Alice Lately

Alice has become a daddy’s girl! She went through a period (the entire month of February) where her preference for Bryan was so intense that she would actually hit and push me away if Bryan was home saying “NO! Daddy do it” for everything from changing her diaper to buckling her in her car seat. It made my weekends a lot easier but it did start to hurt my feelings.

Alice loves putting away the silverware. She takes each piece and holds it up and announces whether it is a fork, spoon or knife before she puts it away. This is a wonderful help because it eliminates a task for me AND it occupies Alice for a long time – which is to say it is to say it eliminates many tasks for me. Alice has learned to hold up two fingers to show that she is 2. She LOVES to do this while saying “Two” and does it in response to not just questions of her age but also “How are you?” Alice and I still faithfully attend story time at the White Rock Library on Wednesdays and I’ve seen a lot of growth in her over the year. Our amazing children’s librarian, Miss Jenna really understands the value of repetition and now after 7 months of attendance Alice knows all the actions for the songs and is even learning the words to some of them. Here she is listening to a story: In February Alice and I started attending Story Time Yoga at the North Park Mall and that has been really fun as well. I love watching Alice do her yoga poses. She gets off center when she catches me taking pictures Alice LOVES babies. She still plays with her baby doll every single day and she adored her cousin Andrew

Norah Lately

I haven’t managed to keep up with monthly posts on the girls but I do want to record some of my observations of their development so far into 2014. Norah has been such a good girl. Most mornings she gets herself dressed all by herself and she’s very cooperative about getting ready and out the door on preschool days. I can ask her to brush her teeth, put on shoes and get in the car and she’ll do it all on her own.

She chatters away constantly. Once she literally narrated everything she saw out her window, with some added commentary, the entire 18 minute drive to preschool! She is still super friendly and makes friends with kids on the spot wherever we go.

Norah is super imaginative right now (she has been for a long time but she seems to have kicked it up a notch) and tells us elaborate pretend stories. She loves to pretend play that she is an animal, princess, mom, or veterinarian. Most recently she’s been pretending to be a “howl dog” which is a creature of her own invention with a complex, yet consistent set of behaviors unique to its species. Howl dogs specialize in taking care of and protecting children. They are big and strong with sharp claws and teeth that retract so that they can hold kids without hurting them.

Norah is very animated and enthusiastic when she talks about her day or things she’s looking forward to doing. She makes us laugh constantly because of this but you really have to hear her to appreciate it – writing it out just isn’t the same. However she did have a few funny exchanges with my dad during our visit. One was after he complained about a seatbelt design being stupid. She said: “uh, Grandpa, you shouldn't use that word. Stupid isn't good word to say." My dad said "But what if it is stupid? What if that is the right word to describe it?" "Well Grandpa I think you're a little bit right, but I'm a little more right." On another day when he asked her if she wanted Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast she said “I want honey bunches but no oats."

Norah wants to be an artist or a veterinarian when she grows up. The children’s museum in Denver actually had a Veterinarian exhibit which was a lot of fun for Norah (or so I heard, my parents took her).While in Denver, Norah played “pets” with my sister Natalie’s beanie baby collection and took good care of them. She made daily arrangements of her menagerie and hated to leave them behind when we went on outings. I snapped a picture of one of one of her Beanie Baby pet shops – this was after Alice removed a few. She still spends a lot of time coloring. Here is a sampling of some of her recent drawings:

Spanish House Field Trip

Norah’s preschool has been learning about animals so her wonderful, dedicated teachers suggested we take a Saturday trip to the zoo. We had perfect weather after a few very very cold weeks and the trip was so much fun. We’ve gotten to know the other parents pretty well from going to birthday parties and I always enjoy getting a chance to visit with them.

Oceano, a friend of David’s, Alice, David and Norah Hope, Norah and Maestra Aileen Norah and Maestra Ivonne I just love Norah’s teachers. I think it was pretty generous of them to come spend time with their students on a Saturday. Benjamin, Aileen, Hope, Oceano, Sloan, David, Norah, Ivonne, Nicolassa (Hope’s sister), Felix

Bryan Turns 30!!

I really wanted to do something special for Bryan’s 30th but it just seemed impractical to throw a big party and he wasn’t that excited about dinner and a movie. He suggested we just celebrate both of our birthdays by splurging on something fun when we go to Colorado in March. We were going to meet him for lunch downtown on the 11th  (we had to reschedule for tomorrow) but other than that we hadn’t planned anything. My day was going pretty smoothly on Feb 10th so I decided to surprise Bryan by inviting our good friends, Christian and Brooke, over for dinner and cake. Bryan is such a social person – there is nothing he enjoys more than time with friends.

I happened to have all the ingredients on hand for a German chocolate cake and if I say so myself, it was fantastic. Frederick, Norah, Oliver and Alice at the kid table. We had French dip sandwiches but we just gave the kids the meat and bread separately. Norah made her’s into a sandwich anyway and announced it to all of us as though she’d made a clever innovation.Norah and Alice couldn’t resist helping Bryan blow out the not quite 30 candles I had on handNow that Bryan is 30 I sort of feel like I’m 30 too. We spent 9 years of our 20s together and it has been wonderful. I hope our 30s have just as much adventure and excitement. Many happy returns Bryan!!

Zooday

We go to the zoo so often with friends that I rarely bring my camera. If I’m being truly honest, I brought it on this particular zooday because the girls had new dresses (compliments of Mimi) and I thought they looked really cute in them.

L to R: Brooke, Erin(with Wayne), Henry, Oliver, Frederick, Alice, Norah We were very excited to catch both Kolas awake and active! This one looked right at me and winked – I swear!! Alice, Frederick, Norah and Henry We spent a long time in the Children’s area of the zoo and played on the playground and petted the goats. It warmed up by late morning – definitely one of the nicest days we had in January. We truly walked all over the zoo – from the Koalas to the Wilds of Africa where this Jeep is!

Grandpa Dean visits Dallas / Big News

Just before Thanksgiving I found out I was pregnant (due July 24th). I had been feeling sick for about a week but I thought it was because I was stressed about a talk I was giving for the Management Society. When that came and went and I still felt sick I thought I might be stressed about Thanksgiving and Alice’s birthday – and also stressed about that the fact that I was so stressed it was causing nausea. I mentioned it to a friend who joked that I was probably just pregnant. That quip spooked me enough to take a test and I was very surprised and excited to find out that I was in fact expecting. My morning sickness has been more severe this time around and when I complained to my parents my dad offered to come out for a week to help (my mom couldn’t come because of a scheduled scan). It was a huge help to have him here and just knowing help was coming made me feel a bit better. He made the kids and me breakfast everyday and cleaned the house and really just did everything. He allowed Bryan to concentrate on work during a busy time without feeling like he was neglecting us and kept the kids out and about.

While he was here we took the girls to see Santa at the mall. Their cute smocked candy cane dresses were made by our old neighbor Paula. I really wanted to get a good picture of them to give Paula but Alice wanted nothing to do with Santa. Santa offered her a cookie and she crept over to get it but pretty much as soon as she had it she walked away. Oh well, the photographer got a good one of Norah which is hard enough as it is. Grandpa Dean got to witness Norah’s obsession with Christmas carols. We spent a lot of time listening to the Pandora Christmas station and Norah singing along. She’s learned most of the words to most Christmas carols.We also went to the Children’s garden a few times When my dad left on Dec.17th I only had to get through a week before Bryan was off for Christmas. His visit really broke up the weeks of feeling sick and made it seem more manageable. Thanks for all the help Dad!

Garden Cafe

We met up with some friends for a delicious lunch at the Garden Cafe in Lakewood. It was a breezy, but sunny and warm winter day and I’m glad we took the opportunity to be outside. We didn’t as many nice days in January as we did last year.Benjamin and Norah played at the park across the street together before and after lunch