Naomi's 14th Monthabirthday

14 Things about my amazing little girl:

1. Her words:
Momma
Dada
Dog
Duck
Eyes
All done
Up up
Down down
Stop
Bible
Gentle
Thank you
Big Bird
George
Diaper
Bye bye
Uh oh
Baby
No

2. Sounds she makes:
Quack
Moo
Woof
Oooh ooh (monkey)

3. Non-verbal communication:
Naomi is great at non-verbal communication. She nods yes or no. She points at things. If she wants it she will either ask for it by name and then point to herself or sign "more" (which she uses for "asking nicely").

4. She currently sleeps in a "big girl bed". We moved her into this a few weeks ago when we sold the crib in a huge consignment sale. Even though she can climb out of her bed, she has only done it so far when she is done sleeping. (My fingers are crossed that she won't decide she doesn't want to go to bed and start getting up when I put her down.)

She does climb on everything else. One of her favorite past-times is climbing on furniture and telling me she needs to sit down. In fact, she hears that so much that today she took her Elmo and had him standing on a box. She looked right at his face and said, "down down" and made Elmo sit on the box. At least she's learning the lesson. (and teaching it)

Oh, and she also figured out how to climb UP the down part of the slide over at her grandma's house. This girl is strong and fiercely determined.

5. We got her some new shoes at Target the other day while JR stayed home to get some school work done. She was wearing them when we came in the house and I told her to show them to her daddy.

Naomi crossed the room all smiles and "daddas!" until she got about a foot and a half away from JR. She stopped. Posed. And did a twirl. Then she leaped into JR's waiting arms. It was stinkin' adorable, people.

6. If the house is quiet and I haven't seen Naomi in a while, I usually find her reading a book. When she notices she's being watched, she points out the objects she knows in the pictures. Her proud little smile is priceless.

7. Her hair is growing. Even on the top, although it is still shorter than the rest of her hair. I have pulled it into a pony-tail. However, to keep her hair from looking really mullet-ish, a headband is the best cure. Most of the time when we're at home I just let the curls take over her head. :)

8. The ONLY time Naomi has a really hard time is in the nursery at church. It's the room. It has to be. She's fine everywhere else in the building. And it's not that she's with me or JR in other parts of the building. The nursery/class teachers who are trying to calm the screaming child that is usually so smiley walk around and she quiets down.

I'm not sure what to do about this. It makes it really hard to leave her for Bible class.

9. The other day Naomi and I were sitting on Gideon's bed and Naomi was holding "Mie" (Gideon's monkey). She held it up as if to ask what to call it. I told her he was a monkey and made monkey noises. Naomi echoed my monkey sounds and looked around the bed and found Curious George. She picked up George and started making monkey sounds. I praised her for being so smart and making matches and she went on to astound me. She picked up a pillow in the shape of a race car and I told her it was a car. Then she pointed to a 2-D car on Gideon's sheets.

Genius, people. She's matching things right and left.

And if that weren't enough... today I was sorting laundry. I had a basket full of reds, and a basket full of other non-red colors. She picked up a red frisbee and put it with the non-reds, paused, looked at the basket of reds and decided to get the frisbee out of non-reds and put them in with the rest of the red items. (blew me away)

10. Gideon and Naomi are really getting to where they play together a lot. I'm not talking side-by-side individual play... really playing together. They have tea parties, play cars, have sword fights, and play more cars. They wrestle and tickle and hide under the tables. It's really neat to see them bond.

11. Despite the fact that Naomi is very strong-willed and independant, she minds very well. She is a good listener. She is getting very good about following directions. Almost always she will "put _______ back where (she) found it". I can correct her behavior in most cases with non-verbal ques or a soft direction.

12. She's getting better about cleaning up her toys with Gidoen as well. She loves to put nesting cups inside each other. She has a piggy bank that hold coins and a purse that holds purse-y things and she likes to put the items where they belong.

13. When she doesn't want to leave a room... she does everything in her power to stay. Have I mentioned how strong she is? Have you ever had an almost 30 lb. child dig her toes into hard-wood floors? Come try to get Naomi to leave the bathroom to give her older brother some privacy.

14. Yesterday she SAID her first prayer. For several weeks she's been really good about folding her hands to pray when we do, but yesterday, spontaniously, she prayed on her own. We were out looking for fabric for a commissioned project and she folded her hands in prayer and said, "Thank you." What a great way to start your prayer life, huh?

She's amazing!! and silly, and goofy, and beautiful, and strong, and tough, and... my little girl!