Trick or Treat?!

"And HOPE does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (Romans 5:5)

HAPPY HALLOWEENIE! This was the first Halloween that Naomi could really participate in and she had a lot of fun. She helped me pick out her own costume and I LOVE Strawberries, so I was very happy with her choice :)


STRAWBERRY MIMI-CAKE :)

On Thursday and Friday, Adela and the kids at daycare had a little Halloween Party. Here are some pics of Naomi and friends...


Tigger (Samantha) and Ms. Adela the Good Witch and Sweetie Naomi on Oct. 28


With Cade the Firefighter on Oct.

Here are some pics of Mimi getting ready for the big night out:







We were a little nervous about how Naomi would react when she saw some of the scarier costumes out there. The Boyz weren't wearing anything that would scare her, but when she saw the neighbor Kyle's mohawk mask, she came running into my arms and didn't want to have anything to do with taking pics with this gang! (lil Kami the Pumpkin was quite brave!)


Train Conductor-Weslee, Ninja-Josh, IronMan-Owen, SWAT Police-Jake, Samurai-Dean, Pumpkin-Kamrin, Skeleton-Kyle

When it finally came time to go door to door, Naomi was shy at first. Richie had to carry her from house to house and I helped her to each door and held her basket.



After a little while, she started to get into the swing of things and didn't want any help walking around the middle of the street. She was already starting to grab candy out of her basket and was running to the next location. Happy as can be! Here are some fun family pics:


The Dimalanta cowboys and their strawberry


Karl and Kristin Isleta with Kamrin on her darling push-car


Bella, Leia and Yo! Gabba Gabba's DJ Anthony

The three little ones above split up from the rest of the "big kids" crew and went back to the house early where they helped greet trick-or-treater and pass out candy. Well, Auntie Leia passed out the candy, while they tried to eat it all!





Naomi really had a lot of fun with all of her cousins playing dress-up and hanging out late on a school night :) Next year, we'll see if she asks for a specific costume. That's all for now folks!

Muy Inteligente!

"An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." (Proverbs 18:15)

The photos below were taken on our roadtrip vacation to Torrance and Palm Springs. I was just getting into facebook, so at the time, I was experimenting with giving status updates. Alas, I will not blog about it, but if a picture tells a thousand words, I'm sure you could see Naomi and us had a great time.

The blog entry below is about Naomi's smarts :) They say "Read between the lines".... well, I say: READ BETWEEN THE PICS!

CHECKING INTO THE SHADOW RIDGE RESORT IN PALM SPRINGS

It was a while back when Naomi's daycare teacher Adela first said to Richie and I, "Mimi es muy inteligente! She's very smart!" Yes, indeed, I know kids nowadays are super sponges. They learn so fast and are so aware of their environment. Technology has a lot to do with that, no doubt. I think that it's partly to do with over stimulation... there's so much to take in, but their minds learn to adapt and before you know it, they're smarter than we are! Naomi never fails to amaze me with her desire to learn and explore the world. Her memory is super sharp, too. I'm most impressed with her vocabulary... Mimi knows A LOT of words!


RISE AND SHINE WITH NAOMI AND ARABELLA

When she first started to speak, these are the words that she knew the best and said most often: Mama, Papa, Amen, woo-woo (dog), shoe, de-de (breastfeed), si (yes), bubble. For a while, those words were the only ones she said without being prompted. Naomi learned a whole swarm of other words once she started the "Your Baby Can Read" dvds. I don't remember if I mentioned that Richie and I bought the YBCR system. I first talked about being convinced here when Mimi and I had a playdate with Malaiya, who was 14 months old at the time and was reading words all the words on the dvd and even words that she had never seen before.


WITH PAPA AT THE AIR MUSEUM


HANGING OUT IN THE PLANE HANGAR

Naomi first started the Your Baby Can Read program at the beginning of August, when she was 15 mos. Since then she has watched 3 of the 5 dvds in rotation. It's been almost three months and I'm impressed with the number of words that she really knows. Her understanding of the words that she sees is just as important to me, if not more so, than her being able to "read" the word.


VISITING AUNTIE LIZ AND HER DAUGHTERS ADELINE AND CADENCE

Let's take a look at the category of "body parts." Naomi knows very well where her body parts are. If you ask her, "where's your eyes, nose, arms, etc," she'll point or touch the correct part right away. Of course, she has her moody days when she can't be bothered, but for the most part, she enjoys that game. The YBCRead also comes with word books, sliding picture cards and flashcards. Before when I showed her a flashcard, I would have to say the word first and she would repeat it after me. Now, there are several words that she knows right away and says the word out loud or performs an action: hi, wave, clap, keys, nose, mouth, ear, eyes, dog, gorilla, tiger, smiling. I'm sure there are others, and I can't won't even be able to keep track once she's talking non-stop. I will be so proud of her when she reads something totally random off a billboard or something, when I least expect it.


DADDY, CAN I BORROW YOUR HAT?


MOMMY'S TURN!

When it comes to animals, Naomi like playing the game "what does a animal say?" The animals that she knows what sound it makes are: dog "woo-woo", cow "moooo", cat "meeee", duck "wah-wah", horse- she really does a great neigh!, elephant- similar but distinguishable neigh like the horse ;). Of course, since she's bilingual, she also knows perro, vaca, gato, patito, caballo y elefante. There are a couple of animals that Mimi prefers in spanish: rana (frog)- a good deep croak!, pollito (chick) "pio-pio."


CHECKING OUT THE DUCKS "PALLITOS"


TEAM DIMALANTA IN PALM DESERT

Lately, she's been a little parrot and will copy a word that you say, with or without prompting. Her pronounciation is very clear, too... for a toddler who's not even 18 mos yet. Another thing that we've taught her that is kinda silly, is to say, "YO! SUP!" and when we ask her "How are you?" she says, "COOL." Another way that she's too smart for her own good? Me and Richie: "You're so cute and smart".... Mimi: "I KNOW!" =D


"IS NAP TIME OVER ALREADY?" Stttttrettttttch!


ARABELLA AND NAOMI ARE ALREADY "DRINKING BUDDIES" ;P

Naomi is also really good at knowing people's names. Cute story: Naomi was looking through a photo album of pics from her 1st bday while Rich and I were having dinner. She starts saying a word over and over. I look over at her and she's pointing at her cousin Josh in a photo: "Josh! Josh! Josh!" :) then she sees a pic of Dean: "Dee-dee!"

So I said, "Yes, that's Josh and Dean-Dean!" Then she starts clapping and saying "Bravo!" Cuz she knows she did good :) She's probably really proud of herself because a couple of weeks ago, Josh was the only one of the Boyz that she couldn't/wouldn't pronounce.

Then I start flipping pages and she points to her godmothers, Jasmine and Cathy (in separate pics) and says "Ninang!" (the tagalog word for godmother) Then when I asked "Who's that?, Auntieeee....?" She said "Leia"! WOW! Rich and I smiled big and she "bravo"'d herself again.


DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION AT REDONDO BEACH


ALL ABOARD!!!

Our little Princecess can even count... not all by herself, but with a little help. Believe it or not, she counts better in Spanish! For some reason, she just listens to the "uno, dos, tres" which the part I would have guessed she would know first, but instead, she chimes in from quatro through diez =)


MIMI AND BELLA HANGING OUT AT TOYS R US


IMAGINE WHEN THEY REALLY ARE SWEET 16! WATCH OUT!

One thing that I wish she didn't know so well is the names of all her fave TV shows/characters. Sometimes, she wakes up and the first thing she says is "Barney!" Once the purple dinosaur is over she asks to watch "Minnie" on Mickey Mouse Club House or "Manny" as in Disney's Handy Manny. After school, one of her favorite channels to watch is "Sprout!"... she knows how to say "Caillou", "Elmo", and she sings the Thomas the Train song. When this group of muppets called the Pajanimals comes on, she's in love! Mimi likes to sit on my lap or cuddle when their Lulluby song comes on and she sings along quietly.


THE LITTLE GENIUS CREATING HER LATEST MASTERPIECE

Pretty soon, she's gonna be combining words and then speaking sentences and then reading Harry Potter and writing book reports! EEK!

Mimi es MUY INTELIGENTE!

Take Mimi Out to the Ballgame!

For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. (1 John 5:4)

EEK! Shame on me for not posting for soooo long! "Naomi" finally jumped on the facebook wagon and now that it's rolling, I find it hard to hop off :P Anyhoot... this is another past due post, but since THE GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!... it's a wonderful time to let you know about Naomi's adventures in baseball!



You may or may not know this, but this Dimalanta household is dedicated to the Oakland sports teams. We root for Daddy's teams, rain or shine, win or lose. Since this baseball season began, Naomi has been to 6 games... yup SIX! (Before she was born, I don't even know if I had been to 10 games in my entire life!) The very first game that she went to was the pre-season Battle of the Bay: Giants vs. A's at the Oakland Coliseum. Naomi was decked out in her green and yellow gear and a darling plaid pink baseball hat. Here she is getting excited for her first game:



We joined a tailgate party for a bite to eat before heading into the stadium. What I love most about the Battle of the Bay games is the "frenemy" vibe. Mimi truly experienced her first game with plenty of friendly, but loud, rivalry. We sat pretty high up in the "nose-bleed" seats but there were two fans having a yelling competition with one another.



A guy to the front left of us was cheering "Let's go Oakland!" and immediately afterwards, a fellow in the row directly behind us was shouting "Let's go Giants!" Instead of Naomi having fear over these two screaming fans, she was very amused and would turn her head back and forth, staring at whomever was chanting at the moment.







Of course, Richie had already been training our litttle one to love the Green and Yellow, so it was quite endearing when she would clap and cheer when the A's fans cheered. Oddly enough, when the Giants fans around us clapped and hooted, she was straight-faced. What a smart baby.. and a loyal fan!





After that first game, we knew that Naomi could hang out and have fun. Shortly afterwards, we went an A's game and sat in the bleachers with all her uncles, the boys and Auntie Genina when Frankie and Kaleb Perez were in town visiting from Guam. A couple days after that we went to Naomi's first game at ATT park.... it sure was freeeezing cold!



Richie was fortunate enough to score some discounted A's passes for this season, so we had fun attending a bunch of other games, whether during the weekend or even sometimes on a random weekday when we just felt like it. Naomi had just started learning to walk, so when we tailgated before the games, she wanted to explore the parties in the parking lots and make new friends. By the 3rd game, Naomi had the "Let's go Oakland" clap down!

Even though we cheer most for the east bay teams, we definitely have much respect for our neighbors in San Francisco.... WIN THE WORLD SERIES, GIANTS! ... YOU CAN DO IT!



Of course, Papa knows which team his little Princess is cheering on in her heart...

Independence Day

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 1:6)

July 3-4, 2010



Soooo... for all of you who have seen the little Princess in the last, oh say, seven weeks, this should be no surprise to you: Naomi Hope is walking! When she turned one in May, I made a guess that Miss Mimi would be walking around 14 months. Actually, to be more precise, I predicted that she would walk by July 4th. I'd say it was probably a combo of "Mommy knows best", God heard me loud and clear, and Naomi unconsciously reaching a goal I set for her, but baby Ganda officially walked on July 4th weekend! Here's how it happened:

From Independence Day

Leading up to "the big weekend," around the same time that we bought Naomi her new car seat, we also got her one of those "walker" toys to help her practice. Not the kind that she sits in (she already had one of those) but the type that she could push around like a shopping cart. We would hear stories from Teacher Adela about Mimi standing up for a few seconds but not taking any steps. We also saw her take two or three steps at home before carefully sitting down - like she knew that she couldn't balance so she didn't bother trying.



One cute thing that Naomi did before walking was to "knee-walk." She would get in the kneeling position and scoot around on her knees. It was her adorable way of getting around without crawling in a semi-upright position. Of course, she also liked to stand up and furniture-cruise.



I was thinking that she might be one of those babies that just "gets it" one day and takes off running! It didn't happen quite like that, but pretty close. Tita Angeline was staying at our place for the 3-day weekend. We all went to church on Saturday night and watched the service from the "Family Room." Naomi was scooting around on her knees, but she was really determined to stand up and furniture-walk along the chairs. Our friends at Cornerstone were encouraging her as well: Catherine, one of the children's ministry teachers, would hold her hand and walk with her, while Sam, the usher/greeter, extended his hand out for Naomi to reach out to. "Any day now!" they both said.



Little did we know how soon it would truly be. That same night, July 3rd, Richie stepped out to rent a movie while Angie and I played with Naomi in the living room. Everything was just "normal": Angie was chilling on the couch, I was sitting on the floor, and Mimi was practicing on her walker. The magic happened when Angie got up from the couch to go to the kitchen. Next thing I see if Naomi walking across the room to follow Tita Angie! I couldn't contain myself! "Angie! Angie! LOOK NAOMI'S WALKING!" Angie turned around and Naomi just stood for a moment. "WOW! YOU'RE WALKING MIMI!" I guess I must have been too excited, because she sat down and started crying. Oopsies. "It's okay, Naomi, Mommy's just so proud of you!" When Richie came home only moments later, I was delighted to share the wonderful news! It was only about 8 steps, but it seemed like she coulda gone more if there was room and I hadn't embarrassed her.



The next day, July 4th, Naomi was practicing her new skill with a new found confidence. She just needed to get over the initial fear. She liked starting off holding one of our hands and then letting go. Here is a video of our little toddler:



For the fireworks festivities, we walked down to the Emeryville Marina. Even with our jackets and hats and blankets, it was freeeeezing cold! That didn't stop Naomi from having a great time. We had a nice view of the Berkeley fireworks conveniently located just a hop, skip and a jump away. Mimi stayed up for the entire show, but once we put her back in the stroller and strolled home, she was out! She must have been pooped from all that WALKING!!

Grace and Mercy

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

Can you believe that there was a time when car seats didn't really exist? Would some parents really let their child sit in their lap... while they drove? There are now an abundant number of car seats on the market. Naomi was fortunate enough to receive her first car seat from Auntie Leia. Richie and I were ready to buy some kinda of Graco, but Le insisted on buying us a Chicco - with the entire travel system, no less! It's been very good to us since day 1 and still continues to be a breeze for us to put her in and take her out.

One of my favorite times to take Naomi's picture is when I'm riding in the back of the car while Richie is driving and she's sitting in her car seat. She's not moving around so I don't have to worry about taking a quick shot before she tries to make her getaway. Here is a lovely little slideshow of the various photos I've taken - many with my cell phone:



Shortly after Naomi's first birthday, we upgraded her car seat to a convertible-style which works both rear- and forward-facing. We were hoping that she would find it exciting to be facing forward,; she could enjoy the view better which would reduce the whining time. We were going to buy a Graco or Safety 1st brand car seat, but my sister recommended Britex for their top ratings. It didn't hurt that we had a 20% off coupon at Babies R Us, but even after the discount, the Britex still came out to almost $300. Richie refers to it as Mimi's "Ferrari" ;)

I hate to admit that at times I would take Naomi out of her car seat and nurse her on the down low. Not to make an excuse, but she was usually hungry, so I would feed her. But I do know that sometimes she just didn't want to be in the seat and I just didn't want her to cry anymore. That was "Before"... but "Then" happened and changed my whole perspective.

Our roadtrip to Reno was the first time we took the Britex on the road with us and we even set it up facing forward, "for the morale." On the way back home, for the most part, Naomi sat in her seat - even in the extreme heat and even through some crazy rubber-necking traffic on the Carcinas Bridge while a couple lanes were closed to film a movie. It wasn't until we were probably only 10 miles from home when Naomi started getting upset. So I took her out and nursed her. No biggie.

Right around that same time, Grandma Lily (sitting in the front passenger seat next to Richie) asks us, "What is the difference between grace and mercy?" My mom had recently re-affirmed her relationship with Christ Jesus and was enjoying all of God's Word and Good News with the wonder and amazement of a child =) So Richie and I talked a little about what we thought of grace and mercy and how the two can sometimes be interchangeable. I happened to have my BlackBerry handy, so I looked both words up on my dictionary app and began reading:

grace: favor or good will; one definition even listed "mercy; an act of grace"
mercy: compassion, pity; I especially mentioned: "at the mercy of, entirely in the power of"

Within seconds of me reading the definition out loud, Richie yells something out loud along the lines of, "OH SNAP!!!" Of course, that totally scared me, so I yell back "WHAT?" I don't even remember if he had time to tell me, but I saw for myself: a bicycle was laying in the middle of the fast lane and the car directly in front of us had slammed on its brakes. "OH MY G!!!" Richie swerves the van with a hard right and barely misses the vehicle in front of us. Our van crosses over, not one, not two, but three lanes! We wobble a little bit before Richie straightens out. Alas, no one or thing is harmed. We made it! PRAISE GOD!!

I need not remind you, that little Mimi is laying on my lap while this all happens - she cried out a little bit, more out of fear when I yelled, and I held her with all my love as though her life depended on it. And it did. It really did. As soon as the van straightened out, even though we were all safe, I was on the verge of tears. That was way too close for comfort. I apologized profusely to the baby and placed her back in her car seat. Which she was extremely upset with me, but I just knew that it was the right thing to do.

We all acknowledged out loud that God was teaching us a valuable lesson in grace and mercy - by showing us. It's not something that can I can read in a dictionary to truly understand. In my heart of hearts, I knew that Naomi should always be in her seat, but it took a close call for me to see why. An act of grace. I had to live it. To experience it. To receive it. We were all at God's mercy. He is always in control. loves us so much that even when we are foolish, He gives us exactly what we need to know that He is always there and always cares.

I don't even want to get into the "What ifs" - but my mind sure did for a brief while. The scariest part is that we were on road for 4 hours and it wasn't until the last 3 miles that this all happened. Maybe even less. I remember strapping Naomi into the car seat and that's when we exited the freeway. It all happened literally "down the street" from our home. NEVER AGAIN will I take Naomi out of a moving vehicle. What good is the "Ferrari" if she's not even sitting in it? And... we also decided to face the car seat back to the rear position since she's not even 20 lbs yet. NO MORE taking chances. LORD, THANK YOU FOR YOUR GRACE AND MERCY - even when I don't deserve it, You give it to us freely!

Go figure, ever since then, Naomi doesn't even seem to complain about sitting in her carseat as much as she used to. Either that, or I'm not as bothered when she actually does whimper. We do a lot of singing and playing back there to distract her. Driving Miss Mimi =)

Lately, I've been giving her "baby quizzes" while we cruise the set. I'll fill you in very with fun details of how smart our lil miss really is, but here is just a sample of the many things that Naomi knows:



*sorry if the video is kinda tiny, still trying to figure out the best way to upload my Crackberry clips*

The Biggest Little City

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14)

June 11-13, 2010

One of the best perks that I enjoy about living in California, and the Bay Area specifically, is that you can drive a few hours away from town and feel like you're going on a real vacation. So on the weekend before Richie's birthday, that's what we did. Jasmine and Ken invited us to join the Dolar family on their weekend in "The Biggest Little City" in the world: RENO =) And where is the best place to stay with the kiddies? It's CIRCUS CIRCUS, of course!

If you look very closely, right above Naomi's stroller, you can see the RENO sign in the background...

From Circus Circus Reno

If you haven't already noticed, I always take pictures of the little Princess on the bed at the hotels where we stay first thing. Before we tear the place apart ;) It's fun seeing how much bigger she's getting with each trip:



Right above the bed frame, there was a painting of some elephants and horses pulling a circus-style carriage. Naomi stood up to the picture, pointed at it, and said "Wooh, wooh!" I've heard her say wooh wooh when talking about dogs (as in woof woof) but apparently, all animals say "wooh, wooh!" I think that she was specifically looking at the horses, because when I pointed to the "horsies, like the one at home" that's when she would bark. We recently were given a darling rocking horse, that at the moment was a little too large for her to sit comfortably on top of, but she knew it was her Horsie. I love that she noticed them in the painting, too. Mimi is quite the observant little sprout. Too cute!

So, it wasn't just the three of us on this mini-vacay, we drove the mini-van with Naomi's Nana Lily and Tita Angie on board. Mimi is really sweet with all of her auntie's and uncles, but I love the special way that she smiles at Angeline. Ang can be quite shy at times, but Mimi knows how to bring a beautiful smile to both of their faces:



We were invited to celebrate the Kevin Dolar's recent graduation from nursing school - he's my bro-in-law Ken's younger brother. This was the first time that Naomi and her cousins Andrea and Meleia got to share in the games and prizes experience together. We all took turns strolling the little ones around "Midway" and winning a bunch of stuffed animals for the girls.







I usually don't play too many of the "hard" games but Richie encouraged me to try my hand at the game toss a ball into a large basket, if the ball stays in, you win a prize. I figured out the technique that worked for me and to my surprise and enjoyment, I kept winning! I lost track of how many times I won, but Naomi had two large prizes and I won several prizes for Leia and Drea, too. Who needs blackjack when you can toss a ball in a basket!



The girls had a blast playing with all of the stuffed animals. My sister really wanted to trade some of the smaller ones for larger prizes, but Andrea wasn't havin' it! The more the merrier, right? Now, I totally understand why my dad always tried to win just one jumbo prize. All of those toys are just gonna add to the mass of toys already at home, but winning them is so much fun!



My absolute favorite moment of the weekend was classic Naomi at her cutest =) I was noticing that my nieces had some duplicate toys. Jas told Drea that the girls could have up to two of any toy and if there were any extra, that Ken would trade them or they would give them to Mimi. I think I noticed that there was a small teddy bear that looked similar to Naomi's security-"baby"-bear. Jas then brought out a large plastic/garbage bag and dumped its contents on the bed. Santa Clause had just stepped into the picture: another 5 or 6 more baby bears came tumbling out of the bag. Naomi didn't skip a beat: her eyes got wider and she said loud and clear, "WOW!" No, lemme rephrase that, it was more like "WAAAAAAAAOOOOW!" Super drawn out and full of amazement =) Naomi has no idea what the super lotto is, but in her innocent eyes, she had definitely hit the JACKPOT!



The girls danced and sang along to Beyonce.
Andrea: "All the single ladies! All the single ladies!"
Meleia: "Oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oooh!"
Naomi: dancing and trying to sing along with her cousins!

The next day, when Naomi woke up, the first thing she said was, "oh oh oh" =) Me to anyone whose listening: Hey, did you guys hear that!? Looks like songs can get stuck in the minds of babes, too!

On Saturday night before heading back to the room, we took a pit stop/photo opp at the little stationary rides that they have in the arcade for the tykes.







Sunday morning, it was time to head back home, but not before snapping one more pic of Naomi cheezing it up on this little sail boat.