Reflections on Sam's first birthday

A year ago today I was blessed to help Amy bring Sam into the world. We showed up at Martha Jefferson Hospital a little after 7, and a few hours later, we had a bouncing baby boy.

The surgeon who performed the C-section on Amy was the same one who delivered Josephine just two and a half years before. He remembered us. When the baby came out and we could hear a little cry, he asked us what we had at home. We told him we had a little girl.

"Now you have the other kind, too!" he exclaimed!

I squeezed Amy's hand and we were both so happy to have a little boy to go along with our little girl. We were so overjoyed, and we would be pioneers. All of our friends' with two children seemed to have two girls. We would have a boy and a girl.

After he was cleaned up, I got to go with him into the nursery while he was put underneath the heat lamp. He weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces, a little more than his sister had done. Like his sister, he was alert with eyes darting everywhere just minutes after birth. I told him all about his mother, his sister, and his other brother. Those first 30 minutes were magical and I was proud to be there with him as he took his first breaths, saw his first sights. I'm proud to be his father.

As with Josephine, we weren't entirely sure what we were going to name the little creature. I had my choices, and Amy had ours. After much discussion in the recovery room, we finally settled on Samuel Nelson Tubbs, with Nelson chosen to honor Amy's late father.

Now he is one, and he's so close to walking. He loves music, loves to play with his toys, and just beginning to discover books. He's a ravenous eater, and shows all the signs of the same stubborn gene that Amy and I both have, and certainly passed on to Josephine.

From the very early days, my nick-name for Sam has been Bam! complete with exclamation point. He's going to be a bruiser, a welcome cauldron of male energy. We're going to have to our hands full with him.

And you know what? It's going to be great. I look forward to the rest of his life. I look forward to seeing how he and Josephine grow up together. I can't wait until he starts talking and his vocalizations become articulate communications. I look forward to continuing exploring the world with him. He's a very curious little boy who sits patiently as I explain to him what things are and how they work.

I love his laugh, and how happy he sounds. His laugh is so similar to his sister's.

There have been challenges, of course. I'm glad that we are finally learning strategies to get him to go to sleep. He does tend to be a little more clingy than Josephine was at his age. That could be because he has only recently begun daycare, whereas Josephine began at three months in. There was the incident in September where he was hospitalized in Texas during a nasty scare.

I'm proud of his mother for all the hard work she puts into raising him.

I'm proud of his sister for being a relatively good big sister, and for being patient while she transitioned from only child to older sibling.

So, Happy Birthday, Sam! Know your daddy loves you, and that he'll always be here for you.