samantha blog

we had a great day at disneyland yesterday. we met up with elissa and her parents, ben and marcia. they are part of our china33 disneyland group; elissa and samantha have really been hitting it off lately.

elissa is about to turn 6 and is pretty brave. we were hoping some “peer suction” would get samantha on some new rides, and it worked splendidly. with elissa’s help, samantha rode on pirates of the caribbean and alice in wonderland. samantha hasn’t been willing to ride pirates for several years and has never been on alice before.

i can’t believe how much we did yesterday. normally, teri’s rule applies: make a list of everything you want to do, then cross all but the first two things because you won’t get to them. but listen to what we did: pirates, winnie the pooh, tom sawyer island, lunch, tarzan’s treehouse, alice in wonderland, parade of dreams, storybookland canal boats, casey jr. circus train, teacups, new house of the future sponsored by hp. wow!

i posted a few more photos to the samantha 5 gallery.

at disneyland!

What a great name

This phone links to your cellphone. Place your bluetooth-enabled cellphone
near the base and make and receive cell phone calls from your cordless
handsets!

$129 at bestbuy

wow it is the 21st century! i was able to pick a camping spot by looking at
pix of each site. how does this one look? would you like to stay here with
us? can fit 2 cars...

waiting waiting waiting for itunes to download more episodes of deadwood. wireless is slow tonight.

we had a great sunday exploring our favorite nearby forest in idyllwild. i think a one night camping trip might be a good way to go. i want to go camping but i don’t want it to take days to plan shop and pack. if we were to go for just one night, and if we were able to walk to nearby restaurants, then all we would need to bring are our sleeping bags and the tent. and the screen tent. and a lantern. deck of cards. and a cooler full of snacks and drinks. and a new whisk broom, i need a new one because our last one got left out in the rain. and just 1 change of clothes. then for dinner we’d walk to town – the italian place and the hamburger bar are nearby – and for breakfast we’d walk to the Red Kettle which has a hysterical menu:

Grandma Said So!: You’ve got to try this tasty sausage with two fresh large eggs any style.

The Idyllwilder: Our delicious Polish or Italian sausage and fresh large egg any style.

Whistling Pig & Eggs: Two center cut pork chops with two large fresh eggs cooked any style.

The Rock Climber: An English muffin grilled, piled with thinly sliced ham topped with two poached eggs and cheddar cheese sauce, served with fresh fruit.

we investigated the idyllwild county park campground and it too is a gem: full of boulders to clamber over and lots of shade. now all we need is a free weekend...anyone interested to join us for “restaurant camping”?? (or...should we call it “lazy camping”)

here is the link to my idyllwild camping map. let me know if this does not link you to Teri’s Idyllwild Camping Map.

i haven’t ranted about it lately but samantha’s food repertoire hasn’t changed much. still, we’ve been asking her to take microscopic bites of new foods at almost every meal and talking about how people need to try new foods several times before really deciding if they like it.

monday i was making pasta with sauce for dinner. here’s my secret recipe (don’t tell anyone): brown a pound of hamburger in a pot and throw in two jars of prego sauce. boil some “barilla plus” rotini pasta. serve.

i can’t remember what samantha had, i think it was leftover soba she didn’t eat for lunch. anyway, i gave her a few of the rotini noodles on her plate and a little container of sauce. i asked her to try a noodle and take a taste of sauce on a spoon.

she finally tasted the sauce. she said “yummmm” which is totally insincere because she always says this because she knows it’s what we want to hear. i told her i’d rather she was truthful. this is usually followed by my asking “do you want another taste?” “no”. this time was different. this is when the miracle started. she put the spoon back in the sauce and tasted some more. then she picked up a noodle and dipped it in the sauce. and ate it. and another. and another. i tried to act nonchalant when i wanted to cry out with joy.

samantha indicated that she might like to have noodles again. i couldn’t believe my ears. although she only ate three noodles with sauce this was a major event. i’m surprised too because prego is a bit on the spicy side and everything she eats now is bland.

this morning we talked about having pasta with sauce for dinner. she verified she would be having noodles for her entree and even seemed to be looking forward to it. but she’s very brave in the abstract. tonight came and we served dinner. samantha seemed to be eating everything on her plate except the pasta. i was worried. but then she ate a noodle with sauce. and another. and another... all together she ate about a dozen noodles tonight. she said she wanted to have this every night. incredible. this may be the first time we’ve had dinner and not had to make a special entree for samantha. we talked about possibly eating some time at the spaghetti factory. the possibilities are endless.

i breathed a sigh of relief.

And now...ice cream!!

very beautiful, rocks and stream.

Found a few friendly horses on the way on our road trip around Riverside
county. This shows megan before the horse sneezed all over her shirt.
Looks like she was in some kind of petrochemical accident. And then the
girls were hungry...and Cafe 371 in Anza was right there.

samantha dictated this story to me while we were staying at the san diego marriott. she had a dolphin “friend” with her.

here goes:

at 1pm, dolphin is going to feel fine. he is sick. he likes to swim. he likes to do hula too. he likes to jump. he likes to nose up to boats. he likes his mom. he likes to read underneath the lamp. when he feels sick he likes his mom to cuddle him. he likes to dance.

after practicing swimming for many hours over last week during our “staycation”, our swimming star was able to swim all the way across the pool at swim class today! we’re very impressed.

5 years and 15 days old...