Out with the old, in with the New!!! Here's Noah riding his old bike! It had super small tires and poor Noah rode amongst his other friends who are riding 16 inch bikes or bigger. Noah's little bike just couldn't keep up! The picture is not so good and you can barely tell that he has outgrown this bike. It's way too small. He was destined to ride without training wheels and it's pretty amazing he was able to conquer it on this teeny little bike. So for his birthday we decided to get him a brand new big boy bike!!! We let him pick it out and he was super excited!
Here it is!!!! The new set of wheels in all it's glory! Noah picked out a RAZOR bike which is quite bright! He was very excited about the suspension that it has and the tricks that he THINKS he can do on it. He loved riding it around the court and we loved watching him!! If you are wondering, he can't touch the ground yet with his feet. We have to help him get on right now but we are certain that's not going to last for long. He's a growing little guy!!!
Another favorite present came from his Grandpa Watkins. The inevitable golf clubs. Noah must have walked around the court for 3 hours with this set on his back. He couldn't get enough. Personally, I think he just enjoyed carrying the bag. We were out pretty late learning how to use the clubs.
And of course, I couldn't forget a Katelyn plug. Katelyn LOVES baby dolls right now. She loves to carry them around the house and give them pacifiers, diapers, new clothes, and bottles. She loves it just as much as she LOVES shoes!!! She instinctively has an obsession with shoes.
When Katelyn isn't playing with dolls, she spends half the day looking for her brother, and the other half eating. She loves snacks and gets upset if she can't have something she wants. Since we have had 104 degree days here...we go through some popsicles. Katelyn LOVES that!!! You can see that the hot sun has put a little tan on her as well. It's about this age that our kids go from being white to a beautiful golden tan! They are so lucky to have such amazing coloring. I'm not biased but I'm thinking they are pretty beautiful looking kids!!!!!!!! ;)
Weighing in at 38 pounds, shorty low pockets has turned 5 years old!!!!!!!! He's swimming, he's riding a bike, he's reading, he's baiting his own fishing rod, he's playing video games and he's currently obsessed with Pokemon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, that sounds like a 5 year old!!!
Noah woke up and didn't realize that it was his birthday. Once I told him, he popped up and was instantly ready to drive to Ma Ma's house! He has been wanting a pool party at her house for almost 2 years now, approximately the day after his last birthday party, he's been looking forward to a party at her pool!!! Sadly, I had to break the news that we were staying local. It was really difficult to figure out how we wanted to handle Noah's birthday this year. Josh is currently in Paris for the Paris International Air & Trade Show. Josh had to miss Noah's birthday, his own birthday with us, and Father's Day. I know that his heart aches a little being away this week but we are going to try and make it all up when he gets back! We thought about whether or not we should even tell Noah it's his birthday and just celebrate it when Josh was home but with the amount of phone calls he'd have to address...that might be a little confusing for him. So I told him that it was his birthday and it was going to be a special day but that he wasn't going to have a party until Daddy came home and they could celebrate their birthdays together! We are also going to try and go up to Ma Ma's house for the weekend when Josh gets back!
I took Noah and his best friend Jessie, the girl next door, to the base pool where we were going to meet a few of his other friends. I stopped and we picked up SUPER HERO cupcakes for all of his friends that attended. We didn't invite the whole squadron and I didn't consider this his party, it was more of a little playgroup celebration! The kids had a blast running through the water and going up and down the pelican slide. Katelyn was not ready to conquer the slide but she sure knew how to hold up the line as she constantly went up and down the ladder! Not pictured is Noah going down the waterpark like slides and tubes. I wish I could have gotten pictures of him flying out of the tubes! He loved that part! I didn't get the pictures because I had to stay at the bottom of the slide and make sure Katelyn stayed afloat while Noah didn't drown all while keeping an eye on my neighbors child, Jessie!!! It was quite a workout and just a tad bit stressful! I enjoyed watching them all have fun though and it was a great day!
Noah was so tired that he passed up an opportunity to go to Toy's R' US! All he wanted to do was go home and play some more with Jessie! And indeed, he did!!!!!!!!!!!
Noah is on his 2nd week of swim lessons. Josh was pretty adamant about getting lessons for Noah. We tried last year but he was not able to leave our sides long enough to sit by the pool with 30 other kids of all different ages on the Air Force Base. Noah can be quite shy and sometimes his emotions are a little too overwhelming for him and there's nothing we could have said to make him feel better. So we realized that THESE lessons were not the kind he needed. So this year, we found out about lessons being offered at a country club near our house with a reputation of one of the best swim teams in the whole state of South Carolina. Noah has 8 kids in his class but they divided them up and he has 3 boys in his group with Coach Tony. There are two instructors and each lesson is 30 minutes long. We go Monday through Thursday and this is our last week! Noah is already swimming underwater and freestyle swimming as well. I'm starting to wonder if swimming is going to be his "thing". He's fantastic and he loves it!
Katelyn and I sit on the side and cheer him on as he continues to learn more and more. We are so proud of him!
When Josh was in Korea, he was able to get a custom made flight suit for Noah. He had them make mini patches that were exact replicas of the ones Josh wears. The greatest part was that Josh's brother is stationed over there right now and was able to pick up the suit when it was ready and mail it over to us! Thank You Brian! Noah LOVESSSSSSSSSSSSSS wearing the flightsuit to Josh's work! He feels so cool walking around with all the other pilots! One of his favorite things that Noah likes to do is go to Daddy's work and he goes into the squadron on his own and finds Josh upstairs at his desk. Of course I make sure that Josh knows he's coming the minute he steps in there. Noah thinks that he's such a big boy doing it on his own! This is actually his 2nd flightsuit but the first one was from Gymboree and although we got so much use out of the last one, we have to pass it down to Katelyn now.
Seeing him with Josh in his flight suit is the sweetest thing. He'll always have these memories and cherish these Dad & I moments. (which reminds me that I need more of those with Katelyn) Even if Noah grows up not wanting to fly planes, Josh and I love that he can look back and see that he was Josh's mini-me. I have such confidence that Noah will grow up to be something even more wonderful than he is now.
Poor little Noah. Who would of thought Jump Houses would be so dangerous? Noah was having a blast of time with his buddies and accidentally got side swept by someone. The top of a head went crashing into his cheek. Noah was not happy at all. We went home to get a boo boo spiderman ice pack to put on his poor little face for the swelling. After all the pain subsided, he went back for more!!! More boo boos to come!
Just to catch some of you up on what I am up to. This summer I plan to go full force with a side business that I started with another friend/photographer. So far we have done pretty well. We have 11 shoots between now and June 5th so I can't complain. I'm enjoying taking photos for people but more because I can be creative and use my passion for art in another outlet. I love kids so it has been a lot of fun working with them and I just love capturing photos for people that they will cherish forever. I take my photos as though I would want them of my own children. Maybe that's my secret.
