Happy, happy birthday, baby!

The holidays have taken on a whole new meaning for our family. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the normal holiday craziness, we had a first birthday to plan for!

Happy, happy birthday, Naomi. If it wasn't absolutely clear before, let it be completely clear now... YOU ARE LOVED! And not just by your parents, but by everyone who meets you.

Now that you are a year old, let's revisit some recent milestones:

You are toothy! Your tooth count is now 8. Four up top, and four on the bottom. And your teeth look big for your face, which allows you to deliver an especially toothy big smile. It is completely endearing!


You are an ALMOST walker! While you don't yet have the confidence to walk on your own, you have stood up on your own without support. And you love to practice your walking - whether you are using your lion walker that Grandma & Grandpa sent you for Christmas, or you are holding on to one or two of our fingers. We can tell you want to - you just need to believe that you can. That first step is just around the bend.

You are a talker! There are plenty of words you have down pat: duck, dog, dada, mama, pop-pop, baby, bobby (your name for your blanket), and best of all - BANANA. And words you can't yet say, you understand. When asked how old you are, you put one finger up... then it goes into your mouth. When I say "No, no, no," you look at me and smile... and keep doing whatever you are doing so you can hear me say "No, no, no," again. When I say, "No, yucky!" you take whatever you have in your mouth out and hand it to me.

You are an adventurous eater! You will try anything and everything, and there are only a few things you have not liked so far - parsnips being one of those. You have earned the nickname "the mooch" since you demand food off of everyone's plate at every meal. You are on mostly table foods now and REALLY enjoy seeing how much you can stuff in your mouth at one time. Your favorite so far, though, must be stewed carrots and your first cupcake - banana and pecan, with Caramel buttercream, made from scratch with love by your mama for your first birthday.


You are a JOY! We can not wait to see what you have in store for us in your second year!

Is it Brad Pitt? Elmo Loves Brad Pitt.

9 months old

Naomi has now officially been out of my belly longer than she was in it. And she has grown so much since then. Shall we look at comparison pictures?

Remember Naomi as a newborn...

And Naomi now.

Wow. A world of difference. Dark hair turned blonde. Muddy eyes turned crystal clear blue. 4 teeth (yes, the two upper front teeth are in now!). 12lbs, 12 oz added to her weight, now at 21lbs even (90%). 8.75" to her height, putting her at 27.75" (75%). And just look at her. She is no longer a fragile little baby. She is a strong, active, INTERACTIVE kid!

She makes friends everywhere we go. Every errand we run takes twice as long now as she needs to say hi to everyone she sees (mostly a wave and HUGE grin, but sometimes even a little not-so-confident, am-I-saying-the-right-word? "hi.") And, of course, everyone needs to stop and indulge her. They can't refuse that face, and I don't blame them. She is just magnetic and I am in awe of her daily.

With this big-kid personality comes some big-kid moving around. Naomi is crawling. Full speed. And Climbing. While Naomi is not yet sturdy enough to stand on her own, she is happiest on her feet practicing. You are most likely to find her cruising around the furniture these days. This has already gotten her in trouble, as most of you already know. On Friday, Sept 25 Naomi pulled a top-heavy speaker over, making mincemeat of the tip of her middle finger on her right hand. This incident earned her her first three stitches. Besides the initial pain, little miss didn't let the stitches or very dramatic-looking bandage phase her. She was back to her old tricks that afternoon.

I think I was more traumatized by it than she was. But leave it to Naomi to make ME feel better as she crawls to me, saying "mama" through a huge smile and with wide, happy eyes. My heart melts and the world spins in the right direction again...

The eighth month...

August flew, plain and simple. Jam packed, full of travels and visits and fun and work and... teeth.

The three of us took a long weekend in San Francisco August 8-10, coinciding with the SF International Gift Fair. Business is always a good reason to travel, and why not make it a family affair! We had a fantastic time exploring the city, eating scrumptious food (read: foie gras sushi that was to DIE for, our first experience with In-n-Out Burger, and casual tasties from Taylor's Automatic Refresher). I think Naomi was hungry to enjoy the grastronomical side of San Fran, too, as that is where she cut her first tooth! For the record, that was August 10th, and it was the bottom-middle-left.

The bottom-middle-right came on August 18.

Another big event happened the beginning of August. Naomi met her maternal grandma! My mom came out for a visit and got to spend some long overdue time with Naomi. During her visit we took a trip out to the the beautiful San Juan islands and spent the day at Friday Harbor. It was here that Grandma picked up this sweet hat, perfect to keep our little nymph warm all winter!


Naomi also got to meet some of her island O'hana! We were able to catch up with our friend Tamar (in San Francisco) and Tamar's mom, Judy (on a trip to Tacoma). Tamar and Judy are also Aunty and Granny to Naomi's far-away friend Kilinoe, and Sister and Mom to MY faraway friend Tina.*

Our friends Scott and Jarvalen, and their little one, Brennan, were also in town for a wedding in August and made some time to stop by for lunch and a playdate!


August is also a lovely time in Tacoma - the weather is perfect (but a bit hot this year), the days are long (daylight 'til 10pm!) and the vibe is just relaxed and fun. One of my favorite things about summer is being able to walk down the street to the farmer's market. On one particular trip we were able to spend time with my friend Jennifer and her kids, Opal (3) and Ellis (newborn). Opal is the cutest - she just LOVES Naomi, and Naomi just loves to watch Opal do her thing and learn how big girls play. This particular photo amuses me, though, so I thought I would share! (Note the sign in the background and Naomi illustrating the point...)


Mid August also marked Naomi's first National Park visit. Mount Rainier towered over us in all it's glory. Just stunning...


I told you August was busy. There was also probably a barbeque somewhere in there, a few trips up to Lake Stevens to visit Aunty Em and Uncle Chad, a heat wave... we'll be looking forward to a slower, cooler fall.

*HEY TINA - don't you think it's time for you and Kili to take a trip up North to finally meet Naomi?

I'm freaked out by this.

Yoga is part of my life, and I can't wait to introduce Naomi to Yoga one day... but absolutely not like this.

7 months

Naomi's July was a busy one! The two biggest developments were a) sitting on her own (even in a grocery cart!), and b) the extent to which she is babbling now.

It is clear that we have a chatter on our hands. She is an expert in B's, M's, and D's (think in a string of "mamamama babababababa dadadadadadadada" followed by a squeal or making a raspberry sound with her lips. It is particularly cute, I must say, when she is moving her lips, practicing how to form her mouth for a particular sound, but not making any. Then, a minute later, she will give us a confident BABABABABA if that is the sound we asked for. Having an exchange with Naomi is lovely.

Even better is that it is clear now that she is understanding more and more of what we say. Among her favorite phrases to hear are "Jersey Puppy" "Who's that pretty baby" (when looking in the mirror), and "You want some num-nums?" (Num-nums being food).

Naomi also has favorite songs. She has for a while, but a particular few calm her down when needed. First best is Apples and Bananas. Runner up is Itsy Bitsy Spider. We do a lot of singing in the car these days...



The biggest event in July, of course, was the visit of Grandma (Jim's mom) and 12 year old cousin Trellany! Making the trip from Alabama to visit Naomi for the first time, Rhonda and Trellany were able to spend 10 days with us. Most of it was spent relaxing and allowing our visitors time to spend with Naomi. We did take a trip to Snoqualmie Falls on one day, caught a Mariner's game on another - always a favorite thing to do in Seattle! - and even walked in the CCFA 5k! Come back and visit again soon!

Naomi & Trellany at Qwest Field

Grandma & Trellany at Snoqualmie Falls

The CCFA 5k (Bree & Metztli joined us, too!)

Happy 4th of July!

They could have pared this down to Animal, Beaker, and Chef and I would have been just as thrilled to find this today! Those three are my all-time faves....

Have a fun and safe holiday!