Noah Paul

He's a bundle of energy from dawn to dusk - a huggable, kissable ball of fun. That's our Noah Paul, named for his two great-grandfathers. Noah, who turned four in March, adores his Mommy and Daddy, big sister Lena and his cousin Booker, who he follows around like a puppy. He has a special relationship with his Papa (my husband Andy). Read: when Papa is in the room, I am chopped liver. Andy and I have been taking care of this little guy since he was three-and-half months old. We moved to Texas just a few weeks before Mom came to the end of her maternity leave, so we've been through bottles, high chairs, sippy cups, diapers, cribs, crawling, walking and running as he grew.

Now he's a big boy in preschool. In the morning, we feed him waffles, fruit and sausage while he watches his iPad, get him dressed and make sure his school bag is packed. When 4:30 comes, we pick him up from school to spend a couple hours at our house until a parent arrives home. Noah has a snack (sometimes several), puts 48-piece puzzles together with amazing speed and plays outside. Now that summer is here, he can't wait to get in the pool. Noah loves to play on the tanning deck where the "bubblers" are and get in shoot-outs with his foam-rubber gun. He jumps off the side to me over and over until he's exhausted.

Language came late to Noah, in spite of years of speech therapy, but now he's talking a blue streak. His favorite word is still "no", but now he's adding new vocabulary at an amazing clip. Noah loves to jump on Papa and get tickled, laughing uproariously. He loves our dachshund Toby and gets down on his level to talk to him and pet him. To him, everything is a new adventure and we love sharing it with him. Now, if he just wouldn't grow up quite so fast!

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