More pictures of Val and Naomi's trip to Mexico!

These pictures were emailed to me recently, and Matthew declared them worthy of being posted on the blog. So here they are! Sorry about the sizing issues...

You can see how Naomi's shorts got a little wet from wading in the ocean; she liked the water on her feet so much she just kept going farther!

Since she played in the water AND sand quite a bit, a bath was in order. In the second picture, you can see Sadie (right) and Naomi (left) having an impromptu bath, complete with toys, slipping around, and laughter (but did more giggling come from the moms or the babies?)...

Daddy & Naomi moments

Here are some fun pics taken in the past week or so. These are just a couple of their fun moments. Notice Naomi is posing while sitting in Daddy's lap.

Another recurring fun moment not pictured above: Naomi gets to pick Cheerios off hidden places in Daddy's suit coat during church (now whenever she sees the suit coat, she looks under the lapel expecting treats!).

St. Patrick's Day

Here we are in our St. Patrick's Day outfits. Too bad we forgot to wear them on St. Patrick's Day...oops! As you will note, Naomi is already talented at simulating boredom.

The dinosaur curl

Yes, I have succumbed to the dreaded dinosaur curl... fortunately, no one in public saw it! I shaped Naomi's hair into the dinosaur curl while she was in the bathtub, giggled over it a bit, took some pictures, and rinsed it away forever!

Chatting with Sadie

Naomi's friend Sadie was visiting the other day, and it's always fun to watch Sadie and Naomi together. Naomi confiscates toys from Sadie, and then offers them back to her. Here Naomi is dicussing a few last-minute ideas with Sadie, and I've also included a picture of the diaper changing session.

Bike trailer

We got a bike trailer, and I'm excited to use it a lot! I dashed out to get Naomi a bike helmet, forgetting that she doesn't even leave a hat on her head. The first time in the trailer, she sang the whole time, but I just went around our teeny block and didn't make her wear the helmet. Then I took our neighbor kids for a spin since they were absolutely drooling over the bike trailer.

The second time out, Naomi screamed the whole time, except for when she couldn't breathe due to trying to pull the helmet off which resulted in cutting off her air supply with the neck strap. Lovely.

The third time was a charm, though! I enlisted the help of our neighbor kids, and had 5 year-old Sammy ride with Naomi and keep her entertained with toys and a sippy cup. Then it was Caleb's turn, and we left Naomi in the trailer with him. Since he is younger, he wasn't interested in entertaining Naomi, but that actually worked out great since she was fascinated in watching him play with the toys. I had her wear the helmet afterwards for about 20 minutes, and she did great. YAY!

Grandma & Grandpa Schlueter detoured down to Tucson before spending a few days in Phoenix, and we were thrilled to see them! We stopped by their hotel to pick them up for dinner. Naomi spotted Grandma's suitcase and decided she should help unpack it, which made Grandma giggle. We had a lovely dinner together, and they came to our house to visit the next morning for a couple hours before heading out.

Jake's kiss

Picture 1: Jake's kiss on Naomi's head played havoc with her hair

Picture 2: chasing Jake (the golden lab)

Mommy and Naomi in Mexico

Naomi and Val headed to Mexico for a few days with Elise, Sadie, Sadie's grandparents, and most importantly of all, Jake. Jake is a golden lab, and Naomi spent 4 days squealing whenever she got near him. She crawled or walked towards the dog everytime I put her down, and Jake was incredibly patient with her.

We missed Daddy lots, but the sand, water, combined with other activities and people, kept us busy and having fun. (Besides, he was busy in the lab, so we wouldn't have seen much of him if we had stayed at home.) Naomi walked right into the water, let the waves splash on her feet, and liked it so much that she went in farther!

Sadie and Naomi didn't do too well on the trip down - just when one fell asleep, the other would decide she wasn't excited about being in the car and would cry until the sleeping babe woke up and joined in the crying. So for the return trip, we dosed them up with some Tylenol. It's called a preemptive strike - we were sure they would have teething pain sometime during the drive home!

WALKING!!!!

Naomi is walking! We love it. We've posted some short video clips of her walking on www.youtube.com . Go to the youtube website and search for the following:

Naomi walking towards camera
Naomi walking between couches

Let me know if you have any problems accessing either video clip.

**This just in: apparently you cannot find the couches clip by searching for the title. However, you CAN search for "Naomi walking towards camera". Once you view that, click on our username (naomiadele). You will be taken to a page where both video clips are available.

Naomi's 1 year stats

Oops, I forgot to post Naomi's stats from her one-year appointment. I'm sure you've all been desperately waiting for this:

Naomi weighed in at 19 lb 8 oz, which is around the 25th percentile for her age. That floored me since I was fully expecting her to be 22 or 23 lb. The kid eats everything in sight, and my family still makes fun 
of how much she ate when they saw her at Thanksgiving time! We've taught her a few signs, and she spends most of the day telling us she wants to eat or read a book.

Naomi is 27 1/2 inches tall, which is the 10th percentile for her age. No surprises there; she's always been on the shorter side, and if you're surprised, that means you haven't met her mom.