18-Month Checkup

On Friday, Naomi went for her 18-month check-up. She is great and healthy! Her stats are below.

Height: 33 inches
Weight: 27 lbs
Head circumference: Off-the-charts BIG :)




















We are excited that she had a good check-up, and has been given the all-clear for eating any and all foods. I'm sure she and Simon will bond soon enough over a peanut butter and honey sandwich. :)

Pre-Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving holiday got off to an early start as our church had its annual dinner on Wednesday.

Naomi enjoys a range of T-giving staples with a grown-up fork. She used the correct end...most of the time.














Simon eats his dinner with a whole mess o' Jarboes (Left to right: Marvin, Brown, Kaye, and Paula).



















One down, at least four to go!

Craft Time

I was able to enjoy some craft time with Simon and Naomi this week. While Naomi itches to get her hands on open markers, she is usually content to color with crayons.

Simon was telling me a big story as he drew his picture ...


















Naomi, showing her artistic ability.


















The artists.

Name Quiz

Naomi has taken off with her vocabulary, repeating most any words you ask her to say. We have been going through family members' names recently. In this video, you can hear her say Mommy, Daddy, and her word for Simon -- "Sat-sy."

The Number Train

Anyone who knows Simon knows that he loves numbers. He especially loves to play what we call "number cards." (These are index cards that we initially made for him when he was younger to learn his numbers from 1 to 10.) As he's gotten older, he began making the cards himself until he now has a very large collection.

On Sunday, while N was napping, he and I played number cards. All 253 of them.

Leaf Battle

The Battle of the Leaves has begun. See here for a pic from last year's battle. Uncle David kindly pitched in to help on one of the first rounds. While Simon does like to help rake, he also enjoys having leaves raked on top of him while hanging out on the tarp.


















Waiting patiently for the tarp to get full so that he can ride with the leaves to side of the road for the city leaf-pickup.


















If you look closely, you can see his face peeking through. And don't worry -- we didn't leave him on the side of the road to be picked up by the city leaf-pickup crew.

Halloween 2010: Glasgow

Since trick-or-treating in Bowling Green was on Sunday, we decided to join the Vances for trick-or-treating in Glasgow on Saturday. For several years, we've heard about the hordes of people that file through NanaB and Granddaddy's neighborhood, and we decided to experience it for ourselves.

Santa (cousin Henry), the Firefighter (cousin Ada), and the Cow (Simon) get ready to trick-or-treat with Granny-Great and later with Papa.














The Baby Goat (Naomi) was ready, too.


















Owls (Cort & Laurie), Baby Goat (Naomi), and the Cow (Simon) -- lots of wildlife this year!


















LOTS of trick-or-treaters!


















Thanks to the creative genius of Aunt Kelly and Aunt Mandy, the whole Vance clan turned into owls for the evening. Happy H"owl"oween!

Halloween 2010: Show and Share/WKU Homecoming Parade

Halloween festivities began for our household on Friday, October 29. Simon had Show and Share at school, and everyone got to show their costumes. This year Simon wanted to be a cow. So, a cow he was.


















That night, we attended the WKU Homecoming Parade with friends Beth and Leah Keltner. Below, Simon, Naomi, Laurie, Leah, and Beth wait for the arrival of the first floats.














Simon and Naomi














Much to Simon's surprise, many people in the parade threw candy. The phrase we began to hear from him the most was an excited, "More candy!!"














Simon's parade loot!