Our Big Boy

Noah turned 3. It was about time for a Sunday suit, don't you think?

What 3-year-old Noah is like:

He writes his name now. I wasn't prepared for how absolutely adorable it is to see your child write his name in that scraggly little kid handwriting!! He is learning to sound out words and the first word I saw him read was ipod. He loves the show SuperWhy and sometimes he calls himself SuperNoah. Other things he likes to do with letters:

I love children's creativity!! Noah loves to draw and paint. Here is a sidewalk chalk picture.

I thought the people on the boat were adorable! This is one of a few times he has ventured beyond his dinosaur drawings into the human world. But Noah's favorite canvas is still his body...

As mentioned previously, he is still obsessed with Dinosaurs. Hence the Halloween costume:

We pretend to be dinosaurs at least five times every day. He gives his request the same way every time: "Mom, let's play Dinosaurs. You be Mother, Jake will be Little Foot and I'll be Sharp Tooth." He won't take no for an answer. Before I can respond, sometimes he prompts me with the appropriate answer: "Mom, say 'Okay'!" Then he starts to attack me and I yell: "Run, Little Foot!" and I try to fight Sharp Tooth with my "tail". Sharp Tooth falls down, but then he gets back up and attacks me until I fall down. I lie still and Sharp Tooth promptly comes to and begins to scavenge Mother's dead body, with hauntingly life-like carnivorous movements and sounds. Morbid, I know. I wonder if he does this in nursery?

Sometimes the dinosaur role play lasts all day (We play dinosaur doctor, dinosaur football, dinosaur cooking, etc.) Throughout our busy day, when I forget and slip out of character, he will remind me. "That's not Jake! That's Little Foot, Mother!" It is sweet hearing him call me 'Mother' though.

Noah doesn't say his L's. So everything is ya ya ya. A catchphrase from Noah on the drive down from Idaho as he looked out the window at an imaginary volcano: "Yook at the Yava!!!"

(Noah with his volcano and "yava" birthday cake)

And he says to me at least fifteen times a day: "Mom, can I talk to you for a second?" "Yes, Noah." "Mom, I yove you!!!" I will never forget his sweet little voice in that sweet little conversation!!

One more sweet story about Noah. He has been complaining about the scary shadows in his room at night. The nightlight doesn't help, in fact, I think it just makes the shadows worse. So some nights we have been using the dimmer switch to turn on the ceiling light, and that seems to help a little. And then there's Noah's night prayers, we have been petitioning for some divine help to conquer his bedtime fears. On Monday morning, Noah emerged from his bedroom and exclaimed triumphantly: "I'm not afraid of the shadows anymore!!" I said: "Wow, that's great! I'm so happy for you! How did that happen?" He replied: "Because Jesus helped me not be scared anymore!"

Noah is a sweet kid. We love him. And I've loved these 3 years.