Lost Tooth

August 02, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Sam's had a loose tooth for awhile now.  This morning when I woke him up, I noticed a big molar up on his bookcase.  Since I'm a relatively fair dad, I gave him some money and a note for his tooth too.

Archery

July 07, 2010 by Adam in Sam

I managed to convince Sam to go to one camp this summer, a four-day archery camp. It seems they do a lot of other things besides shooting bows, but he seems to come home each day relatively cheerful, telling stories about assorted misadventures.

Yesterday he told us about the scrape on his knee, which he got playing "hamster ball." Evidently they take a big plastic ball, zip a kid up inside it, and fill it up with air using a leaf blower. He said it was loud, uncomfortable, and he had a great time moving it around an obstacle course.

This morning I gave Josh instructions that he had to put sunscreen all over, as it's going to be 95 degrees today. Last night Sam asked what happens if you sunburn your bones. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Outdoor School Wrap-up

May 24, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Sam's teacher passed along some photos of his outdoor school experience, which I'm posting here.  My general impression is that Sam didn't especially like outdoor school, though it was memorable.  He made some comments about singing a lot, and that normal school would seem so easy compared to outdoor school.  Hopefully he built a little character along the way.

Outdoor School

May 20, 2010 by Adam in Sam

I was a little worried about Sam, who wasn't very excited to go to outdoor school this week. This morning I got a report from Dave, one of Sam's teachers, along with this picture.

Any anxiety Sam had before coming has seemingly washed away. He's doing great, and has a great cabin with his buddies. See ya Friday!

Rain

May 11, 2010 by Adam in Sam

I sent Sam into the rain over the weekend with the waterproof camera.  Watching it makes me dizzy, so make sure you're sitting down first.

Richard Feynman

April 26, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Sam decided to research Richard Feynman for his school's independent research project. It was a bit of a surprise for me, but he's really gotten into it, and is nearly done reading You Must Be Joking, Mister Feynman. I think he appreciates the physicist's sense of humor, even though he doesn't always follow the science.

He's put together a YouTube video for his presentation, which turned out surprisingly good.

Typist Extraordinaire

March 01, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Last night Sam and I worked on his latest book report for the story Hatchet, which he read a couple months ago. Before, it was mostly me talking him through the process of creating a report, and also doing most of the typing. Last night, I had to go get Emma in the bath and he cheerfully finished it all himself.

He told me that he had to delete an entire sentence that before would cause him to cringe. Now it was a simple matter to erase and start over.

Within the last month, he's become a capable typist because he's been chatting with Josh online nearly every night. It's been really interesting to watch and it's nice to see these positive side effects coming out of his social interactions.

The Brave Explorer Returns

February 24, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Sam's back from Bend, where he's been for the last couple days.  I think he generally had a good time, his highlight being watching the Cube movies.  He seems to have a touch of a cold, and last night I gave him some cough syrup and sent him to bed after we watched Lost together.  It's nice having him around again.

Cereal Commercial

February 05, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Sam made up this commercial for Peanut Butter Panda Puffs. Hopefully he's okay with me posting it.

Contacts

January 20, 2010 by Adam in Sam

Sam got contacts today.  For a week he's been doing his homework, touching his eye ten times, twice a day.  I rushed home from work and took him and Emma to see Dr. Arbow.  Emma sat on my lap as we watched pictures being taken of Sam's eye and get contacts popped in for testing.

He was pretty excited and seemed to really like it.  The tricky part was yet to come, actually taking out and putting them back in himself.  I think it took nearly an hour and a half, considerbly suffering on Sam's part, and assorted helpful advice from the doctor.  Still, he was cleared to wear them home.

It became exciting once again when it took him a half hour to take them out.  The main problem is that his lids and eyeballs seem to have a life of their own.  I eventually got him to look forward while pinching his eyeballs and he could reliably remove them.

He's excited to put them in tomorrow and show off to his friends.  I'm proud of that boy.