Oink

Norah might have.... wait for it, wait for it...

Dun, dun, dun.....

Swine flu.

She has had a crazy high fever (103 to 104 unmedicated, and 100 to 101 medicated), and so we took her back to the doctor tonight. This is their logic: she has no other sign of infection so it must be viral, if it is viral and lasts longer than 48 hours it is probably the flu, if it is the flu right now, it is probably H1N1. They don't even test for it. There's not a damn thing they do for it. Some pandemic.

Other than the fever and a slightly red throat her symptoms include: enough green snot to fill a swimming pool, a refusal to eat anything other than popsicles and vanilla milkshakes, demanding to wear her pj's and watch Sesame Street all day, and screaming for 4.5 hours directly into my ear (starting at 2 am).

All kidding aside, it is really tough to see my sweet kiddo feel so crappy. Her lungs and chest are completely clear, so just cross your fingers that this is some freak viral thing that will leave quietly without infecting BVZ or myself (although considering the fact that she shoves her hand in my mouth 73 times a day, cross-contamination is likely).

BVZ and I have been tag-teaming staying home from work. When he was home this morning they mopped the kitchen floor (there was an unfortunate puking incident this morning) and did laundry. When I was home this afternoon, she watched Sesame Street with her friends.

Those are her favorite pj's. Or should I say, they are BVZ's favorite pj's. I got them at a used clothing sale for a dollar and they are like 3 sizes too big. That doesn't stop him from putting her in them every chance he gets. There is like 6 inches of leg room not being used. This morning Norah was trying to carry my work bag and was dismayed to find that it was way too heavy for her. I kept telling her to leave it alone, but she didn't listen and soon enough she was trapped by my work load and BVZ's questionable dressing skills. Ironic, doncha think?

Sicky McSickerson

Norah Bear is sick. She has had a moderately high fever for two days now with a gross snotty nose. She took five naps today and only ate pumpkin ice cream. We took her to urgent care last night and she doesn't have an ear infection, sores in her throat, or fluid in her lungs (all good things). According to our $20 co-pay, "it's probably just viral." She screamed her head off for most of the night last night but is currently sleeping. I can tell she feels like crap and has about 10% of her usual Norah energy. She didn't want to drink anything earlier tonight, so I pretended that her bear stole her sippy cup and was drinking all of her milk. She thought that was hilarious, so at least she hasn't lost her sense of humor.

This is Norah at pediatric urgent care last night, when she discovered that there was a tv that played some kind of kid's movie. She loved it. Isn't her hat fabulous?

Monday Evening

Norah has known basic body parts for months now, and I imagine she is sick to death of me quizzing her on them. I think next week we'll move on to harder ones like ring finger. And appendix.



I know, I know, I said I wasn't posting for a while. But I was up late working anyway and she's soooooo cute. Right?

Monday was a day of a lot of firsts:

• First time Norah came home from Ruby's house without any left over food (all of a sudden she's decided to eat like a teenage boy).
• First time she said 'Achoo!' when I sneezed.
• First time she tried to give her bear a bath.
• First time she signed 'thank you' unsolicited (usually I have to say, 'say thank you').
• First time she washed her own face in the bath.
  
• First time she tooted so loud after dinner that she scared the cat.

ETA: Sorry for the terrible film quality. I tried to compress the file so that it wouldn't take 3 weeks to load, but clearly I sacrificed quality.

Soccer

BVZ is really into teaching Norah how to play soccer. As evidenced from the video below, it is going to be a long road.

How She Rolls

Mornings at the GVZ house are a bit challenging. I have to: get myself ready for work, feed Norah breakfast, make her lunch for the day, get her dressed, clean up the kitchen, read 9,456 books, and hold Norah up while she turns the light switch in the hallway on and off 3,456 times. BVZ has to get himself ready for work and feed the cat. Norah helps out a ton by putting on her own hat and walking around the house collecting crap in her cart.

As a funny aside, we went out for pasta last night and the entire time at dinner there was a cute little boy (probably about three) across the restaurant who waved and smiled and made googly eyes at Norah the entire time. She was so not interested because there were kalamata olives on the table and all her attention was focused on sucking them down. We made the tragic mistake of giving her a bit of cannoli for dessert and that little bit of sugar sent her into outer space (in a good, hilarious way). I paid the bill while BVZ took her outside to tear up and down the sidewalk. We let her run down the block one way and as we walked back the other we ran into the family with the little boy. He had two older sisters who teased and taunted him and said 'ooooh, Sammy, there she is... you better kiss her... oooooh, Sammy' while poor Sammy looked humiliated. The dad said, 'your little girl is so cute, we've been calling her Sammy's girlfriend all dinner, hope that was okay.' HA. Norah wanted NOTHING to do with Sammy. Instead she wanted to collect rocks. She's a heart breaker, that one.

As a not so funny aside, work is insane for the next few weeks, so don't expect any updates until December. Bah Humbug.

This is what....

...the end of a successful playdate looks like (for the record she isn't sleeping, she's just 'resting').

Flashback

Last Halloween. Ha.

Halloween Part III

We had an excellent Halloween. Every year we get a few more decorations for the yard--hopefully in 5 years or so we will have a full graveyard. The pictures when it got dark didn't turn out very well, so you'll have to settle for the (non-scary) daylight ones. We also had a smoke machine (ha!) and scary music playing.

This was my favorite purchase of the year. This is the scary lady in the pear tree. When you touch her face, her eyes light up and she screams. It was the biggest hit of the night. Norah loves her too. She's been up in the tree for a little over a week and every time Norah walks past she wants to kiss scary lady.

The zombie head and arm (and bones) light up and the heart he is holding glows and pulsates.


We have several neighbors who have become very fond of Norah, so we decided to let her 'trick or treat' to their houses. She was stoked to walk up and knock on the door.









She was even more stoked to get a piece of chocolate (and pretty pissed when I wouldn't let her eat it).

Norah can be a little shy around strangers sometimes, so I was shocked that as we walked up the block she proceeded to walk up to several more houses.

The neighborhood was completely decked out and we got a lot of good ideas for next year.





This is the haunted house that Grammy gave Norah last year. Each Halloween it will go in the front window.

Norah had dinner and got in her pj's and then helped BVZ hand out candy. I think that was her favorite part of the night.



She kept trying to escape to go out and be a part of the action.


Our city is very, very hilly and most parts are not conducive at all to trick or treaters. We live on the flat part though, and so we get all of the foot traffic (our street gets blocked off to traffic and everyone gets to walk in the street). Also, the house up and across the street from us does a very popular and very hard-core haunted house. People come from all over to experience it. BVZ and I left Grammy to man the candy bowl and we went over to check it out. We waited in line at least 20 minutes and it was the worst mistake I ever made. It was terrifying! It was a professional grade haunted house and really, really scary. By 9:00 pm, our street had been transformed into an old school block party. Hundreds of people hanging out with their kids, showing off their costumes and having a great time. We gave out just about 1,000 pieces of candy (2 to each kid), hung out with the neighbors, and really enjoyed a sense of community and commraderie.

Who would have thought it would only take some fake severed heads to bring us all together?

Halloween Part II

Our friends Suzy, Josh and Caroline threw a fabulous party on Saturday afternoon. Suzy works full time, has a 16 month old, and is 8 months pregnant. And look at the spread she put on!

Suzy is awesome (okay, Josh is too). They made shortbread scary lady fingers!



Adam's Ribs! Get it??

I didn't even get pictures of the gallstones (homemade pork and beef meatballs), peanut butter poo (spicy thai dip), or mummy English muffins.

BVZ wore a party shirt and a viking hat.

With the exception of a pumpkin, two pirates, and a skeleton, all the kids were different animals. Which was more adorable than I could handle. Getting them all in one frame for a picture was a virtual impossibility. But, it was fun to try.








It has been so much fun watching all of these amazing kiddos grow up over the months. We wish we saw more of them more often. Suzy and Josh! Have more parties!

Halloween Part I

Prepare yourself, for a lot of pictures.

Grammy came to California for Halloween and with her she brought an awesome ladybug costume for Norah. It was a little too big (and so at some points it looked like she had, ahem, some junk in the trunk), but it was beyond adorable. We picked Grammy up at the airport and met some of Norah's besties at a pumpkin patch. Here she is doing some modeling in front of the house before we left.

She was so not into the hood.








This might be one of my favorite Norah pictures of all times.


At the pumpkin patch we met up with Ava Butterfly,

Caleb Spider,

And Ruby Bee,

The girls were totally into the wagon. Caleb, however, was not.


He did walk alongside it though.





After they got out Norah decided she would pull the wagon around the patch.


And give out hugs.

Not only did Ruby Bee's costume have wings but she had a stinger. Norah kept grabbing it.



A pumpkin for Grammy,




Norah and Ruby were obsessed with this scary witch lady (a big rubber scary witch lady). They would run up to her, get scared, then laugh.

Remarkably, Caleb left his spider hood on.


Ava played in hay,

So did Norah,





A fun day with our favorite kiddos.