Noah's Birthday

Noah's birthday was a little... odd... this year.
The night before his actual birthday, he fell asleep around 9:30pm. At 11pm, he woke up. And not just for a few minutes, but for 6 hours. Yep. He was up until 5:30am on his birthday. Dude likes to party.
Thankfully, we got to sleep in, but it still made it weird for me. 
Last year, I started this birthday tradition for Noah, where I blow up a bunch of balloons and cover his bedroom floor with them. And frankly, it felt weird doing this at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. But whatever. He still was happy to wake up to them.

I wish I could take credit for the idea. But as one of my friends said the other day, I don't think I've had an original idea for months, thanks to Pinterest.

I have been frantically painting our kitchen for the last couple of weeks. Since Brad had to work, he wasn't able to help me much. We started this project back in April, I think. And because I'm a procrastinator, it didn't get finished until the day before the party. What can I say? I work better under pressure. So the first few hours of Noah's actual birthday was spent painting.
However, we made it a point to stop by a certain time to spend some decent time celebrating with our little guy.
We decided to go on and give him his gifts from us, and he ended up completely surprising me. For the first time in his little life, he opened his gifts! He hasn't gotten the concept until now, so to see him get excited about his presents? It honestly made my day.

After presents, that's when we ran down to grab a few "official" photos of him at the train.
That night, we went to dinner with his Granny and Granddad. Noah was exhausted from having a rough night, so I didn't get any great pictures there.

***

We had his little friend party on Wednesday. Brad has to work this weekend, and frankly, summer weekends seem to get busy for people. Turns out, most of our friends preferred the weeknight.
Brad actually got called to go out of town, so we almost didn't have Noah's party. Thankfully, it worked out, but not without plenty of stressing on my end. :)

We started out at Monkey Joe's, where our friends Kara, Eden, and Kadence met us.

For some reason, Noah was afraid to go down the slides by himself this time. He climbed to the top, and all these kids were waiting for him to go. He just sat there, waiting for kids to go around him. lol. We tried telling the girls behind him to nudge him, but they were too sweet and wouldn't do it.
Brad finally had to climb up there and help him.

He's so cute. I mean, I may be a little biased. But there are days when I just can't get over how adorable he is.

Noah's friend Kadence was a little nervous about the slides too. So it turned into a group effort getting them to go down. haha.

We decided to save some money and just have the rest of the party back at the house. Plus I like to decorate. This year, I went with the Thomas theme, for obvious reasons. :)

(it had just rained, so the tape wouldn't stick very well.) 

 My dad was sweet enough to provide the BBQ. We had already planned on having Bar-B-"Choo" sandwiches, and he had a bunch frozen that he let us use.

Noah has officially aged out of his Early Intervention program. While it's good, because it means we get services for free through the school system, it makes us really sad to say goodbye to people who have cheered him on for the last year.
His EI coordinator, Aimee, came to his birthday, even though she had an early morning the next day. I cannot recommend her enough. She has been so sweet to Noah and admits that he's one of her favorites. The good news is that she lives like 10 minutes away from us, so we plan to still get together and update her on Noah's progress.

My brother Harrison also still remains a favorite of Noah's. They were only 3 days away from sharing a birthday. His birthday was Thursday.

Noah got some great gifts, including a Thomas wooden railway set from my dad and stepmom. He hasn't stopped playing with it yet!

I think it's safe to say he had one of the best birthdays to date.
He had lots of fun, good friends to spend it with, and family there to love on him.

Three.

We're in the middle of pre-party craziness. Noah's little friend party is tonight, which I'm glad we timed it this way. He has his OT appointment this morning, and it makes me feel better knowing in a few hours, all the sad tears will be replaced with birthday fun. :)

I'll eventually get around to blogging about his birthday. And for those of you who have been reading for a while, you already know birthdays get a little out of control in our family. They seem to last forever. We just have so much family, and everyone wants to celebrate.
In the meantime, I wanted to share a few pictures I grabbed on Noah's birthday Monday. Since he's so into Thomas right now, I knew exactly where I wanted to do them. There's an old train that's parked near our favorite park, just waiting for Noah to explore. My original plan was to have him barefoot, but there was a bunch of broken glass on the tracks. I'd rather him have shoes on in the pictures than his feet get all cut up.

I swear this kid is the world's hardest kid to photograph.
He's constantly moving, and he never, ever looks at me.
The one smile we got was because Brad was behind me singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes".
But that's okay. I think I captured my baby the way he is... silly, sweet, pensive, and unique. :)

 

Happy Wednesday!

To Noah, From Mommy

To my little man,

Well no, that's not right. Because today you are the BIG 3!

Looking back, I'm not sure we could have chosen a better name for you.

Noah - "peaceful" or "comfort".

I truly believe that speaking that over you every day for the last three years has helped mold you into the amazing little guy you are today.

Baby boy, you have the sweetest, most gentle spirit.

And while we've had our share of struggles in your barely-begun life, you've never lost that peaceful, comforting personality. When I'm sad or hurt, you crawl in my lap. When others want to play with your toys, you don't mind. If someone knocks you down, you get right back up (although I can't say Mommy and Daddy stay so peaceful when this happens!). You are full of smiles all day long.

And while you may not be saying a whole lot with your words, you say a whole heck of a lot with that big heart of yours. People are naturally drawn to you. Most would love to scoop you up and hold you. The joy you get out of life is infectious. Random friendly strangers tell us how adorable you are and genuinely love interacting with you. You've changed people's hearts and perceptions, and you're still so young. I can't imagine the impact you're going to have on others as you grow.

You're a favorite among the therapists. You have so many cheerleaders rallying behind you, little man.

When you say a word or finally initiate play with extended family members, I always have a crowd of people running to tell me about it and celebrating with us.

I love watching you play with your Daddy.

You two are so funny, giving each other high-fives (except you prefer a fist pump), running around the house, and going on daddy-son dates to Lowe's and McDonalds.

You're my little buddy.

I love how, even though you don't speak, I know exactly what you want when you want it. There's no doubt that that mommy-baby bond has grown in amazing ways. You've blown me away with your ability to stay so happy despite your struggles to communicate. You never throw major tantrums or have bratty moments. If anything, you're tender little heart gets broken when someone pushes you out of your comfort zone.

You love it when other kids play with you, especially the big kids.

You adore your grandparents. So much so that you don't even notice when we sneak out for a date. You're too busy playing. At your Grandaddy and "Mama D"s house, you love to check out their cool fireplace (don't worry, it has a door and you're always supervised), jump on their big bed, and play your Uncle Bud's drums. 

At Granddad and Granny's, you like to count the numbers on their clock. You also love to "help" Granddad in his office. You'll sneak in there and play with the mouse, type on the keyboard, and pretend to make phone calls with his cool office phone. Granny always has treats waiting for you in her kitchen. She even has a special drawer just for you and saves bags of Panera Bread chips for the next time you visit. As soon as you walk in, you go on a hunt for Granny's zebra cakes. Mommy and Daddy weren't too thrilled about this habit, but it's still super cute. You also love running around the livingroom with their little dog Mini chasing you. You two are quite the pair.

At PopPop and NaeNae's house, you love hanging out in the "man cave", playing with Aunt Madison, and getting lots of tickles, hugs, and kisses from PopPop and NaeNae. 

Some people say that kids with autism aren't creative or lack an imagination. But I'm not convinced that's the case with you. You have such an interest in music. You love to sing the Calliou theme song. If a song comes on the radio, and you want to sing along but don't know the words, I'll hear a little voice singing, "Caaaai-ooooo, Caaai-oo..." It's the sweetest thing. You also love the "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" song, especially when we go really fast. We still sing "Jesus Loves Me", and you like having me help you sign the words.

I have a feeling you'll eventually play some sort of instrument when you're older. So far you've shown an interest in the piano, drums, guitars, and keyboards. Personally, I think it'll be the drums like Uncle Bud, but we'll see.

You enjoy coloring with sidewalk chalk (and secretly bringing the chalk indoors and creating some artwork on the walls and furniture with it...). You enjoy painting, coloring (more with markers than crayons, because the colors are brighter), and playdoh.

Your favorite toys are anything Thomas related, plastic animals (the kind that look real. the giraffe is your favorite), cars, music toys, and anything you can hammer. 

You still like books and attempt "reading" them yourself. Your favorite right now is your Who? book, because I tickle you when we get to the "bees!" part.

You know where the parts of your face are, although you find the concept of "I" and "eye" a little confusing. :)

You love to jump, especially on our bed when Daddy is taking a nap.

Your favorite food right now is still chips.

We had a good run with the healthy fruit/veggie popsicles, but after I changed them to casein-free, you weren't as impressed. You've yet to try them again.

There aren't many things that bother you, however you absolutely hate getting your hair cut.
The majority of the time is spent with you sobbing. The feeling of the hair all over you makes you so mad that you start to sweat, which makes the hair stick to your face, which makes you even more mad.
It's a good thing you look cute with long hair.

Your favorite places to play are Monkey Joe's, Discovery Place Kids, the park, and the fountain at Birkdale (but only in the evening. You refuse to go in it during the day for some reason).

Your words are still few and far between, coming and going randomly.

But we're working on it. And even if you never talk, I'll still be so incredibly proud of you no matter what.

You're the sweetest, most amazing little boy, and God could not have given me a more perfect baby.

You're such a blessing, and I'm excited to see what this next year brings for you.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!

Love you so so so much,

Mommy

The Friend Party

Okay. I hereby promise that this is the very last birthday party post.

Let's give a big round of applause to that.

Because as much fun as I have throwing the parties, taking pictures, and sharing it all with you? Let's face it. It's not as much fun unless you were actually there.

So I'll do my best to make you feel like you were here. Because if I had my way, you would've been.

So here we go...

The theme this year was pretty easy to choose.

Curious George!

It was pretty easy to decorate, since we already had a ton of George stuff. Anything we didn't already have came from either Party City or Michaels.

(George messed up my pinwheel, and I didn't notice until now. Silly monkey)

We invited some close friends and a couple family members. His cousin Easton was supposed to come, but his great-great granddaddy passed away. Anyway, it was fun to have Noah's little friends over. It was certainly more excitement than Noah's used to around here.

(friends Lindsay and Travis)

We made a new friend, who tagged along with his Aunt Scarlett.

His name is Brigham.

And I know what you're thinking... yes, his family is Catholic.

haha. j/k.

(baby Carolina and Scarlett)

My gorgeous momma...

She had Noah's gift shipped directly to us, and since we were having a party this weekend, I invited her too. That way, she could see Noah's reaction.

(Graham and Sydney)

Originally, we thought we'd just order pizza and keep it simple.

But then I told Brad that Noah doesn't even eat pizza. He refuses to eat anything with tomato sauce, actually. So why not spend almost the same amount of money on healthier food?

So we did.

The Menu:

PB&J sandwiches

PB & Banana sandwiches

Mixed Fruit

Pasta Salad

Monkey Muffins

Chips and Dip

I hate I didn't send Brad outside with the video camera. During dinner, most of the parents and kids sat out on the patio to eat. When Noah came outside, Sydney said, all excitedly, "Let's sing Happy Birthday to Noah!" So our back yard was filled with singing for a few minutes. So cute.

For dessert, we opted out of doing traditional cake and ice cream.

Instead, I wanted to do something a little bit more fun for everyone, especially the kiddos.

So we did a banana split bar!

(Alice is a fan)

(Fernando and Brad)

Noah seemed to like it.

Noah's friends gave him all kinds of great birthday gifts.

Lots of Playdoh, cars, and books.

They decided to sing Happy Birthday again while he opened his presents, and he always seems confused as to why everyone keeps singing this same song. lol.

And then came my mom's present.

A giant bead maze table.

As you can see, it was a HUGE hit with the kids. As soon as we brought it out, every single toddler (including little Carolina) flocked to it.

Noah's actually really good about sharing. He doesn't mind.

Except when little Brigham wanted to play with the same beads he did. Then he got a little frustrated.

But for the most part, they all played really well together. And for some reason, the room was suddenly really quiet. :) I'm recommending this toy to all parents now.

All in all, it was a fantastic party; one which has taken the rest of the weekend to recover from.

Noah didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning. He's obviously not used to all that excitement.

And I promise, this is the last Noah birthday party post for at least another year.

Yayyy!!