Get this kid...

Get this kid a ball. Sam and I had a play date with Jennifer and Emma this past week. Emma is a few months older than Sam and has now mastered the art of playing with other people. Meanwhile, Sam has mastered the art of "that's mine...yes even though it is at your house and I've never seen it before today...it's still mine." At one point, we did go outside and Sam immersed himself in the middle of a group of older boys playing ball. One of the boys was Emma's older brother Nathan. Sam was in complete awe. The boys were really sweet to let him "think" he was playing with them and he ran around the yard laughing at them and throwing his own ball. It was really quite sweet to watch.

Get this kid a birthday cake. Memorial day was Nina's birthday so we all went to my sister's house for an impromptu cookout and celebration. Sam tells knock knock

jokes. What we love about Sam's knock knock jokes is that

he feels its necessary to say "knock, knock" to each person in the room. So if the entire family is there...it could be awhile til you hear the punchline. We got my mom a blue birthday cake. Why you ask? Because I apparently forget sometimes that I have a toddler and I think a blue birthday cake is pretty rad. Yes I said rad. Samuel thought it was rad too...just look at his face. In true, never leave anyone out, form - Samuel wished everyone a happy birthday before asking where his present was.

Get this kid a haircut. But only if you've worked out and had a nap. We are regressing in the haircut tantrum category. At one point during this haircut, I looked down to see the top of my shirt pulled all the way down to my kneecaps and I meditated on the only, slightly PG-rated

expression that came to mind. "Oh to hell with it." It had happened...I'd lost the will to be modest. People told me it would happen in labor...it didn't. It happened in Pigtails and Crewcuts. Well, somehow his hair got cut, he now has finger size bruises on his neck and I knocked over the trashcan on the way out. I was also told my child wasn't the worst...just the worst of that day. Do you get a free haircut for winning that award? On the way in my mom asked me why I didn't buy the 10 haircut package. On the way out she laughed at the insanity of her earlier question. Why? Because he'd be 27 before I used them all. I get why Kate Hudson's son has a ponytail. I don't like it...but I totally get it.

Get this kid a sibling. So I have no announcement. Just an unfortunate misunderstanding that happened yesterday. So I thought it would be an excellent idea to text my mom the following sentence in response to her inquiry about the bird's nest in my backyard and whether or not the eggs had hatched. YOU HAVE TWO GRANDBIRDS NOW. This idea was, in fact, not excellent. My mom called me 21 seconds later squealing and hyperventilating.

I had know idea she was so into nature.