Hello, I'm Sam - Chapter Four - Thursday

Good morning, everybody.

I got a new toy today.

Getting new toys is very exciting.  This new toy isn’t really something I can play with, but it is something that I can play in, and it’s lots of fun.  It’s a thing that lets me stand up and bounce, which I really like.  Mommy and Daddy put the new toy in place – normally in the living room doorway – and then I get put into it, sort of like when I’m strapped into my car seat or pushchair.  When my new toy is set up and I’m all strapped in, I can stand and bounce and twirl around.  It makes Mommy and Daddy laugh to watch me standing up, and I like making Mommy and Daddy laugh.  This new toy is only until I can stand up on my own.  Mommy and Daddy keep saying that I’ll be crawling and walking in no time at all.  I don’t really know how long that is, but I’m looking forward to it all the same.

As well as my new toy, I have got lots of other toys, as well.  Mommy and Daddy say that I’m spoiled rotten.  I don’t really know what that means, but they’re always smiling when they say it, so I guess it can’t be a bad thing.  I don’t know when I got my other toys, but they seem to appear from nowhere.  Maybe it’s magic.  I hope it is, because magic sounds exciting.  I do know that some of my other toys get given to Mommy and Daddy to give to me.  Mommy and Daddy must know some very kind people, if they just give toys away like this.  Mommy’s family, especially my Nanny and Big Nan, often buy me new toys, which is very nice of them.  I have two rabbit toys that are called Captain Carrot and Benny Bunny.  Captain Carrot was given to me by Big Nan when I was only a week old.  Daddy named him and he seemed to really like the name.  He tells me it’s from the books that he reads to me at bedtime.  I’m sure I’ll understand more when I get a little older.  Benny Bunny was named by Mommy, and I think his name was an accident.  Mommy went to say “Bunny” but said “Benny” by mistake, so Mommy and Daddy decided that this toy’s name was going to be Benny Bunny.  I wonder if that’s how Mommy and Daddy named me.  I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m older to ask them.  When I’m older I can name my own toys, which will be fun.  I also sometimes get new toys from a family who are old friends of Daddy’s.  One of them is a Mommy and she has a little boy, too.  He’s four years old, which makes him a big kid to me.  They’ve given Daddy some of his old toys to give to me, which is very nice of them.  I’ll have to wait until I’m a little older to play with some of these new toys, so that’s going to be exciting.  I wonder who I’ll give my old toys to when I get too old for them.

Mommy took me out today in my pushchair, but this time it was different.  Up until now, I’ve been lying down in the pushchair and facing Mommy or Daddy when they push me along.  Now that I’m a little bigger, Mommy and Daddy have done something to the pushchair so that now I’m sitting up and facing forward.  This is really exciting, as I get to see where we’re going.  It does mean that I can’t see Mommy or Daddy as they push me, but they tend to talk to me, so I know that they’re there.  Mommy and Daddy tell me that I’ll only need the pushchair until I learn to walk by myself.  When that happens, Mommy and Daddy say that I’m going to walk as much as I can, to get used to it.  I’m looking forward to being able to walk.  Daddy says it’s another part of growing up.

I was asleep when Daddy came home from work today, but I woke up as he and Mommy were sitting down to dinner.  They joke that I seem to know when they’re going to eat, but I really don’t.  I just let them know when I’m awake and need feeding or changing.  Or if I just want some cuddles.  Mommy and Daddy either put me on my play mat or in my bouncy chair while they’re eating dinner, and they always give me cuddles when they’ve finished eating.  Mommy says that when I’m old enough we’ll all eat together at the dining room table as a family.  Mommy and Daddy say that it’s important to do things as a family.  I like being in a family.  The people in my family are all so nice to me, and I’m still meeting new people.  It seems that Mommy and Daddy each have a family, so I get to go to lots of exciting places and meet lots of nice people.  It makes me wonder what kind of family I’ll have when I’m grown up.

After dinner, Daddy read to me and Mommy gave me my last feed.

Then it was bed time.

Goodnight, everybody.  Sleep tight.