Happy Birthday, Sam!

Today is our baby's 2nd birthday.  Where did the last two years go?  They are a blur...a blur of late nights, exhaustion, and much joy.  Our Sam is such a smiley baby -- now a smiley boy!  He has a smile that can just light a room and cause everyone else to smile, too.  His eyes literally sparkle when he is happy.  Of course he can go the other way pretty quickly and be really angry, too...and everyone in the room will know that he's not happy.  But that's just how Sam is.  I call it "passion".  I'm sure there are other names for it, but I can't think of them right now.  (Still too tired!)

We knew Sam was a sweetie the day he was born.  He loved to snuggle and just be with people.  It was a contrast to his big brother, who has never liked to be cuddled or held.  Here is our sweet Sam when he was one day old:

And here he is, four days old (one of my favorites):

Just like big brother, he kept his hands by his face whenever we'd let him, just like he did in the womb. 

And now he's two years old! 

We had a nice little party at home for Sam on Saturday, with close friends.  It is always special for us when friends join us for the boys' birthdays, since our parents live so far out-of-state and are unable to join us.  Sam's current obsession is monster trucks -- and a few months ago I had found monster truck-themed party decorations at the dollar store -- so it was perfect! A monster truck party it was -- and Sam was so excited. Ben was, too, for that matter. He can't decide now whether he wants a monster truck party for his birthday in October...or if he wants another Thomas the Train party, like he had last year.

Some of my dollar store decorations:

For the cake, I went very simple.  And cheap.  I did not order one...I made one.  And it certainly looks homemade.  I used monster trucks from the dollar store, too:

Bryan contributed the idea for the rocks (those black-ish blobs) and he made the tire tracks:

When Sam caught sight of his cake, he was so anxious to get at those trucks!  We set him at the table and put the cake in front of him.  When Bryan lit the two little candles, Sam leaned closer to the cake and whispered, "Fire!"  So we started singing right away so we could get those flames out before Sam burned himself.

What was priceless was that half-way through the singing, Sam started to cry and said, "No!  No!  No!"  He doesn't like to be sung to!!  It was so funny.  I have the video and if I can ever figure out how to upload it here, I will do it.  It's awesome.  He used to love to be sung to...I guess those days are over.  He is losing some of his baby-ish-ness and moving quickly onto "little boy."  He's always trying to keep up with Big Brother Ben!  Well, he'll always be my baby.

Happy Birthday, baby Sam!!  We love you so much!!