Big Sister Books

My big sister (she is actually smaller than me) Ashley sent Norah some light reading on how to be a big sister. Norah is fascinated with these big sister books and asks to read them before every nap and bedtime. I’m sure she has no clue how much her little world is about to be rocked but I do think she is starting to understand that some people (like Graham) have a baby sister and that supposedly she will too. Maybe she thinks it is some kind of pretend game we’re playing with her but she is definitely playing along. She has been taking a much more active role in caring for Molly the Dolly and I even caught her “reading” bedtime stories to Molly.

Norah Explores the Cinema

Yesterday Norah hit a new milestone: Her first movie. Her friend Graham invited her to escape the rain and see The Lion King in 3D. She was amazed by the big theater and seemed to understand that this was a special privilege. We walked in during the previews and Norah, instead of charging fearlessly ahead of me as she usually does, quietly held my hand and observed the two other children in the theater sitting quietly in their seats. She was completely surprised to see Graham there and thrilled that he had not only saved her a seat next to him but was prepared with goldfish, capri –suns and m&m’s. They were both excellent audience members and sat contentedly in their seats for at least half of the movie and were really only slightly disruptive during the second half. I had forgotten what a great movie The Lion King is and it was fun to watch Norah enjoy it. She loved all the animals and was excited every time she saw one she recognized.  She’d point and say “a giraffe, a giraffe” with such urgency like she was worried we were going to miss it. However, I don’t think 3D is the best idea for a kids movie --they can’t keep their hands off those glasses and it turns out they are less effective when smudged with peanut butter.

Hair Bows

Norah and I stayed home while Lindsey and Lindsey went to RS conference this evening.  At about 9pm Norah was starting to lose it.  I asked her if she wanted to put 2 bows in her hair to make her feel better.  Apparently she was feeling quite lousy because she decided that she needed all of her bows in her hair.You can see that she’s getting tired here because she’s trying to rub her eyes.Norah actually insisted on sleeping with all of these bows in her hair even though it was pretty obvious it wasn’t very comfortable.

Indian Creek Apple Picking

Fall is my favorite season and Ithaca has so much to offer in the fall. This past Saturday we took Norah apple picking at Indian Creek Farm. We have never picked there before and it is probably the closest U-pick farm to us so we thought we should give it a go. I think I prefer both Little Tree Orchards and Grisamore Farm to Indian Creek. Click Here if you want to compare last year’s apple picking pictures to see how much Norah has grown.The trees we were supposed to pick from were already picked pretty bare so it was hard to find low hanging fruit for Norah to pick. Norah was incredibly patient and obedient as we looked for apples she could reach and she didn’t pick any fruit from the heavy laden trees (such as below) that were not ready for picking. She really was in a great mood and such a sport – singing to herself and asking us questions about the apples.Maybe she was so content because she always had an apple in her hand to eat.We also picked some perfectly ripe pears which were incredibleThe highlight of the morning for Norah was seeing and hearing a rooster crow. I would have taken a picture but the rooster was hanging out by the clotheslines and it seemed a little too personal for pictures.

Insane Rain

We have had so so SO much rain this week. The Tompkins county sheriff closed all the roads until further notice because of flooding. That means Cornell is closed as well. Bryan doesn’t have class till 3 so he might not escape any work but it is fun to have him work from home today. We had a nice leisurely pancake breakfast this morning.

It is actually not raining right now but it poured all day yesterday and all through the night. Last night Norah had a melt down from being cooped up so Bryan asked her if she wanted to go outside and she sobbed “yeah, outside” so they went outside in the dark, in the midst of a downpour to play on the swing set. And what was she wearing? A sundress! Norah will only wear the same 3 or 4 sundresses lately (basically the last two months). She did have a raincoat on over it at least. When they came back in she was totally soaked and much happier.

My friend Lindsey took this picture of Norah and Graham yesterday while we did laundry. It was quite the challenge to get 4 large laundry baskets, 3 kids and 2 big jugs of detergent in and out of the car between the 2 of us while it was pouring. We had planned to let the kids play at a nearby playground during laundry cycles but that obviously didn’t happen. We went to Target for free popcorn instead. We were all soaked by the time we were done.

Cornell Branch Opening Social

Last Friday our student branch had its annual opening social. I love it when everyone (well, not everyone sniff sniff) comes back from their summer internships – it was a lonely summer. Norah had a blast running around and being totally crazy with Ellie and Graham. These three kids couldn’t have been cuter together Friday. Our branch doesn’t have a primary program so new student families moving in with two year olds usually opt to go to the ward to avoid having to switch midway through their programs. Thus as Norah gets older her peer group shrinks but what a great group it is!

Our Branch Pres. has a few apple trees and they had this big bucket of apples sitting on their porch. Since the kids were quietly entertaining themselves we weren’t paying attention to them and by the time I started taking pictures they had taken exactly one bite out of probably a quarter of the apples. Notice that Graham and Ellie have swapped shoesHow cute is this? Ellie tries to hand Norah an appleBut then drops itNorah returns it and Graham puts back the apple he was working on and reaches for a fresh oneAnd we’re back to eating Running around giggling hystericallyNorah sharing. I’m so glad I had a camera.

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.