: : Samuel : :

And finally, for the eldest Kleis update. Over the past couple of months Samuel has increasingly been growing in his inquisitiveness. It was even more apparent over Easter break as they had six days off of school and we were around him more. He is the incessant talker of the family. Here are some examples of a typical conversations with him:

Samuel: "Dada, what does candy do for you?"
(he always asks how different foods benefit his body or not)
Dada: "Nothing"
Samuel: "Why do we eat it?"
Dada: "Because it tastes good."
Samuel: "Why does it taste good?"
Dada: "Because it has sugar in it."
Samuel: "Why is there sugar in it?"

Samuel: "Dada, why do we have to walk?"
Dada: "Can we fly, Samuel?"
Samuel: "No"
Dada: "Then we have to walk"
Samuel: "Oh."

Every question is always followed up by another question and then another question. We are more than happy to answer all of his questions, but by the end of the day it can sometimes get exhausting.

Samuel is doing well at school. He's got the perfect little Italian accent. Kids are so fortunate when they learn the language early! Lately he has been complaining about a little girl at school that keeps trying to "love" him. From what he says she tries to hug him and blows kisses at him. He says he just runs away from her and tells her "lasciami stare!!" (leave me alone!) He receives applause from his parents on that one, as long as he is kind and not mean in return. However, the longer he goes without taking notice of girls the better for us! Besides female family members he thinks girls are gross. He is a girl magnet but doesn't have a clue. It's really funny.

For instance today we went to the park to play and there were some girls from school there. Immediately they came over to Samuel and wanted to him to play with them. Everywhere Samuel went they followed and he kept just getting up and finding a different spot only to be followed. He was kind of in a bad mood because he was too scared to go down the fireman pole. But here is Annalisa hanging out with Samuel.

Jonathan was serving as the parent supervisor for all who wanted to go down the pole.
Annalisa and Alice both go to Samuel & Emma's school.

He began his swimming lessons two weeks ago. The 5 year old kids at school have the opportunity to take lessons and for 22 euros for 8 lessons it is a pretty good deal. They bus them to the pool on Tuesday mornings and Samuel really seems to have enjoyed his first lesson, apart from having to wear his swimming cap, because it messes up his hair.

He is very particular about his hair. He does not like it sticking up or in his words "I don't like spikes!" The first thing he does each morning is to go and wet down his hair. Thankfully he does not have Emma's curls or else it would be a disaster!

That concludes the specific updates on the kids. Hope you enjoyed seeing them in a different light.