A Glowing Sponge

Samantha is very active and very social. She loves kindergarten, though during the parent teacher conference we learned she sometimes has to be reminded to stay put on the reading mat as she tends to gravitate toward certain friends and then becomes distracted. She has also conquered the monkey bars which is an elementary school rite of passage.

Ready for pictures

This fall Sam once again energetically played soccer at the YMCA. I love that they promote learning the skills and having fun. This year Sam was the only girl on her team. I don’t think she noticed though. Mike said she was a good forward and having never played soccer I guess I’ll need to Google some soccer rules and positions so I can be supportive.

While waiting they all watched the toddlers swim.

Sam’s soccer games typically happened during James’ naptime. The one game I did attend was difficult to watch as I spent the ENTIRE time chasing James as he toddled from place to place saying “Ball! Ball! Ball!” Ohmygoodness he was busy and seriously reminded me of trying to take a puppy on a walk. It was exhausting and I felt bad I couldn’t watch Sam even though I was physically there.

His body language screams "what can I get into?"!

Found more balls.

Now that soccer is over Sam is diving back into swimming lessons. She is doing really well. Mike and I enjoy going to her lessons and watching her work on her water skills. As an added bonus there is childcare there for James and he loves it there.

Sam loves her activities. She frequently asks “How many more days until Awana?” and reminds Mike and I that she needs to learn that week’s verse. The other day when I was talking to her about Awana she said “The teacher lets me look at the verse the first time I say it, but then I have to say it without the book.” It made me chuckle because Sam doesn’t read yet.

She also likes to bring Mandi’s old Adventure Bible with her to Awana every week. When I asked if they use it she said “no”. Bibles are heavy so I asked if she’d like to leave it at home so she wouldn’t have to carry it back and forth and she said “No Mom. I like bringing it with me so that I can look at all the pictures while the teacher is talking.”

With all her activities you would think Sam would be exhausted by bedtime, but she rarely is. We have a bedtime routine that helps, and she generally adds to it by finding me for one more hug and kiss or “I’ve got to tell you something…” about a dozen times before finally staying in bed.

Part of her bedtime routine is getting a glow stick. Michael’s Craft stores sell them in 10 packs in their dollar section and I figure that is a small price to pay to help Sam go to sleep and to be able to leave the hall light off. Tonight when Sam came and found me she was glowing a little. I asked if she had chewed her glow stick, she said she couldn’t remember.


It was hard to get enough light to see her face and still see the glow.

 We have talked about it before because James is not allowed to have them as he would chew on them. So this fact was reinforced after I showed her the glowing dye on her hand, night gown, and lip. We also talked about how sad it would be to not have them at bedtime anymore, so I think she got the point. She’s just cute though. With the little bit of glowing on her it brought to mind her glow art she does on Daddy’s iPad.

I love this kid. Every day I am amazed at how big she is getting and how much she is learning. She is such a sponge, tonight apparently a glowing one.