I recently taught Sami to say “I’m two and a half,” and today, June 10, 2008, it is true!

2.5, or 30 months, is a wonderful time in Sami’s existence, and I am honored to mother him every second of the day. He is such an interesting little dude. Constantly I am amazed and delighted by him. Intensity is a part of his nature, and his capacity for joy is matched by his capacity to be pissed off and scream (when it is bedtime, for example). I love that about him. He’s deep.

Sami is so loving and affectionate. He loves to “snuggle mama,” and snuggled in my lap this very night as a thunderstorm began to rage. His kisses have more precise aim, as opposed to the slobbery open-mouthed kisses of last year. They are now closed-mouthed and delicate and delightful and I ask for them all the time. He gives them to me when he feels like it, hahaha! When I am holding my sweet little boy in my arms, I feel safe and loved and whole, and I think he feels the same. I cherish the strong bond we have to one another.

Sami is a total freak about music. When he goes to his friend LG’s house, the first thing he does is pull out the box of instruments and start banging on drums. His instruments include three toy violins, a banjo-tam, several drums (although he will make anything into a drum. At his grandma’s recently, he made two empty plastic wastepaper baskets into quite serviceable drums.), maracas, a harmonica, and two ukeleles. He goes crazy on an adult-sized drum set.

Sami loves to sing and knows all the words to the following melodies:

The ABC Song
Ba Ba Black Sheep (pronounced Ba-Ba Crap Sheep)
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Jack be Nimble
and much of
All Around the Kitchen

He also digs it when I play old-school Madonna, Arabic faves like Amr Diab and Samira Said, Eddie Vedder (the Into the Wild soundtrack) and The Sippy Cups.

Recently, we have had the joy of singing together. I love our little duets in the car — they make our commutes quite heavenly. His little voice holds strong against mine, and it is a wonderful step in both of our musical awarenesses.

Sami loves to talk. He might be a little reserved when you first meet him, but he quickly opens up and loves to point out everything in his world to you. Often, he will babble to himself, or make his dolls talk or, the latest, play the guitar. Some cute Sami-isms include ending plurals in -ses, as in, “two truckses;” and the mix-up of inside and outside and upstairs and downstairs. Generally I am amazed at how he develops more and more complex sentences, stringing them together naturally as can be.

The dude is a voracious reader. We check books out from the library all the time, and get down with some serious perusal, at least once a day. His latest book club recommendations include:

I Stink
Punk Farm
Froggy Plays in the Band
Froggy Rides a Bike
(heck, any of the Froggy books)
A Potty For Me
I Like It When
Chugga Chugga Choo-Choo
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

I look forward to many more literary excapades with my sweet little reader.

I admit, Sami is also into his TV programs, but hey! It don’t seem to mess with his love of reading and learning, and I make sure this kid gets tons of exercise daily. Current favorites include The Little Einsteins, Go, Diego, Go, Super Why!, Dora the Explorer, and, of course, Spongebob Squarepants. I recently bought the Finding Nemo DVD, one of my favorite movies, and look forward to sharing it with him.

Sami is massively into trucks, trains, construction equipment, and manly-man stuff like that. We have an ever-growing constellation of vehicles, which he somestimes takes into the bath with him. And he is crazy for choo-choos, which is different from last year, when he indifferently pulled the tracks apart as soon as I could assemble them. When we see a motorcycle in the street, he often declares that he wants to drive it. He digs every kind of public transportation, and bus rides especially excite him. He’s also very much into airplane rides, and is fascinated with all things airport-related.

Sami is a serious water babe. I remember how last year at this time, I was nervous about him wading in the baby pool on his still slightly unsteady feet, and hovered about six inches from him at all times. This year, I felt totally confident to sit on the edge of the pool as he splashed and thrashed and kicked about. This year he is also tall enough to wade in the three-foot pools, which is a huge thrill for him. I have a feeling that next year at this time he will be swimming. As I blogged about here, swimming is a special activity that we share together, and I so look forward to our water-time.

I could go on and on about my awesome son. Every day, he is my guru, my mirror, my buddy, my comedian, my heart. Thirty months have gone by since this incredible child emerged from my body and into this world, thirty months we have spent, side by side, through so much joy and loss and resilience, so much laughter and so many tears.

Happy 2.5, Sami G!