Nine Year Old Noah!

I'm so very very behind on updating and I figured the best way to remedy that situation is to dedicate one blog post per family member. Sure, it'll be a long grueling process but, hey... you're worth it ;) Let's start with the eldest cherub, shall we?

Noah turned 9 back in mid-August and we had a wonderful time with our good friends and neighbors. Josh and I had a bit of a revelation when we asked ourselves a simple question. Why are we saying "no"? Noah would ask us constantly if he could bake cookies and we always replied "no" and then... wait... why? I can't tell you how many times we told our kids "no you can't" about something they were perfectly capable of doing, which probably felt a little disheartening for the wee poppets. So we said yes and we've been holding onto that line of logic for all three of them since then. It's been amazing. Gone are the days of "no you can't"... now if we have a real reason to say no we back it up with an honest "why" like "because I don't want you to make a mess right now" or "because I want it to be quiet in the living room" or "I think it's dangerous and it makes me really nervous". Look kid, it's not you, it's ME. Let's face it... it usually is US. Make sure your "NO's" are for real reasons!! Anyway, back to Noah.

Since the whole parental revelation Noah has finally been allowed to tackle all of these amazing adventures we'd been holding him back from accomplishing. He built his own lemonade stand, started baking and cooking breakfast on his own with no supervision (and he very sweetly involves his little brothers in the process). The only help he needs is the step stool. I even shared some of my college math with him and allowed him to try some of our grown-up games. He whittled and sanded his own magic wand. Josh taught him how to play Magic the Gathering in one sitting. We let him draw huge Chinese dragons on his wall (it's just the same dragon but waaaaay bigger; it doesn't show up in a photo very well). They look amazing. He did it all freehand. He's flourishing. He's so awesome!!

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