Memorial Box Monday

Our pastor's wife and soon-to-be good friend (I can tell already) has a tradition of putting momentos of God's faithfulness in a memorial box. The box is displayed in their home and they tell friends and family the stories behind these little items. This is to remind them of the times the Lord has come through for them in amazing ways. I want to adopt this tradition for our family so that we always remember His faithfulness to us in big and small situations. When I get home (and find a good box for display) I think I'll put in the pen from my first day of training at my new job today. It's a bobble head pen with a little guy on to who looks like a troll doll. When you push on him he yells various forms of the phrase, "Thank you." I love this little guy! As I'm learning more about my new job and the company I'm working for I am more and more grateful. They truly seem like they want to take care of their people. The benefits are amazing! I took this job even though the pay won't cover our expenses (not even close). But as I've prayed about it I just keep hearing from the Lord that it isn't my job to do the math. It's my job to thank Him for what I have and be as good a steward of it as I can. Hopefully Mr. Bobble Head Troll Pen will remind me of that.

Away From Home

This will be short since I'm writing on my iPod and it's a little tough. I am away from home for the next nine days and missing my family already. Pray that I can stay focused on the job training I'm here for. Also pray for Mark as he tries his hand at single fatherhood.

One More Old Video

This one was taken on November 9th. She was just over three months old. This was the very first time she laughed. We just happened to have the camera handy. For several months after this video was taken, it was the most we ever heard her laugh at one time. Now she pretty much cracks herself up every day. :-) 

The thing that amazes me the most is how much she's grown. I know it happens fast, but I can't believe how much bigger and more grown up she's gotten since these were taken!

Old Video

I wasn't really blogging when we took this video. I decided it might be a good idea to put it up so that family and friends who haven't seen them can get their fix!

This is from the last day I was home with Norah before I went back to work full time. She was just a few days short of three months old. At the very end of this one, it sounds like she says, "Hi". I was SO excited that I got it!

Cutest. Socks. Ever.

The socks that Mark's mom bought her finally fit on her feet. I'm SO excited!! I couldn't get a picture of her smiling (probably because she was in The Chair of Torture), but this one is close. Not only are these socks totally adorable, she has a really hard time pulling them off. Bonus for Mom!

If you absolutely must have a pair of these socks for the little lady in your life (and who wouldn't?) the website is trumpette.com. They have a boy version in "golf shoes"!

PEEK! aboo

Norah learned to play peek-a-boo today. By "learned" I mean, she was covering her eyes on her own and I started yelling peek-a-boo every time she did it. It took about 5 minutes for her to figure out the cue. What can I say? She's a smarty pants. So smart, in fact, that she'll really only do peek-a-boo if the grown ups around her are making as big a fools of themselves as humanly possible. Hence, my annoyingly shrill voice in the video below. She prefers it if I yell the "peek" part as loudly and high pitched as possible. It comes out sounding like PEEK! aboo. So not only did she get to learn a new game that she loves, as a bonus she gets to make her whole family look crazy in the process. Smarty pants indeed.

A Trip to the Big City

For those of you who don't know, Durango can sometimes feel a bit remote. There's tons of stuff to do here, especially if you love the outdoors. There's world class skiing (At least I'm told there is. You won't catch me careening down a mountain at 4 billion miles per hour any time soon), there's AMAZING hiking, biking and all manner of river sports. 

As far as shopping goes... notsomuch. The locals are somewhat annoyed by this, but we deal with it because we LOOOOVVVE how it makes the tourists feel. The first week she moved here my mom was walking through the "mall" (seven stores and a Mrs. Fields) and overheard one lady say to another, "Is this there another mall in town somewhere?" Um, sadly no.

One of my favorite stories of tourist confusion occurred while I was pregnant. When you're pregnant, people believe that you're especially helpful and approachable. This seems to be more true the larger, moodier and more uncomfortable you are. That's a story for a different time. But anyway, I was in Wal-Mart late one evening. I was approximately 17 months pregnant and was purchasing some type of candy that I had been craving all day. I went to the self checkout for the express purpose of not talking to anyone about how enormous I was. The lady at the self checkout next to me looked extremely confused. The look on her face said something to the effect of, "I clearly do not belong in a Wal-Mart." I finished buying the now half empty bag of candy and turned to leave. As soon as she saw my uncomfortably round profile she smiled and said, "Excuse me. Could you tell me where the nearest Target is?" I did my darndest not to reveal my satisfaction in the answer I was about to give, smiled as sweetly as I possibly could and said, "The nearest Target is an hour away in the next state over." Then I tried my best to look apologetic and said, "Welcome to Durango." I walked out, finished off my bag of candy before I got to the car and thought, "That was possibly the most satisfying personal interaction I've had all week."

All that to say, we drove an hour away to the next state to go to Target today. We got a few items that we can't get at Wal-Mart and a few others that are, let's face it, just better at Target than they are at Wal-Mart. Mark also likes to pick up groceries at the Safeway out there since they have a few things there that we can't get at the grocery stores here. It was a good trip, a productive trip. Norah took a good long nap on the way there and on the way home. Thanks to the naps she was in a good mood pretty much all day. Not bad for a Saturday. We also got her a couple of cute little springtime dresses on sale at Target. More photos soon!

Cuties for My Cutie

Last night Mark made Orange Chicken. Can I just please say that my husband's cooking is AMAZING! I am so blessed to have a guy who enjoys his time in the kitchen. If it were up to me we'd live on Mac N Cheese and popcorn. 

He was inspired to make the Orange Chicken because we got some really good Cuties on sale the other day. We love it when Cuties go on sale. You know? Those tiny, sweet and tangy tangerines that come in the big ol' bags of 20 or so? They were on sale for $3.99 a bag. Anyway, he zested three or four Cuties for the Orange Chicken sauce. I grabbed one to eat since he was only using the zest for dinner. 

My curious little Norah Bear watched with great interest, as she tends to do any time I eat anything. So I decided to give her her first taste of tangerine. I bit off the end of one wedge and squished it a little so the juice would come out more easily. I gave her the squished end to suck on and held the other end. She LOVED IT!! I wish I'd gotten a picture of how her eyes bugged out when she got her first taste of juice. She sucked on the little wedges so hard that they kept slipping out of my hand. I was worried that she was going to suck it right down into a lung! AACK!! Then I remembered the little mesh pacifiers Mark's mom bought her for Christmas. They're specially designed for little kiddos who are ready for new tastes, but not quite ready to chew and swallow. She can "eat" to her little heart's content and I don't have to worry about her choking. I put a couple of wedges into the pacifier, locked it closed and let her have at it! She probably sucked the life out of an entire cutie total. Hooray for grandmas and good inventions! I think this weekend we might try grapes!

Here's a video of my Cutie with her first Cuties!

3-6 Months

That's the size of clothing my 7 month old is FINALLY growing into. I appreciate all the money she's saving me on clothes by growing so slowly, but her grandma has bought her some of the CUTEST stuff and it's still just a tiny bit too big. So I decided to put her in one of the slightly too big outfits from Grandma and another from a lady at our church. I figure she's not walking yet, so her long-ish pant legs can't trip her.

Here's the outfit from the lady at our church:

Standing up (sort of).

I love the look on her face here. 

And (drumroll please) one of several cute outfits from Grandma:

Waving "Hi Grandma!"

"I look pretty cute don't I?"

First "Cookie"

I think they technically call them teething biscuits, but whatever they are, Norah likes them! She only gets a couple of bites actually swallowed. They're really hard so that they don't break into little pieces she can choke on. The fun thing about that is they get all soggy and crumble off all over her. Observe the before:

Hummm, what are these things? Good thing I put everything in my mouth!

Yum! These are pretty good!

Waving a "Thanks Mom!"

And the after:

That was pretty tasty. I didn't get any on me did I?

Thanks again Mom!

Our Growing Girl

Norah has always been small for her age. Genetically speaking, that's probably all my fault. When we brought her in for her 6 month baby wellness check-up her stats were as follows:

• Weight - 13 lbs 6 oz 8th percentile
  
• Height - 25 inches 15th percentile
  
• Head size - 40 something centimeters 71st percentile
  

I give Mark all the credit for her big ol' head. Really, her noggin doesn't look that huge until you put her next to a larger baby. Then it becomes more obvious. I'm confident she'll grow into it though. 

Speaking of growing, that's what this post was supposed to be about! When Mark took her in for her ear the other day it had been less than 3 weeks since her last checkup. Imagine his surprise when they reported that she had gained almost an entire pound! She was 14 lbs 4 oz as of last Thursday. She's been eating like a little piglet so i wouldn't be surprised if she keep packing on the pounds.

Still, she's so pint sized that sometimes it's hard for me to see how much she's grown. The best way to measure is the way her clothes fit. That said, here are a couple of pictures of Norah's very first pair of jeans. She started wearing them when she was about 6 weeks old. Now at 6 months (almost 7) I think it's time they were retired from her wardrobe.

Six weeks old. Check out the cuffs, so stylin!

Four months old. These jeans fit just right. Don't you think, Uncle Matthew?

Today. Hey, are these things supposed to be capri pants?

So there you have it. Proof positive that she really IS growing. It's nice that she's on a slightly slower track than most kiddos. It sure helps her clothes last longer!