The Story of Sam

Robert came home the other day when the kids had a snow day and both of us had to work.  He came to take the kids out to lunch.  He found Sam throwing a lego guy repeatedly, trying to hit a lego basket that was hung from Emma's sweet 16 balloon (we have found balloons that stay up for months!)  He asked him what he was doing.  Sam said, "I'm trying to get the lego guy into the basket to weigh the balloon down, so that it comes down to the ground."  

See, originally the balloons are so full of air, that the boys build lego baskets and put all kinds of lego men with guns and cannons and things in there.  Then we send the balloon riding the air waves around the house for protection.  Little by little we strip the men of their weapons and then the basket of it's men to keep the balloon aloft.  We are down to just the basket now with Em's balloon.

The balloon was at the top of our 2 story ceiling in the foyer at this particular time. 

Sam was trying to throw the guy up that high, through the ribbon that held it on and into the basket.  Rob told him that it was a 1-1000 shot, but Sam insisted that he had already done it once.  Rob didn't believe it and said, "I'll bet you $300 you can't get that shot."  All the boys decided they would throw for that bet.  An hour later the other boys quit (Joseph was even crying.  He wanted to buy his own computer so bad!)  But Sam kept it up for quite awhile.  When Rob got home from work he found a note and a picture to prove that Sam had actually done it.  The note said, "I did it!  Now where's my $300!"

I shook my head when I heard the story!  Didn't my silly husband know who he was talking to?  Sam has always been the most  stubborn boy I've met.  He started walking at 9 months.  By the time he was 1 1/2 he would turn off the buttons on the TV to make us mad.  Yelling didn't deter him.  Slapping his hand didn't deter him.  He would look at us and cry, because he knew he was going to get his hand slapped, but he would still reach out and push the button.  He was potty trained in a day.  When I was teaching him to tie his shoe he kept trying over and over and over until he was crying.  I had to force him to take a break!  Remember the shorts and winter war?  This kid is beyond stubborn!  He keeps telling us that one day he wants to be a fighter pilot and I have no doubt that he continues to have that dream he will one day be a fighter pilot!

Now if I can just get that stubbornness to work with how he looks and smells (boys!)  These are his school things. 

Yeah, that's not the opening to his bag, that's a tear all the way down the side!

He tells me that neither of them need to be changed.  I wonder if either will make it all the way through the year! (10 weeks and counting.)