Happy 3rd Birthday!

 Naomi Irene, you are 3 years old today! Happy Birthday!

- I love your beautiful curly hair so very much! You have lovely ringlets. You're doing a better job at letting me brush your hair after your bath, but you are still definitely not a fan. We usually sing lots of verses of "The Wheels on the Bus" in order to distract you during the process. 

- You love babies! Baby Wren, your baby dolls, the little baby JJ from Cocomelon. You seem to have an affinity for taking care of them. Sometimes when you are playing with your dolls, you'll accidentally sit on one or bump them and say "Oh, sorry, baby!" so sweetly. 

- Whenever we go somewhere new or with a crowd, you stay very close to me, usually asking to be held. After about an hour, you warm up a bit and will start to venture a little farther and say a few words. But you are quite shy and give mostly non-verbal cues to questions such as head nods and thumbs up :) At home, you speak full sentences and communicate clearly and well. It's pretty easy to understand what you need/want at any given time. You have found your place in our family and it's definitely the "baby gets what she wants" role, for better or for worse. 

- Pop-Pop took you and Aunt Teresa out for a birthday dinner at Spin pizza! It's so special that you all get to share the same birthday month! You had a great time and felt pretty special! Plus you received some new soft, pink bear slippers from Pop-Pop, just in time for the cooler weather! 

- All dressed up for your special night out. 

- On Halloween, we attended Restore's Fall fun day up at the Weston Red Barn farm. It was pretty windy, but also nice and warm! You rode a pony, went through the corn maze, ate lunch, listened to "Dangle", went on a hayride, and decorated pumpkins. It was lots of fun! 

- You got your cast off -- hooray! The doctor said your wrist healed up nicely. We will go back for one more follow-up appointment, but otherwise, I believe this hurdle has been crossed. 

- While the boys were up in NE with Mimi, Daddy and I took you and Zoë out to dinner at Red Robin. You love to make faces like these. You have learned how to get a good laugh out of us at the dinner table. And it's apparent you love the attention it gives you. 

- You enjoy playing outside with your brothers and sister. You run around, following them, doing the things they're doing. You've gotten braver around Marshall and have learned to hold your own. He has learned how to give you a little more space and gentleness. You also enjoy petting Dora from time to time, but have a harder time being calm around her. 

- You love to sing and dance! You've got the booty shake down and swinging your hips from side to side. You can count pretty well. You know your ABCs. At the dinner table, you're starting to participate more in our daily gratitude. You can recite several of our Bible verses with us, as well as our daily prayers at lunch and dinner. You like listening to the songs on ABC Mouse and your current love is Cocomelon which you watch every night before Mommy and Daddy's TV time. 

- You have a sunny, cheerful disposition, unless you've just woken up {ha ha! like me!}. You need about 30-45 minutes after your naps especially, to get up and running again. But otherwise, you giggle a lot, love to play, and generally go along with whatever we ask you to do. You enjoy baking with me, dumping in ingredients and turning the mixing bowl on and off. And love to lick the spatula and bowl afterwards. For the most part, you prefer to play with Zoë or I, but just the other day I found you in Levi's room, having special time with him :) And Zeke reads you books and does a great job helping you get to the bathroom on time and making sure you're looked after. You are a well-loved child. 

- You do such a great job on our Wild+Free hikes! You mostly walk on your own, and some of our walks are close to 2 miles. You seem to enjoy exploring nature and try your best to keep up with your brothers and sister on the trail. 

- You still take a nap almost every day! I sing you 2 songs and rock you (and you've still been nursing a bit) and then you sleep from about 230 - 4 pm. At night you sleep from about 1030 pm to 8 am. You still love to snuggle and when I'm holding you through the day you often have your face pressed up next to mine. 

- Your beautiful quilt, made lovingly by Great-Grandma Jeanne. 

- You are NOT a fan of bugs. All summer long, whenever you saw a bug of almost any kind you'd yell "BEE!" if it was flying or "SPIDER!" if it was crawling. When the flies started coming inside this Fall, it was very distracting for you at meal time because you were very concerned about the 'bees' flying around your food; as well as anyone else's food.

- You are a little bit of a picky eater, but still do pretty well with trying most foods. You throw every piece of onion in your food on to my plate during meals. You don't love ground beef or mushrooms or tomatoes or pickles or chili. Sometime last month I made chili and you came up to the table, looked in your bowl, and said "Ewwww!" So that was not a win. But you will eat baked beans and sloppy joes. So maybe it's just certain combos that you're not ready for. At night, with Mommy and Daddy you like snacking on cashews, the kettle cooked potato chips from Costco, drinking peach tea with plenty of honey and milk, and joining in with our occasional cake mugs. 

- You don't seem to love swimming, but if you can play outside of the water, just splash or run through sprinklers, you have a good time. 

- This picture is from June 11, you have grown so much in 5 months! 

Naomi Irene, you do live up to your name, both pleasant and peaceful. You are a joy to spend time with and we love listening to your sweet voice. Hopefully I'll have a few videos from this time in your life because you are so precious. We are having a Cocomelon birthday dinner tonight -- we will be having tacos, refried beans, rice, and corn for supper. I'm making a texas sheet cake with hopefully a small cocomelon design :) Naomi, you are dearly loved and an irreplaceable part of our family. I cannot wait to see what interests you will discover in the coming year and all the ways you will grow! Love, Mommy 

Birthday Interview 11/11/2020

What is your favorite food? *shrugs shoulders* Sausage! And bacon! Ham and turkey and eggs. 
What is your favorite color? Purple and pink! Like the purple on my balloon! 
Favorite movie? Cocomelon!
Favorite drink? Orange {it's actually peach, but it's an orange box} tea. 
Favorite song? *whispers* Cocomelon song. "ABCDEFG...."
What do you like to play with every day? Toys. 

**Then she walked away and I couldn't get any more answers out of her.