A Noah Update - 7 years old

Noah has had a loose tooth on the bottom for a few weeks now. He gets nervous about losing teeth because he really hates blood, but he was excited to lose a tooth and put his name on the wall in his first grade classroom. He has several "mouth tools" from Occupational Therapy that he chews on to help him stop licking his face (his face is so raw and sore and chapped, all over. The picture above was photoshopped by my friend Megan to hide it) and he's been using those tools to make his tooth looser. Then Thursday night he came running into my room to show me that it had fallen out, with help from a mouth tool! He was so excited but got really upset when I told him to rinse his mouth out (I swear there was just a little bit of blood!) and cried and cried. He decided not to put his tooth under his pillow that night so he could show it to his teacher as proof that he lost a tooth. Friday night the Tooth Fairy left a $10 bill under his pillow because I'm an idiot.

Noah loves Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spiderman, and the Amazing World of Gumball (TV show). Our Wii isn't working so he plays a lot less on the ipad and Wii and a lot more in his imagination. He can climb up the wall all the way to the ceiling and does that all day long, pretending to be Spiderman. Normally it would bother me (you wouldn't believe how dirty the wall gets where he climbs!) but the pressure on his joints is good for him according to his therapist, so I encourage it as much as possible. I'll be sorry when he breaks his leg jumping down one of these days...His therapist has taught us terms like "You want your body to feel just right!" or "Your engine is really high!" and when we say those things he's more willing to do some of the exercises to help his body feel better and help his "engine" come down to a normal level. I feel like it's really helping. He still prefers not to wear a shirt at home but there are a few shirts he'll wear to school without a fight. We had a 504 meeting at the school and now Noah can chew gum in class and wear Crocs to PE without penalty. I'm really hopeful that we won't have to worry about this in 2nd grade.

Today was the Primary Program at church. It's the first primary program I haven't been involved in the program in over 9 years. It was so nice! Noah's part was, "After Jesus Christ and His apostles died, Gospel truths were lost." He memorized it weeks ago and said it perfectly today. He still really struggles with church clothes but as far as I could tell he remained clothed during Sacrament meeting without me next to him, so that's a win.

Noah got a bike for his birthday and has been riding it often with training wheels. He asked Dave to take the training wheels off this week but then realized he didn't know how to ride without them and kind of gave up. Then his friend Andrew invited him over to ride bikes so while I was getting ready to take him over there, he went out to the driveway and taught himself how to ride without them! Andrew's mom said Noah was riding all over the place like he'd been doing it forever. I'm so impressed! That's Noah for you. If he decides he wants to do something, he does it, no matter what. I love that about him.

I've started reading Harry Potter to him with a bribe of the Harry Potter Wii game when we're finished (he seems to have forgotten the Wii is broken at the moment...). He seems to like it but says sometimes he doesn't understand what's going on. Yesterday we watched the movie up until the point I had last read to him and it all seemed to make more sense. Maybe he's too young for Potter?

Noah is a classic middle child and our weekly trips to Albuquerque together have been so good for him. Noah and Isaac mostly play really well together, I love that they're such close brothers. He does not get along with Zoe at all, but that's to be expected with a brother and sister, right? He sleeps totally nude (yikes!) and snores like a bear. He always clears his plate after meals and says please and thank you. He's such a fun kid and I'm so glad that he's mine.