We Have A Reader

Sam loves to read. We started reading to him on a regular basis when he was about six month old and we have never stopped. When he was just a toddler he was so careful when he "read" his books that he could be trusted with his nice "paper pages" books and not just the board books.

My parents bought him this set of books when he spent the weekend with them a couple of weeks ago. There are twelve little books that build on each other -- teaching him how to sound out letters and actually read!



He frequently brings them to me so we can read them together. He is quite good at Books 1 and 2. He just whips through each page. We've been working on Book 3 for the last week. There were a few words that kept tripping him up -- but he just read it perfectly tonight!

Sometimes, he likes to plow ahead without actually trying to read the words. His little imagination is hard at work trying to make sense of the pictures and how he can work that into the story without taking the time to sound out the words.

For this particular page, he read it quite confidently as follows,

"Sam cried. Mat cried."

A good try -- but try again!

After successfully completing Book 3, he was ready to tackle Book 4 tonight. Book 4 is pretty tough, but he would not be deterred!

Here is the first page.

As read by Sam (again, quite confidently),

"Mac had a present."

We'll keep working on it!

Mother's Day Fun

After church this morning we headed over to the Vancouver Farmer's Market at Esther Short Park. We thought it would be a nice way to spend a few hours -- outside in the sunshine, playing, looking at flowers and not having to cook anything for lunch! We all got to pick what we wanted to eat and then had a picnic on the grass. We used to take Sam to this park quite often when we first moved to Vancouver -- so he was excited to play there again.

After dinner we took a walk through the neighborhood and ended up at our park for a little more play time.

It was a fun, laid-back Mother's Day with the family!

Sam discovered the water feature!

Mom and her boys!

Big shock -- Sam chose a corn dog -- and then removed the "corn" part.

Zak hanging out watching all the action -- he kept grinning and clapping.

Taking a walk -- or rather a ride!

Boys on the slide.

Just too cute to pass up!

A Boy & His Trucks

Zak has recently discovered Sam's stash of trucks -- there are many -- and loves them! He has so much fun spinning the wheels and trying to eat them! He hasn't quite figured out how to push them on the floor, but I'm sure it won't be long.

Look closely at the first picture -- you can see his six teeth -- four on the top and two on the bottom. What you can't see are the molars that are starting to make their presence known -- in the form of a grumpy boy who has rivers of saliva flowing from his mouth!

Zak likes to gnaw on the ladder of this one.

It's hard work playing with the big kid toys!

The Little Swimmer

This morning marked the first day of preschool swim lessons for Sam. He loves, loves, loves the water! We took him to Baby & Me classes the summer he turned two years old, but he wasn't able to take lessons last summer because Michelle was pregnant. We are so glad he was able to start up lessons again this year. Sam was very excited to go to swim lessons all by himself -- Mom and Dad got to watch from the lobby, behind a big, plate glass window. Mom was excited she didn't have to put on a swimsuit and get in the water!

Sam is fearless when it comes to water, so we were a little concerned when he seemed to be goofing off more than the other kids and not really paying attention at the beginning -- they were in water up to their shoulders! But it didn't take long before he was hanging on to the side of the wall kicking and putting his face under the water to pick up plastic rings. When lessons were over he had a big smile on his face and wanted to know if we had seen him floating on his back. We did! He did great.

Matthew is going to take him to Family Swim later this week so they can practice what he learned -- and so they can go down the big water slide over and over again!

Fish out of water!

Fellow swimmers and instructor Billy.

Shake It All About!

Zak is now able to perform on command. When we say, "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle", this is what he does...

Christmas, Bulls & Crowns

Sam has learned a lot of new things at preschool this year -- often this new knowledge pops up at random times. Yesterday he was sharing the months of the year with Matthew. It went something like this... January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and Christmas.

We all love the month of Christmas! He's almost got it!

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On the way to preschool we drive by a pasture that has dozens of bulls grazing. We have talked about the difference between cows and bulls many times. For those of you wondering about the difference, cows give milk and bulls have horns. That's what Sam will often quote to you as we drive by the field. You can tell he has been thinking about it because yesterday he asked, "How can they blow their horns?" An excellent question!

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We were sitting on the floor talking before bed time tonight and he looked at me and stuck his tongue in his cheek to make a big bulge and then said, "That's my crown." (He's apparently asked that question after looking in someone's mouth). Then he said, "It's green". I'm pretty sure the crown he saw in someone's mouth was not green!

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Here are a couple of pictures -- because what's the point if we don't include pictures?

Sam thinks he's funny when he wears his Dad's socks.

Zak just thinks he's funny!

Sunshine Day

This morning we had some great friends join us for church and then they came over to hang out for the day. Sam loves to play with their two boys and the kids had a fun time together. It was a gorgeous, sunny day so most of our time was spent playing games in the backyard and over at the park. The backyard was filled with sports paraphernalia -- basketball hoop, baseball, golf, ring-toss -- and of course the stomp rockets. The dads made a couple trips over the fence to pick up errant balls and rockets.

It was a perfect day!

Sam, Zak, Andrew & Benjamin

Zak loves to swing!

More fun on the swings.

Zak was tuckered out from his time at the park.

The boys enjoying their ice cream and sprinkles!