Archive for the ‘Samuel’ Category.
I just felt like taking a picture or two of Samuel getting on the bus. I barely got there in time for him to catch the bus today because Emily got done with the orthodontist just ten minutes before I had to get Sam to the bus stop. Luckily the bus was a tad late so I didn’t end up taking him to school myself and I had enough time to feed Emily lunch before she had to go back to school.
Last week Nancy sent the kids over to the playground for a few hours. They’ve been off track for a couple of weeks now and are driving Nancy nuts so she takes every opportunity to get them out of the house. When I got home from work, Sam was in house bawling that he hurt his arm. I don’t know how he fell but we’ve experienced enough broken arms in our child-raising adventures to think he likely had a buckle fracture based on the way he was holding his arm. It was getting kind of late to take him to the doctor that night and he wasn’t in too much pain so we decided to just give him some Tylenol and schedule an appointment with the doctor the next day. Man, it’s tough for a guy to get some sympathy when all of your sisters have had broken arms before you. Waiting also had the added benefit of being able to schedule Diana for the same time.
Samuel’s Broken Arm
When he got back from the doctor Sam had a splint on his arm and a smile on his face. Apparently his break wasn’t severe enough to require a cast (bummer, I always like seeing what crazy color the kids pick for their casts) so they said to just leave it in the splint for several weeks. The biggest problem with the broken arm is that it’s his right arm and the splint they gave him limits the use of his fingers so he makes a mess at the dinner table. Maybe in another week we can trade out for a different splint – one that lets him use his fingers more.
Can you spot the break? I certainly can’t
The other project for today was giving Sam a haircut. He was starting to look a little shaggy. I’ve always been the one to cut Sam’s hair. I think he’s only had a regular haircut once in his life. And when I cut hair there is only one possible outcome – a total and complete buzz. Fortunately for Sam, he thinks buzzes are just great at this stage of his life.
Before
As Sam has gotten a little bit older he’s also gotten a little less squirmy so each time I cut his hair it gets a bit easier. The hardest part is around the ears and the back of the neck. Nancy always gets on my case when I do the back – she thinks I do it too short, too uneven, too dorky looking. Fortunately, Sam isn’t picky and he can’t see the back of his head anyway so he doesn’t mind.
After
I’m sure that some day Sam will probably want something other than a buzz cut but for now he’s got the classic look of a ‘do’ by Dad.
I don’t like Thursday night games as a general practice but it’s fun to have one every once in a while. The main problem with weekday games is traffic. On a Saturday game I leave 1.5 hours before kickoff and usually have plenty of time to spare – time to see the band march up the street, watch warm-ups, national anthem, etc. Tonight the plan was to leave 2 hours early but I was late getting home from work and that put us 20 minutes behind schedule. Traffic was horrible all the way down to the stadium and we found our seats just before kickoff.
Other than the bad traffic, it was a perfect night for a game. The weather was beautiful- chilly but not too cold, the crowd was spirited, the teams were energetic, and my beloved Cougars came away with a win. How could it get better than that? Well, it could get better if the Cougars covered the spread. Last year BYU covered the spread in nearly every game. This year it seems like they’re winning but not covering the spread in nearly every game.
What is that thing?
I think TCU is a pretty good addition to the conference. The TCU fans aren’t completly crass and vulgar (Wyoming), they don’t have an annoying chant (UNLV), and well, let’s just say they don’t bug me as bad as the Utes. The only drawback to TCU is that they have the world’s ugliest mascot. That horned frog costume has got to be the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.
Enjoying the halftime show (the drumline looks good Danny!)
I convinced Nancy to go (she only goes to one or two games a season and only if it’s good weather) and thus we took Sam and Diana (Diana gets bored easily and has to go potty frequently so I don’t like to take her by myself). The kids had a good time and Sam is starting to enjoy the game a bit more – but still not as much as he enjoys hot dogs and nachos.
The other day Samuel saw a BYU hat in Macey’s and told Nancy he wanted it. She got him the hat and purposely got it several sizes too big “so he can grow into it”. I didn’t think Samuel would last very long with the hat but he surprised me. He wore it the entire time and didn’t take it off to play with it or annoy me with it. He still had it on in the car on the way home.
Driving home after the big game
When a lady from our ward called me a few weeks ago asking if Sam would like to play fall soccer I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend all my weekends at soccer games. But I thought that Sam would love to play with the kids from the ward instead of kids who he didn’t know. Lucky for me also is that in fall soccer they play a weeknight game as well so the season only lasts a month instead of two. Sam does a little better than he did in the spring, he now runs around more and tries to get to the ball, whereas before he just ran and fell down most of the time. The best thing to Sam about playing soccer is that he gets to play with his friends and have treats, who can beat that.
Today was the fourth time I have taken someone for their first day of kindergarten. Samuel was so excited for school to start today he got all ready two hours before he was to go and after that he kept bugging me asking, “can we go yet?” It was a relief when it was time to go. He will be taking the bus to school, but today I decided to drive him because I wanted to get some nice pictures of him at school with his new backpack on. He is now like his big sisters and when he came walking down the street after getting off the bus he had a great big smile on his face and was excited to tell how well his first day at kindergarten.
Sam finally got his Blending Badge at Challenger School. When Nancy picked him up he had a big grin on his face.
The blending badge is given after the student can blend the various consonant and vowel sounds such as *ow (now, pow, wow), *as (has, was), *in (bin, tin, rin), etc. Sam has been a bit behind his sisters in terms of getting his Alphabet Crown and Blending Badge (Alphabet Crown is given when the student knows all the letters in the alphabet and their sounds including the long and short vowel sounds). I don’t think it’s because he’s less smart. Instead I think it’s because he’s generally less interested. He’s more interested in goofing off, being rowdy with his friends, playing cars/trucks/dinosaurs, etc. When he puts his mind to it and concentrates he can read pretty well. We’ll try to work with him more this summer and he should be reading well before he starts kindergarten.
As a reward for getting his Blending Badge, Sam was promised that the whole family would go out to dinner at a restaurant of his choice. With the large number of choices available to him such as Chilis, Training Table, Applebees, etc., where do you think Sam wanted to go? McDonalds, of course – the one with a playplace. I don’t mind McDonalds as much as I used to. They’ve upgraded their menu a bit over the years and there are a few options that Nancy and I like. The kids usually go with the tried and true – Kids Meal Chicken Nuggets – although Emily likes to order from the adult menu now.
We’re proud of Sam for finally getting his blending badge. Here’s hoping that the next time I take the whole family to McDonalds is two years from now when Diana gets her Alphabet Crown.
Sam had is annual Spring Sing at Challenger School today. I worked from home in the morning so that I could go with Nancy to see the program. Sam did a good job of singing and dancing this year. Last year he fell and scraped his knee on his way into school and so he was grumpy but this year he was in fine form and had a big grin on his face.
The only problem is that our camera’s photo quality is degrading over time. It’s getting so bad that you can really only take close-ups while still getting good image quality. I manned the video camera the whole time so maybe I’ll post some clips later when I can figure out how to get them transferred to our website.
We’ve been pleased with Challenger School over the years as all of our kids so far have learned to read before they start kindergarten. Next year Sam goes on to kindergarten so Diana will be the last one to go through Challenger School. For now, we’re all just waiting for Sam to get his Blending Badge so we can go to The Training Table and celebrate!
In addition to soccer, Sam is also playing T-ball. T-ball is even more painful to watch than soccer. Everyone gets to bat during T-ball and, because there are no outs, the game doesn’t really make any sense. Unfortunately, my agressiveness theory of youth athletics holds true in T-ball as well as in soccer and Sam is equally unaggressive in both.
Both his coach and I tell him he is welcome to hit the ball as hard as possible. In fact, we tell him that he can try and hit the ball so hard that he breaks it. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have an effect because Sam merely pokes at the ball and it barely dribbles off the tee. I never had hopes of Sam being a Major Leaguer but I was hopeful that he would at least be able to make the team in Little League. Alas, it appears that Sam is doomed to suffer the same fate has his father and grandfather before him. That’s OK – we love him anyway. How can you not love a ballplayer as good-looking as this one?
Samuel started preschool at Challenger School this week. After spending the last three years in the car while Nancy shuttled Emily, Anne, and Caroline to Challenger School, Samuel knew all about it and was excited to attend.
Ready For The First Day of School
Our kids have really enjoyed Challenger School over the years. Nancy and I been pleased that all of our kids have learned to read at Challenger School before they started kindergarten. Challenger School also has a K-8 program that is very academically rigorous (Challenger 3rd graders are rumored to have 3 hours of homework every night) but the tuition fees are out of our price range.
When I asked Samuel what he did on the first day of school he said that he painted with “kid paints”, sang the “bumble bee song” (“I’m bringing home a baby bumble bee…”), learned about the letter ‘M’, sat in a circle on the floor, and had recess. You can’t beat that for a first day of preschool.
All Smiles After a Fun Day