Life with our favorite 3 1/2 year old!

Noah is 3 ½ now!  Now that he is older, it is so great to be able to have mini conversations with him and to watch him grow into this amazing little person.  Hands down, his favorite activity is puzzles.  He is amazingly adept and fast at putting them together (he has his daddy’s engineer-brain for sure).  He can do a 50 piece puzzle with little to no help (although it is more fun for him if we do them with him)!!  Noah also likes playing games on the iphone, playing with cars/planes, coloring, painting and making cars out of play-doh.  He is very organized/neat for his age (and for being a boy) and is good about keeping his room clean and toys organized. He is in swimming lessons now and is doing really great.  Dad likes to use Noah as a human cannonball/projectile to soak Mom (so much for keeping my hair and makeup in tact).  Noah loves every second of this game!

Since he was a toddler, Noah has always been a little shy.  He would talk all day and night about wanting to see his friends but then when we got the kids together for playdates, he would be Mr. Shy Guy and play mostly by himself.  Over the past few months, it has been great to see him start to come out of his shell and play more with his friends!

Noah has such a big love in his heart for his family and close friends.  He loves all four of his grandparents so much and has a special bond with each of them.  He asks to see/call them on the phone regularly. He often gets upset when I come to pick him up from Pao Pao’s house (even telling me to “go back to work!”) because he doesn’t want to stop playing with Pao Pao.  Dad is definitely the “fun dad” and is his favorite playmate.  Mom is most requested for bedtime snuggles, back rubs and booktime (or anytime he doesn’t feel well). Aunt Renee, Lucy (her dog) and Al are top listers on his nightly prayer list.

He is doing really great at potty training and is pretty much trained (except for overnight).  Yay!! We have been using little matchbox cars as rewards and call them “poo poo cars”.  This method has worked well except for when he used the potty at pre-school and asked for a poo poo car and the teachers ran around frantically to find him a “purple car”.  Hilarious.

Noah is so sweet with his little sister and loves to play with her.  For as rough as he can be with his friends sometimes, he is amazingly gentle with her.  Just yesterday, he told us he wanted to be her “best friend.”  Our hearts exploded at the cuteness of that statement.  He can be so sweet sometimes.  When we were in California, I caught Noah in his bed reading “Goodnight Moon” to Minnie Mouse, saying prayers with her and tucking his blanket around her.  Then once Minnie was tucked in, he shut the bedroom door softly behind him (as if not to wake her up) and proceeded to run around the condo.  He cracks us up on a daily basis.

Pictures to come soon!