Samuel, lately

Samuel is seriously growing up right before my eyes!  He is 3 1/2 years old and acting like such a big boy!!  This is what he's been up to lately:

• He recognizes all of his letters (upper case) 
• He can count from 1-20 (but frequently misses 18) and backwards from 10-1.  He is really into counting and loves to count anything and everything.  He does a great job at pointing at objects and counting them.
• His shirts are all size 5 and his pants are 4s or 5s.  He is in a size 10 for shoes.
• I'd have to say that his favorite toy right now is his marble track.  He loves to tear it down and make new marble tracks and then he can spend a lot of time running his marbles down the track and cheering for his favorite marble to win.
• His other favorite toy is his basketball hoop and his basketball.  When I asked him what his favorite sport was he said "basketball!"  He's got a pretty good shot, too!  Sometimes he uses his left hand and sometimes his right.  He also loves playing soccer, football (although not as much right now), hockey, and baseball (he does fairly well with being pitched to).
• I have no idea if he is going to be a lefty or a righty.  He does a lot of things with his left (eats, colors, bats, shoots baskets to name a couple) but also can do things with his right.  I guess time will tell!  When he plays soccer though he can only shoot with his right foot.  He has a horrible left footed shot!
• Samuel is growing more and more into his "big brother" role.  It's so fun to see!  He loves to explain things to Hope and teach her things.  A few days ago they were running around the house together holding hands.  Hope always tells Samuel, "You're my best friend forever!"  The other day I caught him asking Aliyah if she wanted to go downstairs and play.  She said yes and so they headed for the stairs.  Samuel said to Aliyah, "Aliyah, sit down on your bum when you go down the stairs. (so she did) Big girl!"  My Mom caught Samuel trying to teach Aliyah how to shoot a basket.  The other night Samuel wanted the girls to play basketball with him so he told me to put his hoop down on the ground (it is usually on top of the ottoman at the highest level to make it as high as it can possibly be) and put it on the lowest level.  He then cheered when his sisters scored and encouraged them when they didn't make it.  I love seeing this kind of stuff!
• When he wants a banana or a cheese stick without it being broken in half or cut up, he asks for it, "All in a whole."  Love this!

And I love you, Samuel Jack!!  You are such a special boy!!