Happy Birthday, Noah (a day late)

My ray of sunshine turned 5 years old yesterday.  This little man has stolen my heart forever.  I am in awe as I watch him grow.  He has one of the kindest hearts of anyone I know.  Every day when I drop him off at the babysitter's we have a special routine that we go through before I can walk out the door.  I always get 3 kisses and 3 hugs.  Every time I wear my Chili Dawg necklace he always gives it a kiss.  When he prays, he always asks Jesus to take care of Chili Dawg until we get to heaven.  On Monday nights, when Ryan goes to his Journey Group, he always cries, because he's "going to miss Daddy so much", so Ryan has to sneak into his room when he gets home to give Noah another kiss while he's sleeping. 

He is a really good big brother to Juliana.  Last year, when we had to go to the hospital with Juli on his birthday, he didn't whine or cry or say anything about his birthday at all.  He didn't bring up his birthday at all that night, or even the next day.  He just wanted Juli to be better.  He loves his cousins very much too.  He has a special relationship with Rori Rose- it started when Juli was born, and he was mad at us for bringing her home.  Rori took care of him when they came down to visit.  Now that he is older, he and Liam are getting along really well too, and have found a common bond with "Angry Birds".

This year, Noah started preschool (last year, he did preschool for 10 weeks through my high school).  For valentine's day, his class did several short plays.  Noah was given the role of a dog, and I had to come up with a costume for him to wear.  Noah really wanted to be a Tripawd dog, like Chili Dawg was, but I knew it would be hard for him to only be able to use 1 arm.  I was able to talk him into wearing Chili's Tripawd bandana, but then the morning of the play, Noah asked if he could wear Chili's dog collar instead because it had Chili Dawg's name on it, and I was wearing my Chili Dawg necklace.  How could I refuse?  He did such a good job up there and remembered all of his lines, and everyone liked his costume.  For show and tell, Noah brought in a picture of Chili Dawg and Chili Dawg's friend, Abby and told his class about how Chili Dawg & Abby had cancer and had to have their legs amputated but could still walk.  Then he told his class that Chili and Abby's cancer came back and their daddy's had to carry them to the rainbow bridge and then Jesus carried them the rest of the way because they couldn't walk anymore.  My little boy is growing up so quickly!

Happy birthday, my special boy.  We love you so very much!