Samuel prayers

Samuel has taken a huge step backwards when it comes to sleeping at night.  It all began when Grandma Rankin took Samuel to her laptop to play games.  She pulled up a Halloween tic tac toe and played.  At the end of the game, she didn't realize that a screaming scary face would pop up.  Samuel screamed bloody murder.  He was shaking and clinging to me.  He started calling for his daddy because his daddy could keep him safe.  I felt bad for him.  He was traumatized.

At night now he is really scared to sleep without a lot of light.  He wants someone to stay in the room with him.  We have been saying prayers a lot to help him feel better.  He has asked that he won't see the scary face when he closes his eyes.  We pray that he will feel safe and that he will think of happy things when he sleeps.  Most nights, we say a prayer together and I have to come in another time for one more prayer. 

One night in his prayers, I felt his arm reach out and pat my back.  He said "I am thankful for mommy being here."  It was adorable.  He fell asleep tonight without a lot of fighting.  Hopefully he will continue to get better at not being afraid. 

The stars at night are big and bright...

deep in the heart of Texas.  BIG news alert.  We are moving to Texas...to my hometown to be precise.  Joe got a job at a bank there and we are moving in about 3 weeks. 

Growing mountains and trees

When we go outside, Samuel likes to collect twigs, branches, rocks and pretty much anything else he can find.  One day he found a toy flower with a long stem stuck in the bushes outside our apartment.  We washed it a few times and now he has a permanent flower.  I digress.  Yesterday as we were waiting for Joseph at the bus stop, he got some rocks and started putting them in ground.  He was explaining that "I planted the rocks so that it will grow a mountain when it rains."  He then planted sticks to grow trees in our yard.  I will have to explain to him tectonic processes that actually contribute to orogenesis, but for a little longer I will let him maintain his misconception.