FIVE!

Oh, my sweet Samuel Alan, you are FIVE!  I feel like five graduates you from whatever trace of toddlerhood was left to "big boy."  You are such a big boy now, and it has been a joy watching you come into your boyhood even more lately.  You are sweet and sensitive and silly and smart!!!  Your smile melts my heart - MELTS it completely.  Your blue eyes twinkle and your genuine smile speaks that all is well with your world.  I LOOOVE when you smile.  And you smile a lot, thank goodness!!!  Your brighten our home and our family and others' lives with that winning smile, my son!!!  Thank you for that.

You are also SO silly.  We call you the "class clown" of the family, always doing goofy things to make us laugh.  You tell knock-knock jokes.  You make silly faces and noises and come up with funny moments that couldn't have been better if they were scripted.  You keep us laughing, Sammy!!

You still are in love with superheroes and Mario.  You also like Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Monsters, Inc, Despicable Me, and Toy Story.  You play Despicable Me with Ella and Sophia often.  You love hearing all about Harry Potter from Micah.  Even though you are too young for the stories, you know all the characters and the titles of the books and even the number of pages that most of the books have.  You love it all.  You also love Legos and are currently super into the Youtube video of "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego Movie.  

You LOVE books and are reading now!!  I love it so much!  You read a book to me every day, and the ease with which you are reading is increasing daily!  So proud!  You still love maps and know the location of all of the United States and most of their capitals.  You enjoy playing map games on the computer for fun.  You definitely get this from the Schmidt side of the family.  Your brilliance lies in numbers and math.  You seem to understand the world in numbers, from the number of days in each month, to telling time, to knowing everyone's birthdays, to remembering the calendar and specific dates that events that took place on months ago.  You love doing your math, and you are doing so great with all your addition facts you are learning this year!

This past year, you played t-ball and took swim lessons.  You did a gymnastics class with Ella, and you did your first karate class this winter.  Now you just started your first Spotlight class with Micah last week, and you are SO excited to do this.  I love watching you have so much fun in your activities!  You shine!!!

You adore your siblings.  You and Micah are pretty inseparable.  Even when you get your "screen time" to play videogames on the weekends, you and Micah sit with the laptops on your laps, shoulder to shoulder on the couch while you play your respective games.  Daddy and I love this.  So precious.  You guys are in a constant world of pretend, and I love that, too.  You and Ella play all the time, as well, and Sophia joins in a lot lately, when she is not busy making mischief.  You are probably the most excited of all the kids for your new baby sister.  You have tracked her size from the very first week and have loved watching her grow from the size of a poppyseed, to a blueberry, a mango, and now, a honeydew melon.  You love giving her kisses on my belly and feeling her kicks and movements.  So sweet.  You are still rooting for her name to be Olivia.  We shall see!  I love what a kind and sweet big brother you are, and the adoring, loyal little brother you are, too.  Your siblings are so blessed to have you.

You love the Bible so much, and you remind us every morning to get out our Bibles for our daily reading time.  You know exactly what story or chapter we are on every day.  You love to pray and you love knowing God's Word.  I pray that his word would stay alive in your heart always, Samuel, that it would be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.  I pray that you would always know the depth of our great God's love for YOU and the way he celebrates and sings over you, just like Daddy and I do, too.

We love you SO very much, exactly the way God made you.  You are wonderful beyond words, and I feel so blessed to get to be your mama.

Happy 5th Birthday, Sammy!!! 

I hope you LOVE being five!!!

Love always,

Mommy

Some of my favorite pictures from your year of being four...

Love you, Samuel Alan Schmidt!