Who's the Smarty Now?

Our cell provider recently scored something of coup in the tech world. They now offer a certain phone that was previously available exclusively through a different provider. If you're in touch with technology (or if you watch commercials) at all, you now know exactly who provides our cell service and which phone we recently upgraded to (thanks to the fact that we'd been eligible for an upgrade since last Sept and had been holding out for The Big News).

This is my first experience with a smart phone. Apparently all of my other phones have been dumb. I have to say I'm enjoying it! Not only is my phone a phone, it's a music player, a camera, a mini internet capable computer, and now a mobile blogging device! Yes, apparently there's even an app for that.
The last two posts I did before this one were from my phone. I'm hoping this makes me a more consistent blogger, but I suppose only time will tell.
Anyway, now that I've officially joined the 21st century (and only a decade late!), I finally see what all the fuss is about. My purse is so much lighter now that everything is consolidated on my phone! That was the whole point of all these scientific advances, right? Less back pain and the ability to check my email from anywhere. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that was the point.

Baby Smile!

Penny started smiling on purpose two or three weeks ago. That's pretty early. I think it's even earlier than Norah. If smiling early is any indication of how social she'll be, we're in big trouble!

A Princess

She told me she wanted to wear her tutu so she could "be a princess". I'm glad she's the kind of princess who builds towers instead of needing to be rescued from them.

Coordinated

I must admit, now that I have two girls I'm really looking forward to the coordinating outfits. They don't have to match, they just have to go. Ya know?

Here's a picture of the first ones! This was completely by accident but when I noticed that they both had pink tops and black pants I had to get a picture. They came out just as blurry as one might expect a photo of a toddler and baby in low light might come out...

Say That Three Times Fast

Norah has a new favorite show. It's a PBS educational show about a world where each object is made of that letters that spell its name. It's a little hard to describe, but here's a picture of the dog.

See? Pretty clever eh? Anyway, the show is really well done. It's beautifully designed (can't really say drawn since it's CG) and incredibly educational. My mom, the 30 year veteran teacher says it's great for pre-readers. Not only is Norah learning to spell simple words, she's picking up on lots of reading concepts already. Not bad for a half hour show!

I'm sure that many, many experts were consulted in the creation of this show. I suspect, however, that there was one type of expert left out of the development process. I have several friends who are Speech and Language Pathology (SLP) specialists. I think they'll all agree with me that none of them were consulted when the creators decided to name the program...

Word World

Now I'm no expert, but I do know that "W" "R" and "L" and three very difficult sounds for many young children to make. Imagine my expressive, little two-year-old getting slightly overexcited and exclaiming that she wants to watch Word World. She's been working really hard on enunciating lately, so she usually repeats different versions of the title four or five times trying to get it right.

Sure, I can understand her. I live with her. But I'm sure when she tells her Sunday School teacher about her new favorite show, her teacher might be a little confused as to why we let her watch the Home Improvement Channel (Wood Weld) or the Travel Channel (Road Wild).

In any case, yesterday she learned that if you want to make more of something, you add and "s" to the end. If only it were that easy to replicate pies in real life...

Winter Vacation Zoo!

As mentioned earlier, it warmed up on Friday and we went to the zoo. Here are the pictures to prove it!


The first picture of Norah at the zoo. Ever. It contains no animals and you can't see her face. Awesome.


Can you spot the lions laying in the grass?


Norah did! (Just past the tree and in front of the rock.)


The baboon was right up against the glass.


Norah offered him a high-five.


Flamingos! And yes. My child wore a leash to the zoo. It helped.


Norah's favorite part was the exhibit where we could go right into the monkey enclosure with them. She got to see them right up close. There were no fences. See why the leash helped?


She was slightly disappointed that none of them talked to her as she'd hoped they would.


After a visit to the petting zoo, we headed back to the car to find some lunch.

The only low point for Norah was that she couldn't get into the cages with any animals. She was convinced that the giraffes and zebras would love to meet her.

Winter Vacation Weather

My parents decided to book a timeshare in late January that was within driving distance from Durango so that we could come along. They're awesome like that. They decided on Phoenix because it would be a great place to get away from the cold for a week. Unfortunately, Phoenix didn't get the memo. The trip started out warm enough (mid 60's or so) but by Wednesday it was in the 30's with 25 mile per hour winds. I don't feel like 30's is super cold, but seeing as I only brought a fleece, the high wind made it pretty much unbearable.

By Friday it was back in the 50's and we were able to take Norah to the zoo (more on that later). Apparently these two girls didn't think 50's was warm enough to venture out without their down.


Yes. Those are knee length down parkas in 50 degree weather. Don't you love it!?! I pretended to take a picture of the jeep in the background and stealthily caught this image. Totally worth it!