New Apartment: Bedroom

Our bedroom isn’t as cute at Norah’s but we did get a new quilt like her.I started this quilt a year and a half ago and but got bored of working on it and took a very long break. I don’t think my attention span is big enough for queen size quilts. I finally got around to finishing it this summer.

New Apartment: Living Room and Kitchen

New Apartment: Norah’s Room

We moved into a new apartment a month ago and are loving it. It is so so nice to have a living room and kitchen again after two years of sorority living. We feel like grown ups again! There are lots of families with kids in this complex so whenever we go outside there is someone for Norah to play with.

When we moved in we switched Norah from her crib to twin bed. The transition couldn’t have been easier. She was so excited about having a big girl bed that she took right to it. This picture is of a random day when she insisted on napping with a package of straws.I just finished this strawberry quilt for Norah this week. I was hoping she would be just as excited about it as she was about her big girl bed but no such luck. She told me several times “no like it” and tried to pull it off her bed. I think she just really doesn’t like anyone messing with her stuff.Since not using the quilt was clearly not an option after laboring over it all summer I launched a PR campaign which included me playing with her stuffed animals and feeding them strawberries from the quiltAs well as making a coordinating doll quilt for Molly the Dolly to use It seems to have helped because I left Norah napping with my friend Ashley while I got my hair cut the other day and I guess when Norah woke up she was very happy about the quilt (she was very unhappy about having it on her bed when she went down for her nap) and showed it off to Ashley saying “look, strawberry blanket. So beautiful.” She has been happy to have it on her bed since. Success!

Hicks Family Beach Trip

Bryan’s parents rented a beautiful house on the Outer Banks for a family reunion during the last full week of August. We had a great time and I’ve been dying to post about it except that I’m mourning how few pictures I took. This always happens at the beach. It is just a pain to take a camera to the beach with all that sand. And who wants their picture taken when they are in their swimsuit, post swim / pre shower and have just gotten to a good part in their book? Alas, I have realized that waiting will not make more pictures materialize and have resolved to make up for it during Christmas break when we will see Bryan’s family again.

Beach Trip Highlights:

- Norah flying a kite for the first time

- Getting texts and emails from family and friends asking about / informing us of the DC earthquake

- Lamenting as a family that missed out on earthquake stories and then (in the case of Susan and Kelsey only) celebrating that we did in fact feel the earthquake only attributed it to Kimball shaking beach chairs

- Endless ice cream sandwiches

- Beating the beach traffic both on the way there and on the way back to VA (thanks to Guy’s foresight in predicting the evacuation schedule)

- Pool Party complete with brats and Beach Boys music

- Family Tennis matches

- Spotting Octagons on walks. Norah has suddenly become obsessed with stop signs (due to a sesame street segment on octagons with Jack Black) and wanted nothing more than to find octagons. One night at bedtime I was asking her what she wanted to do the next day and if she wanted to put more sea shells in the bucket and she said quietly “yeah. Sea shells in the bucket.” and then after a pause she excitedly asked “octagons?”

- Morning walks on the beach

- Seeing a live soft shell blue crab with a big barnacle on the beach

I loved walking on the beach in the morning because it was so empty and beautiful.This is Norah running as fast as she can away from the water. I don’t know what her deal was but she was absolutely against ocean. We couldn’t bribe her to swim with us. Norah never backed down on her decision to not swim in the ocean but she took advantage of the pool every day. We were in the pool before 8am one day!Hot-tubbers L to R: Kimball, Kelsey, Susan, Courtney, BryanNorah with Grandpa Guy in her Jammies.

Rainy Days

We’ve had rainy days lately so we’ve been busting out the play house Bryan’s mom made Norah. She loves tending to her indoor garden.

Cayuga Nature Center

Norah and I had a play date this past Wednesday with two of my former coworkers from IHS and their kids. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

This nature center has a six story tree house that was built in a community effort. It is super cool. I don’t think Norah is old enough to fully appreciate its awesomeness but we’ll be back when she is 3 for sure. We also enjoyed spotting butterflies and caterpillars in the butterfly house

Norah’s first Campout

Last weekend a friend of Bryan’s hosted a big party / campout on his property to celebrate his retirement from the Air Force, finishing his PhD and his daughter’s HS graduation. He lives way out in the countryside near Rome NY– as in there was no internet or cell phone service! It was a great party complete with a bbq, bonfire, bouncy house, swing set, trampoline, blueberry picking, swimming in a nearby creek and lots of kids and lots of dogs. Needless to say Norah had the time of her toddlerhood and declared “I like it camping!”

Norah LOVED this collie named Sadie May and even prompted us to include Sadie in our family prayers days later.A major diversion for the men was trying to set this tree on fire using strategic chain sawing and lots and lots of lighter fluid. The little girl pulling this wagon showered Norah with attention and made sure she had a good time