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.

No longer M.I.A.

Now return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies. "But you ask, 'How can we return when we have never gone away?' (Malachi 3:7)

WOW! Has it really been that long since I last blogged? For those that have been patiently checking here and there, I do apologize and thank you for your devotion. Well, as you can imagine, LOTS has happened in that small span of 3 months - including losing our digital camera in June... and finding it in July! ... and my laptop completely crashing and finally getting a new netbook to replace it. So here we are "back in business!" WOO HOO!

So what has little Naomi been up to since turning one year old? What hasn't she been up to? and into? and over... and under! I might "cheat" a little bit and retro-date my posts. The events that stand out in my mind are going to Circus Circus in Reno, going to her first baseball game and 3 more games after that! As far as her development and growth goes, I'll also fill you in on all of the wonderful words that she's learned how to say and lovely mannerisms that she's picked up. Oh and best of all... I'll tell you all about how she took her first steps from being a baby to a TODDLER!

From Memorial Wknd 2010

Our little Ganda is growing, Growing, GROWING! Here are her "stats" as of last week's pediatric well-exam on August 5th. Weight: 18 lbs, 9 oz. Height: 28 inches. She is still on the petite side, but Dr. Tracy was so happy that she gained a whole 2 lbs since her last appointment =) Mimi was being very friendly during the exam and she's a pro at handling the immunization shots. I shared just a few of the many words that Naomi can say on her own without coaching and the doctor said that even though she's tiny, she's definitely ahead on the development chart. Way to go, Mimi! Stay tuned for more *frequent* updates.

BYE FOR NOW!