Noah at 3 years, 4 months

This son of ours, Noah, I love him. There are so many little things that have happened lately that show me who he is. He's really into the some of the CDs that we have in the van and when he hears a song starting he exclaims 'oh, it's my faborite!' Or, take his relationship with Ella. I love that he cares for her. While collecting eggs on Easter and when he noticed that he took the egg that Ella was going for he took it out of his basket and gave it to her. Then again, he also speaks his mind. The other day Ella kept asking him to tie her up like a doggie but he was not interested. After listening to her ask one too many times, he told her adamantly 'Ella I'm working.'

One thing that I noticed from a young age was his tenderness. The other night he was not feeling well and around 9:30 I heard him calling for me and saying that he wanted to lay with me in my bed. Figuring that it would be good for both of us to just go to sleep I brought him in and with his head on the pillow he just lay there smiling, so content to be in momma's bed. And then when I told him that we really needed to go to sleep he decided that we should hold hands while we fell asleep. So that is what we did... Such sweetness from this little boy. I want to bottle it up and remember it forever.

Or, take his cleverness. I was telling him a story while he was going potty the other day. I'm not sure how this got to be a habit but it is. This particular story was about a little boy named Woah and his sister Wella and their dog Woses. Their lives have a striking resemblance to ours and he smiled knowingly as I told him about the adventures of Woah. And then at the end he asked me if Woah liked 'finkles' on his pancakes. He can say sprinkles correctly, but he knew that we were changing the starting consonants for our little story. I could tell that he thought himself very tricky...

Or, remember that 'red thing' that he did not want to wear while playing basketball. He was doggedly against that thing for a good few months but now it is now a thing of the past. He started watching basketball with Matt and one day he decided that it would be okay to wear the Noah jersey. And then he wore it and wore it and wore it, so much that the 'H' started falling off. Then he started asking for pictures of Joakim Noah to be cut from the newspaper. And now, they are a part of his little boy shrine of favorite items above his bed. He still wears it but now it is just the NOA jersey. It is also his faborite.

Or, the most recent development has been the giving up of the nonnies, aka pacifier. We decided to let the kids trade their beloved nonnies for a toy when they were ready. Anticipating this I purchased a train that I thought Noah would really want. We showed it to him months ago and told him that our friend Baby Owen really needed his nonnies. 'Maybe later' was always the response. Recentlywe were in the toy story and he came across this Lightening McQueen toy. He wanted it really badly and I told him that it looked like a great toy but that we did not need it, we were going to leave it for other kids, on and on. He thought about it for a minute and then told me that he wanted to give his nonnies to Baby Owen and get this 'Light Queen'. He was sure of it. He proudly carried it to the register and then out to the car and then took a nap without the nonnie. After getting up from his nap he told me that we should send the nonnies to Baby Owen. So we boxed them up, addressed them to:

Baby Owen

His House

and then affixed a Lightening McQueen sticker in place of a stamp, assuring me that the mailman would take it to Owen promptly. He proudly walked them out to the mailbox and we have not really heard a word about the nonnies since...though he does happily tell visitors of his accomplishment and show them his new toy.