Heard Around the House

Norah: "Mommy, letters!!"

Me: "Do you know what letters are?"

N: "Yes!"

M: "Can you tell me the name of a letter?"

N: "Yeah, ONE!"

M: "Well, one is a number... can you tell me the name of a letter?"

N: "Oh yeah, essssssssss"

M: "Good job."

Grandpa: "Norah, what shape are your cheerios?"

N: "Round."

G: "That's right. What shape is your basketball?"

N: "Orange!"

G: "Ok, what shape is your orange ball?"

N: (sly smile) "Oh yeah, round."

N: "Mommy, rocks yucky."

M: "Rocks are yucky?"

N: "Yeah, no put 'em in yer mouth."

M: "Ok, I'll try to remember that."

N: (earnestly) "Yeah."

N: "Mommy, Chewbacca big guy, fuzzy guy. Say 'Rwwwoooooaar!' Yoda little guy, green. Say 'OoooOOOH'

M: "Yup. I think you've pretty much got the whole story summed up."

More Biskipples

The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic is a nearly forty year tradition here in Durango. The fortieth race will be next year, actually. It started as a bet between two brothers - one who worked on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train and one who was a bicycle enthusiast. The two brothers "raced" their respective vehicles and, eventually, the brother on the bike won. Since 1972, more and more people have been celebrating the start of Summer and the first runs of the train by racing that old Iron Horse coal powered engine more than 50 miles up the mountain (from 6,500 feet elevation to almost 11,000). It's a grueling race. Our neighborhood is right on the course. We prefer to watch. :-)

One of our friends (actually several, but one in particular) was riding her first Iron Horse this year. Ashley told us what time she should pass by and we were there to cheer her on! Norah was actually really interested in the race. She yelled, "Good dob!" (good job) at all the riders going by. Our house is right before the first downhill on the course, so people seemed to appreciate the encouragement. We did get to see Ashley. She was doing an amazing job! Norah yelled and cheered and then sadly asked, "Were's Ashley?" I guess she didn't realize that she'd be riding PAST us, not TO us.

Anyway, here are some photos of the event:

A view of the course from the end of our street. See the teeny dots on the road? Those are the racers.

See them now? Literally chugging up the hill...

We walked down to the entrance of our neighborhood and then decided to cross the street so that we could be on the same side as the riders coming up. A lovely day for a bike race don't you think?

Even after about 20 miles of riding, most of the riders would come in packs of about 20 or so. This photo was taken between groups. Every time one group passed and another came up over the rise, Norah would exclaim, "More biskipples!!"

Then we saw Ashley. She's the second one in the picture above. See the shadow of Mark holding Norah and Norah waving at the bottom of the frame?

Waving...

Air high five!

Still smiling!

Off to the downhill portion!

So, as far as we could tell, Ashley's first race was a smashing success! We, the sideline cheerers, salute all of the crazies chugging up the hill to beat the train. As Norah would say, "Good Dob!"

Cheese!!

Norah went through a phase where she ran and hid every time the camera came out. Then, just the other night while I was giving her dinner and she suddenly started saying, "Cheese!!" As if someone was about to take her picture. So... Daddy obliged!

Flashback Friday

One year ago, my little girl looked like this:

Oh how the time flies.

This One Goes to Eleven

This story is way overdue, but oh well.

When we were in California (see? I told you it's overdue) we discovered that Norah can count. On the day of The Great Ladybug Hunt, Mark's mom asked her how many spots the ladybug had. Norah responded, "One, two, three!" Mark and I were shocked. We'd never counted anything with her, or even in her presence as far as we could remember. Frankly, it didn't even occur to us that she was ready.

Then the next day I was trying to keep her occupied on a drive. She was wearing pants with polka dots on them, so I said, "Let's count how many polka dots you have on your pants. One...Two...Three..." She interrupted, "Four..." I asked her what comes after four and she said, "Oh! Five, six, seben!" Long story short, with very little prodding (and no actual numerical help) she counted to ten!

She was twenty months at the time. Not that I'm bragging.

She still loves counting. She especially loves counting stairs as she's climbing them. A couple of weeks ago she did us one better and went all the way to eleven. That's right folks. This one goes to eleven.

Backpack

Last summer Norah was a little too small for this here contraption, but this year she fits juuuuust right! We went on a walk on Saturday to test it out and then took it to the Taste of Durango event on Sunday. I only got pictures of the test run. She stayed put for almost two hours walking Main for the Taste of Durango event, so I'd say it was a smashing success. At one point, she actually grabbed the side bars and said, "Giddy-up Grampy!!"

Of course, I took the picture right after she stopped smiling.

My Little Art Critic

Last Friday we went to a good friend's one-night-only art show. It was called "Bicycle". See if you can guess why.

Tess Jordan is an amazing artist. We've been fortunate to have a few of her paintings loaned to us while our house is on the market. Norah was quick to pick out the one that had been hanging in our room. I didn't get a photo of that one because there were people admiring it all evening. Anyway, here are a few photos of the evening. If you're interested in learning more about her art, e-mail her at tesscorrinne@gmail.com.

Norah the art critic. Mostly, she just pointed and said, "Biskipple!" Although she did declare some of them "Yucky dirty" and others "All clean" The girl knows what she likes.

Norah enjoying some art show refreshments. Tess made three amazing drinks (blackberry thyme, lavender lemonade and basil limeade) and two appetizers (green chile profiteroles & mini chocolate cupcakes). Norah chose the bowl of peanuts.

Discussing the finer points of bicycle painting with Uncle Bob.

Showing off her mad Ring-Around-the-Rosie skills.

The only photo I got of the artist at her show...

All in all, the show was a huge success. Norah is now obsessed with bicycles and points them out everywhere we go. Tess now has another show scheduled in town and we can't wait to see it!

Unstoppable

She's a girl on a mission.

A lady with a plan.

She's got important things to do.

And nothin's gonna stand in her way!

Shoppin'

With Grampy and Uncle Bob.

Fortunately, this little girl will have no shortage of big guys to hold her hand (and to tell little guys just how precious her hand is to hold).

In Our Neck of the Woods

This is what the first day of May looked like:

This is Norah enjoying the first day of May.

This is Norah finished enjoying the first day of May.

Can you imagine what life would be like if all door handles were set at 8 feet high? It'd be kinda like this, I guess.

Thankful Thursdays

This Thursday I'm thankful for girlfriends.

I'm thankful for the ones who send you a facebook message at just the right time to tell you they're praying for you. I'm thankful for the ones who guess what's going on without you having to spill the beans. I'm thankful for the ones who understand that sometimes the soonest you can manage to return a text message is three days later. I'm thankful for the ones who let you crash their date night and then insist on buying your dessert.

I'm thankful for the ones my daughter has. God willing, they're going to grow up together. Though they may not end up best friends, they're helping each other learn some pretty important lessons right now.

They encourage each other to achieve the improbable (like climbing into the big papasan all by themselves).

They're teaching each other how to be sweet, gentle and affectionate.

And they're learning that sometimes you just have to share your snacks.

Like it or not.

But they're discovering that usually, they like it!

I call this look...

"Blue Steel"

If you haven't seen Zoolander in a while. Watch it. This concludes our public service announcement for today.

Next Time Won't You?

As anyone who remembers the first time they drove all by themselves can tell you, the absolute best place to sing is the car. Sure, you sound amazing in the shower, but unless you have one of of those schmancy water proof radios it's pretty tough to crank it up like you can in the car.

Norah has learned this lesson earlier than a lot of people do. We don't even have to crank the music. She can come up with her own tunes. ABC's is her signature song. She actually sings it three times in the video, the last one is definitely the best. As a bonus, I only got a little carsick turning backwards to film it. :-)

PS - I wanted to capture her rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle" but I was operating a motor vehicle at the time. Anyway, it goes like this: "Twinkle twinkle. How I wonder. How are you?"

Green Thumbs & Corsages

Aaah California, how I miss its lush foliage. Not that I would ever be able to coax a plant to perform this way, no matter the environmental conditions. My mom and mother-in-law both have a talent for orchids. This is a talent that I did not inherit (not that I could have very well inherited it from my mother-in-law, but you know that I mean). Anyway, I just thought I'd share. An astounding three shoots of blooms off the same plant. You may be tempted to give some credit to the temperate climate and proximity to the beach but no. My m-i-l is just plain amazing!

The only person I knew who was better at orchids than my two moms was my maternal grandfather. He grew every species (and color) of orchid ever known in the little sunroom off his front porch. Every holiday he would make my grandmother, mother and I a special orchid corsage for church. The Easter ones were pretty big, so were the ones for Christmas. The biggest ones of all were the ones he made Mom and Grandma for Mother's Day. They were the ones that required TWO pins to keep them on.

He never got a chance to make me one for Mother's Day. We had already moved to Colorado when I got pregnant with Norah and he passed away just four months after she was born. Since I didn't inherit his green thumb, I'm pretty sure there won't be an orchid corsage in my baby girl's future (at least not one from me). But maybe he'll have one waiting for each of us, just on the other side of the Gate. I'm sure he's got a big one put together to give to Grandma tomorrow.

Happy Mother's Day to the people to whom I owe my current motherly existence. And to those in the family who know what it means, "I'll see you in the Morning."