 minute exercise for Samson to inventory the salad dressings in the door, attempt to remove the rice milk, and then finally agreeing to push the door shut. Heaven forbid that Mama should need to quickly place an item into the fridge and attempt to save energy by immediately closing the door herself. This afternoon, this slight was met with a tearful outburst of grievance, complete with stomping, moaning, furrowed brow, and throwing of various objects within easy grasp. All efforts by the offender to provide comfort to the offended were refused. Thankfully, this time there was no shoving.

6:30pm..... Another favorite activity that Samson enjoys several times each day is a visit to the family shoe bin in the corner of the den. He loves to pick out shoes to put on, either his own or the much too large pairs belonging to Mama and Daddy. Trouble is that he often gets so excited to put on "big people" shoes that he doesn't take any time to line them up in the right order and facing the same direction. When the backwards facing shoe refuses to stay on his foot, Samson's blood begins to boil and a pitiful yowl rises. If you weren't in the room to witness the scene, you'd fear that a bloody and life-threatening injury had just been sustained. The yowling continues until (a) Samson figures out how to get the shoes going the same way, (b) Mama relents and fixes the shoes to stop that awful racket, or (c) the boy abandons the shoe project for his greater passion of cat menacing.

Oh, my Samson. It might be a long row to hoe for you in learning the virtue of patience. Listen to Daddy on this one, m-kay?

Ouch!

Samson seems determined to live up to his name, fearlessly charging ahead into everything he does. So it's no surprise that he is already racking up quite a collection of bumps, bruises, and scrapes. Today included two incidents. Running full steam down the driveway turned into a face-plant into the rocks with gashes from forehead to cheek. And later in the day, scaling his foam chair from the back led to a lip busted on the corner of another piece of furniture.


On the bright side, we've learned that Totally Toddler Stain Remover works exceptionally well taking blood out of cotton.

Samson's Favorite Meal at 20 Months

Today marks the 4th day in a row that Samson has eaten chicken salad for either lunch or dinner. Funny, given that he has also refused the last four opportunities to eat breaded, fried chicken pieces (a previous favorite). Thought our readers might want to give our recipe a try and have a little bit of Samson with their next meal. Enjoy!

Samson's Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 12.5 oz can premium chunk chicken breast, drained & shredded (we use Costco's Kirkland brand; you could sub the same amount of rotisserie chicken, or freshly cooked, seasoned breast or tenders)
• 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 2 young green onions, finely chopped (you could substitute 1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion like 1015, Vidalia, or Maui)
• 1/3 cup smoked almonds, crushed (put in quart ziploc bag & smash with rolling pin or wine bottle until desired texture)
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup mayo (to taste; we use canola mayo to eliminate saturated fat & cholesterol; you could sub Miracle Whip)
• optional: 1 tsp finely chopped fresh tarragon (this adds a great extra note of flavor, but only if you can get fresh herbs)
  

Mix all ingredients until well incorporated. Best flavor develops after overnight stay in the fridge. Serve on fingers, crackers, in sandwiches, or as stuffing for celery or boats of baby zucchini or cucumber. For party sandwiches, remove crusts, cut into small shapes, coat edges with additional mayo, and roll in finely crushed, smoked almonds.

Lefty with a Spoon

Our readers may have begun to wonder why it is that 75% of our posts seem to involve food. It boils down to having a captive subject. When Samson is snug in the high chair, he has a hard time getting away from the camera. Thus, it seems that most of our photography sessions occur at mealtime. That, and during his twice daily trip to the crab sandbox in the front yard.

Here's our first video with the new camera, taken last weekend on Samson's 19th month b-day. He uses the spoon throughout this clip, but in the past week, he has preferred to alternate between the spoon in his left hand and the fingers on his right hand, so mealtimes are now often as messy as they were back when we first started solids! We're not sure which hand is dominant yet. Maybe he'll use them both, like Mama.