Dear Naomi,
October 8, 2010 at 12:23 am you came into our lives and from that moment on I knew life would never be the same. Naomi Tamara you have this grace about you that is simply amazing. Stubborn as an ox, smart as a whip, determination to rival anyone I've ever met, fiercely independent yet so loving and snugly it seems like such a contradiction to your other traits. As soon as you could walk on your own, you no longer wanted to hold my hand. That is unless going down stairs. When your brother was little he perfected sliding down the stairs. You have no desire to slide down the stairs. You want someone to hold your hand so you can walk down the stairs like a big girl. You love animals and are drawn to them. It's something to watch how gentle you are with animals. Your favorite book is an animal book and you sit and flip thru the pages all by yourself because you simply prefer to look at it yourself. While I read to your brother every night you sit and look at your animal book, happily entertaining yourself. Mikey is by far your favorite person to play with. While you have fun with Mommy and Daddy you definitely prefer to play with him than us. I don't blame you, he's a really fun little boy! I have a feeling you are going to keep us on our toes as you aren't afraid of much. I'm always pulling you off things that you are climbing on. In the bath tub you stick your entire head in the water and blow bubbles, happily doing this over and over. I have watched you grow this past year and every day you simply amaze me. I am, we are, so lucky to have you in our lives.
Our sweet little Nay-nay.
7lbs 15 oz of pure love
It seems everyone in the family wanted to be a part of your 1st birthday.
Great-Grandma Connie and Grandma Robin drove up from Florida to watch you turn 1.
1st stroller from Grandma Robin. Great gift!
Naomi loves anything she can push around.
Big brother giving his little sister a gift
What is it?
What's in there already?
Oh a pretty butterfly hair clip, thanks big brother and Babcia!
Naomi and Babcia
Birthday fun! We had some friends over to help celebrate. It was crazy warm on her birthday, which was strange weather for October in Wisconsin. No one was complaining though.
Grandpa Mike and Grandma Robin. Grandpa manned the grill for us as Mike was on call and was stuck at work for the first part of her party. Thank heavens for good Grandpas! I must say that all the Grandparents really stepped up and helped me get all the final details together for her party. Mike was completely out of commission between the stomach flu and being on-call. I would also like that thank my Mom who helped me do a ton of the prep work for the party, I really appreciate all of your help.
I made these bad boys all on my own. Let me tell you (not to brag or anything) but, these puppies not only looked good but they were pretty tasty too. So much fun! (see I said that I was done with store bought cakes and I meant it) ; )
Blowing out her candle. She was really cute and was really trying to blow it out herself. I found this pretty phenomenal as I hadn't worked with her at all on blowing out the candles.
Yummy!
After the guests left, the kids had a blast playing in the ice in the cooler.
It was pretty freakishly hot or else I would not have let them do this.
I love these candid moments I get of them, sweet.
Mikey and Grandpa Mike
Two peas in a pod
Grandpa was only here for a couple days and the entire time Mikey would NOT leave his Grandpas side. This relationship is something special.
Opening the birthday gifts. Let the fun begin!
New clothes, new toys...
new hats...
new embroidered bath towels, frames, and wall plates.
(Thank you so much Uncle Stu, Aunt Tanya, and cousins Maximus and Apolonia. They were not able to come and be with us but, they were with us in spirit and did they ever spoil Naomi! )
playing together
sweet Naomi
Halloween... already?
There are a lot of fun activities around town for the kids to give them a chance to wear their halloween costumes. Fun!
The Marshfield Zoo had trick or treating this past Saturday so we went with some of our good friends and did the kids ever have a blast!
The only bummer was Mikey's costume had not arrived yet so he had to be spiderman from last year. It was a little small and of course he let me know about a 100x's that it was too small. He was bound and determined to get that candy at any cost though.
As you can see by the layers, we are back to our typical chilly October temps.
That didn't slow these kids down one bit.
Naomi the 'fairy of animals' quickly found a bee to pet. ; )
Having fun with the boys!
I'm sorry but there is just nothing better than a big pile of leaves!
Now: 25 lbs and 32 inches
99th percentile in height!
Well, there you have it. Our daughter is one year old. The only slight hiccup of her birthday was the horrible stomach flu that swept through our house leaving no one un-touched. Mikey had it a week before her b-day, Mike got it the morning of her b-day, Naomi got it the evening of her b-day and I got it the next day. As if that wasn't bad enough my poor in-laws got it on their drive home! It seems the only ones that escaped we're my parents and Grandmother who were smart enough to get the flu shot. Was it coincidence that they didn't get it and they got the flu shot? I don't think so. Anyhow, we are all better and despite having a case of the yucks it was a wonderful first birthday. Thank you to all the Grandma's, Grandpa's and Great-Grandma that traveled so far to share her birthday with us. It was a wonderful day that I hope to never forget.
