Sam and Mommy Day

I highly regret not having my camera with me today. I think it was one of my favorite days as a mother to-date. I took a personal day from work because Sam had his early childhood screening. He was so excited to go to "school" to see a teacher (who is actually a nurse, but I didn't tell him that). Before the screening, we read children's bible stories for about 40 minutes. His age combined with starting Sunday school last fall has caused him to ask more questions about Jesus and God. He wanted to know why and how Jesus died. He was sad when I was reading to him about this today, but he seemed relieved that Jesus came back to life. We'll just leave it at that for now:)

His screening went really well. An hour is allotted, but Sam was done with everything within 20 minutes. She was very impressed with his speech and language skills and with his ability to pay attention and follow directions. If only it were always that good at home!

After the screening, Sam and I went out for lunch. He ordered macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk...and chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. I think he was in heaven. It was fun to do a sit-down restaurant alone with him because I didn't have a million things to distract me, and I could tell he just loved all the one-on-one attention. After lunch, we went to Target to do nothing more than walk the toy aisles and push buttons on toys. We also stopped by the sunglasses on the way out since Sam was in need of a new pair. I'm not one to really like licensed characters on clothing or accessories, but Sam apparently is a fan. As I tried to show him really cool black or red sunglasses, he ignored me and squealed with delight as he saw Lightning McQueen, Batman, Diego, Dora, Spiderman, and SpongeBob sunglasses. Oh, the decisions. I quickly realized Sam was in charge of this one. After narrowing it down to two, he decided he liked Batman "faster" than Diego. He wore those Batman shades all the way to the check-out counter, while holding my hand because the cardboard was still on them, so he couldn't even see as he walked.

We then went to see the movie Gnomeo and Juliet - super cute by the way. Sam insisted on popcorn and an icee (which he calls a smoovie), and hey, I insist on the same thing when I go to a movie, so we enjoyed it together. We then picked Charlie up from daycare. On the way home, he was talking about how fun our Sam and Mommy day was. I asked him what his favorite part was, and he said "picking up Charlie" because he missed him. This melts my heart because though I know he enjoyed every part of this special day, I'm also touched to know how much he loves his baby brother.

The rest of the evening...well, it was a little rough. Sam had melt-down after melt-down. A result, I'm sure, of too much sugar and fun and a lack of a nap. But I'll take it. Those melt-down moments are part of being a Mommy too, and they make the other wonderfully special moments even better. I love that kid.