Meet my sweet Samuel!
Samuel is such a friendly guy! At the mall or in my building on campus, he will walk up to random passersby and start a conversation. Icebreakers have included: "I have a haircut," "It was my birthday, but my birthday is over now," "Grandma Benac died," and "My mom has that iPod, too! Do you have mad birdies?" For a long time, he thought that all salt and pepper haired gentlemen with glasses was Grandpa. I kept reminding him that it was probably someone's grandpa, but not ours. After that, he would excitedly point out the same type of person and say "Look! Somebody else's Grandpa!!!" His lack of fear around strangers reminds me of myself at that age..
Samuel is calculated and careful. Playing UNO with the kids, Samuel is the one who will put his cards down and pause the game in order to meticulously straighten the discard pile. How may three year olds do that? He will also sit and play Angry Birds on end and actually get good scores! 
He is so animated. Last week he was riding in the shopping cart playing Frogger on my iPod, and every time his frog got hit by a car (like, every 15 seconds...), he screamed and squealed. All the little old ladies were truly smitten. When we watched Toy Story 3 the second time, he, very convinced that this is all real, shouted out a warning to Buzz as he approached the questionable vending machine, "No! Don't go in there!" Everyone in the movie theater heard it and laughed.
He is also very concerned and expressive. A few weeks ago we were teaching the children Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon. They were very interested in the story and seemed to understand the symbolisms that we were explaining (this kind of attention span is very rare, trust me!). When I told them about the mists of darkness and what it would mean and how sad it would be for one of our family to be "lost" in a modern day mist of darkness, Samuel burst into tears and said "I don't want to get lost in the mist of darkness!!!" Lets hope he keeps that righteous ferver!
At the mall play area last week, the kids were playing and had taken off their shoes. A few minutes later, Samuel came to us crying. We didn't see him get hurt, so were curious what was wrong. He announced "That kid took my shoes!" We looked, and sure enough, another kid playing had the same pair of Walmart shoes. We showed Samuel his own shoes sitting on the bench next to us and he was appeased.
He's emotional, too. But most of that is probably being three. We are teaching him how to use words instead of emotions when something is not his way. He likes to melt down and cry or yell or hit at those moments, but he's learning that I don't tolerate it at all. We can usually nip it right away. He has definately learned that when Mom starts counting to three, he better get his booty in motion, because three means a spank. He tries to protest, but by the time I get to two, he is repentant and quick-footed. When I announce what is for lunch or dinner, he tells me if it is his favorite or not, meaning if he wants it right now or not. So for example, today it was "Spaghetti is not my favorite. Chicken nuggets feels me better." And of course tomorrow, chicken nuggets will not be his favorite.
Samuel is (finally!) a big boy, and he is so proud of it! Every night at pajama time he protests a night time diaper because "Big boys don't wear diapers." And whenever I take him potty in public, he is very concerned that we have to use the girls bathroom. This week I called him "sweetie pie" and he corrected me in all seriousness with "I'm not sweetie pie, I'm big boy pie."
Samuel is quite a gymnast and a daredevil. Just look at my post
last month about putting up the rings in the basement. We are planning on getting him in to a gymnastics class very soon.
Samuel LOVES babies! It is so cute to see him dote over some little stranger in a stroller wherever we go--we're working on learning about personal space. I think he is going to really enjoy being a big brother!
Samuel plays until he is completely wiped out. Here is some photographic evidence that by dinner-time, Samuel-who-didn't-nap will fall asleep anywhere.
This!
