The Kings: noah's 3rd birthday!

Our entertaining, charming, hilarious, sweet boy turned THREE on February 24th! We've learned a lot about him, ourselves, and parenting in general since he showed up on that day and we've laughed and cried and suffered (uh, Acid Reflux, anyone?!) and struggled and triumphed in the meantime. He has always wanted to do things in his own way and on his own time, which I can probably attribute partially to him being a first child, and at least partially to the character-traits of *both* of his parents. Noah decided at conception that he was going to be on his own time frame -- because while we had decided we were "ready" for kids I really expected it to take several months before we would get pregnant -- nope! And then, of course, he arrived a full month ahead of time, ready to take on this world. Ever since then he has been a wonderful part of our family, doing things as he sees fit, including eating, bedtime, playtime, and always being willing to speak his mind.

Then:

And now:

He is sweet and gentle, but 100% boy in the sense that he loves anything with wheels, dirt, sand, and any sort of train/truck/construction vehicle. He loves superheroes, even though we don't really let him watch any of those movies or shows yet. He loves Toy Story 2 and 3, Tangled, The Lorax (the new one) and he would watch "Wild Kratts" or "The Magic School Bus" all day, if we let him. He also loves to read and sing and dance, something that he has shown to his sister, also. And, of course, he's a wonderful big brother. For the most part he is very willing to share his toys and play with his sister, often asking her to "come on, Sammy!" and he is very concerned about her when she cries or gets upset and he isn't sure why.

His very first picture:

Snuggled up at the hospital:

This child is amazing, and I can't wait to see the person he becomes as he continues to learn and grow. We are so thankful for you, Noah, and we love you to the moon and back....bigger than eight entire universes, actually! ;)
Happy birthday, three-year-old!

For our birthday celebration, we went with the theme that Noah had asked for for weeks upon weeks: emergency vehicles. I had figured I was going to use a "Cars" theme and had been planning that for a while, but it turns out it was a good thing I hadn't purchased any decorations yet. Noah explicitly told me, repeatedly, that what he wanted for his birthday was "a blue cake with a fire truck, an ambulance, and a police car on it." I'm not sure where this really came from, but he never wavered. I decided that would be an easy enough theme and complied with his requests, because like I mentioned above, this kiddo knows what he wants! We had a great time and enjoyed having friends and family over to celebrate this special day. It was partially organized chaos, with about a dozen children under the age of 8 running around and playing, but it was wonderful!
And no worries, Noah has already started talking about his *next* birthday and what to put on that cake....

Noah is trying to convince *anyone* that is near him to give him the toys on his cake. He wasn't thrilled that he had to wait until we sang "Happy Birthday" before he could play with those toys.