Happy double-digit birthday, Sam! This is a big one. 10.Sam, you are still everything these blog stories have always portrayed--bright, fun, imaginative, happy, considerate, affectionate, and creative--in an ever more mature (and growing!) package. You are an avid reader of all sorts of books, from the Wimpy Kid illustrated series to Sherlock Holmes and other classics. You absolutely love movies and have plastered your room with the posters for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible, and Star Wars. Action and adventure movies are obviously your favourite--you and Carter even made one (The Agency) with an ipod and Apple software last summer. And now you're taking classes at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama. In fact, this weekend you were asked to join a troupe of 15- to 17-year-olds to perform a dramatic reading at the Ottawa International Children's Festival. Stories are your passion and it's so much fun sharing that with you.
Not surprisingly, "Writing" and "Gym Class" are your favourite school subjects, but you take it all seriously and are a straight A student. Well, you got B+ in Music and Visual Arts, admitting you didn't love the recorder (and we didn't insist you practice...!) or enjoy the early art units. You vowed to bring those grades up on the student response form and we vowed to punish you if you didn't. Kidding! We're thrilled with your efforts and your conscientious attempts to improve. We help you study spelling and puzzle out your math "Problem of the Week," but otherwise you're taking care of business yourself and are excelling at it. Sure, you still forget hats, gloves, jackets, water bottles and more on the bus or in your class, but you've been kicking yourself for forgetfulness lately, so we try not to make too big a deal out of it.
Your best friends at school this year (besides Carter, of course) are Miki, Michael, Connor (all from preschool), Owen, and Carson. And there's a new group on Hudson that's really changed things around here. Jacob and Paolo moved in across the street and have a whack of cousins and Catholic-school friends who come around a lot (and the age gap with Lucas is finally moot), so suddenly there's quite the posse of 10- to 12-year-old boys buzzing around on bikes, playing street hockey, and shooting baskets. You'd still rather spend the entire day running as fast as you can (Manhunt is a favourite--neighbourhood-wide tag), but you'll play ball if that's what the group wants to do.
You have a breezy, agreeable attitude towards life that makes you nice to be around--and rather easy to parent. You've definitively got your opinions, but you're never obstinate, never rude. Sometimes we wonder if you might be bottling up unspoken worries, anger or resentment--that maybe we've set our expectations too high and you're quietly labouring to live up to them. But I don't think so. Sure, you have an easy-going personality and a rather high tolerance for annoyance, but you'll blow up at Carter from time to time to clear the air (not nearly so often as before--you two have worked out a more mature and cajoling way of getting along). And at the end of the day, you're always looking for big bedtime hugs (the kisses were retired at New Years) and some wrap-up conversation about what's going on and what's coming up. You always end those tuck-ins with an "I love you soooo much..."
You are still our Bub, our Boy-o, our Samster and Smashe. And now you're already 10 and we find we're the ones telling new parents, "Enjoy it while it lasts because it goes by so fast..."
And we are. We really are.
Happy birthday, Sam. We love you.
Xoxo
