Here and There

Obviously I haven't lived with a lot of three-and-a-half year olds, but I think Norah has one of the best imaginations around. It's all about pirates and princesses and underwater kingdoms and buried treasure. In this picture she's a fairy private investigator. (See, she does pay attention to me).

She does this thing where she ties up stuffed animals to Lou's crib and sometimes his exersaucer. When I ask her what it's all about she will only tell me that they are being "trapped" and I shouldn't worry about it.

She's a big fan of the easel these days, which I love. I do not, however, love the gigantic mess she makes every time so we resort to n.a.k.e.d. art time (the last thing I need is someone getting to this blog who googles that particular phrase).

While Bear is still a big part of her every day life, he is actually getting left at home every once in a while. I am not sure if it's because she is just getting more comfortable in unknown situations or because she's afraid he's going to get lost. When Lou got a haircut several weeks ago, Norah accidentally left Bear at the salon. We got him back but there were some tears and tense moments and ever since then she's been more willing to let him "nap" when we leave the house.

Lou gives me a heart attack about 17 times a day. His new thing is climbing in the bathtub.

But he's pretty hard to resist.

This one isn't bad either.

He pretty much climbs everything. As in everything.

Nothing makes this dude happier than a stroller ride.

Norah's been really into accessories lately. Along with her Hello Kitty purse she is wearing three necklaces, a bracelet, and multiple sparkly rings.

Lately Norah has been Cinderella, I have been Druzilla, and this little cute guy has been Anastasia. He makes an excellent Anastasia.

Norah has been having some stomach issues these past couple of months. We saw her doctor a while ago and were taking a wait-and-see approach, but it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I took her back earlier this week and her doctor decided to do a full blood work up and ahem, stool analysis. Doc suspects she might have a gluten sensitivity (not a total intolerance), but really it could any number of food sensitivities.

She got a tremendous amount of blood taken and was very brave and calm until the phlebotomist was taking the needle OUT of her arm and then she decided it hurt and needed to cry very, very loudly. This wouldn't have been such a big deal except for the fact that she was sitting in my lap and so the loud crying was directly in my ear. Oh yes, and that I just so happened to have LOU with us as well. Since I had to sit in the lab chair with Norah in my lap, the nurse had to take Lou. She's a very nice nurse, but oh my. Did he have some serious stranger danger. I guess it was reassuring to know he is attached to me, but crying Norah on my lap and SCREAMING Louis in the hallway was a bit much.

After all of that I still had to collect her stool sample. Which basically meant catching her poop in a net and distributing it amongst five different containers. It was a science experiment with shit. Hopefully we'll get the results sometime next week and get some answers.

Despite the circumstances, she looked very fashionable.