kids are funny

When Savannah was about six years old (she is 10 now) I'd bought her a t-shirt around Valentine's Day. It was red with a large pink Velcro heart and it came with a pack of Velcro letters that you could use to spell out things on the heart, like LOVE or I LOVE U or her name, etc. The first time she wore it, she comes strolling out of her room and in the heart was the word WHATEVER.

At that point, I knew she was one cool chica.

Tonight, I took the kids to dinner. It was taking quite a long time, and so Sam was asking, "What is taking them so long?!" and I said "I don't know maybe they had to butcher the cow." Sam had ordered chicken fingers, so I added, "maybe they have to find the chicken and butcher the chicken." Sam adds, "Maybe they have to find a chicken with fingers!"

Octopus daddy -- Later I got gas in my car then drove the shortcut through the parking lot that goes by Starbuck's. I happened to see Matt's car and I said, "Look that is daddy's truck." So we stopped and went in. Sam was super hyper and spastic and both of the kids were sitting on Matt's lap. He was complaining about how Savannah was taking up too much room and in his little annoyed boy voice he says, "I have just a half of daddy's leg and Savannah has like, five!" At which point we all busted out laughing.

Tonight when I was putting Sam to bed he told me that sometimes when its quiet he likes to yell out "blah!" and everyone gets startled and laughs. He then said that one time he was sitting in after school and everyone was quiet and he said "cheese" and everyone started cracking up. I know this is my boy! I have a photo of myself at age 5 or so at my dad's log cabin and I have that exact expresionon my face - mouth wide open and being silly as pie.

The photos are Sam and his best friend, Sam and his other best friend (Sam being crazy...), and Savannah looking at the woolly mammoth skull fossils that they found in Mississippi. A professor at one of the universities is studying it, and its apparently like the find of a career. Sam and Matt spent a lot of time doing a dig out there (can't say where!). I am so glad that my kids have so many of these outdoor experiences because truly if they don't they would never appreciate nature and the environment. I think Sam may well be a scientist when he grows up.

Savannah already knows she wants to be a neonatologist. She has known that she wants to be a doctor for about 3 years now. At first when I got cable (after the separation) she was fascinated by childbirth shows and wanted to deliver babies. I tried to convince her to be a midwife because natural birth is the way to go... (I had a homebirth with Sam, and a drug-free 22-hours labor with Savannah).

In fact I designed the website for my California midwife Shelly Girard. Check it out: Childbirth at Home: A Labor of Love! Anyway then she decided she wanted to be an pediatric surgeon and now has settled on neonatologist. I thought it was quite precocious when my 7-year old (at the time) loved to watch childbirth! My opinion is that birth is a natural part of life, biology, and the human experience and I taught them about the birds and the bees as early as I could. As much as they needed to know... to protect themselvs and understand the biology of we human beans. ;)