Bedhead

Norah usually wakes up with some serious bedhead but yesterday was particularly bad. Lest you suspect I don’t comb her hair, just remember what I start out with!

Alice is 9 months

Alice is such a joy. She is a happy, busy little baby willing to follow us all around the house crawling. I feel like I have a little puppy following me around sometimes. She is so wiggly now that I hardly get to hold her unless I’m reading her a book. All this movement is having an affect on her physique. I’ve noticed that she’s stopped drawing comments from complete strangers that she was the chubbiest baby they had seen. Just this past Sunday a lady at church said “she’s losing her rolls. She was such a butterball when you moved in.” Indeed I’ve even noticed that it is getting easier to fit her into her size 12month clothes. I used to be able to spread out her rolls and see tan lines but those are starting to fade. As you can see she still has plenty of chubba but I think she is past her peak.

I love her smile with these two bottom teeth. Her four top teeth are coming in so pretty soon her smile will look more like this
What stands out to me most about Alice this month is how much she wants to be included in everything. If she hears Bryan and Norah playing in another room, even if I’m with her, she seems to sense that she’s missing out on the action and will crawl down the hall and through the kitchen to find them and join in the fun. If we’re eating, she wants to be eating with us and if we have avocado or watermelon we better serve that up to her quick before fists start pounding. If Norah is in the bath, Alice will pull herself up at the tub and try to get in with her. If we’re reading books she wants in on that too. And in general Alice wants to be around Norah. They are actually starting to play together a little. These are some pictures I snapped a week ago when Norah was imitating everything Alice did.Alice just guffaws at any silly thing Norah does and Norah appreciates the feedback. Norah is even starting to show genuine concern and compassion for Alice at times. I think they are going to enjoy their sisterhood.

Preschool

Norah started preschool this week. We enrolled her in a Spanish immersion preschool called Dallas Spanish House three mornings a week and she and I were both very very excited. Norah has been telling people all summer that she was going to go to preschool and I think she was thrilled that that day had actually come. She was on a waiting list to get in until just two weeks ago so I was relieved I didn’t have to break any bad news to her about not being able to go to preschool. She was so excited it was very difficult to keep her from going in long enough to take a picture. She said cheese a bunch of times really fast and then rushed right in without looking back. 

When I picked her up she said “Mom you were in the car a very long time.” So I guess she thinks I just wait in the parking lot for her ha ha. It is kind of a mystery what she does when she is at preschool. We can’t get her to tell us much about it but she did finally divulge that there are puzzles and books. I think it caught her off guard that her teachers only speak Spanish to her even though we talked about it before hand. She seemed a little disappointed about that the first day but today she told me she loved preschool. I certainly love it! It has made the week fly by. It is so nice to have some one on one time with Alice and I feel like I’ve been much more patient with Norah. I think this is going to be really good for us.

Double the Fun

There is a new development in our lives that I’ve neglected to blog about: There are twin 4 year old (soon to be 5) girls directly across the street that love to play with Norah and they are now a regular fixture in our home. I finally got around to asking their dad if he would be comfortable with me posting pictures of Harper and Willa on my blog and he was like “Yeah, sure, I’ve been putting pictures of your kid on FB – hope that’s alright” lol. So here are the twins:

I’ve yet to get a really good picture of all three of them because they are never all holding still – or even not talking – at once. We get a LOT of use out of our dress ups.

I’m honestly not sure which twin this is These girls just run over to our house as soon as their dad opens up the door of their van and Norah is always so excited to see them

I love these girls as much as Norah does but I’m not gonna lie, it is CRAZY here when all three of them are together so Bryan instituted a rule that they have to stay in the playroom when they come over with the door shut. The playroom is sort of a patio turned into a room so those French doors are actually exterior doors which is great because we can hardly hear them in there. When it is bedtime they have to put away all the toys (ALL of them, because ALL of them were dumped out lol) and it is no big deal. We have even managed to watch an episode of Parks and Rec now and then while they are in there. They always beg to have Alice come play with them but they want to put her in the doll crib and stroller and so on and it is just not safe for obvious reasons so Alice just has to look in on them through the doors.If you look closely at this picture you can see that Norah and one of the twins are both wearing homemade smocked dresses – they are from our next door neighbor who doesn’t have her grandkids nearby so she has adopted the neighborhood kids as her own. We have great neighbors.

The ultimate chew toy

I’ve never met a baby that didn’t love a good chew on a shoe. Sophie Giraffe is passed over time and time again for the soft supple leather of my born flats. Seriously, those shoes are incredibly soft (they’re the ones I bought instead of the 4 inch heels Norah was pushing). I can hardly blame Alice for wanting to chew on them ALL THE TIME – whether on or off my feet. Alice knows right where to find them too. If there isn’t a stray cheerio on the floor to crawl to she heads right to the shoe tray. Today while checking my email I left her to her own devices long enough for her to actually get inside the shoe tray.

How gross is it that I allowed her to chew on my filthy shoe while I took this picture?!Yes, that thing dangling from the wall does drive me crazy. I want to delete this picture just looking at it. But look how happy she is surrounded by shoes.

Dean and Lorraine Visit

My mom and dad came out from Denver for a visit last week. The last time I saw my mom was when she came to help me with Alice’s birth and I hadn’t seen my dad for a full year so this was his first time meeting Alice. I was so excited to introduce them and for my mom to see all the incredible changes that have taken place in just 8 months. My parents did not disappoint – they ooohed and awed and told me several times a day what cute kids I had. I can’t wait for them to come back! Hopefully now that they are back in Denver they will be able to visit frequently.

 

The first day they were here we paid a visit to Lucy Smolenski. Lucy was like a surrogate grandma to my sisters and me when we were kids in Maryland and now she is in her 90s and living outside of Dallas. We reminisced and then went out to lunch. I looked much better in the second picture but, out of deference to Lucy I went with the picture she looked best in.After saying goodbye to Lucy we headed to the children’s museum where I sat down and surfed the internet while Alice and Grandpa took a nap, while Grandma was hard at work playing with Norah.I hope my mom will forgive me for posting this picture I caught of her mid smile, it was just so good of everyone else I couldn’t leave it out.The next day we went to the Dallas World Aquarium – which was really more Jungle than Aquarium – and I took almost no pictures. We finished that outing with a stop for frozen yogurt and went out again in the evening for Hawaiian Shaved IceThursday my parents drove to Louisiana to spend the weekend with my sister Emily and her family. While they were gone Norah came down with some bug (the flu maybe?) and had a high fever. By Sunday afternoon Alice had come down with it and I was sick with it Monday. My mom and dad came back to Dallas late Sunday night and spent all day Monday taking care of the kids while I laid in bed. I was seriously in bed ALL day and my fever didn’t dip below 102 degrees until late that night. I’m so glad they were here to take care of us.

Here is my dad holding Alice on Monday when she was still feeling under the weather. For as bad as it was though, it sure did pass quickly. I felt good enough Tuesday to take my parents to the Arboretum before they went home. I like this picture because you can kind of tell my dad is just one step behind Norah trying to anticipate her next move – is she thinking about jumping in there and getting one of those glass balls? This is how I spend my life with Norah: In a constant state of alert. Unless of course there are visiting grandparents to give me a break:)I really enjoyed having my parents in town and I know Norah loved having the extra attention. Thanks for everything Mom and Dad and come back soon.