All About Samuel

Our dear Samuel...
What a funny, charming, sensitive, intelligent little guy.  He never ceases to amaze us.
Before he was 19 months old he knew the alphabet inside-outside-upside-down... letter sounds and all.  (See the 2011 video of him saying his letters and sounds here.)  
Though he isn't as fascinated with the alphabet anymore, he does still show interest in letters and words.  He enjoys making letters out of pretzel sticks and then asks me, "what does LLMLI spell?"  Months ago I tried to help him write an "S" but he isn't the most coordinated fellow when it comes to things like that.  He can stack blocks as tall as he is, but pencil control is difficult.  I just thought I'd give him more time to grow and we would work on it later on.
THEN, the Sunday after his birthday he was sitting with us in church (having outgrown the nursery), and I looked down at the paper in his lap and found him writing his own name... without... anyone... ever... teaching... him!

He said, "I wanted to write my name."
That's our Samuel.  He never ceases to amaze us.

He likes numbers too and can count to 100 (IF that comes after 29). 

Samuel says

MY FAVORITE FOOD IS: Cheese

THE COOLEST PERSON ON EARTH IS:  Grandma

WHEN I GROW UP I'M GOING TO BE:  "a people... wait, actually a builder."

MY FAVORITE COLOR IS:  blue

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY IS:   Christmas

MY FAVORITE TOY:   Angry birds (also loves super heroes, rescue bots, vehicles, stickers and rescue heroes).

MY FAVORITE SONG IS:   Jesus loves me & Rock-a-bye baby

MY FAVORITE CLOTHES/OUTFIT:   Angry birds t-shirt

MY FAVORITE GAME:  Angry birds and Connect Four

WHEN I'M OUTSIDE I LOVE TO: slide 

IF I COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, I'D GO to:  Holiday World

WHEN I WAS LITTLE I USED TO: "I can't remember"

MY BEST FRIEND IS:  Lucas

MY FAVORITE SNACK IS:  fruit snacks

MY FAVORITE ANIMAL IS:  polar bear

MY FAVORITE SHOW/MOVIE is:  Rescue bots

MY FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH SISTER/BROTHERS:  swing on the tire swing

MY FAVORITE THING TO SLEEP WITH IS:  polar bear

I LOVE THE BOOK: Smash Crash (and other books by Jon Scieszka)

THE BEST THING ABOUT ME IS:  "I'm good"

MY FAVORITE MEMORY IS:  going to Chicago

HIS FAVORITE PHRASES {according to us}:  "I love you", "Negative", "I'm sticky"

In some ways Samuel is a typical middle child... But in other ways "typical" is the farther from our mind when it comes to him...

Samuel has certainly hit a peek of silliness these days... and his siblings join right in when he gets them going.  He is naturally funny, but he also really tries to be...

Silliness is only one side of his personality, albeit a large side.  Samuel is also such a sweetheart.  I can't count the number of times a day I hear, "I love you Mama."  He gives lots of hugs and likes to cuddle.  I treasure these moments as I know they will not last forever.

I look at him and wonder, where did that toddler go? 

He's ALL little boy now!