mom tricks

Things have been so hectic that I haven't been writing much down; the days go by in a blur and when there's a minute to spare I've been spending it organizing old paperwork (I *finally* found a filing system that I think will work for us; it's boring so I won't go into it, but I've been fighting paper piles forever and now I think I have a solution that's intuitive and also solves the "what to store for how long" issue. Yay! Now I just have to implement it backwards-- 2010 and 2009 are done.)

The weekend before Halloween, Grandma and Grandpa visited, and we had a nice weekend with them. Frida also had her first swimming class (with me), at the same time as Sam's class, in a different part of the same pool. It's been a little cold, so she's not as into it as I'd predicted based on her love of the bath. But she likes it. Sam's getting better at swimming, too; we need to get some more pool time in so he can practice and get more independent with his doggy paddling.

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous, especially yesterday. We spent some time outside in the afternoon, and I had to take some pictures of the Japanese maple against the sky:





The kids ran around but I couldn't get either of them to pose. Frida loves going up and down the stairs:



Yesterday afternoon Sam went to a birthday party at a pool. After swimming and before cake, I was helping him get his socks back onto wet feet. He was complimentary about my skills, watching me succeed where he’d so recently failed:
“How’d you learn to do that?”
“It’s a mom trick.”
“You mean you learn how to do it when you become a mom?”
“Yup.”
“Do dads learn it too?”
“Yup.”
He got his scheme-y face.
“Mom, I have a plan. When I get older, I’m going to get married, and then I’m going to have a baby with the person I’m married to. Then I'll learn that trick too!”
“That sounds great, Sam!”
“It’s going to be a woman that I get married to, ok?”
“OK, that sounds good too.”
“I already know who it is. But it’s a secret. I’m not going to tell you. It’s somebody I know already.”
(More secretive, scheme-y smiling.)
“Okey-dokey, Sam.”

Tonight after dinner before bed, the four of us went for a short walk in the neighborhood. Frida was toddling along as fast as she could, occasionally growling at Sam, or shrieking with excitement as she tried to catch him. Sam was skipping and hopping along ("I can hop like a kangaroo forever") and thinking thoughts, which he shared with us generously and pretty much continuously. "I have an idea for what to do if I wanted to scare away a bad person. I would look really fierce-- fiercer than I am. I'm not really fierce, but I would look fierce..."