The Big 1 and the Big 3

I was hoping to first post about Thomas's birthday, but our hard drive bit the dust so those pictures are no more.

For the record he ate his cake and made a wonderful mess of it too. It was fun to have Grandma T here to make it a little bit more of an event for him...well for us at least. My parents sent him a singing card and I saw him a few days later open a normal card at someone else's house and hold it up to his ear only to be disappointed by silence. What a cutie.

Thomas could probably get away with about anything he wants because he is a cuddler and it just melts my heart. He says "dada" when he's happy, "mama" when he's upset, and "dam" which we think means Sam.

He likes to practice standing, but only when he wants to, and he expects cheers and clapping when he does. And he gets it too. He even claps for himself when he stands. This week I finally thought to give him a little walking toy that he can hold on to and walk and he LOVES it. He is so proud of himself and sometimes throws my hand off if I try to help him. Strangers love him because he gives them his winningest smile and gets lots of attention that way. What can I say, I love him too.

Sam is now a big 3 year old. Right now he loves to watch the garbage and recycling trucks. He has an acute sense of hearing when they are coming. He runs outside and we watch them stop at all four dump locations on our street. Recently he noticed that if we wait we can even see them at the first stop on the next street. Sometimes he waves to them and they wave back. It really is surprising to me that he likes them because he often doesn't like big loud things, but I guess garbage trucks are the exception. So his birthday party was a garbage party. I don't think he even knew it, but it was fun anyway. Below are a few pictures from the party. It was the first party I've throw for him (my mom threw his 2nd birthday party), and it was fun!

Sydney and Coby standing in front of the "Welcome to Sam's Dump" sign. (I should leave that sign up all year.) These kids are great. Their mom and I just discovered how well our kids get along which is so wonderful. So we have to have lots of play dates because they will be moving at the end of the summer. Sad!

Thomas and Stephen in matching outfits, bookended by Sydney and Eliza. Sam and Eliza have really similar personalities and they also get along quite well.

Playing "Throw the wad of paper in the garbage can" to go along with our theme. :) It was really creative and took a lot of time to put that together!! (kidding) We also played "truck, truck, garbage truck" (i.e. duck duck goose). Sam pretty much refused to play that one for some reason. And we had a "garbage sac race". I loved that one because Sam is young enough that winning and losing isn't even a thought to him. That is like music to my non-competitive soul.

Sam's big present this year was a bike. His initial reaction is classic. But I can't get the video to load right now, so you'll have to wait. Other videos from the party will be coming too. Anyway, he is quite happy with it and has been riding it frequently. He's getting pretty good too!

Sam surprises me sometimes with his cheerful and responsible demeanor. One of my favorite things is when I ask him to do something and he says, "Sure!!" He's also become pretty good with asking politely and saying thank-you. I can't tell you how rewarding that is! (Or maybe you already know.) Besides watching garbage trucks he really likes to play hide and seek. He can be pretty creative-like the time he hid in the drawer of Thomas's dresser. Fortunately it was already empty thanks to Thomas's load/unload habit. He finds some great places to hide, but half the time he's too excited to stay hidden and jumps out in his excitement. It's really fun. He's usually kind and playful and great with Thomas too. He takes life pretty seriously and has an obvious desire to be good. We love him to pieces.