Happy Birthday Sam (part 1)

Today was Sam's birthday! It was a pretty special day, more so for me than for Sam, I'm sure. I reminisced by looking through our pics and videos from the week before and after Sam was born- it was such a special day meeting Sam for the first time.

Anyway, last night I made Sam's "cake," which was from the What to Expect in the First 12 Months book. Bad news- I didn't really like it... Good news- I made enough for Sam to have one a day for a while and it is basically a meal-in-one for him with carrot, wheat germ, apricot, raisin, and cream cheese for protein. Of course we don't have real cream cheese here so the replacement I used had individually wrapped little soft cheeses- it took a long time to open enough.
Here my dad is working on teaching Sam to hold up one finger...
And here's his best attempt at it (which is probably more of a point, but so what?)
Even on his special day Sam had a few meltdowns. Mostly they were about things he couldn't have or couldn't do. Here my mom and I were teaching him not to put the batteries in his mouth and when he did and we wouldn't let him, he tried biting my mom. Poor thwarted little will.

Then we took pictures of Sam in his bday shirt (family tradition in which he'll wear this same adult sized shirt every year for pics until he's 18 and it will be his).
The highlight of the day for Sam was our trip to the zoo- unfortunately- all the pics and videos from that are on my mom's camera so I'll post them later. But Sam just adored looking at the animals and Mom and I had a great time too. I really love it there.

The only thing that made the day a little hard for me was that I've been feeling sick again. I'm getting a little frustrated of all the colds I've had this year, and I'm really hoping that next year we do a bit better.

This is a huge week for us- we've got our last day of class and Sam has his last day with his babysitter, then on Wednesday we leave for Malaysia. I'll post again before that- and then probably when we're in Malaysia too, but please keep us in your prayers- particularly our flights to and from Malaysia. It's always a long trip (28 hrs door to door), but with Sam I'm sure it will feel longer. I'm working my best to be prepared for entertaining Sam, but the fact is that he likes to move so being confined might be pretty frustrating for him. We'll see. I'm trying not to get psyched out- hey you never know- maybe he'll just be totally in love with the new environment.

Here's a video I just wanted to post from earlier this week- it's just a glimpse of a totally normal morning at home with Sam.