Noah. Sweet Cheeks. Noda-Bear. Drama. Noah G. Thing 2.
…Clearly Daddy and I have a thing for nicknames.
You are the sweetest ball of Joy bundled up into the cutest, squishiest little body. Your smile is contagious. More than contagious. You are so generous with it. If any one strikes up a conversation with you, you are quick to grin or giggle – making them an instant friend. At just a year old you have a way of making everyone feel loved. I think this is because you are so quick to freely give love. This trait alone makes you pretty popular – your teachers at Mother’s Day Out love to snuggle with you, friends at church love to make you laugh – even the cash register ladies at the grocery store recognize you when we visit! You have a beautiful heart and I can’t wait to see what God does with that!
Life without you is unimaginable. We had no idea what we were missing out on just a year ago. You bring so much joy and laughter and color to our world!
The name Noah means “Rest, Comfort”. The meaning of your name was important to us. We wanted you to have a strong name, something that you could “grow into” as man. Looking back now its clear just how much you were “meant for us”. Born during the hardest season of our lives, mommy and daddy were both trying to start up businesses – it was hard enough to afford one child – much less two! How on earth were we going to make it? But thankfully God is bigger than we can ever imagine.
It’s not a coincidence that months after you were born, during the most financially trying times in our life, I came across Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.“ A verse I’ve read time and time again – but THIS time a certain word stuck out. Rest. Comfort. And I will give you Noah. He knew what He was doing when He gave us you. Perfectly timed.
There are moments that I look at you and wish you could stay this little forever.
You are funny and you know it. You crave the center stage and know how to keep a crowd. (obviously this came from your dad!) But what scares me the most is that you want so badly to grow up. You always have: rolling, scooting, crawling – none of them good enough. YOU want to be running. And as for that baby food? No, no not for Noah – He’s big. Give him the same stuff those adults eat.
No need to rush, little brother. Stay little just a bit longer!
Happy Birthday, Noah Grayson.
Sweet boy.