nine

During the past week, our little man Sam turned 9. So I thought that it was only fitting that I sit my butt down and write a little about the number two son. (I actually did this a couple of days ago, but then managed to lose the lot … always a wonderful thing).

Sam is a delight (well most of the time). He’s distinctly different from his brothers and the child most likely to dish out a hug. Sam takes great delight in surprising me with crushing hugs. And I of course, never complain about that.

The other day, one of the other Aussie Mums over here said to us, “You know I can’t quite work Sam out. Every time I think that I’ve got him pegged, he surprises me and I realise that I don’t have it yet.”

I think that’s very true of Sam and in many ways he could have been a Gemini as he switches from what I perceive to be his usual generous and easy going manner to the little guy who’s picking on his younger siblings or berating his mother for a minor infraction of what he perceives as common sense and decency (usually a sure indication that he’s over-tired).

On the day of Sam’s birthday, he received a remote control helicopter. Just a little one, that’s supposed to be indoor friendly. When I was leaving for work, the helicopter was on being charged, so I didn’t think to say “don’t fly it outside.” But when I was almost at work, I realised that I had left my phone home and so turned around to go get it. I’d probably been out of the house for about 40 minutes. Of course as I came in the door I learnt that the helicopter had been taken outside for a maiden flight.

Sam, being generous as he is, had allowed Michael to be the one to try it out for him. It flew. Landing seemed to be the problem. Well, not so much landing as the location for it. Michael managed to land it on the roof, which is of course now a rather tall prospect compared to what I am used to at home. And given that we are new to town, I am yet to have gone down the path of procuring a ladder with sufficient reach to make it to the top of the house.

Now if this had been any other child in the family, a) they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to have the first turn and b) they would have been so distraught and angry that I would have been confronted by a screaming ball of hysteria the moment that I walked in the door. But Sam was calm and philosophical, accepting the fact that he’d said that Michael could have first turn and with that ultimate childhood faith in his father to get it back for him (given that it’s days later now and will be the first chance that I get to borrow a ladder, I really need to try and do that for him today … when I finally get out of the office). It’s one of those ways in which Sam surprises you.

But Sam is also still the little guy who is afraid to give some things ago because he feels that he won’t be good enough for them. Sometimes, he thinks that its better not to go out and look bad rather than give it a go. And so at the first game of Ringette that he went to, he spent most of the first half sitting on the bench, adamantly refusing to take part. It took me back to the day that I had to drag him into the basketball stadium just to have him sit on the bench. Which we then managed a week later to be getting him on the court (not participating, but on the court) to finally a point where he was happy to go on, as long as he participated in his way (which mainly meant taking the free throws from the side lines). But he did eventually go out on the ice and do his thing (which given his skating ability didn’t really involve chasing the ring or other skaters around the ice).

Sam simply isn’t as competitive as his older brother. He’s happy to be a part of a team and happy to play, but he doesn’t really deal all that well with the fact that everyone doesn’t just get a turn at it. I take this from the basketball experience, where he was quite happy until people would attempt to snatch the ball from him. He wasn’t prepared to stick his hand in and take it off them and really just looked like he wished that people would give him some time to dribble the ball rather than try and snatch it off him (he did get good at hanging onto it when they did try that!)

So he’s more than happy to shoot hoops on his own, or with me where there’s no pressure and the only competition that’s introduced is at his instigating. He likes cricket and I think part of it is that even though there’s a team playing against you, there’s the separation in the way it’s played. It’s not a bad thing. Its just hard for a competitive old bastard like me to watch sometimes!

But all in all, as I started with, Sam is a delight. He loves his maths and does well at school and most of the time is a polite little man who’s fun to be with. Happy Birthday Sam.