The Scene of the Crime

The Crime Scene
Originally uploaded by sammi's mom

Samantha’s doll house is a wonderful, wonderful thing, but it harbors some pretty sinister activity. In a world where television is dominated by crime dramas such as Law & Order (original, SVU, Criminal Intent and probably a slew of others I eventually learned to tune out), CSI (original, Miami, New York and probably a slew of others I eventually learned to tune out), Criminal Minds (just the one), Bones (again, just the one…for now…), the Evening News, as well as a slew of others I eventually learned to tune out, I’ve become quite sensitive to things that seem a bit off. I do get a little paranoid, generally, now that I know that just about anything could happen just about anywhere, even in our dull, ordinary lives. It really is quite scary. A child’s doll house should not be a scary place. Ever. But I tend to see the dark side of its pink walls and floral bed-coverings, its stainless steel appliances, musical changing table, and shiny, plastic twin bassinettes. Samantha plays with the dolls, particularly enjoying seating the mommy, daddy, young daughter and twin boy and girl around the table, pretending that they’re eating their breakfasts. She exclaims, “Oh no!” whenever one of the dolls falls off of its chair, and asks for help to make it right. And make it right, I do. Before I go to bed each night, I put each doll in a comfortable, innocent position, making sure no baby is left unattended on the changing table or floor, or even left alone at the dining table. Nobody is left fully-clothed in the bathtub, and generally I just make sure everyone is tucked carefully into their beds. If I don’t do that, it becomes something other than a doll house—it becomes a crime scene. That’s what I call it, when out of earshot of Samantha. One day, just for fun, I may wrap it in yellow tape, just because. The photo above is how I found it yesterday—a crime in progress!

Where Does the Time Go?

Oh, goodness…what to write, what to write, what to write? Things have totally gotten away from me lately. I’m taking on new and exciting responsibilities at work (not including any pay increases yet, unfortunately, but who knows for the future??), trying to get in shape by going to the gym 3 days a week at 5:15 am (I’ve done it 3 times already, and I’m pretty sure I’ll stick with it for the foreseeable future! The time isn’t so bad considering it takes me 2 minutes to get there and I would have been getting up at 5:50 anyway. Plus, I’m being joined by a friend!), Steve has started working several evenings a week and all day on the weekends (it definitely cuts into family time, but a job’s a job) working with troubled children and children with developmental disabilities, I’m hard at work (and well behind schedule) with the production of the 2010 DSANV calendar (can someone please lend me some free time?), Samantha is busy, busy, busy (loves summer school, loves playing with her “soccaball”, little daddy’s girl that she is, and is practicing new words and word combinations every day), and I’m about to hit a not-so-pretty birthday on Friday. I haven’t even thought about putting my Buddy Walk team page together yet. I haven’t been down to the lake in months, although Samantha and I will fix that this weekend. It hasn’t been warm enough to use Sammi’s kiddie pool, to go to our local pool, or to even play in the sprinkler, which is kind of sad to me, considering mid-Atlantic summers are usually pretty brutal. I don’t remember the last time I picked up a book, and know that the one I started 6 months ago is still sitting on my nightstand, waiting for me. Along with the other 15 books in the queue.

I’m not complaining. I think I don’t mind not having any down time other than the time that I’m asleep in bed, because I think that’s all part of being a busy parent to an amazing little kid. I truly can’t imagine how people do it with more than one child. Sounds like a circus juggling act to me. I juggle enough, thank you very much, as evidenced by me cleaning toilets and scrubbing the bathtub this morning in my pajamas, 10 minutes before I had to roll out the door. All in a day’s work…

"Face" Time

Finally, Samantha has begun drawing a repeated image. A nearly recognizable repeated image. The orange words and arrows in the photo above are my post-processing edits, but I wanted to point out what everything is. Okay, so maybe she's more of a Picasso, but it certainly looks like Rembrandt to me. :-) Two days ago, she asked me for help to draw a face. "Face," she said. Pretty obvious request, especially when it came with a big piece of chalk thrust into my own face. I drew the circle for the head, then handed her the chalk back. She proceeded to draw eyes, nose, mouth, hair, hat and neck, telling me what she was drawing as she drew them (sadly, I don't think I would have known if she hadn't!). We erased her first version of it, and she proceded to repeat it over and over again, with the same strokes and the same commentary. She didn't need my help with the head after the first try. We were in the doctor's office for her 3-year appointment the other day, and she stopped crying (screaming) long enough to draw all over the paper exam-table cover, including more faces. I don't know if this is something she'd been working on in school, or if it just suddenly came to her, but I've been waiting for the day when I would see her draw a particular thing, and not just a scribble. I'm such a proud mommy!