Noah & Leylynn, sitting in a tree...

My little man was so in love today. He got to see his friend Leylynn, whom he hasn't laid eyes on in 2.5 weeks.

Today was her first birthday party, and the masses came out to celebrate at the Sip household, including the whole McCallen family.


Leylynn is, by all accounts, Noah's very first friend. They met the in mid-January this year, on their first day at Heidi's (Noah's sitter) house. They have literally learned to eat solid foods, crawl and walk together.

An even though they were born just five months apart, they look more like siblings. Leylynn is adorably bitty, easily in the 5–10th (or less?) growth percentile for her age. Noah, the moose, hangs out in the 85–95th percentile. Size aside, they play beautifully together and recently even began babbling to one another in what sounds like their own special language.


Unfortunately, my sitter had a falling out with Leylynn's folks, so she no longer goes to Miss Heidi's house. We were so bummed out about that! And we didn't know just how bummed out about it Noah was until today.

Once we left Leylynn's house and were buckled into the car, Noah started saying over and over, "Ney-Nynn, Ney-Nynn..." First he'd say it like a question (as in "more?"), and then it just became sort of a sad little chant. It just broke our little hearts to hear it!

But, Michelle (Leylynn's mommy) and I have vowed to let the kids hang out as often as possible via playdates and whatnot. And they did have some very cute moments today to remember...

There was lots of hugging and kissing:


And when it came time for Leylynn to eat her cake, Noah was right there to show her the ropes:


We'll see you soon, Leylynn!