Sam took his first trip to the Upper Peninsula very seriously. He now will only refer to the Lower Peninsula as "The Mitten". He asked a million questions. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but he asked at least a thousand (and no, I'm not kidding. The kid can ask an endless stream of them in just five minutes. He wears me out).
When we arrived at our rental home, Sam immediately had to go scope out the neighborhood to see who had sprinklers. He was rather perturbed that we could not find ONE SINGLE HOUSE that had underground sprinkling. The yards are very small and most people seem content to grow weeds instead of grass, so there's no point in watering. We finally found one sprinkler running by the playground at the elementary school midway through the week. Sam was quite relieved.
Sam loved the Manor House, and was in awe of the fact that such ordinary people own it. He also thought it was neat that they lived in the big house next door to the Manor House, AND they own the Victorian Inn across the street, AND they own two vacation homes down the block (I think they are single-handedly restoring half the homes in Laurium). Sam was so impressed by this couple, that he referred to them as The Mansions. Their names are Dave and Julie Sprenger, but Sam didn't believe me. He was convinced their last name was Mansion.
When we toured the Manor House and the Victorian Inn, Sam saw actual, functioning radiators. After he discovered these in each room, I couldn't get him to look at anything else. We'd go in a room, Bill and I would point out various features to Nolan and TJ, while Sam hunted down the radiator. I think he'd like one for his own bedroom.
Sam's mind is usually not on the boring task at hand. I'm afraid to ask where his mind is, but it's never focused on what it should be. Case in point: We were about to head off on an adventure, so I sent Sam to the bathroom. He took his shirt off instead. When I asked him why his shirt was off, he got confused. He had no recollection of taking it off. He didn't even realize it was off until I pointed it out! Sometimes, he reminds me sooo much of his father!
On Thursday of our vacation week, we went to Camelita's. It's a tiny little restaurant on a side street in Calumet, but they have fabulous Mexican food. Thankfully, they also have cheeseburgers for my weird boys. The waitress brought Sam his own ketchup and mustard bottles. The ketchup bottle was a glass Heinz bottle. Sam was totally amazed by the cap that screwed ALL the way off! He showed it to Bill like it was a new invention. We got a big kick out of his reaction to the amazing ketchup bottle.
But Sam still continues to struggle at night. He has terrible anxiety. Right at this moment, it is 10:15 pm. I am typing on our computer in the Florida Room. He is asleep on the couch behind me. He kept getting up, convinced he was going to be sick (he does this about five or six nights a week). I finally told him to just sit quietly on the couch. He relaxed and fell asleep. Now I just need to transfer him to bed.
When we were up north, I really expected him to have a hard time at night. We were in an unfamiliar house and he was sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. The first couple nights were rough. He was coming up with really crazy excuses to come check on me. My favorite was, "Mom, this tooth is bent. I needed to come show you."
But by the end of the week, he was going to bed right away and sleeping through the night. Why he is struggling again now, I wish I knew.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment