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Sam's new favorite saying: "Uh oh."

We'll be building towers with his Lego Duplo blocks, and Sam will decide the tower is high enough

"Uh oh," he says, a moment before knocking it down. Crash! Blocks fly everywhere, the dog runs for cover.

"It's not really an 'uh oh' if you do it on purpose," I point out, although such subtlety is apparently lost on a two-year old.

I start construction again, stacking the blocks up one on top of the other.

Sam eyes my new tower jealously, and then just as it's getting good and tall, he dives for it. This time he isn't content with simply knocking it down; like a whirling Tasmanian Devil, he tears the Lego Blocks apart in a frenzy of activity. He doesn't stop until every last Lego is detached and scattered across the carpet.

"Uh oh," he says sweetly, as he surveys the devastation.

Uh oh, my ass.

A few nights ago, Sam -- for once -- left one of my towers alone. (He was probably too busy scribbling on our newly painted bedroom walls with a roller-ball pen to get to it; thank God for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.) When George came home from work and saw my construction, he said, "Wow, that's a great tower."

"Thanks," I said, feeling quite pleased with myself.

"Oh . . . you built it?" George suddenly seems less impressed. "I thought Sam did it. I was going to say, that's really good for a two-year old. Very symmetrical."

"Not bad for a thirty-three year old, either," I said huffily. "You don't know how hard it is to build one of those things, what with Sam knocking them down every two minutes."

Posted 08 November 2005 at 01:20 PM