Life with Noah

My Noah is spunky.  He is full of personality, smarts, and sass.  At times I struggle with his strong will, especially because he can be so very persistent and whiny; but I love his passion for life and I am trying my hardest not to squash his spunk but to teach him to channel it and use it for good instead.  (And as a sidenote, I once mentioned to my little sister that I hoped I wasn’t squashing Noah’s personality by disciplining him, and she said, “Rachel, you couldn’t squash that personality if you tried!”  Hahaha!  It’s true—he’s a firecracker!)

Noah is as big a talker as ever.  Someone recently called him “loquacious” and the adjective totally fits.  Whenever someone comments on how talkative he is, I always respond, "He takes after his dad." (Hardy-har-har.  I'm a comedian.)

So here is a compilation of some hilarious, maddening, and endearing Noah moments from the past few months:

-When saying our family prayer one night, Noah included at the end, “And thank you for chocolate chippy cookies that I love to eat soooo much!”

-When our two-year-old neighbor Kamry was over to play, Noah insisted that she do what he wanted to do, but at least he did so nicely.  He’d take her hand and say to her, “Come play with me, Sweet Girl!”  Lady killer! 

Showing off his preschool art in his lady-killer sweater

-Noah is a like a little adult—he mimics the things that he hears adults say.  For example, when some friends were recently leaving our home during a storm, Noah said, “Bye now—and be careful out there in the snow!” 

-Other grown-up phrases: “Shall we go outside and play, Mommy?  Shall we?”  Or “Can I join you?” when he climbs onto the bed with me.  Or in response to my comment about how beautiful the weather outside is: “Oh, it certainly is!”

-Noah likes to play with (torment) his baby sister.  He recently draped a shirt over her head and announced, "Look, Mom, I turned Sister into Mary!"  Apparently he was really getting into the Christmas story. ;)

-Noah often uses my words against me.  For example, I’ve told him that when he spills or makes a mess, he needs to take responsibility and clean it up.  This backfires when I am making dinner with the baby on my hip and I drop something on the floor and ask, “Noah, can you please grab a towel and wipe that up for Mommy?”  He looks at me very seriously and says, “Mom, you made the mess—you need to take responsibility for it!”  Stinker!!!! 

-Similarly, I am working very hard with Noah to teach him that when people ask him to stop being rowdy (or jumping on them, or touching their face, or screaming in their ear), he needs to stop.  Well, now whenever I am doing something that Noah doesn’t like, such as washing his hair in the bathtub or forcing him to put on pants for preschool, he says in a bossy voice, “Mom, I said stop! And when someone tells you to stop, you need to stop!!!”

Do I look amused?  Because I really wasn't.

-When I burst into loud song in the kitchen, Noah will look shocked and say, “Whoa, Mom, that was impressive!”  Sometimes he also protests my raucous singing and says, “Tone it down, Mom!!  Take it down a notch!”

-One day out of the blue, Noah said to me, “Mom, you can follow Jesus’ commandments; I’m going to follow my own commandments!” 

-Along the same lines, this week at church, I took away Noah’s toy and bag of goldfish crackers until after the Sacrament, saying, “This is the special time when we think about Jesus.”  He responded, “Well you’re not following Jesus—you just stole my crackers!!” Bahahaha!

-This summer, Noah loved his tricycle and when he was riding it around the neighborhood, he would stop people who were walking and tell them that it was “fast and powerful.”  (He has now graduated to a strider bike, which he adores.)

Tough guy on a strider bike

-When Noah is doing something like climbing on the couch and I tell him to get down, he will say, “No worries, Mom—no worries!” and keep right on doing what he wants to do.

-A few months ago, I was trying to get out the door for a walk with the kids, and I only had a brief window of time.  When Noah couldn’t find his other shoe, I suggested that he put on a different shoe because I was in such a hurry and didn’t care if his shoes matched for our quick outing.  He looked at me for a moment and then laughed and said, “Two different shoes??  Mom, don’t be daft!”  (Thank you, Thomas the Train, for teaching my son awesome British words!)

Skeleton pajamas, two different shoes...and looking pretty triumphant with his granola bar

-Noah randomly said to me one afternoon, “I like you, Mom, and sometimes I think you are pretty—but not this day.”

-When I am dictating a text message, including the needed punctuation, Noah will often say from the backseat, “I want to talk to ‘question mark!’”  He thinks “question mark” and “period” are real people that he can talk to…and of course, he wants to talk to everyone! LOL.

-On a recent car trip, Noah woke up from a nap and saw me leaning over the front passenger seat, trying to hold the pacifier in Baby Sally’s mouth so she wouldn’t cry.  Groggy, Noah patted me on the arm and said, “You’re doing a great job, Mom, rubbing Sister’s face.”

What a helper

-And speaking of the baby crying in the car, whenever it happens, Noah will tell her emphatically, “Sister, stop that whining!  I don’t speak Whinese!”  (We learned this term from a friend and we think it's brilliant--Noah knows that his mom and dad don't speak Whinese either, yet that doesn't stop him from whining!)

-After making several trips to the sink to fill up a small cup to water his tiny Christmas tree, he declared, “Yes!  Mission accomplished!"  

-When a stranger at the store recently asked Noah how old he is, he responded,   “I’m four! I grew to be four from eating so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!”  (He's actually three, but he sure does eat a lot of PBJ!)

-When Noah’s preschool teacher asked him if his mom works, he responded, “Oh yes, she works!  She is always washing the clothes!”  (So true, Noah!!)

In heaven under a pile of warm laundry

-I like to sing the theme songs to cartoons and substitute Noah’s name into the lyrics.  For example, I will sing “Noah the Builder! Can he fix it? Noah the Builder!  Yes he can!”  Noah is not amused by my silliness and quickly reminds me, “I am NOT a builder, Mommy; I’m a human!”

-When a refrigerator repair man came to our house recently, Noah sat on a chair next to him and jabbered for almost an hour.  About fifteen minutes into their one-sided conversation (Noah did all the talking; the repairman just chuckled good naturedly), I started taking notes because it was just so hilarious.  Some of my favorite quotes: “We have very nice bread and green bananas here.” “Our ferigerator is leaky—isn’t that silly?” “Don’t step on your tools there!” And “My daddy doesn’t know how to fix things.  He’s a dentist, not a worker.” 

This boy loves a captive audience

-Noah is sassy and oftens says to me what I say to him (which is oh so humbling).  When he wants something, he will say things like, “Mommy, I am not going to tell you one more time!” or he will start counting "1...2...3!" in the mom warning voice.  Heaven help me. I recently signed up for an online parenting class, and this is why.  I will let you all know how it goes.

-One day when Noah was making all sorts of demands of me, I told him, “Noah, I can’t help you with all of that right now--I am working on your lunch, and I can’t do 25 things at once.”  His response? “Man, I wish I had a magic wand so I could create two mommys!”

-Noah hates wearing anything other than sweatpants and throws a fit if he is asked to wear jeans, khackis, corduroys—anything other than his beloved “soft pants,” as he calls them.  I’ve decided not to fight the battle on a day-to-day basis, but I do ask that he wear normal pants to preschool and to church.  Just to make sure that I know how he feels about it, he has taken to calling any pants other than sweats “ugly pants.”  Makes me laugh every time.

-“Guys?? Guys??”  This is Noah’s constant refrain when he is trying to find someone in the house or first thing when he wakes up in the morning—he’s always looking for the party. 

My two favorite guys

-As we pulled off the freeway and into Pocatello to spend Christmas with Ryan’s family, Noah looked around and said, “Pocatello is such a wonderful, clean place!”  Ohhhhkay?

-Noah sometimes asks what we will do in emergency situations.  One day when we were driving in the car, he suddenly asked me, “If there is an earthquake and our house falls down, will we have to live in the rain?”  In the rearview mirror, I saw him hang his head in sorrow at the thought, and I laughed out loud. I assured him that if our house falls down, we can go and live with Bapa. He liked that idea.  A few days ago, he asked me what would happen if an asteroid hit the earth.  (He must have learned about this from PBS Kids or something?)  “If we all died, would we go to heaven and hug your mom?” he asked me.  Melted my heart.

-Whenever the doorbell rings, Noah sprints to the door and throws it open.  His first question, regardless of who is standing there, is often, “Hey, what are you doing here??”  I’ve come to the door to find many bewildered and/or amused pizza delivery guys and salesmen explaining themselves to my toddler.

Dressed up as a "Thanksgiving Indian" after preschool

On Christmas night, I snuggled into bed with Noah and told him that he was the best gift I ever received.  I told him that before he was born, my body had been sick so I couldn’t have a baby—and I was so sad and cried and cried and prayed to Heavenly Father to please let me be a mother.  “And do you know what Heavenly Father sent to me?” I asked.  

Noah was inches from my face as I whispered this story to him in the dark, and he broke into a huge grin and said, “He sent you a baby!  He sent you Noah!”  I will never forget his proud smile or how my heart burst into a thousand pieces.  My heart swelled even more as Noah continued, “And then your body got better, and God sent you our Sally Grace.”

Oh how I love this boy so much.  He drives me batty with his sassing and whining at times (oh the whining!), but he and his sister really are the best gifts I’ve ever received.  I recently told him that he is not allowed to grow up, and he said to me very seriously, “But I’m starting to, Mommy.  I have to.  That’s just how it is—little boys grow up.” 

He is wise beyond his years, and watching him learn and grow is such an honor.  I sometimes realize that magic is occurring before my eyes, and I hope I am savoring it enough--the fleeting childhood of this precious, precocious little guy.  Writing down his quotes and recording them for posterity does help.

In my heart, Noah will always be a wild, spunky, loquacious three-year-old boy.  Love him so much.