One More Brag

I know I've been bragging on my kid a little lately, but that's what moms do right?

Anyway, I wanted to share the nicest compliment I got from one of Norah's teachers last week. She said that Norah is the best sharer in the class. How sweet is that! The teacher said that she's especially sweet when someone is having a bad day. When another kid is sad, Norah will go find their favorite toy and bring it to them to cheer them up. Then she pats them on the shoulder or gives them a hug. Say it with me people: "Aawwwww!"

Let's just hope this behavior continues when she one day has to start sharing Mommy and Daddy too.

Good News, Bad News - Spring Edition!

It's time for another edition of Good News, Bad News. If you're wondering what the schedule for these posts is... good luck with that. Since the weather was so nice today I've decided to do a Spring edition. So break out the sunscreen, rain (and mud) gear, and make sure to bring the camera for all those flowers. Alright kids, let's go!

Good News - Breaking out all the warm weather clothes means discovering all the things I forgot I owned!

Bad News - Breaking out all the warm weather clothes means discovering all the things I forgot I borrowed.

Good News - I get to put the snow boots on the shelf and sport the sandals!

Bad News - Putting on the sandals reminds me that my toesies have been seriously neglected over the past few months. Do I really want to subject the general public to that mess?

Good News - The cheery sunshine encourages me to seize the day and wear some cute (close toed) flats!

Bad News - Early spring means I still can't find a parking space that won't force me to step into a pile of snow or a giant mud puddle. In my cute flats. Awesome.

So there it is folks. Spring hasn't sprung just yet, but it's giving us just enough hope to start shedding our winter coats. Sadly we'll probably have to put them back on at least once in the next few weeks. Happy Spring everybody!!

She Knows Our Names!!

I was picking Norah up from daycare and they wanted to show me some new stuff that she learned. *Note - names have been changed to protect the preschoolers and their overworked mommies (and because I didn't ask permission).* They asked her, "Who is Annie's mommy?" She responded, "Bekka" Right! "Who is Kenzie's mommy?" "Kelly" Right again!

But here's the clincher guys. Just for fun (they'd never asked her before) one of the girls said, "Who's Norah's mommy?" She patted me on the shoulder and said, "Shelly!" WHAT!?! Then we asked, "Who's Norah's daddy?" "Mark!" Seriously!?!

We had absolutely no idea that she had put it together that the people she called "Mommy & Daddy" had different names that other people called them. This child amazes me every day.

The Most Excited I've Ever Been About Pee

Wow! Long time no blog. I've had several things I wanted to write about but I just haven't had the time to get anything together. So today we'll start with an easy one. Here are a few of Norah's recent developments:

• When I give her a choice of "this" or "that" she asks for "bofe". So while that can be frustrating sometimes it also shows that she's got the concept down.


• Last week we were talking about going home to her house and out of the blue she said, "Daddy's house too." Why yes, it is.


• She's got all of her secondary colors down. That would be orange, green and purple for those of you who have been out of art class for too long (two primary colors mix to make a secondary color, so yeah, there's that). She has known blue for a long time. She cares nothing for red and prefers to call it pink. Yellow? Well, it's just hard to say. Even harder when you don't have all your teeth.


• We spend the whole drive to and from home saying hi to every horsie she sees. Sometimes she whinnies at them.


• When we drove through a cloud of smoke from someone's chimney she said, "Hot." I'm not sure how she knows that smoke goes with fire because we haven't had a fire all winter. But awesome!

Last but not least an explanation for the disturbing title of this post. on Sunday evening, Norah informed me that she needed to pee pee. So I decided to humor her and sat her down in the potty. Lo and behold, she actually did it!! I threw such a raging party in the bathroom that Mark had to come in and see what was going on. We made as big a deal of it as humanly possible (including texting the grandparents) and she seemed very proud. She did it twice yesterday evening as well. HOORAY!!! I know it's still WAY too early for potty training. The fact that she peed on the bathroom floor waiting for her bath last night was a clue to that effect. I can't help but be a little excited at the thought of no more diapers though. At least she gets the concept, even if it's hit or miss. So there it is folks, the most excited I've ever been about pee.

I'll leave you with a photo from yesterday evening. This is Norah cillaxin' in the car waiting for Daddy to meet us and carpool home. I can't believe how big she's getting!

A Rare Find

What's that I see sticking out from behind my little girl's ear? (This is Norah's "I dunno" face)

Do I see what I think I see? Are those the ever elusive piggy tails?

Why, we've been searching for those for MONTHS now!!

And still, they are so elusive that they were only visible for a few minutes. This is the clearest picture we got of them. (See the second one sticking out against the background of Mount Laundry?)

Or maybe this is the clearest photo... I can't decide.

The Budding Artist...

I'm so glad to know that she'll be able to support us in our old age.

Where does she get this stuff?

Yesterday evening Norah was walking around the house talking to herself. This happens a lot, so I don't usually think much of it. She kept getting louder and louder about it, then she started pulling on her shirt. About the time she managed to strip her shirt off, we figured out that what she was yelling was, "naked baby!" As soon as I repeated the phrase she looked at me and said, "YES! Pants. Pants. PANTS OFF!"

I told her that I was worried that she might get cold. Given that propane costs and arm and a leg we don't keep the house as toasty as we might like to in the winter. I gave in though, because she knows what cold is and didn't seem uncomfortable. She proceeded to run directly to Daddy in the kitchen, yell "Naked baby DADDY!!", put her hands on her hips and stick out her little tummy as far as she possibly could. I was only a little jealous that sticking out her tummy so far could result in so much cuteness.

After about an hour, I convinced her to become "warm baby" and put on her jammies. I cannot for the life of me think of where on earth she learned about this or gotthe idea to try it, but it was pretty dang adorable. And I am not at all biased.