Happy Birthday, Babykins!

Today was Naomi's first birthday! I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born.

For the most part, we spent the day much like every other day... napping, eating, and dropping off/picking up Daddy from school. We also ran a few errands (Target) and since the weather was beautiful, I took Naomi to check out one of the parks in Columbia. But she was afraid of the mulch on the playground, and she wouldn't let me put her down. (She's also terrified of grass and of being in a garage... silly girl! At least we got her over her fear of the pink ball.) We also read a special book at bedtime (Happy Birthday to You, by Dr. Seuss) instead of her regular bedtime story, On the Night You Were Born (which is an awesome book, by the way... it makes me teary-eyed every time I read it). Since Naomi was born one year ago today at 5:38 pm, I wanted to get a picture of her today at the exact same time. So at 5:38 pm MST (6:38 here in the Central Time Zone), this is what Naomi was doing:

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby girl! Daddy & I love you!

(Don't you just love the way her hair sticks up there in the back? No matter how hard I try, it will not lay flat!)

Conquering fears

Until recently, we didn't own a single ball for Naomi to play with. I had wanted to buy her one for a while, because I rememberd her playing with some at her cousins' house, and she seemed to have a lot of fun. And besides, every child needs a toy ball! So one day while at Walmart, I splurged and bought a pink ball for a dollar (because when you're poor, anything unnecessary can be called a "splurge", even if it's only a buck!)

I debated for a minute or two about whether to save the ball for a birthday present or to give it to her immediately, but I quickly decided that I couldn't wait even a few weeks. We don't have a ton of toys for Naomi, and I was just SO excited to give her something new! For the entire drive home (which took about 60 seconds--we live VERY close to Walmart), I envisioned how happy she would be as I presented her with her fun, new toy and the delighted little smile that would appear on her face as she saw her pretty pink ball.

But when I arrived home and proudly offered Naomi my little gift, instead of giving me a big smile and a happy squeal, she screamed! She screamed and crawled to Jacob, trying to climb up his chest to get as far away from it as she could. I tried to hold her while I bounced the ball and smiled, to show her how much fun it was, but she continued to cry and scream and push it away. It was hilarious. What kid is afraid of a ball? Especially such a fun, girly, pink one?

I'm happy to say that after a good night's sleep and a few hours to get acclimated to her new toy, she had a complete change of heart. She now LOVES her pink ball and will roll it and kick it and squeal with delight as she plays... It is just as I had imagined. :)

I'm also happy to say that we were able to take a video to document Naomi's silly little fear. So, for your viewing pleasure:

For Mom & Dad

This post is mostly for my parents, because other people probably don't care about watching little videos of my baby.

I don't take videos very often because my camera is messed up and only about half the videos I take will actually work when I go to play them. But yesterday was a good day when most of the videos I took worked for me. Enjoy!
(The last one is my favorite--it shows the funny thing she likes to do with her tongue.)