Today is Noah's 11th birthday.

I knew that he wanted a video game, Mario Kart 8, for his birthday. But we like to give our kids more than one thing for their special day.  Since we don't do Christmas, we really like to make the kids feel special on their birthdays.

Sometimes, it's kind of tough to know what to get Noah, though, because his interests seem kind of narrow--and we are usually trying to encourage non-electronics-related interests. So on Tuesday, I asked him if there was anything besides a video game that he would like.

"A Luigi plushie. Or Toad. Yeah, Toad!"

Well, at least it wasn't electronic.

But, wait. Toad? I'm thinking:

But apparently, Noah was thinking:

It took a while for us to bridge that communication gap, but once we did, I figured that the internet could probably supply me with a pattern to make this cute li'l guy in some way, shape or form.

And the Internets did not disappoint. I found an adorable crochet pattern for several of the Mario Bros characters on Wolfdreamer's blog. So I printed off her pattern for Toad and Toadette, gathered my yarn (a perfect chance to use up old acrylic yarn I never use otherwise, Yay!), plunked my butt in a chair, and started crocheting.

I have done a fair amount of crocheting in my life--enough that I was able to follow this pattern fairly easily. However, I do not like crocheting, and after doing it for nearly 24 hours straight (made bearable by blasting through half of Season 4 of "Gilmore Girls"), my hand and wrist were complaining. But it was all worth it when I got to give Noah this tonight:

Ssh. Don't tell Noah, but I've also started on Luigi. He can be surprised again at his birthday party on Saturday.

And then, I think I will be well and truly done crocheting for a while! Except now Jude, Jabin, and Levi all want one. And Noah mentioned Luigi again. And Mario. And Jude wants Bowser Jr. And I'm pretty sure a few more characters were mentioned. Jason suggested I should just make them all the complete set of characters. I suggested something that Jason could do, too. ;-P

How was your Thursday, friends?