Happy Birthday, Noah!

My baby boy turns four years old today.  Boy has time flown by!  I remember the day I had him.  It was a Saturday and my parents were going to come down to help us get organized, since Noah wasn't supposed to arrive for another 3 weeks.  Ryan and I were both sick and miserable.  I had a bad case of bronchitis and Ryan had a really bad cold.  I started bleeding that morning and the doctor on call told me to come in and get "checked out".  When we got to the hospital I was having contractions but I wasn't feeling them.  According to the monitor they were pretty regular, so they had us walk the hallway and drink water for an hour.  Then the doctor checked me.  He told me that he was going to send me and I breathed a sigh of relief (being so sick there was no way I wanted to go through labor when I could barely breathe).  He winked at Ryan, took out the little hook on a stick and broke my water.  "I thought you said I could go home!"  I yelled.  "Well, I was kidding, you're going to deliver today," and then he walked out.  I looked at Ryan in disbelief and got on the phone to call my parents.  Less than 12 hours later, I was holding a beautiful baby boy in my arms.

If you have ever met Noah, you know why I call him my "Ray of Sunshine".  It's rare for him not to be smiling or happy.  He's like a breath of fresh air when he comes into the room.  Noah loves to read Bible stories and pray.  We were at a birthday party recently and all the kids were eating except Noah.  When I asked him why he wasn't eating his pizza, he told me no one had prayed yet.  We just spent the last two weeks reading the same story about Joseph and his coat of many colors and his dream interpretations at bedtime.  When Noah hears a Bible story that he likes, we read it so many times that Noah can tell you the story himself (we read the story of Noah for almost the entire month of January).  Now he is into the story of Moses.

Noah is an excellent big brother to Juliana.  There have been times when I have come into the room to find the two of them sitting together looking at books and Noah pointing out pictures or making sounds of animals for her.  Sometimes he hides the two of them under a blanket and I have to "find" them.  The two of them especially like to play "house" or "tea party" in Chili's dog crate (he's a big dog, so it's a big crate with lots of room, but I don't take pictures of that because I'm sure they'd be misinterpreted somehow).  One of my favorite moments are when we are at the store and Juliana insists on walking because Noah is walking, and then Juliana insists on holding Noah's hand and he lets her.

Noah has been very resilient this past year with everything that has gone on with Juliana.  There have been many times when I have had to leave him with a sitter to take Juliana to a specialist and he never put up a fuss or anything.  There have also been times when I couldn't find a sitter and had to bring him with me to the lengthy appointments and he held up as well as you could expect a 3 year old to.  He understands that Juliana has therapists and he knows their names and even what days of the week they come on, so if for some reason our schedule gets changed and I don't tell him, he will ask, "But Momma, sister has therapy today.  We need to go home."

Noah is a huge "momma's boy" and I know that it won't last forever, so I will treasure it for as long as it lasts.  I love when he asks if I will snuggle him- on the rare occasion that he wants to sit still.  I love that when I drop him off at Theresa's house he insists on giving me 5 goodbye kisses and telling me to "be good at school" and that he'll "miss me at school".  Happy Birthday, Noah!  Your Daddy and I love you so very much!