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!

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.

It's FUN turning ONE!

Moreover, when God gives any woman wealth and possessions, and enables her to enjoy them, to accept her lot and be happy in her work--this is a gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:19)



Can you believe that Naomi is already 1 year old?! I can't! To think that it was only 12 months ago that she was a little 6+ lb newborn just blows me away. She is so smart and adorable and understanding for her tiny little self. We've done a lot of celebrating for her first birthday and there is still more to come. Here's a little recap of events.

As most of you know, Naomi was born on Mother's Day of 2009. May 10th also happens to be the same birthday of our dear friend Elisha Okawa. Her "Birthday Twin" mailed her a package from L.A. - the very first present for Naomi to open on Friday night... how exciting!







Saturday morning, we headed out to the San Pablo lake to do some fishing off shore. Naomi had a blast... enjoying the sun and relaxing before her big day. Nowadays, when we tell Mimi to "Say Cheeze!"... She totally hams it up on camera =D





Sunday morning, I really felt the blessing of Mother's Day love coming from Naomi and Richie. Aside from attending church, we like to watch Joel Osteen on Sunday mornings. It's one of the few (if not the only) non-children's program that she watches intensely. Richie surprised me with two beautiful cards - one from him and one from Naomi. The inspirational Christian blessings and thanksgiving written inside made my heart melt. What made it extra special was Naomi's loving awareness that this was my moment. She gave me such a warm hug after I thanked her. Even early in the morning, she's up and happy and ready for the world!





Next it was time to get ready for a long day of celebration. First things first... putting on the birthday outfit =) I couldn't believe that it rained in the morning, so since it was chilly, it was time to put on the warmer outfit. Check out Mimi's bed-head =)



The darling ribbon jeans were kinda long and baggy so we did a switcheroo for some comfy pants and of course... Naomi had to have some kind of hair accessory! Doesn't she look like a birthday present?



Grandma Lily wanted to throw a lovely Mother's Day brunch to celebrate Naomi's first birthday. All of the Aunties and Grandmas from my side gathered together in South City.



It was awesome seeing Naomi's cousins Andrew, Adam and Alexis; we don't see them nearly as often as we'd like.



... and awesome cupcakes that Ninang Jasmine and Auntie Aileen made!





I bought matching dresses for Naomi and her cousins Andrea and Meleia. We were able to snap this pic before taking off to the next party:



Naomi was such a trouper because she didn't take any naps while we were in South City and she didn't start to get sleepy until around 3:30pm... just in time to rest for the party hopping. We changed her into her evening party dress and she napped in the van on the way to Pinole. By the time we got there, she was ready for round two. Naomi needs lots of energy to keep up with her amigos, Weslee and Bella!



Here's the birthday girl smiling sweetly in her darling party dress at her cousin Weslee =)



Naomi also had another cake to enjoy! We've been trying to practice getting her to blow her candle, but it didn't happen. That's okay, because I know there is a wish planted in her heart and that God will see that it comes true one day!



After eating even more cake, it was time to get cozy again... and play with the Musketeers some more! Baby Kamrin wanted to join in on the fun, especially when they all gathered around the bouncer. It's nearly impossible to get a picture of Mimi, Wes & Bella all looking at the camera at the same time, but it's those candid moments that truly tell the story. This one might be my favorite!



Naomi had to take a break away from all of the excitement. Yes, I am still breastfeeding her, but we'll see how long that will last. Here's the birthday girl checking out her new hair-do and practicing her future b-girl moves!



One more photo-op of the girls =)



... and the Mommies!



After a couple of more hours playing with her cousins, Naomi was super party pooped! Time to go home and catch those Z's....

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY NAOMI HOPE!