The Waters Family Visit

Over the weekend my old college roommate Kari and her family visited. I hadn't seen Kari and Mike since our wedding and I just barely missed out on meeting Bailey. Mike had an interview in Syracuse to be a resident and Kari and the kids came along for a weekend stay at the Alpha Phi Party Mansion. We had a blast. Norah watched with amazement and respect as Bailey (3.5) and Avery (15 months) ran laps around the house. Bailey quickly bonded with Bryan because their names both begin with "Capital B" and they enjoyed playing several games of pretty pretty princess together. They made it look like so much fun that Kari and I finally joined in. Saturday we visited the children's science museum and ate at Fives Guys with Mike.

Sunday

Bryan usually dresses Norah for church while I'm getting ready. I came in and saw him tying Norah's bow like this. He is such an innovator. This is much more efficient than wresling with her. After chruch I sat Norah down in the lazy boy for a second while I took off my coat. We have limited seating in our apartment - it is either the bed, the lazy boy or a small uncomfortable wooden chair - so when Bryan came in he made Norah scoot over and share the seat.

So Chic

Sometimes I take Norah's picture just because her clothes are cute. She is so stylish (thanks to her mimi) that I feel I must document it so I can show her what her life was like when she had a new wardrobe every three months.

Norah is 6 Months on Thanksgiving Day!!!

Currituck Lighthouse

Norah Explores the Beach

These pictures are from Monday when Norah saw the beach for the first time.

Norah Takes a Break on the Drive

Norah Explores Jamestown

We were on our way to the Outer Banks when Norah decided she had had enough of her car seat and wanted to explore Jamestown. It was just a few miles out of our way and well worth the detour. The site has several galleries of artifacts, a Powhatan Village full of "touch and feel" artifacts. four working replica ships complete with sailors to show you around, and of course the fort. There was even armor for little kids to try on. We are definitely revisiting Jamestown when Norah is old enough to try on the armor and pretend to steer the ships.

This is the Susan Constant - the largest of the ships that sailed to Jamestown.




This blacksmith needs to make 5000 nails to faciliate the replica governor's house that is being constructed on the site. The blacksmiths back in the day would have been kept busy with repairs and nails would have been imported. Fun Fact about nails: Archeologists count them to determine if a structure had a wood or dirt floor. How clever!

Early Christmas

Norah opened her first Christmas present over the weekend. Her mimi made her a beautiful Christmas quilt to snuggle in during the Holidays.

Milestones

Glimpse of Norah's First Teeth

I snapped this during one of Norah's "naps." After she cried a while I decided to sit in her room with her to see if that helped. I read my book and she started to babble to herself and play with her dog "Fluffy." A chapter later I noticed it was pretty quiet and I thought she might be asleep. Nope, she was just staring at me. When I looked up at her she got really excited. I think she thought we were going to play peek a boo. We did actually play peek a boo - to get this picture. Then it was straight to the swing for a real nap.

Norah Tries Rice Cereal and Strongly Disapproves

These pictures are from October 28th. We let Norah try some rice cereal after she repeatedly reached for a bowl of vanilla ice cream. We thought the creamy white cereal would be a suitable substitute but she was furious and continued to go for the ice cream. After a teary tantrum we called a truce and let her hold the spoon. She enjoyed jabbing herself in the face with it. Norah's skin is incredibly sensitive and when I changed her into her pajamas I noticed she had red spots all over her face and panicked thinking she was having an allergic reaction. I quickly called my brother-in-law who is a pediatrician and he warned me to watch for signs of troubled breathing. This was very upsetting to me because I had initially only worried that I would have to deal with a kid with food allergies. Fortunately Bryan figured out that marks were from her spoon jabbing.

Norah Approves Banana and Leans in for More

Yesterday Jess held Norah while Bryan and I ate lunch and Cassandra innocently approached to entertain her. Encouraged by Norah's enthusiastic response, Cassandra moved in closer only to have her banana ambushed. Norah gnawed on it long enough for us to laugh in astonishment, debate getting the camera, find the camera, remember to take off the lens cap and take a picture. She would have kept going but the assault was too much for the banana and it broke off.

Looking at Grandma

Norah's Stare Down

Monday night I laid Norah down in her crib (on her back of course) and tip toed into our adjoining room. A few minutes later she started crying and when it was clear she was only getting more worked up I decided to check on her. I usually go over to the crib and have to pat her for a while for her to realize I'm there. This time we made eye contact as soon as I opened the door. She had rolled onto her tummy and was facing our bedroom door and pushing herself up so high that she could see over her crib. It caught me so off guard I started laughing at her and had Bryan come in to laugh at her too. We both laughed and Norah started laughing right back which just made us laugh more because it was so funny to see her laughing and smiling with these big tears on her face. You can still see one about to fall off her cheek in this picture. Since this incident she has been sleeping on her tummy

Red Hot Chili Pepper

Norah was a chili pepper for Halloween. She was very patient but she didn't really enjoy having her legs merged in the pepper.  She looked adorable and we enjoyed parading her around Friday and Saturday at parties. We tried to be respectful and only made her wear the costume long enough for some photo ops at our branch social and even came home on time for bedtime. However, when we returned to Alpha Phi and saw all 40 of the Phis in their matching red baseball costumes complete with bats we just had to get one more picture of Norah with her "big sisters." Bryan quickly put Norah back in her pepper but when he brought her out all 40 of the Phis squealed at once and frightened the little pepper to tears.

Here is Norah Friday night with some Phis

Bryan and Norah at the Branch Halloween Party

Apple Lover

Well, it seems as though Norah is just as fascinated by computers as I am.  My favorite technique for getting her to stop crying is to turn on my screen saver.  It seems as though she is partial to Mac screen savers.  I tried it with some of the default screen savers available in Windows 7 but she’s not buying it.  Most people say that Micrsoft’s new OS fixed what was wrong with Vista but apparently not everyone is convinced.  If you’re interested in calming your baby too, I find that the “flurry” screen saver is the most effective and remember the more monitors the better.

Norah's Three Month Mark

My friend Hillary took this picture of Norah and me on August 26th. She is getting so big so fast.

Norah's Boyfriend

This picture is from back in August but I've gotta make up for lost time. For those of you who don't know Lincoln Jones, he is Norah's boyfriend. Lincoln is very good to Norah as long as his mom is not holding her. During this play "date" he spontaneously (I swear it wasn't staged) grabbed Norah's hand several times. There were some cute photo moments where they were both smiling but unfortunately my camera kept saying "busy." (A little while later it broke completely and we had it replaced)

Norah Goes to SLC

We took a quick trip to SLC to see family and a few close friends. In just four days we managed to see 3 great grandparents, two grandparents, 7 great aunts and uncles, I have no idea how many cousins and attend a breakfast for Dad's aunts and uncles and all their kids, grandkids and great grandkids!

Here are some highlights from SLC:

Norah's first flight


Norah Goes to Hires

Norah admiring her Alexander Calder mobile made by Grandpa Dean
Norah with Great Grandma Hicks
Norah with Great Grandpa Hicks
Norah with Great Grandma Hyer