Okay, A Few More

I couldn't help myself....

Supermodel Documentary Hour*

The week after Norah turned one we had a photo shoot with the same amazing photographer that took her picture last November. We were thrilled with the result. This is just a small sampling of the shots we got because each one took like 15 damn minutes to load and I got tired of waiting. Enjoy...




Look, it's Grams! Megan and Trevor call Lynn Grammy and so that's how we had been referring to her when she spent July with Norah. But, one day I came home from work and she said that Norah was going to call her Grams instead. Works for me.








I was a little appalled by how much baby weight I still need to lose and BVZ was a little appalled by how bald he is. He said that someday Norah will look back on these photos and say, 'Hey! That's when dad used to have hair!"





I will post the rest of them when I have 12 hours to kill.

Here is a shot from 5 months and one from 12 months on the same blanket. Totally different kid. Why didn't anyone ever tell me how much she looked like Mr. T?



*title reference to Molly Shannon's 'Superstar', aka, the most awesome movie ever made.

Fourteen Months

Norah is 14 months today. I need the time to slow down. Here are some of her highlights:

• Pulling crap out of containers and then putting said crap in other containers is her favorite hobby. For example, she discovered that paper plates are kept in the bottom drawer of the sideboard. She dragged a laundry basket from the other room and proceeded to fill it with the paper plates. Then she turned around and moved all the plates from the basket to the drawer. And so on.
• She rocks playing with blocks.
• Her favorite place to poop is in the tub. Seriously. What the hell is this about? She'll be playing with her boat and duck and then all of a sudden a log floats by. It is SO gross. BVZ says it is just because she is totally relaxed in the bath and I shouldn't stress her out about it. Easy for him to say, every time she's done it he has been at work.
• Speaking of the tub, she spends the first 10 minutes splashing in the water coming out of the faucet (and trying to drink it), and then when I turn it off she yells at me for a few seconds and then turns her attention to her boat. She painstakingly chases all her bath animals around the tub and puts them all in her boat. As soon as she's got them all in there, I create a tidal wave and dump them all out. She pretends to be pissed, but she loves it.
• She doesn't love whole milk, but she's not spitting it out anymore. Her tray has a little indented spot in the corner for a cup, and she INSISTS that her milk cup be kept in its place the entire meal. At first I was worried she was being a little OCD about it, but then I realized that she uses it to hide food she doesn't want. Seriously, she puts all her unwanted food in the indented spot and then puts her cup on top of it so I can't see it. She's a wily one. We spent a lot of time working on not throwing food on the floor, so I can't be too mad she found another way.
• She no longer will let me feed her oatmeal in the morning. She still likes oatmeal, she just wants to feed herself. As a result, every morning she gets an oatmeal facial and hair treatment.
• She is sleeping through the night. As in 7 pm to 7 am. This deserves its own post, which I will do as soon as I am certain it isn't just a fluke.
• She finally has a lovey. It is a blanket with a furry side, a soft side, and sateen tags all around the edge. We call it Mr. Night Night. In her crib at night she has Mr. Night Night, a sippy cup of water, her yellow blanket, Beatrice the Bunny, Monkey the Monkey, Norm the Bear, and Prudence the Monkey-Owl.
• She has a fun picture book and she can point to: baby, dog, cat, balloon, ball, cheese, cookies, and milk.
  
• She's napping in the crib. Hell has most likely frozen over.
  
• She doesn't walk like a baby anymore, she walks like a kid. And runs.
  
• She is obsessed with the park. She is into the swing, but it is the slide that really rocks her world.
• She really loves the library. We haven't gone to the story hour yet because it conflicts with nap time, but we go and sit in the children's section and read lots of books. We don't check out any books because I don't want her to eat them (for the library's sake, but also for her sake--I am sure they have been licked by a whole lot of kids). It is interesting to me that the books she picks to read while we are there are totally different than the ones we read at home. At home she mostly has board books and the picture books are reserved for special occasions. At the library all she wants are the big and shiny picture books. It makes me happy to think that she recognizes that there is something special about the library. I remember being a kid and thinking that the library was full of unbelieveable treasures. I mean, at home I had the Babysitter's Club series. At the library I had the Flowers in the Attic series. The library rules.
• She is having a great time with Pam and Ruby.
  
• It is much harder to take her places in the stroller because she wants to get out and walk. We were at the mall today and she walked the entire time, looking around and holding my hand. Everyone who saw her had a smile. Even better, no one thought she was a boy.
  
• She loves walking around the block in the evenings. Of course, it takes about 45 minutes to walk from our house to the end of the block. She loves touching flowers, sprinkler heads, the grass, and the little girl down the street named Isabel. She used to be afraid of our next door neighbor, but he gives her flowers everytime he sees her and lets her pet his dog. So, they're cool.
  

There are too many more awesome things to list, so I will leave you with some pictures I took today. I am so bad about taking pictures of her lately, but she moves so fast that I literally can't divert my attention for even a second.

Granny Share

When I went back to work in July, Grammy came down for a month to hang out with Norah. They had a fabulous time together. Unfortunately, Grammy had to go back to work, so we swapped her out for Aunt Kristin. Much to Norah's dismay, Auntie K had to get back to work and school so we're on our own again.

One of Norah's BFF's is Ruby. Ruby's mom is also going back to work. Lucky for Ruby, her Grandma Pam moved out to California from Ohio to take care of her while her mom is at work. The stars aligned in our favor and Pam is going to take care of Norah too. It is the ultimate in a nanny share--it's a Granny share! Norah and Pam spent last week together and got along famously. Starting on Tuesday Pam will have both Norah and Ruby together. I can only imagine the adventures they will have.

This is the double stroller we got for them. I think they were into it. Norah tried to hold Ruby's hand, but Ruby was having none of it.

Hopped Up On Goof-Balls

This afternoon Norah took an afternoon nap. For 2 hours and 15 minutes. IN HER CRIB. This has never, in the history of Norah GVZ, ever happened. We thought it was cause for a serious celebration so we walked up to Hola's for dinner. Norah polished off half an order of guacamole and a whole lot of rice and beans. I polished off a delicious pomegranate margarita. For some reason (I blame the margarita) I decided that after dinner we should get Norah a soft serve ice cream from Baskin Robbins next door.

Now, this is a kid who has never really had sugar. Sure, she's had licks and tastes of desserts here and there, but even her birthday cake used apples instead of sugar. Why I thought giving her ice cream an hour before bed would be a good idea is beyond me, but I thought she deserved a treat. To say that she loved it is a serious understatement. That kid grabbed her cone and RAN. All over Baskin Robbins. She wouldn't let me touch her cone and literally sucked it down. Once she got about a third of the way through it I thought she had eaten enough (I didn't want to later clean up soft serve puke), so I took it away from her. And we then had our first official toddler freak out.

Luckily the sugar high quickly kicked in and she forgot all about the cone in lieu of tearing up and down the sidewalk outside the ice cream shop. It was hilarious and words can't adequately describe just how adorable she was. The pictures are blurry because 1) they were taken with my phone, and 2) she really was moving that fast.

If I could ply her with ice cream every night I would (don't worry, I won't).

Perfect Saturday

This is the first Saturday in a while that BVZ hasn't had to work. Whether or not he goes into the office on the weekend makes a huge difference on my disposition (shocking, I know). Anyway, we spent a wonderful late morning at the park and had a picnic lunch. I have given up trying to feed Norah while she runs around, so now I bring her booster chair wherever we go. Here she is drinking some milk. Milk! She is drinking MILK! Perhaps I have failed to mention that Norah hates whole milk. Hates it. She hates milk like I hate BVZ working on the weekends. But, she's getting a little better. Here she is watching some dogs and so I took advantage of the fact that she was a little distracted.

I love it when she wears this hat. I want to just eat her up. She had a fabulous time on the swing and playing on the slide. We had to peel her off the slide kicking and screaming when it was time to go home. I don't blame her. It's a cool slide.

Zucchini

Norah carried around this zucchini for a good 20 minutes this evening. She chewed on it several times, even though it was clearly very bitter. Smart girl, my Norah.

The Blair Witch Project

Norah loves our little Flip video camera. Every time I try to film her she wrestles it away from me. I didn't realize until later that she figured out how to turn it off and on.

Fun With Blocks

I know every parent thinks their kid is a genius and I am certainly no exception. Norah can put the blocks on these pegs. All of them in like 30 seconds flat. Unfortunately she doesn't get very far when I am filming her doing it because she still, at a week away from 14 months, is obsessed with licking the video camera.

The Slide

Norah was all about climbing up the slide the wrong way. I attribute her success to 25% Norah agility, and 75% excellent tread on her shoes.

Day at the Park

Auntie K and I spent an awesome Saturday with Norah at Stafford Park. She had a great time watching dogs, kids, and a scary pirate performing at a birthday party.

She revealed her inner rock star as soon as the sunglasses came out.



She was a little timid on the play structure at first (it didn't help that it was sooo hot), but pretty soon she got the hang of it.




Once she got to the bottom of the slide all she wanted to do was climb up the wrong way (see video in the next post).





Auntie K got in some serious loves.





A great day.