Have I posted this yet?

My stylin' husband...I actually titled this photo "Awful facial hair". (Disclaimer: this picture was taken quite some time ago)



--Posted by Matt--
Here's some more  awesome facial hair (taken a few months ago)

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.

Nicknames

We have multiple nicknames for Naomi, but I thought you might get a chuckle out of two of them.

1. Pot Belly Merrell: she's got the funniest pot belly! It was absolutely hilarious to watch her try to open the oven door on the kitchen she got for her birthday (see picture). She got it open partway, but couldn't get it down past her pot belly!

2. Lil' Sticky Fingers: when we flew to Utah for Thanksgiving, Naomi almost pilfered a hat from someone on the plane. And at a recent dinner at a friend's house, she stashed one of Wade's toys in her diaper bag (which I didn't discover until sorting through her bag two days later). Or at least I assume that's where it came from...Gotta watch out for that one!

BYU Basketball vs. Air Force!

When we were in Utah at the end of January, we went to the BYU basketball
game vs. Air Force. We had a great time! Naomi hadn't been surrounded by 
that many people before, so we wondered how she would do. She whimpered 
when the first roar went up, but calmed down after that and was fascinated by
the basketball players, the GameTron, the crowds, the guy a few rows back who
kept yelling idiotic "advice" for the team, and everything else that went on!

And yes, her BYU hair ribbon is upside down. I don't think she noticed.

Utah in January

 
In the end of January, we went for a little drive and ended up in Utah! Kenny
(Matt's brother) and Echo blessed their little boy Nolan, and we were excited
to be there for it. We really had a great time, which was evidenced more than
anything else by us not wanting to leave when the time came. (Come on, admit
it; there are some vacations where you have a great time but are completely 
ready to go home when it's over!!)

Highlights:
  - Nolan's blessing and lunch afterwards
  - CAFE RIO!! (We have yet to find anything comparable in Tucson)
  - Jaunt up to Bridal Veil Falls (lots of snow and ice up there)
  - BYU basketball game vs. Air Force
  - Probably some other things I am forgetting
  - Watching Naomi and Nolan interact
  - And just seeing lots of family!

The pictures above are:
Brittany and Naomi
Matt and Nolan
Naomi reaching to touch fingers with Grandma Merrell

One more picture for good measure

I apologize for not putting up pictures for so long...we finally
upgraded our internet connection, and I completely 
blame the S...L.....O.......W connection we used to have for the
lack of info posted. Anyway, we're up and running again!
I hope you enjoy the pictures.

For good measure, here's another picture of Naomi. It was 
a bit chilly in the house one morning, so Naomi wore 
my socks for a bit, although they look like thigh-high boots 
on her! 

Snow in Tucson?

Yep, it has been confirmed: Tucson received some snow in January! 
Matt dashed outside to take a picture, and I thought you might enjoy
the contrast between the first picture (snow 
in Tucson) and the second picture (snow in Utah).

These pictures tell you why Val loves Utah and why Matt loves Arizona!

At the park

Naomi is a huge fan of the park and enjoys eating grass and dirt. In fact she enjoys it so much that I wonder if I am missing out! We've discovered she loves swinging - it makes her giggle! 

Rocky Point

We were invited to spend a few days in Rocky Point, Mexico 
with some friends, and 
we had a great time there! Naomi hadn't spent much time around other kids, and there was a 5 month old and a 1 year old in the house with us. Pictures attached are of the group at dinner, Matthew and Naomi on the beach, and the two of them feeding the birds. Naomi LOVES
watching birds, so she enjoyed the "bird show" each time it happened.

Grandma and Grandpa Jones

Grandma and Grandpa Jones came to Tucson for a week around New Year's, 
and we had a great time with them! We played cards, visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, 
got some work projects done, etc. We loved having them here and can't wait for them to come again! 
The picture above is us outside the Desert Museum.

1st Birthday!!

Naomi has turned one year old! Her birthday was on Saturday, Feb. 17, but
we had the party on Monday, Feb. 19th. What a big girl she is!! 

It took some convincing to get Naomi to leave her hat on, and in the end that didn't work anyway. As you can see in the group picture, she was not interested in picture-taking; she just wanted that hat off!

She made a lovely mess with the cake and had lots of fun!

Christmas Fun

10 month update

Naomi hit the 10 month mark on Sunday! No one reads paragraphs anymore (or so most of my family implied over Thanksgiving when they told me they only look at the pictures on the blog), so here are the main highlights:

• Naomi flaps her arms and occasionally waves hi or good-bye, but never on demand.

• She can stand up by herself until she realizes our hands aren't supporting her, then she sits right down.

• Naomi's favorite treat is a banana (not in the pureed form): I whipped out a banana for her during church today (not our usual church snack fare, but today was a rough day for her so I thought she deserved a treat), and she vocalized her excitement so much that we finally hid the banana and pulled out the veggie puffs.

• She loves dogs and absolutely goes berserk with excitement when she sees our neighbor's dog. Since the dog is familiar with kids, I let Naomi touch the dog and she just giggles and loves every second of it, even when she accidentally gets whacked by the frenzied tail-wagging!

• At her 9 month well baby appointment, Naomi weighed in at 16 pounds, putting her at in the 10th percentile for her age group. For height, she's in the 25th percentile. Other moms are blown away by how much Naomi eats, but obviously she's putting it to good use!
  

• Naomi's current favorite game: unloading all the items off the changing table. That includes diapers one by one, then clothes from baskets, changing pad covers, etc. It's still entertaining to me, so you can tell I'm a first-time mom. When she picks something up, she generally flaps it around to see if it does anything interesting or looks like food, and then drops it on the floor while moving onto something bigger and better.

Naomi is as huggable, sweet, beautiful, astounding, and intelligent as ever a baby could be...she put a fake rosebud in her mouth and tried to hide it from me, she is entertained for great lengths of time by the grocery ads (mostly tearing and waving them around), and she LOVES her toothbrush. She is enchanted by our Christmas tree and the sparkly lights on the houses in our neighborhood. All in all, with her heritage, she can't escape being highly intelligent!

Good cheeks

...almost there...

Little sicko

Fun with fruit puffs

Fun with cousins

Fun with friends