It's Nora to you, Miss Kelso if you're nasty...

Our daughter is particular and the expanse of the concept is not entirely known even by us because we're shocked continually at the extent. Her pinky is alight when she reaches for her drinking glass. Water that dribbles from the condensation of her glass onto her shirt is grounds for a whimpering meltdown of abject horror and embarrassment and the exclamation of, "Oh no, mama! Oh no!" Highchairs and booster seats offered to us in restaurants offend her and any attempts to use them are an invitation to our daughter throwing herself on the ground in defiance of our totalitarian treatment of her. Pearls are preferred at breakfast along with the proper cutlery and dishware. And she will remind you, nay inform you, that she will be wearing (oh yes, as Jeebus as her witness) what she has chosen for that day. Any objection? That's fine, what she heard was a request for naked baby...

Meltdowns are ended by distracting her with tickles, chasing her, pretending to be a monster under the blanket, letting her peruse her closet and try on clothes, offering to read her a book, or (never has failed even during the midst of giving her medicine) offering to let her watch Bob's Burgers.

Her current prized possessions of fascination and love are the following in ranking and severity of outburst if removed/withheld from her for any reason:
- her purple bear hat (she will put it on herself - thank you very much!)
- her backpack (with babydolls smooshed inside)
- shoes (whichever pair she is in love with at the moment)
- gloves
- babydolls (yes, plural...one can never have enough babies)
- babydoll stroller

Our favorite moments of the past month:
- hugging both of our legs in unison when Jamie and I were hugging
- shutting the baby gate after herself with attitude when exiting the room
- offering trades to get the remote
- singing...love her singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with gestures and dancing
- upstaging Kendra the librarian at storytime at the Vancouver Library (Nora turned to the crowd of children and began telling her own story since Kendra's was apparently boring)
- wiping snot on the cats when she was sick
- hugging the cats and trying to read them books and give them toys
- lecturing the cats and chasing them out of the room (one of my personal favorites)
- her awesome dance moves that include the Charleston, the Slide, and the spin-until-you-fall-down

 

 

 

Careful, don't sleep, you have a toddler...

I'll freely admit, I would openly laugh when I would hear stories of people's children decorating with their own feces and wonder privately, "How did they get THAT one past you?..." Oh, how karma is cruel...

Our daughter is quite fond of waking us up sometime roughly between 1am and 4am. She keeps us up just long enough that our sleep is disturbed, we have to fight to get her back to sleep, one of us is displaced from the bed either because we have to stay in hers or she climbs in, and all of us wake up cranky because we haven't had a solid five hours of sleep in almost 3 years (she's almost two and pregnancy enhanced my insomnia). She's normally fully dressed with 30 minutes of us acquiescing to her demands which means that the entire household is up by 5am.

We are not morning people. Having a child does not bestow upon you the superhuman zen-like patience of Dali Lama. We are still not morning people.

So after a heinous 5 day stretch of us not sleeping comfortably or for more than 4 hours at a time or  sharing a bed as a couple or making use of a bed... we were exhausted. Fighting over whose turn  it was to be tortured ensued and we ended up taking turns sleeping in her room or on the couch just so we could get some rest. It was early on a Sunday when I hit my breaking point. I grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and the couch in hopes of sleeping. Our lovely daughter was hemmed in by baby gates and doors so that she only had access to her room and the living room where I was sleeping. This assuaged my anxiety enough that I felt safe to sleep on the couch while she watched cartoons.
The first sign of something being dreadfully wrong was the smell that entered my nose upon waking only to be followed by the second sign, my daughter sitting next to my head on the couch - naked. The sight of her minus pj's and diaper put me in red alert. I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter. A smug of poo on the blanket?!....Oh no...A smug of poo on the brand new couch too?!...Oh fuck...The smell of poo from my HAND?! What the FUCK?!

I grabbed her up and made a mad dash to the bathroom to clean her up. On went the taps and in went the giggling kid into the bath. I was gambling that if she had the right combination of toys and bubbles I could hear her splashing and playing so that I knew she was safe. Anything to keep her contained and feces safely out of her grasp. She could shit-spa herself in the tub for all I cared just as long as our house was safe from her sticky toddler clutches.

First I checked my slippers - safe. Then I stripped, poop on my head and shirt, great. Easily cleaned and solved. On went the bathrobe as I armed myself with a bucket, rags, cleaner, and courage. The living room awaited me. The couch wasn't as bad as I imagined and was quickly clean. The blanket and pillow went straight into the wash but I could still smell poo...

Our new rug. The rug that I felt was the steal of the century. Silkily spun wool, low pile, beautiful pattern, found at a fraction of the price, difficult to replace on our budget...Oh god. The pattern and colors were the perfect camouflage for her butt soufflé. I spent the next hour on my hands and knees scrubbing out my daughter's shit from the rug. She made a figure eight on the rug to wipe the poo out of her crack and from her diaper that she had conveniently placed on her bed. A trail of poo lead me back to the source which was sitting next to her prized doll and bear. She was proud of her work.

All the while she had been happily, and loudly, playing in the bath reciting, "No-no, No-haaa - no!" Followed by laughter and an interjection of "mama, said" in her jabbering. The house now smelled of lavender, floor cleaner, wood polish, and baby wipes...it sill reeked when I went into the bathroom. I knelt down to check on Nora and asked her how she was doing. She looked up with bubbles on her face and smiled to show poop in her mouth.

January 9th - Almost 22months

To say that our daughter is an old soul is an understatement at best and an insulting minimization of her prowess at the worst. She has better table manners than most adults I know, has a better sense of fashion than my most envied of friends or heroines, the most dramatic of sensitivities, and an unwaveringly delicate touch when affectionate. My heart broke for her the first time she pulled my face down to her so she could kiss me when she was 7 months old. It breaks every time since for her and reminds me how much love can endure and heal.

She likes to march in place, she farts when she laughs, likes to strip naked and run around the house while rubbing her nipples, loves her big girl (twin sized) bed, feeds her baby dolls and gives them kisses, loves our cats and is very gentle with them, and is adept at taking things apart.

Unfortunately, she bites the couch when she's frustrated and smacks herself on the stomach and face when she's angry. Pulls and shakes the bars on the baby gates when she's not allowed in a certain room or not getting your attention right away. And says "no" to anything and everything when she's tired, hungry, or her feelings are hurt (reminds me of a certain someone that also exhausts me...).

She loves to draw and paint, loves to quietly sit in bed and read, delights in nature walks down to see our neighbor's chickens, thinks all animals with four legs are "dogs", twirls and dances (does the cha-cha, the stride, and disco moves including the hip bump) while watching her favorite movie as of late, Pitch Perfect.

We do "spa time" to get her to sit still for getting her nails trimmed and cleaned. I give her a little dab of lotion and she rubs her hands together and sniffs them just before exclaiming in appreciation "Aaaah!" She sits on my lap in front of our bedroom mirror and brushes her hair or mine. Next come the hairbands that she likes to stack up around her eyes so that she looks like a Star Trek character.

 

 She loves being chased, she no longer runs off when we're out walking together unless she's very excited, and she wants to do the stairs on her own now along with everything else. Our patience is tried every day and we fall into bed sleep deprived and are woken halfway through the night for our daughter's slumber party jabbering between our two heads and wonder if we're ever going to have a full night's sleep again next to each other or possibly ever travel again or be able to watch an R-rated movie or sleep in till noon...When all is said and done, we love her more every day and can't imagine how we were blessed with such a person.

November: Please and - NO!

I remember watching my nieces learn to say "please" and "thank you"; unfortunately, Barney was popular at the time and it meant a lot of requests for watching the show as well. As much as I dislike Barney, I have to admit, the show really drilled into your brain the concept of "please" and "thank you" being the magic words...that and how awful kids' shows truly are. Even when I was a kid I hated children's programming (but that's another story).

Nora's playmates have been learning or exposed to some amount of baby sign language. It's par for the course with Portlander parents much like baby carriers, amber teething necklaces, and discussions about organic baby food (to purchase or to make; not whether or not you choose organic food for your kid because if you were to admit that...well, good luck). I had never any fantasy of being successful at teaching such a thing to Nora. I'm dyslexic and learning foreign languages has always been an embarrassing failing of mine so I didn't have any hope of teaching one to my infant daughter. Imagine my surprise when all those months of my clumsy attempts and her witnessing others would pay off with her picking up signs on her own. She signs "please", "hungry", "all done", "more" and "star".

My heart swelled with pride when she first signed "please" and sweetly said it simultaneously to request her sippy cup. Tonight I almost cried when I asked her if she wanted the purple star jammies her Na-Na gave her and she signed "star" with a big smile in response. All these moments are stored in my heart right alongside the moments that she drives us insane.

There are words that she absolutely refuses to sign (or say for that matter) "thank you" or "sorry". A request for her to say "thank you" will elicit a kiss at best and a raspberry noise in your face possibly or at worst a snotty smile and flounce of her head. A request for "sorry" might get you a hug or a pat but sometimes it results in her screaming "NOOOO!"...this I can understand since it's my fault. I was hoping she might learn to say "no" in an assertive manner to other kids that were trying to pull away a toy out of her hands or push her around. She somehow confused this concept with the kid being forced to apologize to her after their bad behavior, so now when a kid is brought over to apologize for their transgression by their parent my lovely daughter will scream "NOOO!" in the kid's face. It's quite effective.

One little boy approaches Nora and gives her a hug every time he sees her now and she simply turns her face away and says "no". My work here is done.

October in summary: Nora's favorite things...

She's almost 20 months old. This coming Tuesday she'll officially be twenty months and I'm blown away every day by her.

We were at the grocery store and she started pulling things off the shelves and turning to smile at me, proud of herself. I thanked her for remembering which shampoo I use and asked her to put it back, that we had enough at home. She did. Then she ran over to the soaps and pulled down the shower gel I use and we repeated the process again.

An elderly woman turned to come down the aisle we were in and noticed her right away. She smiled and waved at Nora. Nora dipped her chin and looked at the woman suspiciously but responded, "Hi." The woman giggled and said, "Hello!" Nora didn't like her tone and glared at her. The woman ignored her and asked me how old she was. I answered and explained that Nora wanted to tell her something because she was signing to me "more". "What do you want to say, Nora?"
She turned to the woman and said, "No." She shook her head, grabbed my hand, and started walking away. I'm guessing that's Nora-speak for F-off.

My other favorite moments of the past month are:
- Her nodding and agreeing to a time-out for the 1st time. Then when she placed her hands on my cheeks and turned my face for a kiss afterwards.
- Learning to open and shut doors. She loves to hold her bedroom door close and giggles insanely as I try to open it then launches herself onto her bed once I have it open.
- Playing hide-n-seek behind our bed.
- Dancing. She does the most adorable twirl, ever.
- When she Bugs-Bunny-ed me into taking a soggy tissue by saying, "Trade?" when I was busy unloading the dishwasher and then explained to me, "Hold."
- Her special smile for herself when she's pleased or proud.
- The way she reaches for our hands when we're walking, huge improvement over before!
- When she takes my hand and rolls it over to place a kiss in my palm.
- The way she says, "Hiiiii!" so enthusiastically when I go to get her out of the backseat of the car. We could still be in our parking spot but if I close the door and return only a second later she responds the same.
- Her help pushing the grocery cart. I love watching her frog march behind it and take down other people in the process.
- Her budding fashion sense. She color coordinates better than Jamie and I combined and is very particular about shoes. So it begins...
- The way she cuddles with her dolls as she falls asleep or watches the world go by from her stroller or carseat.
- Her gentleness with other kids.
- Signing and saying "please".
- Family cuddle time in the evening. When she strokes our faces and stares up into them sleepily smiling and then farts on us.

Nora's favorite things:
- Anything with sleigh bells
- Bob's Burgers, How It's Made, and How to Train Your Dragon
- Red shoes
- Kitchens (pretend or otherwise)
- Cuddling on the couch (she rearranges the pillows and cats to her liking)
- Arranging furniture
- Talking on the "phone" (this could be a block, a remote, etc.)
- Throwing things down the stairs through the catdoor. It's awesome.
- Waving and saying "hello" to everyone we pass. For better or for worse.
- Sticks
- Dogs
- Did I mention the sticks? How about the dogs? See the problem...?
- Breasts. And, yes, she will pull open your shirt to look. You too men.
- Hugs and kisses. She won't say "thank you", "sorry", or "your welcome" but she will run over and give you a kiss and hug instead.
- Pork fried rice, pasta, cheese, sweet potatoes, bananas, burritos, beans and rice, and popcorn.
- Simone our cat, especially in the morning when they "talk" through the babygate...oh my sweet f'in jeebus is it maddening.
- Playing on the "weeeee-", her name for swings.
- Water. Fountains, sprinklers, soaking pool - you name it, she'll go in it.
- Taking naps with mama in the afternoon and waking her with raspberries on her belly and breasts.
- Snuggling up and watching a Disney movie together and eating popcorn.

My favorite things:  Do you need to ask?

Halloween and things; belated October summary

Halloween was a blast! Minus a few schedule hiccups and toddler related meltdowns, it was awesome. We celebrated it for a week and a half starting with a mommy night out/playdate on the 27th leading up to a full day of storytimes, outfits, and trick-or-treating (giving and receiving).
I'll let the photos speak for themself....

Nora and her mad dance moves put on hold; October 12, 2012

Nora loves Mo Phillips (http://www.mophillips.com/) and normally likes to rock out and do her classic moves. The Nora bounce (slight bend to the knees with her hands out to the side), the Frankenstein (legs stiff and rocking back and forth from one to the other), and the weeeee (she does a slow, careful turn while pivoting on one foot).

But today, I saw only a few moments of her dancing before all toddler-hell broke loose at the show.
The owner of the toy store that is now connected to the venue decided to allow one of the kids to bring in a toy from her store. A doll stroller. The toy has collapseable parts to it like a real stroller and is, frankly, an inappropriate toy with metal parts that could harm anyone.

So imagine how thrilled I was when this thing was pulled into the room by her daughter and left unattended in the middle of the group of toddlers who had been happily dancing. A moshpit-esque scramble ensued with my daughter at the helm. No one, and I mean no one, was going to pry her tiny sticky fingers off that thing. That stroller was hers!

I had to physically take it away from her and hand it to the owner. She saw my face and just took it back without saying a word. You have a child, woman, wtf?! Have you no conscience?! Don't pimp out your dangerous toys for sale to my child who is a grand escape artist! I spent the rest of the time trying to calm her down and get her to stay in the room after that because she wanted the stroller and wanted to go play in the store. I use to like the venue but I don't think I want to deal with this situation every time I go there. That was maddening and embarrassing.

The other moms kept staring at me like I was so mean to Nora. Wanted to flip them all the bird and march out of there with every toy Nora and I could get our hands on whilst our exit. Half a mind to just let her run ammock the next time and sit back with my coffee like the hipster trust fund babies do. "Ah, hey, my kid is just expressing their creativity." Oh, really, asshole? I'll be sure to explain that to child services when I report that your kid smells like weed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 11-7-12

We have since returned and Nora no longer runs off. I bribe her with cheese and let her fart on everyone instead.

The many hats of Nora; October 5, 2012

She's almost 19 months, talking up a storm and dancing so well. She has incredible rhythm and loves to play jokes on people (offering food and jerking it away, playing hide-n-seek, and blanket monster). Unfortunately her allergies have taken a turn for the worse lately and she's battling a sinus infection this past week. Her head hurts and she gnaws on her hand due to yet more teeth she's cutting. 

I pulled the curtains back so she could watch the leaves blowing on this blustery day and she said, "Walk?" She brought me her shoes and hat, how could I say no? We bundled up and headed out. She made it only two blocks before she squatted down in the middle of the sidewalk and said, "Up mama?!" I picked her up and asked if she felt alright, "No good." I nestled her in and hefted her up against me. She gave me a kiss and patted my back as I reassured her, "Colds are no beuno, huh baby?" She wiped snot on my sweater and said with a stuffed-up head, "Nooo."

We spent the rest of the day on the couch watching Shaun the Sheep. As sick as I am of watching the show, thank you yet again to the creators for saving my sanity. As many of us know, taking care of a sick kid while you yourself are sick is very much "no beuno".

Under the weather; October 3, 2012

I'm fighting off feeling ill ever since I got the flu shot on Monday the 1st. Nora's allergies are worse and she's not herself. It's hard to say why exactly with so many changes occurring concurrently for her but I imagine she's probably reacting to the shot like myself. But let's not also forget the rapid languange acquisition (she identifies bad smells and announces "pew!"), fine motor skills developing (she can open doors now...yay), or the ability to announce her feelings with a definitive "noooo".

Being cooped up with a toddler makes for moments of madness as well as heart melting highlights of tenderness like when she was so tired (yet fighting it off physically by banging her head on me) that she layed her head in my lap and fell asleep standing up. Or her reinacting her timeout by using her Cabbage Patch kid as a role-play stand-in for herself propped up in her booster seat with an emphatic finger waving and "no....NO!". Or her announcement of "bath!" for the first time and running in to the bathroom to bang on the side of the bath tub with her favorite block. (My excitement was replaced with horror when I realized she had poop seeping through her pj's above, below, and to the sides of her diaper on her back half.)

Her favorite colors are red and pink. She can say "red" and "green" but not pink yet. She loves red or pink shoes (especially the colors together) and she picks out every red or pink toy she has and shows them to you. I think this is the pre-verbal toddler version of illustrating her Christmas list. We broke down and took her to Ikea to do something for free that would wear her out (it also allowed us the chance to sit at moments depending on the displays that were handy) and we discovered a free play area, the kids department. Now mind you, they provide a well labeled shortcut from the living room and kitchen displays to this area (clever bastards). She discovered the kitchen playset. We took turns sitting on stuffed animals and watching her cook for a good 45 minutes.

She has the most wonderful laugh...ever. I wish I could capture it on video but it would take someone videoing us together and that doesn't happen. Maybe I'll ask Grandma to do this for us (hmmm?). She loves being tickled and runs from you to jump on her bed. Remember the days as a kid when you had a favorite safe spot, a "home base"? I can't remember having one but I do remember loving to sit inside the forts we would build, especially the indoor ones. Nothing like taking a nap under the canopy of a blanket surrounded by pillows.

Her favorite word is still "hi" and she loves to run up and give kisses (now with a decidedly loud pucker noise), leans her head out towards you for a kiss as well, hugs you around your knees if you're standing and lays her head in your lap if you're sitting. I love seeing her face light up as she sees me, runs towards me, and puckers up for a kiss at the last moment.

I stand at the top of the stairs and people watch as the students walk by. I also like to say "hi" to the crows and howl at them. (Please note she picked out her outfit. She's very particular.)

She doesn't like to hold your hand when you're walking but she will to cross the street. She runs to us if something is scary and cocks her head in wariness if she doesn't like the sound of something. She thinks squirrels are small dogs. Insects don't scare her, dogs amuse her, cats bore her (she has those at home), and she loves rocks. I've learned to check her pockets before doing the wash.

Water is awesome. Freezing, warm, bubbly, salty - all forms are a delight to her. Her favorite spot in OMSI is the water play area in the science playground. It's the last stop on the way out before we commence the dance of the resistant toddler getting out of wet clothes, into a dry diaper and outfit, and strapped into her carseat. She's normally asleep before we exit the parking lot.

 This video was taken at the fountain in front of the Water Resource Center in Vancouver, WA, in early September.

 

 



 

 

Nora chasing her boyfriend, Rowan. It's always the boys we like that we end up chasing...so it begins.

No, she did not fall in...she did poop her pants though.



Our budding artist; September 27, 2012

This was Nora's first time painting, ever. We've done finger painting but mostly with food or unintentionally with her snot. This was her first forray into using brushes with paint and gluesticks.
I'll let the pictures speak for themself.

She blew all of us away that she understood how to use the brush the moment she had it in hand.

Nora and her friends.

Mama giving her encouragement.

Nora wouldn't share the hot pink paint.

Her boyfriend, Rowan, was giving instruction.

Nora let Rowan use her paint. He traded the finger paint for it...Nora gave herself a mustache.

She wouldn't let me clean it off. She kept telling me, "No!"

Post art class. She had one smudge of paint left on her arm.

Don't mess with Nora; September 14, 2012

My offspring is asleep after being mauled at the Mo Phillips show. Some little shit decided to forcibly hug her from behind/tackle her not once, but twice, and then got smacked himself by Nora in response and cried like a little byatch. It was pretty awesome. Nora clapped and smiled as he got dragged out. I was so proud.

The other moms were laughing in shock and open amusement. The mother of the brawler was not amused, I just smiled. Nora adjusted her clothes and sat back down to watch the show and clap along in time. My friend, Bekki, exclaimed, "Whoa, Nora is badass!" She has a sense of decorum and etiquette that you dare not cross...I wonder who she reminds me of?
I'm off to clean/cook/write as fast as possible before my love creation awakens to torture me and ransack our house.

September 4th, 2012 - 1st sentence and so much more...

Nora has mastered naughtiness. She'll get angry and throw her sippy cup on the floor. We calmly respond with, "Nora, pick that up, please." If that doesn't get a response then we follow it up with, "Nora? What do we do with our cup?" This normally elicits her naughty smile and the placement of her sippy cup on the nearest table (mind you she's just shy of 18 months).

Her new exchange these past two weeks? "Nora, please pick up your cup."
Response: "What's that about?" (With her hands on her hips and her head cocked to the side back and forth with a smile.) Oh no? Oh, yes.

New words these last couple weeks:  Pepe (short for Peter the cat), down, no-no (in response to naughty behavior or cat behavior, take your pick), ow-cha...haahaahaa (hot things are funny because adults in pain are hilarious), shhhh-dowg (dogs are to remain silent), and ba-bah smah (babies are small and apparently beneath her or at least should remain quiet in her presence because, after all, don't they realize they're in the presence of a BIG girl?).

There is a distinct fascination with hats, shoes, spoons, and anything that is related to babies which is amusing. She rarely used a pacifier and thinks they are ridiculously funny. This would be cute except it is incredibly awkward in public when she steals them from infants and runs away with them. She's like an earth-friendly guerrilla warfare front of one against the orally-fixated infants of the greater Portland area. Let's just say she's about as good as her mom at making friends. I try to return them and make a joke but the sleep-deranged mother with the wailing infant is never amused. I don't blame her.

Nora has figured out how to open doors, unscrew caps, open purses/bags of every type, unleash dogs, and draw with anything that will leave a mark...It's tempting to put her in daycare just to see what havoc she could wreak in a week. I should find one of those new-age ones with live video links. I could make millions off the feed. Or, I could stay home with her until she's ready for school and truly prepare her for terrorizing others. Yay, family values!

August 27, 2012 - August in review: "Up!"

The beauty of your toddler's burgeoning language skills is that they're still at an age where they assume that any demand will be acknowledged and met. If only the world would comply.

So our daughter becomes frustrated and irrate when her proclomations of "Up!" are not complied with at every utterance. Say, for instance, when you're on the toilet or trying to pay for groceries or sound asleep. Her other favorite request is "Shoes?" which need to be replaced since she enjoys practicing taking them off every five minutes. Not to be outdone by her capacity for watching her favorite BBC claymation show, Shaun the Sheep, or taking walks.

Walks that normally took us ten minutes now take two hours or more because she stops to say hello to everyone, pet the lavendar bushes, chase bees, and laugh at dogs. Every walk needs to be marked with a memento as well. Normally a prized pinecone, an especially sharp stick, or a cancerous cigarette butt. Yard sales are beauty contests where she plays dress up with people's belongings, sprinklers are water parks no matter what outfit she has on, and flowers are for petting.

She's learned to eat with a fork in the past two weeks, sits at the table like a big girl, and pulls her pants up with a little bit of assistance. She listens intently when we're on the phone and mimics us by holding up a rectangular block to her ear and says "hi?...hi....bye" while nodding and smiling.

We setup a play kitchen in our kitchen for her so she can cook while mama does. She zig zags across the kitchen while chattering and singing to herself and dancing. Apparently I walk very fast while cooking and dance while standing in place in front of the stove. She helps put dishes away and picks up items that she drops and puts them back or in the garbage. The cats help eat the food she drops.

I love her prideful smile, eyes downcast and the slow rising of a smile from an expression of consternation as she achieves her intent. Whether that's setting a bowl on the table or managing to figure out how to put on a dress. She's incredibly intelligent and gentle, even forgiving her cousin for kicking her or stealing her toys away. Not once this past weekend did she cry or get angry with her older cousin but quietly watched her and tried to please her. I hope she learns to stand up for herself and I see signs of it when she takes her toys back or moves away from kids that are being rough with her.

But she still pats you when you pick her up, leans her head in your lap to check in periodically while playing, carefully sits in your lap after bringing you a book to read to her, and gives the most gentle kisses like the whisper of a butterfly wing ever so primly to you when you have to leave her.
She loves looking at her picture book of family photos and talks our ears off with gibberish stories after seeing her cousins. She's becoming a big girl, she's not a baby any more...I'm a little sad about that at moments but I can't wait to see her grow over the years.

Trip to Astoria: August 25th, 2012

Originally this was to be the trip out to Astoria to place Peter in his new home, the great outdoors, at Betsy and Colby's house. At the very last minute, as Jamie was hunkered down in front of Peter's carrier loaded in the back of the Subaru, as Peter yowled and dropped anxious clumps of sweaty fur, as I tried to console Jamie and gritted my teeth - he backed out.

With plans already made, a car and child already packed up and ready to go, and with a stomach full of fury - we were off! Biting your tongue for two hours while trying to keep your toddler amused on a car ride can work up a hunger. I did my best to eat my way through my anger for the next 48 hours and try to enjoy the time with extended family and friends.

Nora and her cousin, Della, are more like siblings than we anticipated. Nora gets beat up and Della gets in trouble all day for her abuse. They fight over toys, fight over who sits where, play tug-of-war over furniture and people alike, and generally terrorize each other at every possible moment. We attempted to put them in the bath together...it was interesting.

The most memorable moment was when Colby was playing the piano and Nora approached him in rapt attention and requested, "Up?" He gleefully placed her next to himself on the bench and this is what happened next...

Here are some additional photos...

Fruit leather, it's like a baby sedative.

 



Our future virtuso...or at least our entertainer.

 



Here let me help you...




...off the bench.


 



On our way to Astoria's Farmer's Market...

Oh, this was so cute! Della cuddled with Nora and kept her safe on the ride down...

...Nora was not amused.