Cutie Patootie

I love, love, love this outfit. And Norah did most of the picking herself! What can I say? Sometimes she hits, sometimes she misses (see previous post).

All By Myself - Part 2

When Old Man Winter moves in, he brings along with him some undesirables. To name a few, there are perpetually runny noses, the constant fear of ending up feet-over-face on the sidewalk and the need to don gear better suited to the next space expedition for any outdoor activity. Norah likes to look on the bright side of things. Along with all of the undesirable side-effects of Winter, she's discovered a major positive... WINTER ACCESSORIES! She already knew "boots" and "hat" help to turn up the volume on any outfit. Now she's discovered the ultimate finishing touch. She calls them "gubs".

So, without further adieu, I give you the outfit she picked out for herself this Saturday.

Baby Talk

Hey Grandma! Thanks for the cute shirt. I picked out this whole outfit myself!

The shirt really brings the boots and leggings together, don't you think?

All By Myself

Guess who picked out her own outfit last Saturday. Apparently the color of the day was purple. She insisted on the way-too-small sun hat. The look just would not have been complete without it!

Birthday Weekend

My birthday always sneaks up on me. It's exactly two weeks after Halloween and about two weeks before Thanksgiving. It's just kind of a crazy time of year.

Originally we were planning on leaving Norah with my parents and getting out of town for the weekend. As it turned out my mom had a concert in Telluride (she sings with the Durango Choral Society). Last weekend we left Norah with my parents for the day and went to Farmington to do a little shopping. My work is having a fancy Christmas party which was a good enough excuse for a new dress for me! I got a really nice dress (two actually) and had a great day out with my man last weekend. It was about as good a time as one could possibly have in the thriving metropolis that is Farmington, NM.

It's a good thing that we didn't plan for this weekend. Mark is super sick and just can't seem to shake whatever it is that he's come down with. My mom's concert ended up being cancelled because we got our first good snow of the season. For those of you who don't live around here, the only way to get to Telluride is over a mountain pass (two actually) that makes people nervous when it's dry. Driving up there in snow would have been a bad idea. So they came up to visit us for a few hours yesterday. Here are my mom and Norah modeling their coordinating puffy vests.

So we spent all weekend ensconced in our lovely mountain chalet. We watched the snow fall, which Norah enjoyed very much. Mark made a fantastic dinner of grown up mac and cheese just like my favorite dish at Yardhouse. It had chicken, applewood smoked bacon, several types of cheese, crimini mushrooms and a crispy bread crust. It was AWESOME! We watched the first half of The Wizard of Oz before I put Norah down. She really paid attention to it! It seemed like just as she was about to lose interest they started singing again.

Norah isn't really old enough to choose a present for me yet, but she gave me the best one I could think of. On Friday evening I snapped this photo of the two of us. It was one of those where you just hold the camera in front of you and hope it comes out right. I was so excited, it's actually a good one of both of us!

Under Observation

We got some bouncy balls with little pictures of doggies in the for Norah's first birthday party. All the kids that came got to take one home. I'm sure their parents were just thrilled. Somehow we had two left at our house.

Fast forward three months: Norah, being the little scientist that she is, has just discovered the joys of comparing trajectory. By that I mean that she likes to take one ball in each hand and bounce them as hard as she can on the floor. Then she watches them both bounce away in different directions and gathers them up again. About every other time one of them ends up under or behind something, requiring the assistance of one of her lab assistants to retrieve it. That'd be me and Dad. Anyway, here are a few pictures I took of the experiments conducted Friday evening.

Oh assistant! Will you please help me find my other ball?

We have both balls, we are ready to begin...

Now I will simply raise my arms above my head like so annnnd.... (at that point I got out of the line of fire).

Hunting and gathering.

At one point it rolled down the stairs and I had to pass it back over the gate.

All in all our little scientist considered it a very successful experiment.

PS - The adorable shirt is another one from Mark's mom. When you ask where her doggy is she pats her tummy.

Vital Stats

I took Norah to the doctor for her check up yesterday. Here are the numbers:

Weight - 19 pounds (8th percentile)
Height - 30 inches (10th percentile)
Head - 47.2 centimeters (83rd percentile!)

The doctor's comment was, "Wow, that's like, a whole size bigger shirt just to get it over her head." Fortunately for me they have these things called snaps. :-)

Such a Girl

Norah's grandma sent some more super cute clothes from California this week. I couldn't wait to get some awesome new pictures taken! Then Mark and I went on a "date" to Farmington yesterday as an early birthday present to me. While we were there we found some boots that I just couldn't pass up, for Norah, of course.

Norah loves to wear new clothes. So for church this morning she was definitely wearing one of her new shirts. Then I showed her the new boots that I got her. All she could talk about for the rest of the morning was "Boots? Boots. Boots!" She was so jazzed when I put on the new outfit WITH the boots!

She was napping when we got home from church so I couldn't get a picture. Then after her nap her diaper leaked, so the original hot pink leggings that completed the ensemble are not featured (for obvious reasons). Still, all day long I would catch her playing or walking around the house looking down, tugging on her cute new shirt and whispering to herself, "Boots. Boots. Boots!"

What's in a name?

Norah has know for quite some time that different people are called by different names. She's had the names of immediate family down for several months. Now she's started calling other kids by their names as well.

Last Monday we were meeting with our bible study group. Norah always looks forward to seeing Ellie (the little lion in the last post). Ellie's dad got there but she and her mom weren't there yet. When her dad went out front to get them, he closed the front door hard enough that it got Norah's attention. She took off in a baby-sprint for the door yelling, "Eh-yeeee!" She's also taken to calling the newest member of our group, Jasmine, "Bebe Jammin". We moms agree that this is pretty hilarious.

It's a Jungle Out There!

Norah was an elephant for halloween. Our good friend's daughter Ellie was a lion. I think the adorableness of the photos will speak for themselves.

Meeting Baby Jasmine

Just a year ago there were three couples in our small group (there were five, but two moved away). As of just a couple of days ago, all three couples now have baby girls! Norah was born in August, Ellie was born in December and Jasmine was born just last week. For those of you keeping score, that means that the girls in our group officially outnumber the boys by 100%! On Saturday we took Norah over to meet her newest friend, Jasmine. (We also took some fun costume pictures with Ellie. More on that in the next post.)

This is the first time she saw Jasmine. She was very quiet and gentle looking over the side of the bassinet. That actually surprised me a little, since she's usually so, um, animated. Once she saw Jasmine napping in there she kept pointing and saying, "Bebe Jammin night night." So apparently she got the basic concept.

We hung out for a little while (and took some good halloween pictures). When it was time for Jasmine to wake up for dinner, the big girls got a chance to see her up close.

Then, of course, it was time for a group picture with all the girls!