Happy Birthday Sammers!

What better way to celebrate our sweet bug than an overload of Sammy pictures!?! Goodness, our peanut is one year old. When did he grow up?!

Sammy is quite a pleasant little man who is often "busy" entertaining himself with toys and non-toys alike. He likes to crawl around pushing cars, walk with push toys, play with instruments, chew on anything he can get his hands on (especially books), lovingly aggravate his big brother, and will (amazingly) always find the one thing in the room that is borderline dangerous to fiddle around with.

In public, Sammy is an observant little fella- often won't smile at someone until he's checked them over for quite some time. He gives this cute little, "I'm not going to smile at you" face, that is a funny smirk, and then cheeses it out. Many people who don't see him in action at home don't believe that he's a little rotten egg (or a baker's dozen of rotten eggs, as we sometimes call him!)- getting into all sorts of stuff, but he's just so so darn cute we don't often believe it either!

Enjoying some birthday cake at a celebration we had for him while home visiting family in Ohio.
Sammy's favorite foods are blueberries, avocado, cheese, blueberries, crackers, and blueberries. And the boy loves loves loves drinking water from a cup. Very dramatically.
Sammy LOVES Guthrie. He follows G around sometimes, wanting to play what he's playing. Likewise, Guthrie loves Sammy. G will often direct Sammy to play with him in his room saying, "Sammy, you come play with the blocks," and so on.
Chasing after big brother. This day, Sammy so wanted to push the lawn mower around, but couldn't seem to balance it and go forward. While Sammy has been cruising around on furniture and push toys for almost 4 months now, he doesn't seem to have much interest in walking on his own. He's an incredibly fast crawler and gets around quite well like that, thank you...
Sammy is pretty much a fearless guy. He climbs without a care of consequence, love slides (even the biggies!) and has always been able to hang with the "big kids."


I think he ate that leaf he was holding...


Our favorite Sammy position- playing on his knees. It's so cute to see his little body all scrunched up while engaged in play.

Over the past month Sammy has started playing mimicing games. Usually he will shout a little or say "hi," we'll respond, repeat repeat repeat. Tonight he mixed it up and started the game by closing his eyes with a huge grin and waiting for us to do the same with great anticipation. These fun games usually take place towards the end of dinner or lunch time. So sweet, so cute!

Look, a crayon!
Yep, by the end of our little art session, there were multiple holes in the paper- he's quite an expressive (or hungry?) little guy...

This little Linus loves his blanket, although he doesn't have a single favorite. Sammy sucks his thumb only while holding something soft- like a blanket, shirt collar, towel, etc.



We had a fun surprise: snow on Sammy's birthday! He loved it and wasn't afraid one bit to crawl around in the cold, puffy stuff. By the end of our time outside, Sammy was soaked with melted snow!
Sammy loves baths. He is a complete maniac in the tub: diving into the water, splashing, scooting around on his belly. Bri gave him a special birthday bath with no washing- only play time.

Cozy post-bath.
Singing happy birthday with a special cookie (that he didn't eat, but mom and dad sacrificed and took care of it).

We love you sweetest boy! Here's to many many more happy years with you!