Sunglass options

Here Naomi is trying on some different sunglasses to see which look best.

Eskimo kisses - Mommy taught these to Naomi and loves getting them!

4th of July fun

We had fun celebrating the 4th of July. We played with friends, swam, bbqed, and played with a turtle named Mozart (who loves watermelon).

Naomi's shoe fetish

Naomi is on a real shoe kick. If she likes your shoes (and she likes pretty much all shoes), she'll take off with them. She especially likes to walk in them around the house.

This picture is of Naomi wearing Matt's flip flops. (Pic is blurry, we know, but you get the idea.) I had helped her do some laps in the kitchen wearing them. Then, awhile later, to my complete surprise, she slid her feet into them again and took off all by herself! I kept waiting for her to tip over and not be able to get going again, but she did great, even maneuvering through the turns beautifully. She did great, that is, until we pulled the camera out!

My baby's growing up!

I thought this when she started wearing two piece pajamas, then again when she started wearing a nightgown. It came up when she started demanding her own utensils to feed herself (although that's not always a successful venture). The idea pops up all the time, so it shouldn't have surprised me when I took this peaceful picture that she looked SO BIG to me! My baby's growing up!

Gardening Girl

We got Naomi a watering can so she could participate in caring for our very small garden (2 tomato plants, a few cucumber plants, a few pepper plants, and some flowers). It took a couple times of demonstrating how to use the watering can before she got the hang of it, but now whenever she sees Matt heading for the back door, she runs pell-mell over there and dances around by the door anxiously until I can get her shoes on and the watering can in her hand.

The first picture is of Naomi helping Matt water the flower area. With those wide bricks to reach across, she usually ends up watering mostly the bricks and her feet, but she sure has fun doing it! And we get squeals whenever Matt sends a squirt of water from the hose her way.

The second picture shows us hanging out on Naomi's bench. We used to hang out on it a lot more when Naomi wasn't an active participant in gardening!

Bedtime Reading

Naomi's new favorite bedtime book starts out "Hush little baby, don't say a word...Mama's going to show you a hummingbird." It goes along with the regular mockingbird song but focuses on nature appreciation instead of commercial purchases. To keep baby happy, Mama and baby listen to the crickets call, search for shooting stars, look at the harvest moon, play on the old banjo, etc.

Here Matt is reading the book with Naomi and her reading buddy. When the book mentions Mama finding baby's teddy bear, Naomi always looks around and grabs for her teddy bear!

Headstands

Naomi has been doing these headstands for quite some time now. It just took me awhile to get pictures of it! Most recently she's started getting in this position and then balancing on her head and one hand while reaching between her feet for a sippy cup or any other fun object.

I don't usually hang out in this position myself. Perhaps Matthew is a closet yoga addict, but I doubt it. So I'm guessing Naomi either picked this up after seeing my post-run stretches or just figured it out herself when messing around one day. Whatever the origination, it's one of her favorite things to do!

Bug antennae

Check out Naomi's new hairdo. I've been calling her my bug all along...now she has the hairstyle to match the nickname!

The sequence of events as pictured here is classic. Naomi checks out the camera (or whatever is going on), then heads for the kitchen and looks to see why we aren't following!

Hauling potatoes

Naomi discovered our bag of potatoes and decided to lug it around. She covered some pretty good ground before depositing the bag on our living room floor and heading for the toy bin!

Sippy cups

Here are Naomi and Sadie, just a-chuggin' away on their sippy cups!

We miss out on so much Seher fun!

From Bethany's latest email:

New Seher Family Rule:
Rule #13
No Eating Miracle-Gro
Even if just a little bit won't hurt a 3 year old, per Poison Control. That kind of stress is bad for Mommy's heart. I'm gonna fall over dead one of these days from fright.

Bobbie just kept watering the plants while I panicked and held Dahlia's head/mouth under the faucet and yelled Spit it out, SPIT IT OUT!!

Playing at the park

Matt got home early one day last week and we celebrated by heading to the park. Naomi chased birds, played with a little boy (and his shovel and pail!), and signed more, more, more every time she got near the slides or swings. We love dirt!!

Naomi's evolving hairstyle

Matt continues to tell me Naomi has a mullet. To detract attention from that, I decided to put Naomi's hair in a ponytail (harder than it sounds - that stuff is so dang wispy!). I was impressed by Jessica's family picture (in which Carolyn's hair was put in two pigtails), but I figured I better start with one and see how that went. So it pretty much looks like a spout coming off the top of her head. And sometimes it just....comes out looking a little worse than the other times!!

Once Naomi discovers that something is on her head, she takes it off immediately so she can examine it and then try to put it back on all by herself. She's definitely still in the sharing phase, because sometimes she tries to put the clip/barrette in Mommy's hair!

Sprint triathlon

I competed in the Lake Las Vegas Women's sprint triathlon the last weekend in April. It was my first triathlon, and I really enjoyed the challenge. I struggled with the first part of the swim - the water was 10 degrees cooler than the race coordinators had estimated, so it took a little while to calm down in the water. The bike course had lots of long hills but didn't prove to be a problem. The run course ended with a little bit of a downhill slope, and I turned in my best 5K time ever (by quite a bit, actually, meaning I've either been lazy in the past or just really trained well for this event!). I loved the feeling of accomplishing it so much that once I saw my times, I immediately started working on a training plan to better those times. Tune back in during August or September to see pictures from my next triathlon!

Las Vegas and fun with cousins!!

We spent the last weekend in April in Las Vegas with family. My parents were there for the first part, and Matt's family showed up for the second part. We had a great time! We didn't get a ton of pictures...mostly ones with the cousins (Naomi and Nolan). Here are a few...

Hot dogs, peas, and (mostly) giggles...

What kind of face would you make if your mom fed you hot dogs bits and peas? Naomi demonstrates a few options.

Out for a Sunday spring walk

Out for a walk in the beautiful spring weather!

SOOOOOOOO Big!

This is a trick Matt taught Naomi. He says, "Who's SOOOOOOO big?" and she raises her hands high above her head to show that she's a big girl! The second picture is a variation on this; she apparently decided the peas on her dinner tray should be put to use and she rubbed them thoroughly into her hair.

Easter at the Merrell's place

Here is Naomi in her Easter outfit. Getting her to smile and look at the camera took some serious silly work. We didn't do Easter baskets or anything...figured it would all go right over her head and she would spend her time munching on the grass from the baskets anyway.

Lulu

Here Naomi is playing with Lulu, her giant stuffed lamb. She runs toward Lulu giggling, climbs all over Lulu, lays down on Lulu when she's tired...we absolutely love this stuffed animal!

Stacking things

Naomi's brilliance shows through in her ability to stack items, such as her shoes on top of mine. She's terrific at knocking things down, but it's only been in the last few weeks that I've convinced her to stack things herself. Stacking our shoes was completely her own idea.

Walking with Naomi

Our sweet darlin'

Naomi's serious side (January 2007)

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)