Jonah's Special Day...

On November 15th, Jonah turned 3. Months ago, David and I decided that we would really attempt to make Jonah's birthday about the experience as opposed to gifts. We have Boots and Dora to thank for this idea. So, several weeks ago we began asking Jonah who he would like to see on his special day, what he would like to eat and what he would like to do. The one consistent answer was "I want to play drums". After some brainstorming, David and I decided to arrange a drum lesson with Tom Rogers, a friend and drummer from church. We told Jonah a few days before his birthday and it was all that he could talk about. He was so excited for "Tom to teach him how to drum". The best part was that Tom was excited as well.

So even though we were going to make it about gifts, I could not resist picking up this little drum set when I saw it in the store. All Jonah really wanted to do on his birthday was drum so I wanted him to have a set to drum on. We had it setting up in the living room when he woke up. The sound of him tentatively hitting the bass drum is what actually woke me up that morning. It was so wonderful to see the smile on his face when he plays it. After making Jonah a banana chocolate chip pancake breakfast, he and David headed to the church for his big drum lesson with Tom. My dad and I stopped in for a while to watch and take pictures. Jonah was enthralled with the experience and Tom and he will be buddies forever now! In fact he now tells me that he wants to show people the little drum set that Tom got him. No need to correct him because it is really sweet how much he likes Tom.

We had a small party at lunch with both sets of grandparents and Danny and Nichole's family. Jonah chose the menu which was quesadillas, peanut butter crackers, gum and cake. He must have eaten 20 pieces of gum that day. As long as he was respectful, we pretty much let him do what he wanted on his special day, even if that was eating a ton of gum!

The day was really perfect for Jonah. Even though he is so young, I feel like he is going to have memories from this day. And he may not be a great drummer at this point, but I think the drum lesson actually helped. It has been cute to see him counting as he plays now. Last night, David actually walked into his bedroom (when Jonah was supposed to be asleep) and Jonah had moved the drum set beside his bed and was sitting there drumming on his knees just moments away from hitting the drum set and waking up poor innocent Judah. It was definitely a moment that David had to hold back the laughs until he spoke to Jonah and got out of the room. Of course, we laughed together once Jonah could no longer hear us!

Oh, I must mention that Jonah got a Peyton Manning Jersey that he got to wear on the day of the best comeback of the NFL season! Go Colts!

Judah had a fun couple of days as well. He thinks he is such a big boy. He is continuing to stress me out by crawling into the drawers in the kitchen and now he thinks it is cool to not only sit in them but to stand in them as well. Yep, we are definitely getting more bruises these days. What cracks me up the most is when Jonah thinks it would be funny to tackle Judah and then Jonah ends up getting pinned by Judah instead. I love my boys!