Sammy Owens

Ah.... my middle child, Samuel Edward Owens....

He is one awesome kid!!  When we first found out we were having a boy, I was not sure how this was going to turn out. I mean, I am the oldest of 3... my sister is 4 years younger than me and my brother is 8 years younger than me.  So, half way grew up with a brother, he was always so much younger than me and did whatever we did.  Well, Sam is teaching me what it means to have a boy... he is ALL boy!!

A few weeks ago when we went to the Doctors for a limp he had, he wouldn't let Dr. Santos (a female pediatrician) examine him!  He told her, "I want the boy Dr!!"  This cracked her up :)  She said she doesn't usually hear that until they are about 11 years old.  I've noticed lately that he has really started attaching himself to Josh and other males in the family.  From some of the books I read, I know this is a mile stone for boys... they begin to un-attach themselves from their moms.  I feel like this is a bit early and a little sad, but it is awesome to see him growing!!  Don't worry, he still loves to cuddle and give me kisses and wants me around... it's just neat to see him looking up to the awesome men in our lives!

Sam has really had a great year too!!  This kid grows like no other!  In January he was wearing 3T clothes and a size 7 shoe... At the end of the year he was wearing 5T shirts, 4T pants and a size 10 shoe!  He's off the charts in height and was around the 50 percentile in weight, which gave him a BMI in the 15 percentile.  He's tall and thin!

I think Sam loved Disney!!  He now talks about wanting to go back, but when we were there He was really not into the Characters that were in costume, but he did okay with the "face" characters (like Belle and Cinderella).  The only Characters he hugged were Jake and Pluto (whom he calls "his dog").  He loved the rides that were more like people movers and hated Dumbo :)  Of course, A Small World was one of his favorites!!

One of the fun things about Sam is that you never know what he is going to do!  He never really gets into trouble (like pouring flour all over or getting into something that he knows he is not suppose too), but he does like to make a mess.  He keeps us on our toes but makes us laugh at the same time!!

Over the Summer, I decided to start potty training him.  I really wanted to wait until he turned three, but for some reason I felt like it was a good time to start.  It took him 4 days to finally pee on the potty chair, and basically anytime I sit him on a potty he can pee.  But 6 months later we are no further than that week!  He just doesn't care if he goes in his diaper.... I don't know what to do with him!  But that is, in a way, part of his personality.  He has a stubbornness to him and an "I'll do things my own way in my own time."  Don't worry little man, we will conquer this before we go to Disney!!

Sam loves salad and that is no lie... he goes crazy when we bring him home a chicken avocado salad from Panera.  He can almost eat a half portion of that salad by himself!  But really, he will eat anything and everything.  He's the kid with best appetite!  His favorite show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney Junior.  He loves to play with those plastic army men (he carries them all over the house).  He also LOVES to watch Josh play Disney Infinity and the Marvel Avengers Lego game.  So much so that I think Josh is finally tired of playing Xbox!

On of our favorite things to do to Sam is call him something different...  "Hey Jake!!"  He always replies,

    "I'm not Jake.  I'm Sammy Owens!!!"