Big Brother :)

Noah T.,

I'm so sorry I haven't posted for over 2 months. Our lives have been so crazy and we've been gone a lot. I'm finally carving out some time to get caught up.

You've changed so much in the last couple months. It is amazing to watch you grow and to already see you becoming the person that God intends for you to be. You are so amazing. You have the sweetest, tenderest heart, the biggest personality, and you are such an encouragement and source of laughter for me and Daddy. God truly blessed us when He gave us the gift of you.

You are so excited for baby Chloe to come. You love to tell everyone her name, give her hugs and kisses, pray for her, and tell Daddy and I all the things you're going to teach her: how to play cars, all her letters, numbers, and colors, and you can't wait to show her all the pets and toys at Grandma's and Nana and Papa's. Today, you told Daddy that you and baby Chloe are going to be best buds :) It melted my heart!

You and I are really learning the meaning of quality time these days. Daddy started law school last month so we're on our own pretty much all the time. Thankfully, Daddy still gets to be with you in the mornings while Mommy's teaching. So, at least you get to see him. It's just not often that I do. While I hate being separated from Daddy so much, I am loving all the time we are getting to spend together!

We've been working hard on potty training. If it weren't for your crazy parents and their insane schedule we'd probably already be done with it. You were pretty well trained in July and then we went on vacation for about 3 straight weeks. That caused a bit of a set back. By the time we got back to it, it was the very end of August. You've picked back up fairly well and I think you'll be totally trained before long, but we certainly haven't made it too easy on you :(

Recently, you've been really scared to go into any store or public establishment unless Daddy or I hold you. You don't want to walk and if we can get you to, you have to be holding our hand. It really freaks you out. We can pin-point the day it started and what store we were in, but we have no idea what triggered this for you. We're hoping it wears off soon and that you won't feel afraid anymore.

You now know your whole alphabet, you can count to 14 and you recognize your numbers to 12. You also know all your colors and you're doing great with your shapes (every once in awhile you have to be reminded of some of the harder ones like the -agon's, but you do a really good job with them on the whole). Pretty soon, we'll be working on letter sounds and writing our letters. We've already started a little bit, but haven't pushed it too much. Luckily, you like sitting down and working on that stuff, especially when we make it a game or find it in a book.

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you! We love you so much and are amazed at the things you teach us every day. Thanks for making us better people and for being such a blessing to us.