My first and last babies have birthdays 6 years and 2 weeks apart! Hard to believe they are 7 and 1 now. The days do sometimes drag by, but the years sure do fly. Sammy (who goes by Samuel with his friends) had a sports theme party this year. We went to the school “cancha” with our boys and 4 extras and played games related to basketball, football, soccer, baseball and Frisbee. Paul organized all of this, so I was glad he didn’t get called in to the hospital. Sammy’s favorite sport is basketball and he has a pretty good dribble including an under-the-leg trick taught to him by second cousin 
Adam. The local pinata store made us a special order basketball pinata which we did after pizza and cake at home. Sammy thrives here in Shell, but I think he’s the kind of kid who would thrive anywhere. His passions other than basketball are reading (he’s read 3 Chronicles of Narnia and is working his way through the Bobbsey Twins series,) sign language (which I taught to his school class this past year,) games including a new favorite – Ticket to Ride, playing in the jungle, Spanish and guitar – which he is hoping to learn to play. We are so proud of the way he jumps into life here – eating fried fish with the head, tail, etc still intact, trying (and liking) tripe, attending the Spanish version of AWANA here in Shell, attending Spanish speaking VBS at our church, setting up a library this summer with his best friend Jonny and roaming our “jungle” backyard. I am impressed with the quality and consistency of his friendships. He seems to get along with everybody and received a peacemaker award from his teacher last year. At the same time, he has a couple special friends that he keeps up with, even those in the States. This summer we were able to see his two buddies from pre-K in Dallas – Adam and Tyler. The three of them seemed to just pick up where they left off 2 years ago. He also loved being around many of his cousins – all of the Taylor cousins in Houston and cousin Jian in San Antonio. He has a special relationship with his same-age cousin Ellie and I think they even speak Spanish together but it has been neat to see his relationships with all his cousins develop. Sammy also has the important role of biggest brother and is eager to teach his brothers and tell them how things work. They have fun building forts together, playing hot wheels or pushing Isaac around on his train toy. However, when we realize we haven’t seen Samuel around in a while, we can usually find him in his room reading.
It is especially difficult to believe that our baby is now one year old. (To celebrate his birthday, we plan to change our 
banner picture so he’s actually represented. Poor, deprived fourth child. We just can’t top the stunning background of the current picture.) He crawls and cruises all over the place and has a dozen word vocabulary, adding much to the noise and chaos of our household. He is a happy baby and is content to play by himself, but also loves having his brothers around. He loves bananas, ice cream, balls, strawberries and riding on his new train with brother-power! He is also fascinated by the water bottle rockets that Paul likes to shoot off, so we celebrated his birthday with a rocket-shaped cookie and bottle rockets. He has a great habit of sleeping late in the mornings, for which we are often grateful. His toothy smile can make us grin whatever mood we’re in and we look forward to seeing his personality, language and mobility develop in the next year. It won’t be long before he is running around the jungle with his brothers!