HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM SCHAEFFER . . . Happy birthday to the baby in the family, Sam, who turned three today. Though not quite old enough to appreciate a weblog post -- or to be repulsed by it, as the case may be -- Sam is working towards that point quickly, as he's reached the age where learning to speak with grownup fluency seems to be one of his principal daily concerns. Which is a lot of fun--

That's Sam yesterday, modeling his sister Lydia's high-school graduation headgear. But enough of Sam in the present. Let's turn to Sam in the past. Since Sam and this weblog have existed for about the same length of time, he's figured into a number of posts, for good or bad, some of which I may as well reprise now in order to thank him for them.

As Sam was getting ready to be born, he inspired one of his first posts, about baby names. Next there was a weblog version of a birth announcement, which figured into one of the "weekly reports" I used to do about the law firm every week. This was followed later by two posts about one of Sam's favorite things in those early days, breasts: "What Do Newborns Want," and a little later, "Types of Lawyers #5: The Lawyer Who Brings Her Breast Pump to the Office" (which was really more about Sam's mother, my wife and law partner Andrea, who I transformed in the post from the plaintiffs' lawyer that she really is to the defense lawyer she would have been, had she been a defense lawyer).

Early in his weblogging career, Sam also figured into a post about tort reform, where he was shown being attacked by a predatory trial lawyer. I think that was Sam's first photo on the weblog, but it was followed by photos of him helping me with a podcast, and, of course, the annual photos at Halloween, first as a baby lawyer, then a pumpkin, then a lion.

So thanks, Sam. Or sorry, as the case may be. And happy birthday!