Friday, April 3, 2009

A hard lesson learned

Last night mommy was a bit cranky.. for no certain reason. Noah picked up on this and told me, "That is not very nice." As bath and bedtime continued, I grew more inpatient, again, for no good reason. Noah was just acting like a normal 3 year old, actually, not really doing anything wrong. As I was still "not being very nice" Noah said something to me:
"Mom, you are not obeying your dad. You need Jesus to clean your heart."

I just stopped in my tracks, convicted over my attitude. How can a 3 year old be so smart? I know God speaks to us through our children. How humbled I became!
So we stopped what we were doing and walked into noah's room to pray. With Noah sitting in my lap, I confessed my sins of being grouchy and ugly, asked noah's forgiveness and for God's forgiveness. We prayed together and ended with Noah giving me a big hug. Noah was right, I was not obeying my dad-- God the Father. We are teaching Noah he is to obey his parents, as it is written in the Bible. We as parents are to obey God as well. Well, Noah called me on it-- I was not obeying God my father. I was being rude and the Bible says in 1 Corinthians that love is not rude. I was being inpatient and he also teaches that love is patient, kind and gentle.

In this Easter season, I am so thankful for Jesus dying on the cross to bear all of my sins. I know I am forgiven and that is the greatest gift of all.

Along these lines, I received the first phone call home from noah's teacher yesterday. It was from his community bible study (CBS) teacher Mrs. Zirolli. She wanted to let me know that during bible lesson time yesterday one of the teachers was talking about Jesus and how he died and rose again. Mrs. Zirolli noticed Noah was talking so she asked him to please listen to the other teacher. Then she stopped and listened to him and realized Noah was reciting the rest of the bible verse John 3:16 that the teacher was begining to say. She said they all listened to him recite the scripture and were so touched to hear his little sweet voice speak those words.
It was such a wonderful phone call to receive. It warmed my heart to know that she would take the time to call me and how much she loved hearing noah. I am so thankful for his teachers at CBS for loving Noah and for encouraging me to continue teaching Noah to memorize scripture.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

March 2009

I had outpatient surgery this month and Noah has been such a good helper for me! He is very patient and some what understanding that I could not do things as quickly for a few weeks like I used to. But he is becoming more independent in helping himself around the house.. getting his own snack and entertaining himself for a while.

He is still loving his Sunday school and bible study at church and talks a lot about Jesus is in his heart and how happy he is. I love that he is learning about our Lord and is growing to know and love Jesus. Most importantly that he is learning who Jesus is, as I did not grow up knowing how important it is to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I think this will really strengthen his faith and foster his spiritual growth.

Noah's latest thing is telling us stories. He loves when we tell him bedtime stories, made up as we go along. So noah has learned to do this for us. I love his imagination and how he also mimics us from previous stories he has heard.

We are getting outside a bit more now as the weather is warming up and he is really enjoying himself. We have a new basketball hoop for the front and a new sandbox for the back. He is riding his bike pretty well in the front driveway all by himself. This summer we will take it easy and stay close to home and use the yard and pool a lot as well as play with friends and visit parks. Joe is in graduate school and is pretty busy being tied up with papers and reading. So it will be a quiet but fun summer.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

February 2009

Noah's obsession with the Cars movie has grown this month. He now has a few cars and of course, Lightning McQueen, Or as he calls him, "Lightning King".
He loves Towmater, Mack, Frank and still tipping the tractors. He will tip anything he can, including his tricycle, home depot tractor and Thomas Trains. He really loves that movie!
Here is a picture of Noah showing Frank that he needs Jesus in his heart. (Frank is an angry field harvester).













One thing that I love so much is my time at night when I tuck him in. He likes for me to make a "nest" for him with blankets tucked under his legs and around both of his arms. He always asks me to lay down with him. and then he scooches over and says sweetly, "I'll move".. and makes room for me. We talk about our day and what plans we have for the next. We pray and sing songs and recite his favorite bible verses. He has an amazing memory!

The newest thing is how much he says "I love you" to Joe and I. He'll say it when he is talking to himself in bed, "I love momma".. and now when we say good night, he waves to Joe at the door (after prayers he walks Joe to the door and watches him go down stairs). "Good night Daddy", (as he waves like a cute 3 year old all uncoordinated standing awkwardly with his belly sticking out still and a huge grin plastered on his face), "I love you."
and when I finally leave his room a short time later, he tells me "good night, I love you." He has said I love you for a while, but it was always repeating it. Now he initiates it and you can tell he means it when he says it.

This month we have taught him about what to do in an emergency and how to dial 911. I am hoping he never dials by accident, and also hoping he never has to use it.
We also have taught him about privacy in the bathroom (which he tells me he needs "piracy". We are starting to teach him about his body and the proper terminology, too. It is a big thing to accomplish at 3, that is why we are taking baby steps.


On potty patrol, he is doing well at church. He asks to go potty now without the teachers reminding him. We used to come down between service and community to take him but by then he has gone already. He no longer needs his elmo seat, too. Even at home he has turned away his elmo seat and step stool and can get on the toilet by himself, which he rejoices in saying he is a big boy! At nana and popa's house he is using the "regular" toilet too, which he calls it, vs using a potty seat on the toilet. He is doing very well and we are so proud of him!

and I have to of course add some funny things he has said this month. There are always so many, but one I can recall to mind, he told Joe that his bare belly looked like a "messy tree." Joe had to call me at work to tell me that one and I could not stop cracking up!

and finally, you know when your baby is a big boy when he requests to ride in the fire truck part of the grocery store cart. I love grocery shopping with him because he sits warm and cozy in the seat cushion, and loves to take my jacket and make a nest around him. He always gives me hugs and kisses and is just so sweet. well, he saw a fire truck at Big Y and got sooo excited. so Joe put him in it (thoroughly cleaning it with purell wipes first) and Noah was excitedly screaming, "Mack!! WAit for me!!!" From where else, the Cars movie. :-)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Smarty Pants

On Friday, while Noah was sitting at the table coloring a Thomas page with his markers (blue, his favorite) he made the letter H on his own. And he told me, " I just made an H"... and he kept making them! I did not teach him that at all!! I just sat there looking at him in amazement He got so excited that he was shreaking! Noah has known how to spell his name for so long, longer than I can remember but now I am going to have him practice writing it. So I then wrote decent size letters on a piece of construction paper and put clear contact paper over it and had him trace the letters on that with a washable marker. Then I wiped it clean and had him start again. He really seemed to enjoy that.
I came down from my nap yesterday after work to see a picture that noah drew. It had all O's and H's on it.. all on his own! I am proud of my smarty pants!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Tractor Snipping


What is tractor snipping you ask? It is tractor tipping, but Noah calls it "snipping". He got this concept from the "Cars" movie. Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater go into a field and tip over tractors (which resemble cows) and they get the big crop harvester, Frank, very angry. (which resmembles a large, red, angry bull).
Noah finds this absolutely hysterical! He goes around snipping all of his trains, toy cars, anything with wheels. We bought him a small tractor from the disney store that he keeps snipping. He asks us to make a noise and then slowly this tractor tips backwards. and today he was acting like the tractor himself, on the floor, slowly tipping/snipping over. Noah has such a sense of humor!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Jan 09

I just love watching noah grow, learn, change and discover new things.
Each night after Joe gets home from work and after we eat dinner, the boys like to play hide and seek. Noah of course cheats and peeks through his fingers while joe tries to find a place to hide. and when it is noah's turn to hide, well, he always gives himself away. 3 different levels in the house make it lots of fun for them to play. sometimes I get coaxed into playing which is always an adventure.
Another game they play is piggy back rides.. poor Joe. Noah is so demanding, but it is comical! he makes joe get on all 4's and noah climbes up. But one time he struggled and struggled to climb up on his back. so he used joe's belt to step off of and climb up! not so good on the days he is wearing sweat pants! another time he could not get up so after struggling for a few seconds he figured out if he pulled over his ride-on tractor he could climb up on that and then on to daddy. It is really fun to step back and watch him problem-solve.
He loves playing his new V-tech tv/computer games which I hope is not grooming him for higher-tech video games in the future, which I am sure it is.




We took him to see Bob the Builder for his 3rd birthday. It was painfully boring to say the least, but Noah seemed to enjoy himself.














Noah had his 3 year physical at the beginning of the month. He was almost 30 lbs and 36 inches. He has doubled his birth length! and he can now go on more rides at Six Flags!

Noah is so caring and sweet. A few weeks ago while I am downstairs, I hear this:
"MOMMA, COME QUICK! MOMMA COME! MOMMA COME!!!! COME QUICK!" I ran up the stairs to see what possibly could be wrong.. and Noah says, "I made you a picnic!" He took out all of his play kitchen food and accessories and made me a picnic of icecream and cupcakes in the upstairs hallway. Isn't that the sweetest thing? He really has a kind heart.


When ever one of his trains "falls" or his multitude of stuffed animals falls off the couch or bed, Noah is quick to come to their rescue. "Are you ok Dennis/puppy/percy/thomas? Are you ok? You fell down! Don't worry, I got you, I got you." and he says it with the most sensitive and caring voice. I am glad he has a soft heart.


Noah is having so much fun in CBS (community bible study). He learns so much! Lately his has been singing "The rains came down and the floods went up" complete with hand gestures.
He also sings a song called Pitter Patter.. again with hand gestures, snapping and clapping and spinning.
After cbs one day on the drive home, I heard him talking about what he learned in class,("The Lord is God") talking about his friends and his teachers. He does so well saying his prayers, which for the month of dec and Jan he memorized the Lord's Prayer. He says it so fast!! (and complete with hand gestures of course). His memorization skills are amazing!

Noah loves doing puzzles and is very good at them. He picked up how to do them rather quickly! In this picture he put a brand new puzzle together in a few minutes.



There is so much he says and does each day, I want to keep a photographic memory to be able to remember it all. He is so innocent and funny, I wish there was a way to capture his sweet naivity. He looked down one day while getting dressed and he asked what those were on his chest? I answered that they were nipples. Everyone has nipples. He saw the color was a little darker, so of course he said they were dirty and needed to be cleaned. Then he tried to pick them off and said they were boo boos.. and then we put his shirt on and he said bye bye nipples.. go to sleep.
reading it, it does not sound so funny, but to hear a sweet 3 year old little voice asking these questions and putting 2 & 2 together had Joe and I in complete stitches!

I could go on and on with what he does each day. I want to express how much fun he is and how much we absolutely enjoy him and cherish him. I want most of all for him to be happy and grow up to be a man of faith with a deep love of Jesus. That is my hearts' desire and prayer.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The things kids say....

The other day, I was getting out of the shower, Noah saw my breasts and asked, "what are those".. pointing his little finger at them.
I said, "They are mommies boobies."
"why?"
"God gave mommies boobies to feed babies."
ok he says and runs off to play.

fast forward to the next day. It is my 2nd day in a row to work. Joe picks him up from his parents house and noah runs upstairs to see me. He stops short when he realizes I am dressed in my scrubs again.
So disappointed, he asks, "momma, you work again?"
I tell him yes and he got all upset (not crying) and told me that he would work instead! --very sweet!

So a little while later, while we are sitting at the dinner table eating, noah again brings up that I have to go to work.
I told him "yes, momma has to go help take care of babies at work."
and to which he replies, "With your boobies?"



Um... no. I told him I am going to give sick babies medicine. And then he said very sweetly, "no me! let me! I want to do it!"
I got so teary-eyed! not sure which was more endearing.. the fact he wanted to help take care of sick babies, wanted to work for me or that I had to help these sick babies with my boobies! lol
gosh, kids are just so precious!!!