Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from 2 Tikes Under 2 & the Caboose!  I could not be more thankful for these 3 little turkeys and my wonderful husband!

The Bike Race

This year I asked Noah what he wanted to do for his birthday.  I had almost talked him into a party at the zoo, where everyone could ride the train and carousel and call it a day.  However my little Noah had much different and better plans.  First he started off by explaining he wanted a bike for his birthday.  Then he said he wanted a bike race with all of his friends at his house.  

So I immediately went into bike race planning mode.  My friend Blair planned a cute little cheerleader party for her 4 year old and had the cutest "tiger treats banner."  So I asked her to please help me get a banner for our bike race and she did.  Thank you so much Blair. I then decorated in various shades of his favorite color green!   

The morning of his birthday he got a brand new, orange bike and a new helmet.  He practiced riding his new bike with pedals as we set up for the party.

We put up his new banner and got lots of balloons and racing decorations.

We also hung racing pennants on the treehouse and swings.  The kids had a ball playing in there.

He wanted goody bags complete with his favorite things...bubbles, gum and tattoos.

All of his friends started arriving and they all brought their bikes and helmets for the big race.

And thankfully cousin Connor made the long trek for the party too!

After everyone said hello and played for a little while we all lined up on the starting line.  See the white line Josh came out early and drew.

All the kids lined up for the race.  The moms were all given checkered flags to wave.

On your Marks....Get Set.....Go!!!  Mrs. Katey waved the flag for the kids to start racing!

We made it clear that every child that crossed the finish line got a medal.  It wasn't a contest.

We told the kids to race under the banner and back into the driveway.

There Mimi and MeMaw handed out gold medals to everyone.

Noah was super excited that he and all his friends got them.  They were all #1!

After the race we sang Happy Birthday to the Birthday Boy!

Then we played some more with all of our friends!

This was a super easy birthday and a fun, cute idea!  I guess it's all a 4 year old really wants!  Happy Birthday Noah man!

To Noah on his 4th Birthday

Dearest Noah,

I'm not sure when you got to be so big.  I mean 4, how did that happen?  I've always said it and I truly mean it, but you my dear grow the fastest.  Maybe because your big sister always gets to experience the first at everything and because your baby sister is the baby and we make a big deal of all her new milestones.  You are just somewhere in the middle....you grow up each day and it's not always as obvious.  I know, that is why you are struggling with a little bit of that "middle child syndrome."  It's how you know that you don't always need to listen or cooperate.  It's like you have figured out the system.  You know that Margot has to have my attention and that I expect more out of Meredith because she is "older" and you well you just coast right on by.

However my boy....you are just that, my only boy.  Despite being stuck in the middle and sometimes glossed right over.  You have your Momma's heart.  You are my sweetest, most tender hearted child.  You are always in a good mood, always happy and rarely if ever do you get angry or upset.  Which is why when you do, I know you have a very strong opinion about whatever it is that has upset you.  You are like your dad that way.  The girls and I, we fly off the handle with every little thing.

Now that you are four you love trucks, airplanes, helicopters and all things that go.  You recently discovered your love for riding a bike.  We got a you a balance bike a couple of months ago and you are a pro on it.  For your birthday you got a big boy bike with training wheels and I bet in the next 6 months, if that long, you are ready for those training wheels to come off.  You love to play with your sister, and you still love your trains, but not nearly like you used too.  You have recently started playing the Wii a little, a ver little.  You still love sharks, and watching movies about trucks, lumberjacks, trains, cars and motorcycles.  You decided last week you might want to be a mechanic.  You got a "real" tool set for your birthday and have been working on all of your trucks and cars since.

You are smart, you know how to figure things out and use logic and reasoning to get your answer.  You quickly put things together.  Your answers are always witty and accurate.  You have a solution to every problem and are always happy to share.  You still tell me you love me out of the blue....all the time.  I hope that never changes.  Most days you tell me how beautiful I am.  I love you my Noah Elliott.

And so today on your birthday like every birthday I want to tell you about the day you came into the world....

On the morning of Tuesday, November 19, 2006 I woke up at 4:30am to shower and get dressed before we headed to the hospital.  I was more than a tad nervous.  I knew that surgery was the only way to meet you and that my boy is the only reason I even went to the hospital that morning.  We arrived at the hospital at 5:45am and I was hoping I would be the first c-section of the day, unfortunately someone else had arrived at 5:30am so we were bumped to second. If you know your Momma, you will know that I was not happy about this.

I met your anesthesiologist, the OR nurses and of course Dr. B.  I was ready.  However in all the time I had spent waiting for my turn, I had talked your dad into having absolutely no more children and having a vasectomy the following week.  That's a procedure to make sure we would have no more babies.  About 9am, it was time to head back, I walked back to the OR with the nurse.  It was a little intimidating.  I'm not sure why they make you walk.  Or why your dad couldn't come with me.  I got back there and they prepped me and inserted my spinal on the first try.  I remember them sticking a big  piece of silver looking tape to my leg and I asked what it was,  and they told me it was to ground me.  At that point I decided questions were not a good idea.

After a few minutes I was ready to go and Dr. B came in.  He started asking if I was feeling anything and since the sheet was draped I can only imagine he was beginning the surgery.  A few seconds later your dad arrived.  He stayed by my head the whole time and gave me a play by play of what was happening.  I unfortunately could not see since I was strapped to the table and had a big sheet in front of me.

And at 9:53am you arrived.  You were a beautiful baby boy.  When they first delivered you, you were very quiet.  It seemed like way too long. I got very panicky, but no one else was.  I'm sure it was just a second or two and then you were screaming.  Not loud like your sister did, but more of a okay I'm here little yell.  You weren't mad.  You were just letting us know...hey I've arrived.

You were then cleaned up and whisked to the nursery.  You made a quick detour to the waiting room where everyone who was waiting on you got to have a peek.  You were beautiful.  I was then wheeled to recovery where on my high from your easy delivery and the medicine and seeing you I decided I wanted at least two more children.  After what seemed like an eternity I started getting antsy about getting to hold you, I watned them to bring you back.   I sent your dad to check on you and they assured us everything was fine, it would just be a few more minutes.  I think I gave them 10 more and then I made your dad go and get you.  And when I held you for the first time it was amazing.  I never knew I could love another child as much as I love you.

Happy Fourth Birthday my little man.  I love you to the moon and back and as long as all the train tracks in the world.

Love,
Momma

The Birthday Week

I am a huge fan of the birthday week.  I used to enjoy it as a kid.  You know going out to dinner on the night of your birthday.  Having your favorite meal cooked on a different night, celebrating at school with cupcakes and your friends, and then on the weekend the actual party.  Hmmm, maybe I grew up a bit spoiled.  But hello....it's the time to celebrate the birth of that person.  The reason they are here and happy and still able to celebrate with you.  So I do everything I can to celebrate the birthday week.  Unfortunately my little Noah's birthday fell on a Saturday.  So his party was that morning of his birthday.  Which meant no cake at school on his actual birthday, not to mention I didn't want to drag him out to eat after his exhausting day of being the host at his party.  And since I don't cook on the weekends, we went ahead and started celebrating early.

On Thursday night we all went to Gatti Town to celebrate, complete with a cake and Mimi and Poppa!

This is one silly crew I got here!

 Margot loved Gatti Town and ate more than her share of the free buffet for kids 3 and under.

Celebrating Wednesday before his birthday did throw him off a little.  He was unsure if he was actually 4 or not.  Either way he had a blast!

Finally big enough to ride the Bumper Cars.  And as you can see, we had the entire place to ourselves.

Margot really wanted to ride the bumper cars with her brother to celebrate, but instead she semi-sort of -settled for this.

And no night at Gatti Town would be complete without a round of bowling!

A strike for Meredith!

Then next morning Mimi and I met up with Noah to celebrate at school.  He was a little disappointed that Mrs. P was absent and missed his cake.  

The second cake of the birthday week!  A football, for my sports loving boy.

Noah and all his buddies celebrating!  And if you look behind them you see Miss Priss sitting at the table waiting patiently for her cake.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Giving Thanks

For God choosing and trusting me to the be the Momma of these three precious babies, I am eternally grateful and thankful.  What a wonderful blessing they are.  I love you guys.

When I grow up...

In October, Noah's preschool did fire safety week.  And luckily the firemen were able to come again this year.  We got him dressed in all of his firemen clothes for the the special day and he could not wait.  

He was a tad disappointed they brought the yellow/green trucks instead of the red ones.  He loves the red ones.  But that disappointment didn't last long.  He was able to go inside and check out the truck.  And luckily I brought my camera to snap a few pics.  While in the truck, he changed his mind again and decided he did indeed want to be a fireman when he grew up.  He just can't decide between that, a garbage truck driver, or a police motorcycle man.  It's a hard decision I tell you.

 Luckily, I had a conference for my speech pathology license at Noah's school that day and I was able to sneak out and see the firetrucks with him.  Such a special day for my little man.  Glad I got to be a part of it. I love this boy!

Soccer

This fall, Noah played in his first organized sport.  He loved it.  He loved the uniform.  He LOVED the cleats.  He loved being part of the team.  And he loved his dad being the coach.

I don't think our team won a single game this year, but the kids had fun.  Our team liked to share....the ball.....and knew better than to take things away from other kids.....the ball.  The also knew to kick the ball into the goal....they just didn't always get it into the right one.

However all the members of the "Green Lanterns" got a turn on the field to have fun.

And their efforts earned them a trophy with their name and team name on it.  My little green lantern was just a touch proud.

 That trophy is the most cherished thing in his room right now.  We are looking forward to t-ball now and hopefully another trophy.