Samuel turns 11!

Two years ago, I lamented that Sam could be trying at times. I wrote, "It's a process, right?" with regard to him being a consistently kind and patient sibling, and a productive member of our family. I was effectively glossing over what was a really tough time for us in parenting. Despite hearing from friends that they shared the same parenting struggles, we really believed that we could do a better job in helping Sam grow up. So...he began visiting a (fabulous) child psychologist about once a month, and Tony and I got schooled on best parenting practices. It was a collective effort and well worth it. Two years later, we've come a long way.

Above all, we feel like many of the things we've long adored about Samuel (last year he made it official that he prefers "Samuel," by the way)-- his love of jokes, good eats, 80's music and movies, and big vocabulary words-- are once again among his prominent personality traits. He's less combative, impatient and rigid. He used to quit if anything got hard or uncomfortable. He's more open to trying new things, effusive with kind words, likely to stick with something challenging and eager to please. He also sees the big picture better and is increasingly self-aware. His prior good qualities are more pronounced now, too...an early-riser, responsible, silly and heavy on showering loved ones with affection.

We've been very impressed by Samuel's ownership of his intermediate school responsibilities, too, this year. Taking good care of his Chrome Book, remembering his clarinet, completing his homework, etc. have all gone quite smoothly.

Speaking of clarinet, here is Samuel performing at Sunday School recently. Talk about good acoustics!

He also had his very first 5th grade band concert! The kids did a fantastic job!

Lately, he's into memes, dark cartoon videos and their soundtracks and (as always) puns. He still loves all things military and is a presidential history buff in the making. Maybe some things never change. Like his love of video games? He will talk about Sonic the Hedgehog for hours, if you let him. And he got this mini Galaga for his birthday...a big hit!

As always, he says the funniest things. His latest gems include: 

Samuel: "Mom, is it me or do you look younger every day?" 

Me: "It's you."

Samuel recently said to Tony's cousin's wife Erin, "For some reason you remind me of someone who was in the military. You have a determined, save-the-country vibe about you."  He is a good judge of character.

Since we all got the plague after Sam's birthday party back in 2017, we try to celebrate his birthday party earlier in the month. So the first weekend in December, Samuel celebrated with his two besties at Adrenaline. 

 

 They especially enjoyed the The Vault (lazer room)!

 And then we went to Flip Daddy's for lunch.

It was a very nice celebration and Samuel was very honest with his friends about how much he cares about them and and that he loved the gifts they gave him. 💙

For his home celebration, Sam requested a brownie cake with cream cheese frosting this year. It was delicious and gone quickly!

On his actual birthday, he opened his cards and another gift or two. And picked hamburgers for dinner. Can't beat that!

It's hard to believe he's eleven, but he definitely seems more grown-up these days. It's hard not to miss little Sammy, but still feel immense pride in the person he's becoming.