My Life With Mr. Rogers: May 2012

Noah,

I cannot believe that six years have passed since I first held you in my arms. Where has the time gone?

You are my dear, sweet, adored little boy. Sometimes I just stare at you and trace your face with my eyes just to try to take you all in. With what we went through early on, I was always afraid that somehow our relationship would be damaged... But I am thankful to God that we have such a special bond that I know will last our whole lives.

As we celebrate you turning six, I thought I would comment on some of the things that make you NOAH, along with things that you just plain love right now.

You Noah, are Justice. You have a sense of what is right, and you want the world to abide by what is right. In your world, bad guys get put away and good guys save the day. I truly believe that this Justice is from the Lord, and I look forward to seeing how he chooses to weave it through your destiny. Maybe you will be a police officer as you have assured us on many occasion (you will marry Jenny or Faithy, be a police officer with a K9, and live with us). Or maybe you will fight for Justice on a bigger scale. Who knows. No matter what, I will forever be proud of you.

You have a compassionate, sensitive heart. You cry at the end of Monster's Inc. when they shred Boo's door because that means Sully won't see her again - even when you know the end of the movie. You have explained that you will go to other countries someday to bring food to children that don't have it (In your words, bring flour and oil for them to bake bread, and God will just replenish it like Elisha). When watching just a trailer for the original Star Wars, you were upset because it looked like people "were really getting hurt". You are so innocent, and we have tried to protect you and to keep your mind filled with only things that a six year old needs to know. You haven't seen Star Wars. You haven't seen Transformers (except for the 80's cartoon version). You haven't seen Spiderman. In time you will, but not at five or six.

You have an amazing personality and make friends wherever you go. Kids will play with you and adults will chat with you. Whether we are at the park, Superfranks, or church, you will inevitably make a couple of new friends that you will play with the entire time. I had to teach you early on to say "Hi, my name is Noah, do you want to play with me?" and it has served you well.

You have a really fun imagination. I have seen you take down spies, put bank robbers into jail, put out fires, hand out parking tickets (often to me for entering church through the exit doors) and protect princess Faith as her royal guard. I love to watch you get into a character!

You are really, really smart. The way your mind works reminds me of your dad. You have that engineer brain that can build things and create things. You once rigged up an impressive sound system that involved a karaoke machine, an MP3 player with microphone, another microphone, and a play kitchen - it was quite impressive!

You are CHARMING! And kind. And sweet. You love your mom and will tell her she's beautiful. Sometimes you just stare at me for a long time when I'm reading to you at night and then finally you'll say "I just love you so much, mom". You always tell us you love us and hug us. This is one of my favorite things. You pay compliments to those around you. You cheer others on with "good job!" or "that was a really good idea!"

You have Favor. Police officers will let you climb into their cars. The UPS driver will stop in front of our house for 20 minutes so you can climb around inside the truck and pretend to deliver packages. Security at an airport gave you a ride on his Segway all the way to our gate. The captain of a plane let you up in the front to look around and then the flight attendant let you address the passengers on the radio. These are just a few stories of times where you are singled out to do something cool. Some of it is your personality and winning smile. But some of it is simply favor.

Things you love right now: Besides us (you often say your favorite part of the day is having dinner with your family)... Playmobil anything, Lego and Lego 3-in-1, disguises, science, pretending to be a police officer, sneaking book time before you go to sleep, cuddling in the corner pocket of the couch, Clifford (of course), the Andy Griffith Show, America's Funniest Videos, Phineas and Ferb..... and your very best friend, Jenny.

Noah, I am so so proud to be your mom. My heart is full of love for you and I can only hope that we stay close even during those times where moms aren't cool. You promised you would still hug me when you are 17 and I am going to hold you to that. I LOVE YOU - AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The day it all began...