Day at the Beach

Grammy has been working her ass off for us. Our house has never been so clean. You could eat off the kitchen floor. Which is a good thing because Norah does just that. Usually 7 or 8 times a day. As a small token of our thanks we took her to Half Moon Bay for a day at the ocean.

Half Moon Bay is one of my favorite all time places. It is just 20 minutes from our house, and we go there often. It is always a good 10 to 15 degrees cooler than where we are on the peninsula and it is my go-to place to beat the heat (I know you Texas and Arizona folks are unsympathetic to my complaints about the heat, but once it is 85 here we start complaining).

We left after breakfast to hike the coastal trail. Norah got the best seat in the house.

Grammy is cute and little.


The trail veers away from the coast about 2 miles in, so we turned it around and walked back on the beach.


I am trying to convince Grammy to let me sign her up for online dating, but she is reluctant (to say the least). I think this would be a perfect profile picture.

This was the second time we put Norah's feet in the water (the first was in Santa Barbara). She was very hesitant at first.

But warmed up.

And then she was really into it.





After our walk we took Grammy to Sam's Chowder House, which has an amazing view of the bay. Norah had a salmon burger and a big glass of milk (hallelujah!) and Grammy tasted the clam chowder. Big milestones for all.

Grammy and I took Norah for a walk on the outside deck at Sam's. She was obsessed with a big blue chair.







A little ways down we found a chair that was more her size.



I didn't get a picture of it, but Norah walked up to a little girl who was sitting in one of the little chairs. Although there was another little chair right next to the one the little girl was sitting in, Norah wanted the chair that was already occupied. The little girl's dad introduced her as Jane and suggested that Jane let Norah have her chair and just move to the other one. Jane refused. The dad explained that Jane was suffering from 'little brother syndrome' and was feeling a bit cramped by the new baby in her house (the mom was nearby with a newborn). I was totally on Jane's side--she was there first. That did not stop Norah, however, from attempting to climb in the chair WITH Jane. Jane was not pleased.

Every time Grammy is here we try and take her to the tide pools. If you can catch it right it is amazing. Thousands of sea cucumbers, starfish, oyster beds, and other scaly sea creatures nestled in the black rock. However, her visit never coincides with the low tide and so all she has ever seen is the ocean covering the marine life. Someday, Grammy. We promise.

The seals were all on the beach because of the high tide, so that was cool.

When we got home we all took a nap and then BVZ and I went to the movies for the first time in over a year. A Sunday matinee was $10.50 a ticket. Are you kidding me? When did that happen???

Grammy

Grammy is in town for the month taking care of Norah (I am back to work). They are thick as thieves and I am not sure how I will ever be able to separate them. Grammy insists on riding in the back seat of the car with Norah whenever we go anywhere (believe me, even the 'Driving Miss Daisy' references haven't deterred her), and they have very spirited conversations, usually at my expense. Here is an example:

Norah: Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! [This is Norah speak for 'dog']

Grammy: Oh, I know you LOVE dogs. Dogs are so great.

Norah: Dah! Blah, blah, blah, mama, blah.

Grammy: What? Oh no, that can't be. Please tell me you are kidding!

Norah: Hgeuiwr iougfioggfog. Dah. Dah. Quack, quack, weoiufjigofnhgoffh.

Grammy: Oh my precious Norie, that's just awful. I can't believe that even though you love dogs more than anything else in the entire world, THOSE people won't get you one. Just terrible!

Norah: Dah! Dah!

Grammy: Oh Norie, don't you worry. You have a mean old mom and dad, but Grammy loves you sooooo much and thinks you should have a dog of your very own.

Norah: Dah! Dah! Dah! Daaaaaaaaah!

Grammy: Norah Bear, you and me are going to start a petition and then we'll get lots of people to sign it and then they will HAVE to get you a dog!

Norah: Quack, quack, quack, quack!

Grammy: Dogs for everyone!

We are not dog people. We are barely cat people. Grammy, stop putting ideas into her very large (90% people) and impressionable head!

Jump Houses and Monkey Cake

Saturday we spent the day at Caleb's first birthday party. He is so cool that he has his own baby swing in the backyard.


He also has a water table (Norah is seen here with her friend Caroline).



And a jump house! Sadly, it is not a permanent fixture of the house, but just brought in for the festivities. Norah was actually pretty into the jump house. We put the babies in when the big kids were taking a break and she seemed to enjoy it.

The birthday boy and his parents (and a delicious banana monkey cake).

Happy birthday Caleb! Thanks for being one of our favorite friends.

A Girl and Her Car

Norah's great uncles bought her a push and ride car for her birthday. We had the choice of the primary color 'boy' car or the pink 'girl' car. It kills me that every single 'girl' choice on the market is pink. Pink, pink, pink, pink. Enough already! So, we got the boy car. Introducing Norm and her new car:

She loves the box. So does Loretta. They both have spent quite a bit of time chasing each other into it.

You might think such a simple car would come already put together in the box, but you would be wrong. You might also think that it would be easy to put together. Again, wrong. You might think that two people with advanced degrees would be able to put it together without almost killing each other. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The Christmas Norah gets a bike we are screwed.

Ta-da!


We let her take it outside for its maiden voyage. To say that she is obsessed with the car in a major understatement. Not only does she push it to the door to ask to be let outside, but she pushes it around the house. All.day.long.



She got a little freaked out by her shadow.

About 3/4th of the way around the block she pooped out so Grammy took pity on her and pushed her the rest of the way home.

Birthday present win!

Holiday Weekend

We had an action packed three day weekend. I almost need a three day weekend to recover from it.

On Friday we trekked across the bay to visit Uncles Dick and Alan and Kate. Kate made us a fabulous rooftop lunch and Norah had a fabulous time entertaining her great uncles.

Now, these guys are serious world travelers and they have a house full of 60 years of treasures. Of course, everything Norah laid her eyes on she wanted. This was her favorite. A gong (from Mongolia, maybe?) is literally a dream come true for a one year old.


Then Uncle Alan entranced her with a music box.

She left with some very special treasures. I have a feeling it won't be the last time.

On Saturday we had the good fortune of spending the day with our very favorite baby friends. We enjoyed fabulous food and excellent company and commiserated about how miserable we all were the last Fourth of July (three of us were freaking out with newborns and two others were misereably pregnant). The babies had an awesome time and managed to destroy the Stones' screen door in the process.

Ruby knows how to party.



The Baeks recently got back from a trip home to Sweden. Because they rule they brought each baby an awesome star romper. The babies all wore their patriotic rompers and we thought it would be easy and cute to get a picture of them all together.

Thank goodness other people were there to rescue my child while I took pictures....

I think this was the best picture of the lot.

And then they were off again.

Dessert was homemade peach ice cream. After I had given Norah a few bites I found out it had vodka in it. So, I gave her some more. The kid has got to sleep sometime, right? (I kid, I kid--it had like 2 tablespoons of vodka in the whole gigantic batch).

It was one of my favorite Fourth of July's in recent memory.

On Sunday we celebrated the one year birthday of one of Norah's fabulous friends, Caroline. Norah wore a festive dress for the occasion.

It is a handmade dress sewn by a mom in Kansas who tragically lost her 10 month old daughter to cancer. She sells the dresses on Etsy and each time she posts a lot of them they are sold out within minutes. I feel very honored to have been able to get one for our girl. The proceeds benefit a playground being built in honor of little Cora, who was taken from this world too soon. Every time I think of their story I am reminded yet again just how lucky we are.

Caroline lives in a fabulous house with an even more fabulous deck. Norah spent the majority of the party running around on the deck. We used to give her a bath every day as a part of her bedtime routine. We now give her a bath every day because she is filthy.

The birthday girl was far more interested in the plates than her cake. Which was criminal because her cake was a Carvel ice cream one.

This is Norah's, 'please tell me I am getting cake' face. She got a little.

One of the other parents hesitated to give their kid the cake because it was pretty chocolatey. I told her she had nothing to fear, as I had given Norah vodka ice cream the day before. This of course came out just as I was standing next to someone else with a video camera. I guess that rules out any hope I had of running for public office someday....

Franken-Norah

I would say that Norah is walking 70% of the time now. There are still many occasions when she finds it more appropriate to crawl (usually when she's pissed), but when she does walk she makes this great growling noise and looks like a monster. Lately she has also become obsessed with sticking out her tongue and figuring out what noises she can make with it. It involves a lot of licking of my face, which I am not a fan of.



P.S.--Grammy is in town because tomorrow, I.go.back.to.work. Barf.

Real Birthday

Norah's actual one year birthday was on Sunday. Just like the day she was born, it was hot. Unbearably hot. I hope this isn't a trend that continues every year because man, I can't take it. She started the morning by opening a few gifts. She's naked because it was SO HOT.



Around here I am in charge of getting the stuff that Norah needs, including but not limited to, food, diapers, clothes, toys, bath necessities.... the list goes on and on. BVZ is a great dad but I don't think he's ever actually purchased anything for her (unless of course he is sent to the store with specific instructions). I told him that I didn't want to be the kind of family where the mom always finds really special gifts for the kid and the dad just puts his name on the card, so he was in charge of getting her a birthday gift from HIM. I didn't want to know what he was getting her, so I was as surprised as she was when he busted out a little baby basketball hoop. It is very cool. I have very cute pictures of them playing with it but I am forbidden from posting them because he too doesn't have a shirt on (again, it was HOT). I don't think he's ever forgiven me for the elliptical pictures, so I have to watch it. I will get shots of everyone playing basketball fully clothed soon, I promise.

The cake was a big hit.






We had big plans to take her to the park, but our faces would have melted off like the bad guy at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, so we decided to find a place with air conditioning. As a result, the better part of Norah's first birthday was spent at Target. We walked around with icey Starbucks drinks and she got a cup of ice. She loved it.

Then we walked up the street to Hola's for dinner, but it was just as hot there as it was in our house. So, project Cool Off was a big fail on that front, but at least we made an important discovery--our girl LOVES refried beans.