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HAPPY BIRTHDAY NUMBER TWO...


(Go ahead, I dare you, you know you want to.... these pics are forced by the corporate fascist types who have taken control of Blogger to be this tiny... that means if you want to see them in all their true glory you gotta click on them to make 'em bigger... just do it... you'll feel better)


When you ask Sam, "How old are you?" he quite happily holds up his fingers in the time-honored tradition of two-year-olds. Watching him do this, I see him as part of a long line, stretching back to the beginning of time. Maybe not that far, but close. Sam is both unique and part of the world's DNA at the same time. And his life has been so extraordinary, and has brought so much joy to so many, that celebrating his 430th day of life seems somehow both not enough, and not necessary.

Yesterday, for example, I took him with me to the eye doc's office. My eyes hadn't been checked for too many years, my vision was clearly deteriorating, and we knew it would be a long exam. So I had a bit of a concern that it might be too much for Sam. Ha. Whenever Sam walks into a room, in this case a waiting room and an exam room, everyone in the room brightens. He makes their day. In the exam room, Sam loved all the eye equipment, the gadgets, and couldn't get enough of making my chair (with me in it) go very high up, and then down. The young intern who was examining me, far from asking Sam to stop, had trouble keeping a straight face and finally had to stop the exam to catch her breath. As we were leaving she said that Sam's visit had made her day. Those were the words she used. About a half hour later, after being fitted for new glasses, Sam was walking down a hallway with me (as I was hunting for a bathroom), and a group of three white-coat folks stopped talking to each other and simply stared. "Oh my god," said the first one to get his voice back, "he's beautiful." Then the three started talking about how come there was never a camera around when you needed one.

That was on Sam's 434th day.

But a birthday does allow family, friends, and neighbors to acknowledge as a group how happy and fortunate we are to have Sam in our lives. And this one was special because he was sharing it with his best friend, Bodhi (here seen licking his finger after tasting the S&B birthday cake, with Vanya eyeing it eagerly as well).

But I get ahead of myself. To get to the birthday spot, in Fort Tryon Park, Sam decided to ride on the John Deere tractor that his insane Auntie Deb and Uncle Adrian sent to him. Covered with balloons. He somehow managed to get where he was going, and included a quick stop for a photo op with parents and Sonja's best friend, Amanda. Dad had to do most of the work, since Sam is still working out the pedal concept... During the ride, and at the party as the day was getting cooler, Sam wore a jacket given to him (I think) sometime last year by Uncle John and Aunt Desiree, that is finally almost but not quite fitting him.

Damn, isn't Sam just too beautiful for words?

Ok, where was I... The party spot was found, the food laid out, the territory claimed, and the flag raised.

Along with the John Deere, the other vehicle popular among the party folk was a red push car, here seen ridden by Femka, and pushed by her Mom, Alisa.

Hey, can you guess who provided Sam with that car? Gee I wonder who it could have been.

Yep, the crazy Brits.

The John Deere, however, was the clear favorite: here we see Gabe pushed in the tractor by an extraordinarily hardworking Simone. I love that pic.

And this one of Paul: Dad, Sam, and the cake.

At about this point in the proceedings, my camera battery died and thus, with humble apologies, there are no photos of the blowing-out-candles variety. Josh, Bodhi's Dad, says he's got some photos and maybe I can add them here, and fill in the gaps.

But I do know that Sam loved the cake, a blueberry marvel, exquisitely created by Bodhi's Mom.

And that was his b'day. After the picnic we went back to the house and Sam opened a few of his presents. One of them made a particularly dramatic impression on Sam: his favorite Bob the Builder character, Scoop. A gift from John and Desiree. What is it with Aunts/Uncles and giant vehicles? Is it something in the blood?


p.s. After the excitement, Sam needed a good restorative pose.