Naomi's a star!

Happy birthday, princess Naomi!

A week ago:
Me: "Naomi, how old are you?"
Naomi holds up four fingers and grins.
Me: You're not four yet!
Naomi: "Let me count. One, two, three..." (and now she touches her pinky finger) "and a half!"

Now, Naomi is officially four fingers old. As she's quite the enthusiastic little puppy princess, Naomi's birthday would have been memorable whether or not there was a total solar eclipse happening at the same time. As it was, she had a pretty spectacular day.

Years ago, when Grandpa Tom discovered that a total solar eclipse would be visible from his yard on Naomi's birthday, we naturally planned to be there. Of course, we hadn't counted on a big move! Still, seeing as the total eclipse wouldn't be visible from our new house, it made sense to travel, and we turned the opportunity into quite a weekend.

We began with a visit to the Missouri State Fair, located roughly on the way to Grandpa's house. We enthusiastically doused ourselves in sunscreen and made for the animal barns. Several nice people let us pet various calves, and the girls bonded with each one. But at this rate, we'd never make it through the fair. We moved on to the petting zoo, where we were able to feed yaks and zebras and the like. We enjoyed some ice cream, then moved along to the midway where Elise very quickly found a game she wanted to try--one from which you could win a stuffed clownfish. Not that she expected to, as she assured us afterward.


Fifteen ping-pong balls later, Elise did in fact secure herself a prize! The game operator laughingly handed us a well-worn card that could be returned for a live goldfish when we were ready to leave the fair. Fortunately, before we squirmed too much, he gave us the out of trading it for a stuffed clownfish instead. Soon, Elise was gushing about her win, stuffed clownfish tucked securely in her arms.

Kalina and Elise tried a very small roller coaster, terrified for all but the first 30 seconds ("I wish it hadn't gone around THREE times! I thought TWO was enough!" "I'll never go on a roller coaster again!") Later in the day, both agreed they could picture trying it again, possibly even that afternoon. Naomi also mentioned she wanted to go on a roller coaster, but I don't think anyone believed her.

Princess Naomi with
Grandpa! Kalina made
crowns out of tissue paper.

We enjoyed fair food, tried samples, admired cakes, petted bunnies, watched goat judging and all the rest. Thoroughly and completely baked and exhausted, we stumbled to the car for the three-hour drive to St. Louis.

Everyone was grateful for air conditioning and dinner, and no one put up much of a fuss about bedtime. The next day, after church, we visited the girls' beloved piano teacher and her beloved dog. Kalina learned a bit about guitar and the ukulele (she's a huge fan of the ukulele!).

The Magic House
fairy tale party!

Next, we went to the local children's museum for a princess party for Naomi with most of her friends! The kids decorated crowns and made "magic" wands before decorating cupcakes and playing in the museum. Naomi couldn't have been happier surrounded by several of her besties and her sisters, playing princess and a lot of other things.

She's not really tired, just goofy.

And finally, the next day dawned on Naomi's birthday--also the day of the total solar eclipse. Half of us anxiously checked cloud cover while the other half bounced around and celebrated Naomi. When it comes to birthdays, there's nothing more fun than a sister! Kalina and Elise made sure Naomi felt special in every way, getting excited about gifts alongside her, reading her birthday stories and titling her Princess Naomi. What a great day! Fortunately, her ego has since recovered.

We made a princess cake!

The girls had long helped me plan Naomi's princess cake. Especially the sprinkles. Needless to say, the cake was covered. Elise, absent-mindedly sneaking the occasional nibble, helped me put each purple pearl in place, and find spots for gardens of flower sprinkles and sugar hearts.

Our friends arrived just as the eclipse was starting, and Naomi and her 3-year-old friend jumped up and down a lot at the sight of each other. We all tested our eclipse glasses, and everyone go the hang of it after only a few "where? where's?"

Kalina captivates an audience
with a reading of the story
she wrote and published
for Naomi.

We've been learning a lot about eclipses the past few weeks, and it's true you never know how much kids can pick up. At one point two weeks ago, Naomi sat down at the craft table in the other room with a black piece of paper and drew her impression of the eclipse. The rest of us didn't know about her efforts until she appeared, beaming, and told us that "Amber isn't wearing her eclipse glasses!" And sure enough, on Naomi's black paper, drawn in pencil, we could see the outline of an open-mouthed, amorphous princess (the slightly mean, but usually pretty nice older sister of Naomi's favorite princess, Sofia), a nicely drawn and decorated smiling princess (that Elise quickly recognized  as Sofia and drew eclipse glasses on for Naomi) and the moon covering the sun. So it's clear she learned something....  She then asked me how to spell burp so she could write it above Amber. [There's a lot of history here: Naomi traditionally hasn't liked Amber because she was mean to Sofia in the first episode of the TV show. Since that time, Naomi and her sisters have gleefully created disturbing situations for Amber. Nothing will change their mind, I've tried. Really, the only thing to do is laugh. Because surely they won't always be sadistic, right? Right?!?]

The light is dimming!

Despite all of Naomi's knowledge about eclipses, on eclipse day she had a new idea. "Mommy, is the sun going to explode?" she queried, not quite sure if she wanted to go outside with everyone else. I assured her it wasn't. So she made up a little chant about the sun exploding, Naomi-style.

Then, we all attempted to eat lunch while ducking out to see the action every 5 minutes (we set a timer), as the day was so brutally hot--at least until the sun was mostly blocked--that we really couldn't plan to be out in it very long.

We had just enough time to enjoy Naomi's cake before we needed to plant ourselves outside for good. Yum!

Nearing totality!

Naomi actually turned four within minutes of totality! But in the course of this cosmic event, most of us could really only think of the cooler temperatures, premature sunset, crescent shadows and the incredible sight of the corona around the sun. For two minutes, anyway. And then we were back to running around the house celebrating the birthday.

Fortunately, we had a nice enough time that no one complained too much about the long drive ahead of us on our way back to Kansas. The snacks helped, too.

Princess Naomi had a wonderful birthday weekend--and it's one that none of us is likely to forget!

So, what's our little princess up to these days?

Naomi spends most of her waking time doing these activities:
Pretending to be a princess
Pretending to be a ballerina
Pretending to be a baby
Pretending to be a baby animal
Taking care of stuffies and dolls
"Reading" picture books, like her big sisters
Drawing
Cutting paper into tiny pieces and then leaving the room, while insisting they're not trash

And this includes eating. Although she's been known to get cranky when she's hungry, she can also survive overnight on not much more than about three grapes and a drink of water. And yet, she grows, and is actually taller than some other 4-year-olds.

Princess Naomi, the main
character in the story Kalina
wrote for her. She guided
Naomi through a princess
adventure without telling
Naomi she was going to put it
into a book. Magical!

Naomi is truly a princess in every sense of the word. Her favorite colors are purple, pink and sparkle.  She loves having her hair done every day, picking out a pretty dress to wear, singing and tending to her animals and dolls. Having not quite gripped the concept of logic completely yet, she also insists on having her way all the time. We're working on it, and she's learning that the queen of the house also likes to have her own way when it comes to who's going to pick up the crayons all over the table or not pinch her sisters.

Naomi: Mommy, I'm a princess and princesses don't pick up. Servants clean up.
Me: But the princess in your princess book breaks a vase and she helps clean up.
Naomi: Then why do they have servants?
Me: Servants do a lot of work, but princesses have to be able to take care of things, too.
Naomi: Oh.

If you ask Naomi what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll unswervingly state that she wants to be a mommy. She intends to have three girls (boys, in her opinion, are clearly second-rate). She'll name them Kalina, Elise and Naomi. She's okay with the fact that she needs to get married first, and will literally accept the first boy who comes along. Kalina and Elise know. They talked her into it.

Naomi still loves puppies more than any other animal, but has a soft spot for fawns, kittens, bunnies, penguins and dolphins. She can write all her uppercase letters, with only a few reminders ("Down, up, down, up," "Line down, line down, line across the middle."). Not that I've taken any initiative to  teach her--the girls wants to write, and has the patience and pencil grip for writing, and so she writes. Occasionally when I'm cooking dinner I'll need to spell long phrases for her, a letter at a time: "Biscuit is sitting on my lap," and the like. We're working on lowercase letters ("baby letters!") and letter sounds, and she doesn't show any signs of slowing down. She can also count well, skip, dress herself completely on a very good day, clean a shower (or at least one square foot of it really, really well) and take care of her sisters when they get hurt.

Naomi is generally sweet and sensitive--that is, until she turns absolutely goofy. She enjoys getting a laugh, and so often succeeds, even if it's at Mommy's expense. She likes nonsense words and silly stunts that are so cute they make me almost glad she's not brushing her teeth like I told her to (okay, maybe not). Although she can be a fastidious little princess, she also has such a sunny, cheerful, quirky side that quickly endears her to all of us and wipes away most hard feelings.

Naomi picks flowers wherever she goes, regardless of weather or how late we're running. She gathers them into a bouquet, brings them inside, fills a cup of water and displays them proudly on the counter or table. When she's outside she also likes to swing and collect crinoids (a common fossil here) and calls herself an adventurer (she is not).

She's terrified of bugs, still adverse to most new tastes, doing much better at riding in the car for long distances, working on not hitting/pinching/scratching (still!), able to use Grandpa's phone (not Mommy's--mine is no fun), tall enough to wash her hands at most faucets with a stool, confused about how to say "with each other" (she mixes it up with the word "together," and it comes out jumbled and cute), able to repeat back facts she's heard (some of them are even true!), fantastic with scissors, friendly to almost everyone (not really to boys) and able to pedal a trike (just not always point it in the right direction--although I think that has to do with motivation and silliness).

Naomi joyfully trots in to any group preschool/camp/Sunday school situation with no hesitation. Anytime we're at a park or other public place, she seeks out other similarly-sized girls, squeals with glee if she finds one, and makes a beeline towards them, whether or not the other little girls are interested or not. Or even speak English--she's totally undeterred. In fact, of all of us (except possibly Matt), she was the first to make a friend here, as well as the first to be invited to a birthday party.

Naomi truly brings out a smile in all of us and we're so blessed that she's part of our family! Happy birthday, four-year-old!!!