Happy 7th Birthday, Noah!

Dear Noah,

Seven!!!  Wow.  It is hard to believe that our little baby boy is seven already.  You have grown so much this year--and I'm not just talking about the 3 inches in height!

Here are some of the highlights from your year:

• You entered the 1st grade.  Mrs. Davies is your teacher and you absolutely adore her. 

• Your reading has really taken off.  It blows my mind that you read as well as you do and you enjoy it.  Which, of course, makes your reading teacher mommy, very happy.    Your favorite books are Fly Guy and Junie B. Jones books.
• You lost two teeth this year and you were very excited about the tooth fairy visiting. 
• Uncle David customized a bow and arrow for you.  He thought he needed to create a bracket so that you could hold it with your right hand and pull back with your left.  We all learned a valuable lesson when we discovered that you wanted to hold it with your left and pull back with your right.  We should never underestimate your abilities and should always ask you what you prefer first.  

• You love to ride your bike and the scooter that you got for your birthday.  
• You continued playing soccer this year and are getting better at it with every season that you play.
• You still enjoy art.  Especially when it comes to drawing superheroes and Mario characters.  You have been taking a weekly art class after school and bring home some amazing masterpieces.  

• You were a Rainbow Loom maniac this last year.  It was a little hard for you to make them so your mommy ended up doing a lot of the work.  You even convinced her to make you a Rainbow Loom T-Rex.  She is such a sucker.  

• You love to laugh.  As I am writing this I hear you in your bedroom laughing so hard.  You should be sleeping, but your dad is in your room with you and you are giggling and giggling.  I hope you never lose that love of laughing.  
• This year was the first year that you didn't cry when you got your flu shot.  This was such a big deal.  Prior to this you had to be held down for a shot.  Not this year.  You were determined not to freak out so you came up with a plan to distract yourself with the iPad and sure enough you did great.  
  
  
  
  

• You took a special summer vacation to San Diego with Grandma Marni and Mommy.  It was the best trip ever and we can't wait to do it again.  

• You learned to play Extreme Mountain Croquet in Utah this summer.  

• We also visited Carter and Avery in Palms Springs this summer.  It was a blast.

• You love electronics, much to our dismay (iPad, Nintendo DS, etc.).  You are actually quite good at them, and, if we would let you, you would watch YouTube videos of other people playing the Mario games all day long.  You have even started getting up early and sneaking out to the family room so you could watch all the Mario YouTube videos that you want.  I finally had to put a password on my laptop so you wouldn't keep doing it.  Now you just play your games without us knowing.  Sneaky, sneaky....
• The highlight of your year was finding out you were going to be a big brother.  It took you a little bit to figure out what we were trying to tell you.  Oh well!  You got it eventually.

• Even though I force you into at least one photo session per year, you still hate to have your picture taken.

• However, I aways manage to get a few good ones.

Noah, you are such a sweet boy.  We are so happy that you do well in school and have lots of friends, but mostly we feel blessed that you are so kind-hearted.  You make us smile every day and we love you so much.

Happy Birthday, baby! 

Love,

Mom and Dad