The Vanderwalls: Noah

Dear Noah,
Oh my! Guilt has been eating away at me a little at a time for allowing over 3 months to go by without blogging. Obviously, it hasn't eaten at me enough to make me get myself on here...Oh well, today that changes!

Our lives have been, you guessed it, busy. I don't know if that will ever change. Since I last wrote, Daddy finished his first year of law school and is now in his first externship, which he started yesterday. Mommy finished her Master's degree at Boise State and my summer at Falcon Ridge starts today. I'm so looking forward to having the summer to just be a mommy and do a few things for my classroom - no classes is a much appreciated change!

We will be doing a few vacations this summer. Our first one starts on Tuesday. You, Chloe, Auntie Kristi, and I will be flying to Michigan to stay with Auntie Kendra and Uncle Nathan for the better part of June. You are so excited to go to the airport and to get on a "big plane!" We've been counting down the days and you're in 3 year old heaven just thinking about it!

For your 3 year birthday we did a couple things. On your actual birthday we spent the day as a family. We played lots of things around the house that you wanted to do, you got to go out for ice cream with Grandma, we took you to dinner at the place of your choice - McDonalds, I mean, really, is there anything else?! - and gave you your gifts. You got some new books, toys, and a movies. For the evening we ate the chocolate cake that you requested and watched Kung Fu Panda, one of your birthday presents. It was a fun day and I think you enjoyed yourself. Oh! I almost forgot! You also got a birthday balloon bouquet delivered from Papaw and Nona. That was like the best thing ever.

We also had a family party for you. It was a pretty small party, but very exciting! The theme was dinosaurs and we had dinosaur decorations galore! There were colored pictures from Dinosaur Train (one of the shows you love), dinosaur tracks, plastic dinosaurs in some of the food and holding balloons, a dinosaur track birthday banner...it was dinosaur mania! You opened your gifts, we had a cornhole tournament for the adults that was titled "Feed the T-Rex." You had lots of fun new toys to check out while we played, and we had a great dinosaur menu to eat from:

Dinosaur toenails - bugles
Veggies and dip for the herbivores
Meatballs for the carnivores
Dinosaur spikes - watermelon slices
Dinosaur dirt - oreo creme with a dinosaur, chocolate rocks, and crushed oreos on top
Water from the watering hole
Swamp juice - lemon lime Hawaiian punch with 7up

I think it will be a pretty memorable birthday for you. Mommy had so much fun making all the decorations, the invitations, doing all the shopping, and making all the food. I do have to say that I'm glad you and Chloe only have 1 birthday a year each though :)

Along with becoming a year old comes a trip to the doctor. You love Dr. Davidson and are very comfortable in her office because of going to all of Mommy's maternity appointments and all of Chloe's appointments as well. You know exactly where to find the toy bin once you're given the green light to do so. I was a little worried about taking you this time because you hadn't been for yourself in a year and you now understand things much more than you did a year ago. However, you were very brave and cooperative and did great! Dr. Davidson said you're little (which we knew), but that everything looks great and you checked out fine! You only weigh 25.2 pounds (barely more than your sister) and are in the 1.5 percentile for weight. You are 35" tall and are in the 5th percentile for height.

Now that you're a big 3 year old Mommy and Daddy are planning to enroll you in preschool this fall. You'll only go 2 mornings a week for a couple hours each morning. I'm really excited for you. You are a very social kid and you love to learn. I know you'll have a great time! I am a little worried that some of the activities might be too easy for you, but that's ok. Sometimes it is good to review things and, at this age, building a strong foundation in basic educational skills is always a plus. I'll be doing some school each day with you over the summer too. I'm looking forward to that!

You love to read books and are working on learning all your sounds and sounding out short words. By the end of summer I expect that you'll be reading some. You're definitely on track for that! We really need to spend some time working on writing. You're eager to learn this and can hold a pencil correctly we just need to train those fine motor skills some more. We'll also spend some time on math and add to what you already know about shapes and numbers and counting.

Since turning 3 you've become more independent than ever. You were finally able to nail down that potty training we've been working so hard on (it just clicked!). You want to care for Chloe all the time and you work really hard at doing things for yourself - putting shoes on, dressing, helping make your food, getting in and out of the car, and the list goes on. It is nice that you're so independent, but sometimes your independence tries Mommy and Daddy's patience and we have to count to 10....a few times....

You are a very sweet and smart boy! You keep our household on its toes 100% of the time! Daddy and I are so proud of you and it is really fun to see how quickly you're growing and all the new things you're learning to do. You're such a loving son and brother and we'd be lost without you! Keep growing, but don't change who you are! Mommy promises to write again soon...I won't let another 3 months go by!