Mr. Independent

Sam has gotten more and more particular about how things are done around here - namely, that he do them. If I'm sitting in the wrong place to nurse, standing in his way, or (God forbid) pushing something with wheels for him, I am told in no uncertain terms to "Move!" This streak developed in a whole new and surprising direction yesterday.

Nap time arrived, and Sam was having none of it. I was holding him in his bed hoping that he's stop moving long enough to realize that he was tired when it happened.

"Go 'way, mommy! Go 'way!" he cried, pushing at my chest. I was kind of tired of him, too, at this point, so I thought, "Fine! We'll just see how he likes THIS." And I got up and left the room.

Not quite the result I thought. I left the door open a crack so I could spy on him, and he happily sat on his bed and looked at a few books, climbed up on our bed, found a few cars to look at...no crying, no tantrum, no nothing! I couldn't believe it. I pushed the door open a bit more, and rather than the tears and arm reaching upon my appearance, Sam smiled and called to me like it was time to come in for dinner: "MOOOO-meeee!" Still a little dumbstruck, I didn't come running. So he tried something else: "KAAA-ate!" Where did he learn that??

I told Mark the story later (mostly to get him to laugh at Sam calling me Kate), and I got as far as the "Go 'way, Mommy" when Mark said, "Wow, that must have been really hard for you." At which point I welled up. Yeah, yeah it was.