Samuel Turns 2 Years Old!!!

On October 17, our sweet baby boy turned 2 years old!  What a busy 2 years it has been with Samuel!  This boy keeps us hopping, and smiling!  He is a ball of energy who rarely ever sits still or rests.  At 2, he climbs out of his bed, opens doors, scales the pantry shelves, sits in all the sinks, and jumps with 2 feet anywhere he can.  He absolutely loves to play any sport with a ball,  but his favorites right now are basketball and soccer.  He can carry on a full conversation with you, speaking in complete sentences.  If you sneeze, he will tell you "God bless you" right away.  He asks to be excused from the table at the end of a meal, says excuse me if he burps, and will recite a Hail Mary on his own when he hears a siren (also knows his meal blessing and most of the Our Father).  When he has a dirty diaper, he often says, "Mom, change my diaper, it's real dirty."  Ever since the kids went back to school this fall, he asks "What Henry doing?" at least 20 times per day.   He refers to himself as "Sammie," and if you ask him to do something, he says "O-Tay."  He likes to say "watch this Mama,"  and throughout the day says, "hi mama, how you doing?"  In the morning when we go in to get him he says "I had a good night sleep, change my diaper please, I open my blinds" and now that he is climbing out of his bed, he is often sitting in his chair looking at books.  He's even been known to climb up onto his changing table and start changing his diaper on his own!  He does love books and that is one of the only things that he will sit still for.  Some of his favorite books right now are Pete the Cat Magic Blue Sunglasses, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and Roadwork. In fact, he can recite Roadwork and several other quite lengthy books, word for word, on his own.  In addition to books and sports, he also really likes nursery rhymes and singing.  He likes to watch nursery rhymes on You Tube (navigates to it on the iPad on his own) and sings those and many other songs on his own regularly.  He knows at least 15 nursery rhymes by heart, can sing his ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Little Star,  and will attempt most any song he hears the other kids singing.  In the car, he always asks for me to turn the music on and turn it up if he can't hear it.  He can count to 12 and can identify a circle and a triangle.  He has mastered every chunky wooden puzzle we own.  Samuel stopped using his paci about a month before his birthday but is still very attached to his blankie.  He continues to be an extremely picky eater and we struggle with finding healthy choices for him.  Meal times are often a battle with him.  He is extremely stubborn in general, not just with food,  and he is not into shopping at all.  He's a smiler and a snuggler and hugger and boy do we love that!  Samuel is as sweet and as spunky as can be at age 2!!  Happy Birthday sweetheart!  We love you soooo much!!