Omi at 1 year

Our little Omi is growing up!  It's been a wonderful first year with her, she is so sweet and good.  For her birthday she got a new doll from her brothers and a Little People House from us.  Bring on the pink! 

 

We had a family party that weekend where she was further adored and enjoyed a cake!

 

I love that face.

She devoured her cake, which turned out delicious!  She may have also eaten 2 cupcakes the day before when I was making them, the girl likes chocolate, she comes by it honestly.

 At 1 year:

• Omi is still a toothless wonder, but she much prefers table food to baby food.
• She sleeps 10-11 hours at night.
• She has quite a dress collection and currently has 14 dresses in her closet.
• She is finding her voice and isn't afraid to tell her brothers what she thinks.
• She says bye, hi, dada, papa, wow.
• She has a rather funny social laugh that she uses if other people around her are laughing.
• She loves the book Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton.
• She is just starting to stand up unassisted for a few brief seconds.
• She still loves a binkie, which is new for me since my boys never did.
• She brings more joy to our family than I ever anticipated. 

 



Leuca

So Mark's mom (AKA GrandmaLeuca) has had a lot of health problems these past few months and has spent considerable time in the hospital since Easter.  A lot of time actually.  This was all new for us, since prior to that she has always been so healthy.  So here are a few pics of how life has changed!

A visit to Summerlin Rehab back in May (towards the end of nearly 2 months in the hospital).  Boys are geared up because she was on contact precautions.

Michael made this card for her for her birthday.  So sweet but makes me sad because he drew her in a bed.  Given their ages, her failing health will be how they remember her. 

She can no longer live independently, so Mark and his siblings (who all live in Vegas) are taking turns caring for her.  It's a hard thing, but good too.  We got a turn this week, and it was good for us and the kids to learn to give service to her. 

I made this bag for her walker, so she can carry all her essentials.  I think she'll be the most styling lady at the doctor's office! 



So that's kind of where all our thoughts and energies have been directed lately.  Summer is halfway over and we have done very little on our bucket list.  But we sure love our little family and feel so blessed.

Sunday Eclipse

So Mark got us on track for viewing the eclipse, despite the fact he'd worked a 12 hour shift the night before and then had to teach for a ward conference, he pulled himself back out of bed after only 3 hours of sleep to make a memory with the boys.  That's just one of the things I love about Mark.

Naomi and I got in on the action, and yes, she's waving!

Mark pulled out the special lenses for viewing, boys had fun checking the progress.

We had 2 of them, foresight on Mark's part when he got them so long ago.

The coolest part was as there was just a sliver of sun showing, it caused shadows to become distorted, Mark's hand was actually spread wide with 5 fingers.

And the coolest effect was on the shadows cast through the trees, lots of eclipse shadows as the sunlight filtered though the tree.

So keep on your calendars June 5th, when Venus passes in front of the sun and you can see a black dot in the sun from it, happens only once every 128 years!

Sudan

If you want a place to blogstalk, check our my friend Kim's blog about her life in the Sudan.  I find all her posts fascinating, and humbling, and sometimes downright scarey.  Check it out!
http://firstwondergoesdeepest.blogspot.com/

Crawling

Omi is now 7 months and she will tolerate some tummy time...

 but inevitably, this is how she feels about it...

 don't think I have to worry about a crawling baby anytime soon.

But I'm not concerned, I will love her and hug her and carry her everywhere as long as I can!

Snapshots and snippets

Just letting ya'll know that we are still around, just busy.  The boys are currently obsessed with everything Lego and Star Wars.  Omi is getting the hang of eating now and detests rice cereal but loves avocado.  I have been able to start reading again since I do get a little bit of down time after all the kids are in bed.  And Mark is wishing I had never signed him up to coach the boys' Primary baseball team.  So there is a rather quick update, snippets to go with the snapshots! 

Omi

Naomi (affectionately dubbed "Baby Omi" by extended family) had her 4 month well check. She checked in at 25 1/2 inches (85th percentile) and 15 lbs even (75th percentile). Right on track with my boys to be long. And she has delicious cheeks and chubs that just beg for kissing.
At 4 months she smiles to those she knows and may to strangers if they are nice and soft spoken (she already has stranger danger). She generally sleeps about 10 hours straight, more or less, with 3 pretty predictable naps each day. She never spits up, rarely cries, and is often content to just sit and hang out and play with some toys if I am otherwise occupied. She can blow excellent raspberries. She smiles at me when I suction her nose. Mommy is her favorite person and her favorite spot is snuggled under my chin. However, she really loves her daddy and brothers and I can already see her adoration for them. During Christmas season Jacob started calling her "our Christmas star" which has now turned into "our little star" since Christmas is over. They are super sweet to her and are big helpers. She quite enjoys her fists and they are constantly in her mouth now. She is truly the easiest baby. She is so fun and has such a lovely spirit about her and we constantly feel so blessed to have her in our family.


(I have been having a little fun with the Pioneer Woman edits I downloaded to my photoshop elements, I love the effect of this one called 'soft faded')

I wish I had taken a daily picture of her. I really think I could catalog 365 days of clothes and never wear the same outfit twice, since I was given/inherited so many clothes! I have 8 14gallon bins of clothes that range from newborn to 3T. It's a little ridiculous but wonderful! I make myself remember that when I am out and tempted to buy her something...though I did break down this week with Target clearance. Darn Target.



Holidays...

We had a great December and enjoyed all our festivities with family.  Michael's Kindergarten class put on a really cute performance and he was so fun to watch...

While I intended for a lot of things to happen during the school break, very little did.  However we did manage to paint Naomi's room, which I was impressed that we actually did it (with a little help from some elves).

 But even with very little on the agenda, we still got tuckered out...

 Christmas morning was fun, and the boys actually didn't mind waiting til after church to open presents.  Jacob...

 This is such a representative picture of the two of them...love it...

 Baby slept through the gift opening, but woke in time for a picture with the dresses Santa brought her...

I didn't manage to send out any christmas cards this year. I pretty much only put up the tree and nativity, no other decorations made it up.  And my well intentioned gift idea for our neighbors never happened either.  Having a little baby can be terribly time consuming.  But we had a lovely little family Christmas and I am so thankful for the blessings of 2011, but quite happy to start a new year!

Random Shots

So I have some random pictures on my camera from the past week that make me smile.  Thought I'd share. 

This I haven't been able to bring myself to take down.  The boys did this when I went into the hospital when I was pregnant at the beginning of my ordeal, back in February.  They wanted to put hearts on all the bedroom doors for Valentines.  The other doors got one heart.  But they weren't satisfied with only one on mine, they wanted to show how much they loved me with lots of hearts.  There used to be more, but these are the ones that remain, almost 10 months later, still on my door.

Next, we have Jacob.  At 4 and heading close to 5, he is wanting to have some independence.  Here he made his own cinnamon toast.  It's disgusting, I think he used a half stick of butter on it.  Needless to say he tried one bite and then came and found me and asked me to make him some. 

Jacob again, quite proud that he did this all by himself and placed it in the nook in the entry to our room.  I don't have the heart to erase it. 

Found the boys with the camera one morning, quite enjoying themselves.  I'm not sure the identity of this nose though, despite the fact there there are several shots from this angle, it's still not enough to make a positive ID.

My firstborn is turning 6.  Sigh.  He has grown up so much this year, I enjoy him a lot.  I really really do, a lot. Mucho.

Here are 3 clean monkeys.  It makes me smile, she seems to have a look that is telling me she doesn't think letting them in the tub was the best idea, but she'll tolerate it for now.  Though she has her arms up in a defensive position, just in case.

So that is a glimpse into my little world, according to my camera.  I still think I have the most wonderful baby ever made.  I adore her so much.  She has been dubbed "baby Omi" by my nieces and the boys have picked it up.  Michael was trying to quiet her the other day and I heard him say "it's ok Om, your brother is here."  So sweet, but never imagined 'Om' as the nickname. 

I saw a quote on a friend's blog that said "THE DAYS ARE LONG BUT THE YEARS ARE SHORT."  It is completely true.  And as I switched baby's clothes out today and pulled out the 3-6 month sizes, it hit me hard just how quickly time really is passing.

Blessing Day

We had Naomi's blessing this month.  It was so wonderful to have so much family here to love Naomi on her special day- we had about 40 people at our house for lunch after church that day. Sometimes living near family is a blessing (other times you want to throttle some of them but on this day it was a blessing).

So here is our little family (I love that Mark bought a new purple tie for the occasion, he wanted something representative of having a daughter):



All the Howard Clan (all of Mark's family lives in town):

All the Boston Clan (that live in town):

Sweet baby Naomi (or Baby Omi as my niece calls her):

 

Here is some detail of the dress I made (with some help from my mom), I love how it turned out!  I have never made anything that detailed before, so it's definitely a boost for my sewing confidence.



My mom made the quilt that she is on and I adore it!  (It's tradition for her to make a quilt for each baby.)

Naomi is such a sweet, gentle spirit and we are so very blessed to have her as part of our family.  I am amazed everytime I look at her.



Naomi

Finally figured out how to upload pictures with the new computer, it kept saying I didn't have access to the folder whenever I tried uploading from photoshop to blogger or facebook.  But alas all has been ironed out.

Here is a picture of me 2 days before delivery.  I still threw up every morning except for the morning of delivery, but I think that was because we had to get up at 3am to be at the hospital by 4 and those stomach acids didn't have long enough to stew and make trouble.  By the way, I don't miss pregnancy...at all.  I chose to be induced, I had waited for labor with the other two and likely would have done so this time if not for my dad's surgery and the narrow window we had for my mom to take care of the boys.  But I was glad to have baby a couple days early too- both the boys came close to their due date and had respiratory issues initially because of meconium, so it was a relief to not have that issue with her.  I got hooked up about 6am and she was born at 7:09pm.  I am no hero, I believe epidurals are part of the further light and knowledge provided by Heavenly Father.  And after what this pregnancy did to me, I knew I didn't have the endurance even if I did want a natural childbirth.  But of the 3 deliveries, this epidural was the best cause I could still feel my contractions and move a little.  My nurses were great, apparently it was a good day to have a baby at Summerlin because there were only 3 patients on the whole labor and delivery floor.  It only took pushing through 3 contractions and she was out.  Dr Harter was fabulous as always, he is so friendly and personable in the office, but I appreciate how he takes charge and is so focused during the delivery.

So she arrived, 6lb 11oz, 19 inches, my smallest baby.  (Sorry sweet girl, I know coming to Earth wasn't exactly on your agenda right then).

Here we are, resting after delivery.  We were still unsure what to name her initially, but eventually settled on Naomi Amanda.  Naomi was my grandma's middle name and Amanda is my middle name.  I like that it's rarely used anymore, and although unintended, finished off our family of biblical names.

The next morning Mark brought the boys by for a visit.  They have adored her from the beginning and haven't stopped!

 Daddy is kind of in love with her too.

We waited 24 hours after delivery and were eager to get home, hospital beds are the worst.  During labor I swear my rear hurt more than the contractions!
Michael can't get enough of her, and feels a keen responsibility to look after her.

At 3 days old my fabulous friend Lynette came and took newborn pictures of her.  I can't wait to see them all, but here are a few she sent me...I think they capture how sweet and gentle her spirit is.  Lynette had just got her new faux wood mat, it totally looks like paint chipped wood boards but is really a nice foam mat.  Love the effect.

I feel great (except for my bout with the flu this week), but I guess I didn't realize how cruddy I still felt being pregnant because it was so much better then it had been in months 2-5.  But I love that once the baby is out, all the nausea and vomiting goes away and that feels soooo good!  She is a perfect baby and really doesn't cry or fuss unless she has a good reason.  She just had her 2 week well check and weighed in at 7lb 7oz and 21 inches.  I don't think they are great at measuring accurately at this age because I doubt she grew 2 inches.

So that is a little about our lovely Naomi, and of course, I would do it all over again for her.  I would.  Every ache and pain and vomit truly was forgotten as soon as I saw her.  People say that I can use this against her when she is older, but that is silly, it wasn't her fault.  No way would I hold it over that sweet little innocent face you see above.  Then again as the perionatologist said, "when she turns 15, you may want the IV zofran back..."

Let it begin...

So August 29th was the first day of school for Michael, he was excited, but got nervous when he got to his classroom, then got over it pretty quick. He is very motivated to bring home a green card every day which means he had good behavior. He already complains about homework, which isn't a good sign considering he'll be doing it for the next 20 years of his life. Here he is, ready to go... (one finger being for first day of school)...
September 6th marked Jacob's first day of preschool. He longed to go to preschool all last year when we dropped Michael off at Miss Aubrey's. At last it's his turn. So far he has been happy to go, but it makes me laugh that he is literally a head taller than the girls and a good 3-4 inches taller than the boys. I love my blond giant.

And here is me yesterday, 39+ weeks. Thought I should document the belly to some degree. I am really looking forward to not throwing up on a daily basis. I know I will feel tired and miserable in different ways after she comes, but I am so tired of the nausea with the constant tightness in the back of the throat. It's novelty wore off long ago. Here's hoping I only have one more morning of this.

We can't wait to meet her and get on with this next phase!