Hurricane Sam

Yesterday afternoon found us indoors for longer than usual. We came home after picking Ian up from preschool and had no other playdates or activities planned. Now I know why I keep us so active. Hurricane Sam was on loose. She kept herself and me very busy destroying everything in sight. Once I got to where she was currently attacking, I'd work on cleaning up that mess and she would move on to the next area. This went on for a solid 3 hours.

I did my best to keep her in one spot and entertained. But she was one busy girl and had places to go, things to do, and messes to make. We started the afternoon with her sitting at the table having a snack. She was strapped in her chair and immobilized. After the snack was over, I thought she might enjoy drawing and brought out her container of crayons and paper to color on. It was delightful for about 10 minutes until she was done and started chanting "down, down, down, down". As I was unbuckling her, she took the container of crayons and tossed them upside down. Dozens of crayons went flying everywhere.

And so the chase began. Not entirely certain where Hurricane Sam hit next, but one could easily tell where she had been. There was a few minutes when she went to her bedroom, took a handful of books from her bookshelf and waddled to the top of the steps. As she threw each book down the stairs, she would say, "book, book, book, book". You could hear each book go ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk as they fell.

Then I found that she had been downstairs in the rec room and gotten into Ian's games and puzzles. Ah, now that was a nice menagerie of pieces that got all tangled together. When I started cleaning that up, Ian quickly let me know "it wasn't me".

At one point, I stopped following her and decided to unload the dishwasher. This is an area she really excels in and quickly comes to my side to help. Faster than you can blink an eye, she'll take everything out of the dishwasher and start putting things away. In theory it sounds good, but please let me explain to you exactly how she goes about this. She'll gather all her plastic plates, go to put them away, realize she can't reach the cabinet it goes in, come over to me and go "here, here, here, here" until I take it from her hands. You have to understand I am working hard to get the sharp knives and glassware out of the dishwasher quickly so she doesn't reach for that and get hurt. So it becomes a juggling act to get the stuff out of her hands so she can move on to the next thing to unload. Her favorite part is putting the silverware away. She'll grab handfuls at a time and put it in the appropriate drawer. However, she can barely reach this drawer and most definitely can't see in it, so the silverware just gets put in every which direction you can imagine.

Another favorite activity of hers is to take a reusable grocery shopping bag and walk around the house and put stuff in the bag; like she is shopping. Sometimes she'll put some swim diapers in there. Other times she'll include some boxes of tea, and more than likely her lovey is always included. Once she fills it up to her liking, she puts the straps on her shoulder and walks around the house looking for the next thing to destroy. I have to admit that this is quite funny, because the Wegman's reusable grocery bag she gravitates towards using the most is almost is as big as her. When it goes on her shoulder, she has to keep her arm raised in the air, so it gets a little bit of clearance from ground and doesn't fall off. But Sam is persistent and this will keep her busy for about 15 minutes.

At one point yesterday afternoon, it was really quiet and I knew exactly where I would find her. Yep, she was back in her room taking out all her pajamas and other items from her drawers and laying everything out on the floor. After she got done with her room, she swiftly moved into her brother's room to do the same.

Just as I got done cleaning up one mess, I'd go look for her and start on the next. She didn't stop moving all afternoon and neither did I. For a brief moment, I got a break when I skyped with Heather to test out the new webcam that I put on our main computer. I put her in her chair so she could be a part of the video call and she promptly made herself busy with the newspaper she was able to reach on the table. Ah, lovely. She took apart each section, every page and then tossed it aside.

By the time Jeff got home, I somehow miraculously had dinner made and everything picked up and put away. Except for the deck of crazy 8 cards that went in and out of every room like a trail of breadcrumbs going from one crime scene to another. Sam had one last trick up her sleeve before she could take no more and needed to fuel up before continuing her storm.

I was told that Ian was the same exact way, but I guess this is one of those memories I needed to suppress in order to want to have a 2nd child. I honestly don't remember him causing this much destruction.

All I can say is, it's a good thing she is cute.