Dear Noah March 2010

Dear "Big Boy",
Seriously kiddo, you're all in to telling me you're a "big boy so you can...." I think you may have gotten this idea from Nina and Pooba.... that you're a big boy and that big boys have certain rights/responsibilities.... one of them you've decided is NOT dressing yourself. It was becoming very frustrating to Daddy so we started working on you dressing yourself (again, because you were dressing yourself long before the self claimed title of "big boy"). And then the wheeling and dealing comes out which is impressive. You compromise: "you help me get my pjs off and then I pick out my clothes and then you help me get dressed"... very similar to you not dressing yourself, my friend. So then I say something like: "you can take your pjs off, pick out your clothes, and then I'll show you which way to put your clothes on" and that works. And it's not just about getting dressed. You're become very adept at articulating the reasoning behind your preferences and often your reasoning is very sensible.

We've turned a corner on the school front. It's amazing. After spring break you are suddenly all about school. You now enter the main entrance of the church (where the school is located) and yell: "I'm here! It's me! Noah!" but no one hears because they are all in your classroom. The other morning you said: "where are we going today? (evidently in your mind we go somewhere every day)...Ooooh! School!" so yes, a big change in that. I'm excited because there is a parent teacher conference this month. I can't wait to see what your teachers have to say. Daddy has been doing the drop off/pick up so I haven't seen you in action at school, barring once this month. It's also a parent-helping day for me at the end of March so it will be fun to see what you're up to at school.

You're still pretty interested in guns and death... not necessarily in the context of each other. You say you love to play guns. I try to tell you that it makes me sad because if the guns were real they could hurt people very very much. We talked about guns being only for shooting things we can eat. You suggested we only shoot the floor. This gun stuff is tough to explain and tough for you to understand. We'll see what the next month brings.

You have been asking why our house isn't closer to Nina and Poobah's or Emmie's or Grammy's. That's tricky to explain too. I try to say that the houses were built far apart. You ask why they weren't built closer. Part of me thinks that you think the houses and people are permanently attached but you also list the colors of all of the houses you lived in (three!!) and say our next house will be house number four and you hope that one day we'll live in our tenth house. You didn't understand why I wasn't so excited about that prospect.

You've started helping us and helping Del is a big big way. You have begun instructing Del, comforting Del, generally taking care of her. You'll tell her to put on her shoes because we're going in the car, or think of ways to help her stop crying, or go get her cup for her when she needs a drink. It's not all the time and it only happens on your own terms (Mommy can't ask you to do something for Del because then you're usually "too tired") but generally the two of you fair very well on your own. You're both getting better at asking for a turn when the other one is done with the preferred toy or suggesting a trade. You are also both quick to share if the other one seems to be very sad that it isn't their turn with the coveted toy of the moment.

You are transforming in to this gentle, confident, compassionate boy and I'm loving this front row seat.
I love you Baby,
Momma