Celebrating Sam

Our little big man Sam turned two last week.  He really didn't have a clue it was his birthday, evidenced by the fact that as I incessantly asked him throughout the day whose birthday it was, he replied Micah, Mason (one of the boys' best friend), cheese toast, and the bath tub.  Usually, these responses were accompanied by his own version of the Happy Birthday song.  And if you've never sung Happy Birthday to a piece of bread with melted cheese on top, well, I'd go as far as to say you've never really celebrated a birthday.

We had a fun family birthday dinner for Sami that night.  He chose pancakes, which happens to be my dad's specialty.  Micky Mouse pancakes to be precise.  This seemed like an ideal choice to me because pancakes can easily double as dessert, relieving me of the perfunctory birthday cake that always leaves me stressed out.  Throw in a candle and you're good to go!

Oh how I wish I was able to upload the video of Sam's birthday song, but it seems the iPhone ate it.  During the course of the 20 second song, Sam blew out the candle half a dozen times and then finally stuck his hand in the flame.  Both Kevin & I reacted by yelling at him to stop (not because we were mad at him but just because we were afraid he would hurt himself).  He was so taken aback and startled by our loud voices that he started crying.  Poor buddy.  More afraid of his parents than open flame.

But then we gave him a few presents to get him smiling again.

I found the Little People Noah's Ark set at a consignment store for $6.  So what that a pet cat seems to have chewed off Noah's hand?  I'll bet it's more authentic to the story that way.  Surely Noah didn't get all those animals onto the ark without some kind of incident.  Plus, I got a free set of panda bears from the store owner when I commented on Noah's injury.

Really the only play time Sam has gotten with his boat & animals was this stare down with the zebra.  Micah confiscated it and has been playing with it ever since.   We'll try again at Christmas, Sam.

I also found a board book about trucks at that same consignment store.  In total, my birthday budget was a grand $8.  I'm a fan.  And Sam seemed to be a fan as well since the book involved wheels.

A few days later, G & Pop's gift arrived in the mail.  Two days later to be exact, thanks to Amazon Prime.  Micah figured out how to wipe the memory on our Kindle Fire a few weeks ago, which meant Kevin had to re-install the apps and re-register it.  The system, however, thought we were registering for the first time and gave us free access to Amazon Prime for two weeks.  That was much appreciated since this mama puts off shopping as long as possible.  

The big box arrived, and Pop led the boys in an anticipation dance as they prepared to open it.

Sam ran off with the inside packaging, which made me wonder why we spent money on toys in the first place.

And finally the big reveal...scooters!  Not that these were much of a surprise.  The boys have been playing with our neighbors' scooters for months now (with their permission of course).  We didn't get them their own because I figured we'd be returning to China any day now.  But, as we know, "any day" has turned into "any month."  And, as we also know, three year old boys aren't know for their stellar sharing abilities, so I thought it best to reduce cul-de-sac drama and get them scooters of their own.

Sam decided he didn't need to wait for wheels and just took off.

He didn't get very far, however, so he came back to observe the construction phase.

Apparently, that quickly bored him so he headed next door to get a working scooter.  

(That little orange blob through the trees is him.)

He came back to show off his functional scooter, wondering why in the world it was taking dad so long to get it done.

Finally, all wheels were fastened and the boys took off on their maiden voyage.  

Shortly after, they decided the trash cans were more entertaining.  This again begged the question of why we spend money to entertain our children.

And that's how we celebrated our Sam.  Pancakes & scooters--his all-time favorite things.

Happy birthday, Da Di Di!