Christmas 2009

We had a full house this Christmas. There was a ton of love and we had a ton of fun. Grammy and Aunt Kristin flew in on the 23rd, and then Grandma and Aunt Vanessa got here on Christmas Eve. Everyone brought their holiday 'A' game, especially Aunt V who brought a crackling yule log (a DVD that is a continual loop of a lovely fire accompanied by Christmas carols).

Here is Grammy relaxing by the fire:

Grammy and Kristin brought Norah 'Merry Moose' (ie, a stuffed reindeer).




We made a traditional Texas Christmas Eve dinner of chili and tamales. Grammy is showing off the industrial sized bag of tortilla chips (thanks, Costco).

We got a Norah sized tree this year. The flash washed out the effect of the lights, but it was really very lovely.

The loot.

The cooks.

We had a great dinner. Megan, Pam, Ruby, and Caitlin (Ruby's aunt) joined us and Norah and Ruby entertained everyone by dancing to the dinosaur song. Things got a little hectic, so I didn't manage to take a single picture while they were here. Halfway through Norah ditched her Christmas dress in lieu of her leisure suit.

Norah and I made cookies for Santa (low sugar, of course--that dude could stand to lose a few).

Norah got a bath and into her special Christmas jammies.

I tried to get her to load up Santa's plate with some cookies.

She attempted to walk them over to the fireplace and someone got this amazing picture right before she dumped them on the floor.

There are many, many pictures of her eating the cookies, putting them back on the plate, picking them up to eat again, putting them back down, etc. etc. But they are all totally cute.









Notice how the damn cat has shredded our poor chair.

Reindeer for feet.

The dinosaur dance. Again.





Christmas morning was spent enjoying Norah enjoy her new chair, play kitchen, and the many amazing gifts from her Grandmas and Aunties. Video to come later, including one of Norah playing with the soccer set she got from her dad.





We took a break to go to the park and then resumed the fun.



Grandma gave BVZ a bobble head doll of Andy Sipowicz from NYPD Blue (don't ask). Every time Norah saw it she pointed and said 'dad'. Note how bald the bobble head is....


VZ family picture.

I didn't manage to get a G family picture with my camera, but here's a cute one of 3 of them.

My holiday girl. So not a baby anymore. I am not sure how I feel about that.

Santa FAIL (Part Two)

I know it is January 3 and everyone is totally over Christmas posts, but I am behind and have all of these cute pictures, so.... here we go.

A few days before Christmas, Aileen arranged to have Santa Claus visit her house. Since Norah and most of her friends seemed to be terrified of mall Santas, we figured this would be a good way to gently ease them into the concept and get cute pictures in the comfort of a familiar place. While we waited for Santa to arrive, Norah tried to make out with Caleb on the couch.

As you can see, he is clearly interested.

Santa arrived and pretty much all hell broke loose. I have a funny video of it that I will try and post later. The kids (with one exception) were so not into Santa. It probably didn't help that Santa was maybe 17 years old and clearly did not have much experience with babies. He admitted that most of the houses he visited had grade school kids, so for all intents and purposes, he did great.

Ava wanted no part of it, but Ruby was totally down with playing ball with Santa.

I can only imagine she is saying here, 'hey dummies! He has candy!'


Caleb wouldn't go near him, even to be next to his mom.


Norah remained plastered to the window the entire time Santa was there.


In an attempt to get a group shot, we let the kids have their candy canes, figuring it would be no big deal since they had wrappers on them. Within about 2 minutes both Ruby and Norah had the wrappers off and had commenced choking themselves, so they were confiscated.


Thanks, Aileen and Caleb for a fun day. Maybe next year the kids will actually enjoy it!

Santa FAIL (Part One)

Every year our local fire department has a holiday event where they open the station up to kids, bring in a Santa, and collect toys for Toys for Tots. Norah loves fire trucks and we support Toys for Tots every year, so heading over seemed to be a no brainer.

She was really into the truck and kept trying to pull down the hose.

They had the kids line up to first get in the truck and then to see Santa. This is how she felt about waiting in line:


Like the festive outfit?


She was totally into the truck, but was totally not into climbing in it by herself and having the door shut.


She was very taken by the Christmas tree, but was not excited to see Santa one bit.

In fact, she was having no part of going anywhere near Santa. She didn't cry (she isn't a big crier, really, unless it is 3:00 am), but she wrapped those little arms around BVZ's neck for dear life and wouldn't let go. She wouldn't even LOOK at Santa.

She didn't let up until we took her to another room (and let her have a bite of a mini powdered donut), and Santa was out of sight.


I don't blame her, really. Santa IS pretty creepy looking, and I am relieved she doesn't willingly go to strange men offering candy.

Thanksgiving 2009

This is literally the only picture I took. At least Norah is wearing a cute dress.

Fatty Pants

Good news. Norah is so fat that I had to loosen the straps on her high chair this morning. I don't know exactly how much she weighs because my friends made me put the infant scale away (thanks, guys), and I have banned grown-up scales from the house, but she definitely feels heavier and has a nice layer of chub on her cute legs. I attribute the fattening to 1) her freaking molars finally coming in, and 2) her sophisticated tastes (mac and cheese and scrambled eggs be damned, this kid demands gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce and asparagus risotto--thank goodness for Trader Joe's).

In other good news, BVZ's sciatica is improved enough that he has been able to start working out again. Norah destroys her playroom while he does the elliptical machine and then he drinks water while she jams all the buttons on his ipod.

Wedding Shoes and Dinosaurs

I had a hard time finding appropriate shoes for my wedding. My dress was an off-ivory color and I am cheap, so I refused to spend much on a pair of shoes I knew I would only wear once. So, I was pretty limited in my options. I finally settled on a pair that met my criteria, but they were so uncomfortable that I took them off 15 seconds after the ceremony and wore sparkly flip flops the rest of the time. See:

Don't we look relaxed! And thin! And BVZ has way more hair!

Anyway, a few days ago Norah found my wedding shoes in the back of my closet and has been wearing them around. I got this video of her trying them on, but there are two unexpected bonuses: 1) she throws a fit when I take them away, and 2) she does her dinosaur routine. (A friend gave us a DVD of the Laurie Berkner band and Norah and Ruby love to act out the song like the kids in the video. The DVD came with a CD, and it gets a lot of play around dinnertime. A lot of marching is involved. Pay close attention to 'we stop and eat our food' and 'we stop and take a rest.' Oh, and don't miss the roar at the end. It's the best part).

Playing Catch Up

I am not sure where to start. The past month or so has been, well. Hectic. I was a big part of a big project at work, which required logging many, many hours at the office. But I am happy to say that it is done, it is awesome, and if the universe works the way it should, it just may save someone's life.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Grandpa VZ but I don't have a single picture to show for it. That's because I was insanely busy and Norah was insanely sick. She ended up not having H1N1, thank goodness, but an acute case of roseola. This was a diagnosis based on the mad skillz of Dr. Google and Grammy, who flew out from Texas at the last minute to help out (ie, save our asses). I am currently in negotiations to get our $40 worth of co-pays back from urgent care, who never even suggested that the second most common childhood illness might be the cause of her high fever.

Anyway. Lots of other stuff happened in the interim and Norah learned all kinds of new words, including but not limited to: zebra, water, cold, light, goat, and cocococococo (rooster). She also spoke her first sentences: 'I see wet' (when spilling my giant cup of water across the rug) and 'Mom eye' (when jabbing her sticky finger into my right eye).

Aunt Amy was here this past weekend, and again I didn't take a single picture. Aunt Amy did, though, and so as soon as she shares I will post the best ones. We had fun adventures at such landmarks as the California Academy of Arts and Sciences and Trader Joe's. Aunt Amy brought a suitcase full of dress up clothes from cousin Megan, and Norah experienced for the first time the pure joy of a tiara, high heels, and a feather boa.

Here are a handful of cute pictures from the last month or so (taken with my phone, so not the best quality--but you get the idea):

Norah is petite enough that I can still use her 9 month dresses as shirts.

She and Ruby are always stoked to see each other and share a hug and a kiss. We think Ruby is saying 'NaNaNaNa' and Norah says something that sounds like 'Ewee, Ewee' which I think is Ruby.


Norah got to wear wings for the first time at her friend Ava's house.

Norah has started to express a preference for certain clothes, so one morning I let her go wild and choose her own outfit. She picked out red sweat pants and her glow in the dark pirate shirt. I topped it off with her awesome strawberry hat (courtesy of Pam), and I thought she couldn't possibly get any cuter.

But then she started dusting. FINALLY earning her keep!

Norah's Christmas presents are in boxes in the living room. All she knows is that there are some cool boxes, perfect for climbing. I have a feeling this will be the last year we can pull this off.

This was in Aunt Amy's bag of tricks from Texas. After she finished with this outfit, we read from the Feminine Mystique.

She is obsessed (and I mean REALLY obsessed) with wearing adult shoes. During playdates, she puts on my friends' shoes and is constantly raiding my closet. Today she was walking around in my highest pair of heels and kissing herself in the mirror. If the child wasn't also obsessed with dinosaurs and garbage trucks, I would be worried.

I hope we'll be back in regular posting mode soon!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

It is 10:00 pm on a Saturday night and I am at work. In fact, with few exceptions, I have been at work for approximately 14 to 16 hours a day for the past 2 weeks (don't worry, I am doing something really important). Even so, it has been really difficult to be away from Norah so much, and I realized tonight when I was looking at pictures of her on my phone, that a snap I took this morning is the only one I have taken in weeks.

I am head over heels in love with this cute kid and that sweater (that I got for $1). More soon, I promise.