Sam the Builder

As you may know, Sam is totally infatuated with construction. Somewhere around 18 months old, his love of construction trucks began. Even before he turned 2, his favorite books were the realistic construction books you find in the children's nonfiction section at the library.

Then we moved into a new development neighborhood. Sam was, and still is, in heaven. Incredibly, on the day after we moved into our house, a giant digger arrived to break ground on the house next door. On that first day, we met the driver of the digger, whose name is John Cotton. After that, Sam began asking us 5-10 times per day, "Where John Cotton? Is John Cotton working? Is John Cotton home now? When John Cotton be back? John Cotton dig new house now?" John Cotton is his hero. Sam's room overlooks the construction next door, and he will spend nearly an hour in the morning sometimes watching.



His favorite activity, though, is building his own houses. He will build with anything he can-- blocks, books, boxes... but especially, the "building materials" he accumulates in the garage. These consist of the leftover pieces to our garage shelving units, pipes, boards, packing styrofoam, and anything else he can talk us out of. God help us if he ever catches us throwing away useful materials!