things I enjoy about Samuel

-His smiles. I cannot get over the way this baby boy grins. His smiles are, and always have been, huge. They are big things that take over his whole face and light up his eyes. He opens his mouth as wide as it will get, as if he wants to fit the world in it, as if what he's looking at is making him so happy that he just can't contain it.

-His sweet smell. This is my boy that I love to nuzzle and cuddle, because he smells so sweet, and because he coos and grabs my face and talks to me and encourages me to talk to him. Sam is the epitome of personable. There is something unalterably sweet about him, and it charms me to no end.

-The way he is fixated on Brigid. I suppose for Sam the world without Brigid just doesn't exist. He's never known it anyway. And he's very much himself before he's Brie's brother, but he's very much Brie's brother for all that. He loves her, and he turns to her whenever he hears her voice. And no one, not even Adam or I, gets him laughing the way Brie does. In some ways we have to teach Brie how to be a sister, because she hasn't been one before. But it seems like Sam was born knowing how to be a brother. And he's a good one. I bet he always will be.

-How peaceable he is. It's hard to disrupt Sam's calm. There's something solid about him. If he was a karate student, he'd be one of the ones who can plant and not be moved. Who can make himself heavy with his ki.

-How discriminating he is. For all that Samuel is has rather unruffleable feathers, it's not everything that makes him happy. He'll tolerate, for instance, being put in his swing, but it takes one of us pushing it to make him happy in it. This is something I've had to train myself to watch. Because he's slow to fuss, I sometimes think he doesn't need that much attending to. But he does. Because while he'll be calm most of the time, he blossoms into outright joy with attention. He knows the difference between things that won't kill him versus things that are beneficial. And that's something in a five month old.

-How joyful he is. I love my winsome boy.

-That he knows when enough is enough. Sam will not be put off forever. He's the calmest baby in the world until he's not. Then he can pitch a screaming fit with the best of them and good luck getting it done with fast. If he does get upset, really upset, he doesn't calm down quickly.

-How he likes loud noises. Ki-yi's at top volume make him giggle. (One of David's mighty men, for sure and certain.)

-How he grabs everything and puts it in his mouth. I know all babies do this, but Samuel does it with such GUSTO.

-that he can sit up. He's just so much happier with this new view of the world, and this new ability to interact with it (i.e., this new opportunity of grabbing his sister's toys and his parents' dinner plates). I just enjoy that.

-his BLUE eyes.

-that he's fascinated by trees.

-that being walked around the room standing on his Aunt Rho's feet cracks him up.

I enjoy Samuel, my Sam.

-Jess