Sam is Ten!

Sam is ten years old! It has been a busy day trying to make sure that he has felt special and celebrated. Everything worked out and he really did have a good day. In between the busy schedule of the day, I've had a few moments to reflect on how I entered parenthood a decade ago when Sam was born. I feel like I am in the thick of parenthood right now, and sometimes it is hard to remember a time when I didn't have children. But at the same time, I feel like the time has passed so quickly from when Sam was a tiny little baby and a tiny little boy.

I know I've written this before, but I am so struck with how mature Sam is for his age. He is always willing to obey my requests for help. He is very good with Violet and always steps in to help when we ask him to. He doesn't complain or talk back to me, and is very kind and patient with Lucy. He is still imaginative and will occasionally pretend some type of role-playing game with Lucy. Most of the time, though, his pretending is inside his head, when he makes his Lego figurines interact with each other.

Sam loves to play games on the computer. Lately he has been very interested in playing the Roblox games, and we are starting to explore the dynamics of playing games online and what it means to play interactive games with other friends online. He is only allowed to accept friend requests from people that he personally knows, and he is very good at following this rule.

Sam still likes to play the piano and is starting to take the initiative to learn songs outside of his lesson books. Over the past few weeks, he learned how to play "The Sound of Silence." He knows it well enough that he can play it slowly (as written) or sometimes with a sharp allegro beat. Right now we hear that song a few times a day - and often he sits down to play it as we are trying to walk out the door and go somewhere!

Right now Sam just earned his Webelos badge in Cub Scouts, and he will be working on his Arrow of Light for next year. As of now, he isn't interested in continuing onto Boy Scouts, which is fine with me and J! Sam has also been participating in the Drama Kids before-school program on Fridays. Even though he feels a little out of his comfort zone, he has been a really good sport and I think that he has enjoyed learning the script and thinking creatively about his character role.

Sam still loves to read. We read A Wrinkle in Time earlier this year together. He also read The Hobbit with Jeremy a few months ago, and now they are reading The Fellowship of the Ring. This year he also has been interested in reading the Origami Star Wars books, and he liked reading Inkheart with his class. He still loves comics. Since he has finished the library's collection of Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes books, he has tried some Dilbert and also FoxTrot comics.

Sam loves one-on-one conversations and is very chatty if you get him talking about something that he is interested or excited about. He mostly is chatty if he is explaining the features of a video game. For his birthday he asked for money so he could get some "Robucks" to by Roblox avatar features and games. We spent quite a bit of time this afternoon talking about the avatar features and the different things that he likes in Roblox.

We love Sam!

Opening presents in the morning

Wearing a new Star Wars t-shirt from the F-family. Sam wanted chocolate crepes with whipped cream and strawberries (as well as some eggs) for his birthday breakfast.

A Harry Potter team shirt from the Hawaii S-family!