SMILES, SMILES, SMILES!!!

Gabriel is one dang good-lookin' kid, especially when he smiles! I LOVE when he smiles. It's this big goofy expression on his face, and you can see the smile in his eyes, too. Unfortunately, he specializes in retracting his smile as soon as the camera appears, so this is the best we have done so far in capturing the smiles.

Root beer fun

Last Tuesday was National Root Beer. So we had a party! I took a picture of the preparation beforehand. We put out sample cups with different kinds of root beer to see how many people could differentiate between 6 brands. Schuyler and Ryan Whitaker blew everyone else away by both getting 3 correct. I, sadly, only got one.

We ended the night with root beer floats. Thanks for coming, everyone!

Dollhouse

Grandpa Jones made this dollhouse bookcase for Naomi, and she loves it! Thanks, Dad! It even has windows and doors on the sides.

AC went out...

1. Our AC was not working for a few days.
2. And yes, we live in Arizona.

The combination of those two facts made life quite uncomfortable for awhile! Luckily we were able to hang out at the houses of some friends so we didn't sweat into little puddles on the ground. While we were at home, we stayed directly in front of the fan. You can get pretty creative with a deck of cards and a bit of unused tubing from a portable AC unit when you're sitting in front of a fan...

Stomach gurgles

Naomi caught a case of the stomach gurgles. It's no fun being sick, but it's distressing to see your child sick and not being able to explain why it's happening or what's going on. Or that there's no medicine to help.

Naomi appeared in our bedroom Monday morning around 2:00 am and spent the majority of Monday throwing up and having other unpleasant symptoms. She threw up 10 times between 2 AM and 10 AM, so we were worried about her being dehydrated. She was able to start eating popsicles and Gatorade mid-day, and it was all uphill from there. We have our chipper little girl back this morning! Unfortunately, she was hopping around at 5 AM, and I wasn't ready for such exuberance at that hour...

Two items of note:

1. While in the waiting room at the doctor's office, in one shot Naomi threw up all over me, the check in counter, my wallet, cell phone, and straight into the opening of the diaper bag. Everything I pulled out of the bag afterwards was covered in goo.

2. I understood what my parents felt like being literally covered in my throw up. However, despite their knowledge of my extreme motion sickness issues, they continued to stick me in a car and drive to places like Iowa and California. So they at least knew to expect it.

(Picture above is a random one, not one while Naomi was sick. We were too busy wiping the vomit from everything to take pictures!)

Renée Fleming + the Muppets = delightful

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPdP7XJdvlM&

My brother Edward sent me this link. Naomi loved it and watched it repeatedly for...well, we started a few days ago and she is still asking for it!

Trust Edward to introduce opera to my 2 year old! (Being conscious of her musical education, I appreciated it.)

Good sport

The day of this picture, Naomi didn't think she was ready for a nap. Normally she'll cry for a minute when that happens, but this day she just laid down. 30 minutes later I had to grab something out of her room, and I found her still awake. She wanted to get up and I asked her to stay in bed for a bit longer. She complied without a word of protest, and I found her asleep awhile later. It was a serene moment (thus worth documenting), and I really appreciated Naomi being such a good sport!

Healthy boy!

Gabe saw the doctor on Monday for a 1 month check-up. Stats:
Weight: 8 lb 13 oz
Height: 21 1/4 in

More importantly, he saw the pediatric cardiologist today and, after an ultrasound, was cleared of any concerns with his heart. YAY! When he was born, there was an extra sound with his heartbeat, but it's gone and the doctor said it couldn't sound or look better.

Here are pictures of the two Merrell kiddos hanging together in their jammies.

Published yet again!

Matt's not into bragging (except to his family, then he goes all-out!!), so I'll do it for him. His most recent paper has been accepted for publication! If you are interested, you can check it out at http://dmd.aspetjournals.org in the FastForward articles section.

The title is:

THE Nrf2 ACTIVATOR OLTIPRAZ ALSO ACTIVATES THE CONSTITUTIVE ANDROSTANE RECEPTOR


Happy reading!

UPDATE (Matt):
I can't really recommend it to anyone, but if you are interested and want an explanation, go ahead and email me.

UPDATE (Val):
Do it! It's fascinating.

Raspberry jam - YUMMY!

Val LOVES her mom's homemade raspberry jam. Apparently Naomi loves it just as much! Val left Naomi playing with the beans while putting Gabe down for a nap but she hadn't cleared the table of the breakfast items. You can see the results.

Rojo

Grandpa and Grandma Jones let Naomi pick out the name for their newest calf. Since she (the calf) was red, Naomi chose "Rojo" (inspired by a Dora episode with a red fire engine named Rojo). Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for letting Naomi name the calf!

Fun with paint and friends

Here's Naomi at a fun playdate on May Day. This was the first time I've let her loose with paint, and she loved it! (She also enjoyed the bouncing zebra.)

Splash pad

Today Naomi, Gabe and I joined some friends at the park where they have this great splash pad. It was our first time there, and Naomi had so much fun that we'll definitely be heading back! The blanket over Gabe (he's in a carrier on my chest) was not only to keep the sun off of him, but also to protect him from the spray of the buckets overhead that occasionally dump water on you!

Bird feeder

We have a hummingbird feeder out back. There appears to be a turf war going on over it, and the hummingbirds don't always win out!

Grandma Jones comes to Tucson!

Grandma Jones spent almost a week and a half with us, and it was great! She cooked us yummy food, took care of Naomi during Val's hospital stay, did some cleaning, baby-sat while we went on a date (going somewhere w/o kids?? novel idea!), took us out to eat, and spoiled us all in general! Ever since she left, Naomi has been asking "Where's Grandma?" and, after listening to my reply, saying "Let's go find her!".

THANKS FOR COMING!!! Come again soon!

Bath paints

Naomi picked out a small "welcome" gift for Gabe, and she got a present back from him: bath paints! She started out by mostly smearing them around, but we've since expanded to the tile wall to smear the colors into snowmen, balloons, boats, hand prints, and other fun shapes. I dole the paint out liberally each time so we can hurry and use them. I think we'll try bath crayons next instead of the paints!!

Gabe's tricks

We took Gabe to the pediatrician when he was a few days old, and she checked out his reaction to being on his tummy. He propped right up to the level they expect of a 4-month old. I thought it was a fluke, but this morning he did it again and held it for a bit. This kid is a turtle, craning his neck and looking all over the place.

(Mom, you can tell Ed Storey that the quilt was bright enough that Gabe wanted to pick his head up and see what was on it! See 3rd pic)

In other random news, Gabe has also rolled over a few times. He goes from his tummy to his back and has rolled both ways (over his left side and over his right side). This doesn't bode well for tummy time efforts, so I guess it's good that he has decently strong neck muscles already!

Coming home

Gabe in motion

Gabe's calling in life

Will Gabe grow up to be...
...a politician/used car salesman?
...a great thinker?
...a body builder?
...a french chef ("magnifique!")?
...an opera singer?