Dear Noah,
I wanted to write about what you are like now, so that you can always remember how much your dear old mama loves and adores you. I know I have told you this over and over again, but it's true and it bears repeating: I will always love you no matter what. There isn't anything you could do to change that love.
Still, it is super easy to love you because you are a wonderful boy. Here are some of the qualities I see in you:
-I would say you are pretty darn perfect as a big brother to Andre. You are his comforter and protector and you absolutely adore him. You often talk to him in baby talk and say, "Andway is my best fwend." You do it in a sing song voice, with a higher pitch of voice. It's so sweet to me that you love him so much. You often want to hold him, and you have on many occasions taken care of him so that I can take a nap, prepare a lesson, study my scriptures, take a shower, make dinner, etc. You are a huge help. You are his protector. The neatest thing happened the other day: Andre has been pulling himself up into a standing position, using things like the couch and chairs. This particular day, he used the oven front to pull himself up. You were worried that he would fall and were keeping an eye on him from the breakfast bar as you ate your dinner. I was closer, in the pantry, getting something out. I heard a loud bang, and by the time I was ready to get Andre, your feet had pounded over as fast as you could, and you were picking him up, and comforting him. You responded so fast, it reminded me of Daddy. That kind of brotherly love makes me so happy.
-You are being more patient with Gabe. I can imagine it is frustrating to have a five year old brother who gets into your stuff. Recently, I took you out to Walgreen's and let you get a treat. You got a bag of fun size snickers that were on clearance from Halloween and the next night, you checked the bag and realized there were only three left. You were a little shocked, but thought that you had eaten them and just hadn't realized. But later, I saw Gabe sneaking one out of the kitchen. You were frustrated with Gabe and of course wanted justice, but I asked you to please let me handle it and you did. I know it can be so frustrating to you as this kind of thing happens on a regular basis, and I'm so glad you are starting to let me handle it and when I help Gabe make amends and ask for forgiveness, you do. That is really awesome progress for you!
-You are an excellent reader. The school has all these reading programs and it cracks me up, because I don't have to do anything to get you to read, except get you books from the library. Even when you finish, you often read them again and again. Right now, you love to read about Superheroes, especially Marvel and the different series you have read in the past few years are the NERDS, Margaret Haddix, Big Nate, etc. Recently at school you read a book about a man who suffered through the Holocaust, I think it was very poignant to you. i was surprised that you read it, because for years the books you usually gravitated to were books about normal kids living everyday normal lives with some humor thrown in. You have not been big into fantasy, although you did read the first 3 Harry Potter books at a young age. I asked you to wait until you were 10 to read the 4th, but I think once you turned 10, you had lost interest since it had been so many years. You just aren't a huge fan of fantasy, unless it has to do with Superheroes!
-You are also an excellent writer. Apparently you scored the highest on a writing test you had at the end of 5th grade. You got some kind of award for that and I could tell it made you feel really good. Recently, you were assigned an essay, entitled, "Land of the free, because of the Brave." You had told me that day you had no homework and then finally admitted you had an essay due the next day. You got to work on it and worked on it for a couple hours that night, with some input from Dad and I, and then you were so tired as it was nearing 10 pm that you set an alarm to wake up an hour early. You finished that 5 paragraph essay, and put it in a neat page protector so it would stay nice and then you somehow left it at home when you loaded your lunch box in. You called me and asked nicely and I brought it for you. I just couldn't let all that hard work go to waste. And frankly, it's the only time I've ever bailed you out on leaving an assignment at home, so I think that's pretty amazing that you are a pretty responsible guy. So, your essay was good. It was an essay contest and your paper was one of the six papers that your teacher liked the most and chose the winner from. You didn't win, but you got full credit. I was absolutely amazed that you could do an essay last minute and do so well. It is truly a talent!
-You love to play basketball. You bring your basketball most every day to school and play at recess with your friends. You keep begging for a basketball hoop so you can practice every day.
-You show lots of love to your mama. When I am good about making sure you get lots of love from your mama, you are very snuggly with me. Sometimes, you just want to be near me and you snuggle up to me, and put my arm around you. You are almost my height, just about an inch shorter, so it's easy for us to snuggle. On Sunday, I made sure we spent some time together, we worked on Faith in God and then talked for a little while and it was just amazing. You wanted to help me make dinner that night, as we were having a late dinner after your Priesthood Preview meeting. It was 8:30 pm. You grated a whole block of cheese for me for the quesadillas we were making. You gave me tons of hugs and then very willingly said after dinner, "Mom, can I do my chore now?" And when I needed you to do extra, you didn't get frustrated, but did it, consciously trying to show love for me. That was awesome!
-You love to chat with me as well. You love to hear stories about my childhood and you also love it when I ask you questions. It's getting even more fun to talk to you the older you get.
-You still LOVE Legos. You are excellent at building. During the summertime, whenever I offered to spend time with you, you chose Legos. You often had me look for pieces for you while you built. You made some really cool things like all kinds of cool flying ships, an armory, and scenes from the Lego movie. You often will incorporate moving pieces so there is either a trap door, or some kind of booby trap or something that moves. It's so neat. I don't know how to do any of that stuff! In the summer, when it was really too hot to play outside for very long, after doing your chores, you would often play legos for 8 hours. It kind of drove me crazy at the time, but now I can see how much you were learning and once the weather cooled down, you were outside being active a lot more.
-You love 11 year old scouts. You enjoy going every week, you especially enjoy being with your great friends, and the treat they serve afterward. You recently went to a Merit badge Powwow where you worked on 3 merit badges and earned 1. I was really proud of you. One of them, you will earn as soon as you get your First Aid merit badge. (We didn't know you had to pass that off first) You are content to sit down and work on it, if I initiate it.
-You love being with friends. It's hard to get you to come in for the night, with friends knocking on the door so frequently and there always being someone to play with outside.
-You really enjoy drawing. In your art class at school, the art teacher taught the class how to draw a cat. You decided to make your cat into "Iron Cat", after the superhero, Iron Man. Apparently, it was so impressive, your art teacher hung it on her wall for everyone to see. It made you feel pretty fantastic!
-You are really into trading Pokemon cards right now. You have a folder and keep them all neatly organized with your EX cards in front. You have about 7 EX right now and are working on getting the page of 9 slots filled. You told me yesterday that you try not to trade with the Pokemon experts, worried that you will get duped! I guess you did that recently, and the kid gave you what made you happy, but he was so happy with the card he got, he was running around telling his friends as though it was a really rare card.
-You are very grateful for the food I prepare. You are often the first person to thank me at dinner time. Two nights ago, it was especially sweet since you have been begging me to cook chicken drumsticks. Something I don't think I have ever cooked before, since Daddy and I prefer breast meat as it is lower in fat. I finally bought them and prepared them two nights ago and you were so excited and gave me a hug and a very sincere, "Thanks, Mom!" You were only bummed that I hadn't prepared more. I only bought one package of 6 for our family and you were hoping to have a looooot more, so I promised you next time, I will make sure I buy more. You also went over the top with thanks when we picked you up from the Scout Powwow and handed you back 2 burritos we had bought for you from Taco Bell. It makes me happy that you are seeing the good in your life and are grateful. Gratitude will serve you well and bless you immensely for the rest of your life.
-You are pretty quiet at school and stay under the radar. Your teacher says you are great and very well behaved, but sometimes you hurry through your work so you can have free reading time.
-You LOVE music. You want to listen to it always. You always want to borrow my tablet or the laptop to listen to your music when you do chores. You want to listen while you are doing homework, although honestly, I think you go a lot slower when you do. When we are in the car, you love to sit in the front seat and play DJ with my tablet. You've got it down so well, that you just ask each person during their turn what song they want. And you are always trying to sneak it louder than I want it, funny boy.
-You still love video games, but recently you lost the privelege of having your two devices. So, you will play for maybe a half hour at a friends house sometime. The more you stay away, the less addicted you are, and I think you feel happier.
-You are taking a lot more responsibility with gospel learning. You are very attentive and reverent in family scripture study. We ask each child to explain the verses they read aloud and you know exactly what is going on 99% of the time. It is awesome! When I hand you my tablet, and remind you to read your scriptures, you always want to- you often stay up too late, listening to the children's scripture stories, you finished the Book of Mormon and are now reading Old Testament- you love to listen to 4 or 5 chapters at a time. I think that is pretty cool! You said a very sweet prayer recently that felt as though you were really communicating to our Father in Heaven, that was awesome.
-You are starting to grow into a man, your voice deepened earlier this year, your mustache darkened and you are growing in height so rapidly. All the jeans and pants you wore at the beginning of 2014 are way too short on you. You fit into my shoes and I just let you wear my Boys Hurley jacket today and it fit you really well. It's so crazy to see my Noah grow so much!
-You really are a super duper helper, doing a great job babysitting and helping the other children when I ask. When we are getting ready to leave, you always run back inside and get the two or three things I have forgotten. You are always happy to buckle Andre in, or get a blanky or pacifier for him.
Noah, I just love you so much. You are a super boy who wants to do what is right and wants to learn and have a full, happy life.Watching you grow is just a treasure.
Love,
Mama
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