Sam

I know I am somewhat late in all this. Blogging Sam's birthday two weeks after the event, but Happy 6th birthday Sam!!!

This birthday was much anticipated... Sam finds it hard to reconcile the fact that although he is older, Caitlin's birthday comes before his. And so we've been counting down the days.

Sam is, to all who know him, the loveliest. most gorgeous, gentle and loving boy in the world. He is also a boistrous, noisy, mischievous monkey with a typical fiery redheaded streak. (And he still prefers people to say his hair is ORANGE). He is definitely a boy of contrasts. 

Sam loves knights, soldiers, forts and castles. He loves monsters and ogres and dragons and dinosaurs. He has a 4 year old shadow who also loves these things, in particular whatever "thing" he happens to have in his hand at the time. This can cause major ructions and disturbing of the peace! While he is a peace loving boy, quite content to play his games, when he is disturbed by a four year old someone who always wants to muscle in, he can sometimes get... a little more cross with her than we would like... which can end in tears for both of them and metaphorical hair tearing out for me. He has his own sense of justice and fair play which sometimes needs tweaking, but he is generally very fair, and truthful. He has tried to pull a fast one and lie his way out of a situation but it always ends abruptly as a huge and tell-tale mischievous grin takes his words hostage, and try as he might, he just can't do it!

As much as his little sister drives him mad, he loves her fiercely and is her greatest ally and playmate. I can't begin to express how loving and encouraging and supportive he is of her. It brings a lump to my throat and to everyone else who watches as he comes running out of school at the end of the day, always with a treat for Caitlin. They are allowed to take any left over fruit from the school's snacks, and Sam always chooses what he knows she would like best and runs out to give her a hug and give it to her, When she started school last week (more of that in another post - you DID know I was behind after all) and they both came out at the end of the day, he saw she had a sticker on her cardigan. The conversation went like this:

Sam: Caitlin! How was your day! You've got a sticker? What did you get a sticker for?

Caitlin: I got it for tidying up.

Sam: Well done Caitlin! I'm good at tidying up too but I didn't get a sticker. You must be super amazing at tidying up, better than me, because you got a sticker - and on your first day! WELL DONE!"

All the mums around me just looked at me - amazed at the love that abounded between these two and how demonstrative Sam was. (They didn't witness the push-and-shove that happened five minutes later as he tried to prevent her getting to the car ahead of him!)

Similar conversations go on if she shows him a picture she has drawn, or the way she has written her name, or any other achievement.

The best and most contented cuddles you could ever wish for, to soothe your soul come from this boy. A minute with Sam cuddling right in can make you forget a weary day. He loves to just cuddle up watching a dvd (and to be fair he loves to just watch dvds too!). I still say things to him like "Sam, I have a problem and I need your help!" and he'll knowingly respond immediately by dropping whatever he is doing and coming to give me a kiss (or however many I ask for) and a cuddle. At the age of six he can now say that he loves me as much as he loves his Daddy, To prove just how much i am loved, he tells me that he loves daddy THSI much - and holds his hand high in the air, and loves me THIS much - and brings his other hand up to meet it. I can tell by the way he says it that he can bestow no higher honour on me than to love me as much as he loes his beloved Daddy. And he shows it too. He is now quite happy to sit and cuddle me in church (this time last year it would always be daddy). Or to play with me, have a story with me, etc when Steve is also around. But when push comes to shove, when he bounds over to kneel next to me in our family prayer, he'll then look over at Steve and want him to come over to where we are. He doesn't want his daddy to be lonely without him. I love the adoring relationship that they have.

Sam loves both of his big sisters in equal measure although he tends to clash more with Jess, (he flares, she flares...). He loves cuddles with both, loves trespassing in their room full of forbidden treasures, loves playing with Jess's hair. I LOVED how thrilled he was with their birthday presents... Jess bought him an Action MAN on a bike - something he'd played with and loved elsewhere. He loved it so much I wondered if Rachel's present - a boxed set of Roald Dahl would pale into insignificance. I needn't have worried. He sat with it on his lap and fingered it almost reverently, saying how much he loved it, deciding what he would read first, and second, and after that. He took all the books out and laid them out and put them back in. He took two on a four mile round trip and barely spoke for the entire journey.

I LOVE that he loves books. He takes after me. From the time he could sit up he has loved to be surrounded by books. He was the first in his year at school to become what they call a "free reader" i.e. off the reading scheme and now just a week into Year 2 his teacher has heard him read and has put him on to the highest colour band in the library so he has much more choice. (Although chances are he will still come back with Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs!) He also loves to read to Caitlin, loves the stories in the Book of Mormon and the Bible and will read anything that has words on! Sam loves to check the weather on the Met Office website. He knows that many of our outings are dependent on the weather doing what it says it will and he likes to keep abreast of developments! He is also (unlike me - that's Steve's line of things) very good at maths. He views schoolwork mostly as that otehr thing they do at school when they aren't playing and his modus operandi seems to be to finish his work quickly - whatever it takes - so he can get back to the real business of what school is about. He has lots of friends but doesn't enjoy fighting games, and isequally happy in his own company. His teachers love him.

Sam loves music and at the moment is trying to find his singing voice. Any time we sing - at home or in Primary, he sounds like he's lost the tune somewhere. He moves up and down in all the right places but isn't singing the same notes as the rest of us. I can get him up to where we are by telling him to go higher, and then he'll get there and stay there. But recently he told me that he's just singing like Daddy. Apparently daddy doesn't sing high like I do so Sam would rather sing down low like Steve! HIs favourite Primary song is I know that My Saviour Loves Me - a new one for this year. The words are just lovely and Sam loves it. Sam loves bedtimes with Daddy when the three of them chat in the bedroom and decide what they are going to dream that night while daddy rocks the armchair. He loves bedtimes with me when I sing to him. His current favourites are Willie McBride and The Song of the Clyde.

Sam has to have a stick. Everywhere we go he has to find a stick. What else would you use when you're striding along for goodness sake? Every day he'll run out of school, pick one up from the ground and take it as far as the car, whereupon he agrees to give it back to the land that grew it, until he finds another the next day. I guess it's a boy thing.

Sam has always had very sensitive palette and sense of smell. He can smell coleslaw and gag. If he doesn't like something he just can't tolerate it in his mouth. He'll normally oblige and try it (if he doesn;t mind how it looks) but if he doesn't like it there is little we can do to get him to chew and swallow unless we want to induce vomiting! The other day I gave him a sweet. He didn't like it. I told him to just hold his breath, chew and swallow. Holding your breath means you won't taste it, I said. You need to get used to NOT spitting it out I said, firm in my principle. He spent five minutes swilling it around his mouth, totally unable to swallow it, muttering, "i can't BELIEVE you are forcing me to eat a sweet! I'll tell Daddy!"

Favourite books are George's Marvellous Medicine, the BFG, The Richest Crocodile in the World, Dr Seuss, How to Train your Dragon. Favourite dvds are Night at the Museum (Sam IS LArry - complete with torch, dark clothes and a big bunch of dangling keys...), Kung Fu Panda, The Mountain of the Lord (he likes to pretend to be a stone mason...), Madagascar, Ice Age and Toy Story (escept the third one - where he cried his eyes out thinking that Buzz, Woody and co were not going to escape that fiery furnace). He loves trips to the cinema, to McDonalds, to Pizza Hit, to the Park, out on his bike or his new go-cart, he loves ANY trip as long as daddy is there.

When he grows up he wants to be a policeman, a teacher, a fireman, work at the UEA like his daddy, WITH his daddy, be a doctor, and a pilot. He's just started Kung Fu - and LOVES the idea of being a Dragon Warrior! He's picked up some of the moves really well, especially as he's only been once. But you know what impressed me hugely? twenty children of varying ages and abilities all moving around a room on fluid motion, lining up behind each other to do various moves along a mat before foinf to the back of the line again. The line that stopped when it came to Sam's turn to do a forward roll, or a backward roll, or a cartwheel. He couldn't do any of them. But he kept trying, encouraged by the instructor, and even though he couldn't do it, he kept smiling and ran around to line up for another go. He didn't get discouraged one bit, or let it spoil his enjoyment. He just grinned at me as he ran past.

I love Sam's optimism and enthusiasm. I love his ability to find what he thinks is a grand solution to any challenge (like him not being able to go to tea at Grandma's house this week due to grandma having a broken foot. sam's answer - just get Laura home from work early to help cook the tea! simple!) I love that he can make you feel a million dollars. I love that he shows such gratitude for gifts. EVERY gift was his favourite (although he played the most with his bow and arrows, a robot and a playmobil pirate...) I love that he is generous with his affection and praise. I love the rough and tumble, always on the go, knight in armour, stick/sword wielding all action boy. I love my pyjama clad, dvd and sofa bound bundle of quiet cuddles. I tell him a hundred times a day how special, handsome, precious and gorgeous he is. I tell him how many people love him. I tell him he's a hero. I tell him all these things but really there are no words that exist to tell him JUST how much.

 

Comments

[Megan Berrett]

Lucky kids! They have all the best attributes one could wish for in this life: charm, outstandingly great personalities, good looks, athletic, incredible intelligence, and complete love and loyalty for each other. I love those ginger children!

(You, Steve, Rache, and Jess aren't so bad either...)

-Meg :)

[Megan Berrett]

By the way, Laura gave me this link and said it was a really great accomplishment of yours, and filled with great stories of your family. I hope you don't mind if I work through some of your entrees... Unless you feel its like me looking in your journal. Then I won't.

[Lins]

Go for it Megan!

[Grandma,(Moo Moo )]

This very special precious boy makes my heart sing !! He brings such great joy into my life and he is so honest, even when he knows that he will be told off for whatever he has done wrong. He just cannot lie. When I see him and his precious Daddy together it brings a lump to my throat and I can't take my eyes off of them. He is just an absolute treasure.