Making lists

For the past few days Sam will occasionally grab a crayon or marker and a pad of post-it notes and start writing "lists". The first list he made was what we were going to need to take with us when we go up north soon. I can't remember everything he told me he was putting on his list, but I do recall that it included a fishing pole that Grandma Sue needed to bring. He also made a list of how we were going to get there. We were going to go to Iowa to pick up Grandpa and Grandma, then go to the cabin. Another list he made was what we were going to do up north. Today he made a list of what we were going to do in the afternoon and when Grammy and Papa came over for dinner. His list included "4 hours of digging", and playing with trains. About the digging, Jason has been doing some yard work which involved a lot of digging, so that's apparently where that came from. Sam is still learning about the concept of time, so he will pull out random numbers and measurements of time for various activities. For example, he'll say, "In a few years we're going to Grammy and Papa's". He means a few days or hours but all those different intervals of time are not quite connecting for him yet.

He will sit, thoughtfully, and "write" on his post-it, then think for awhile, then write some more. During his thinking time, he puts his hand by his mouth, and looks off reflectively. He will often put his crayon or marker behind his ear while he's thinking. Today I picked up his pad of post-its as I hadn't looked at his lists yet to see what he was writing and I was surprised to see page after page after page of hash marks. So he was making his lists and marking off each item with a hash mark.

Sam obviously gets his knack for lists from Jason. Ummm. No. It's me. Although I believe the only list that I make that he's familiar with is a grocery list. Not that that's my only list. I make a list at the beginning of each day of things I want to accomplish for the day. Usually it's only 3 or 4 things (really, it's hard just accomplishing 3 or 4 things with 3 little mess-makers around all the time) like "clean the bathroom", "freeze green beans" and "laundry". Those "extra" things are usually plenty of work on top of all the cleaning, diapering, feeding, cleaning, wiping noses, wiping butts, wiping up messes, sweeping, vacuuming, feeding, putting away, disciplining, encouraging, feeding, diapering, reading, playing that comes with staying home with my little kiddos.

Back to the lists. I tell you, it really melts my list-loving heart to have Sam making lists. He may look like a little Jason, but he must have some Reese in him too.