What a Wonderful Year

  Can you believe it?  A year has gone by since Chris and I first greeted our son.

Sammy ~ four days old

Sammy is one year old!

  Can it really only have been a year ago that we held Samuel for the first time? He's grown so fast and it seems like he's always been here. He is so much in our hearts, it's hard to believe he's only turning one today.  That is until you here his silly sweet jargon and his insistent, "Yom yom yom!" as you make his meals.  (In fact as I type this, Sam is in his highchair yelling, "Ahhhh!" and pointing at things around the room. "Hey, Mom, pay attention to me while I eat my snack.) Yes, our Sammy is a toddler now.

  It's such a fun time. Sammy is learning new things everyday. This week we watched him figure out that his "O" in his alphabet puzzle matches his circle block and he carried them around for an hour as he played with other toys.  His favorite shape right now is the circle.  But alas, the "O" has gone missing and so he has settled for the "Q", but as soon as that "O" pops up, he'll drop that "Q" like a piece of broccoli.

  He has a big red car that he loves for us to push him around in.  He recently learned how to get in and out of it all by himself.  Such a big boy!

  Our new family tradition is to get our tree and decorate it the night before Sammy's birthday, just like mama did the night before he was born.  So Sammy woke up to discover a decorated Christmas tree with birthday balloons around the bottom of it. He loves to check out all the ornaments he can reach!

 

We were sure to have some party hats for our birthday boy! While Sammy thought the party hats were awesome, Hagrid was not so keen on them. But look how cute they are! 

Sammy enjoyed some blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and some turkey bacon for his birthday breakfast. Now that's happy birthday boy.

Later in the day, Sammy was watching his Papa through the window.  Papa was out front raking in the yard, so we decided to go out and join him.  Sammy loves inspecting the leaf piles!

  It is such a joy to be Sammy's mama and papa. He's a curious explorer and we love introducing him to new things. He has a determination about him that makes us laugh and keeps us on our toes. Our lives are richer because of him!