When Naomi was a preschooler, she was not one to pull everything out of drawers or crawl into the forbidden kitchen cabinets. She didn’t put dangerous objects in her mouth or stick her fingers in the outlets. (She really didn’t prepare me much for raising Rachel as a toddler!) I would describe her as “careful.” She is still a very deliberate child. Watching Naomi grow up is, a lot of the time, like reliving my own childhood. I look at her, and she is just like me as a child. She is quiet, shy, and cautious. And she loves to read. One morning Naomi told us she had finished her Junie B. Jones book the night before. We were confused and asked her when she had read it. She replied that she read it after we put her in bed!
Lately Naomi’s favorite game to play is school. She is the teacher and Rachel is the student. Yesterday she was carrying a stack of notepads and pencils to set up “school” and she looked at me and sighed and said very seriously that teachers were very busy. One afternoon Naomi and Rachel were on the front porch playing with chalk, and Naomi wrote the numbers 4 and 100, and then asked Rachel, “Which is greater, 4 or 100?” Rachel answered, “Um…4!” Naomi says, “No, 100,” and draws the greater-than sign between the two numbers.
In the mornings, Naomi is never the first to wake up. But when she gets up, she immediately comes to check on Sarah. She excitedly reported to me last night that Sarah smiled at her 9 times, which was more times than she had smiled at daddy (4) and still more than she had smiled at mama (0 that day).
When we were considering moving to Colorado, we told Naomi and Rachel that we might be going to Colorado so that Daddy could be a pastor for a church, but that we had to pray and ask God what He wanted us to do. We asked Naomi and Rachel to pray, too. She took it quite seriously. And she was so excited when we decided that God did want us to go.
Naomi, you have a soft and tender heart. You are a protective older sister. You know more Old Testament Bible stories than I do. You do not like jelly on your peanut butter sandwiches. You hate picking up your toys. You miss my mom’s cat, Tiny, from Alabama. You love to play dress-up and this year for Halloween you have been, or will be, at various events, Cinderella, Ariel, and Barbie. You like to eat chicken nuggets and chef salad from the school lunchroom. Your favorite movie is Barbie’s “The Princess and the Pauper.” You and Rachel frequently like to dress up and act out this movie. You are always the princess; Rachel is the pauper. 🙂 You don’t like it when I put bows or barrettes in your hair. You loved taking ballet last year, but the recital outfit was scratchy. You are a blessing and I love you and I feel honored to be able to watch you grow into a young lady.
A brief photo history of Naomi’s life:
