Open Gym

Well, it turns out that Norah wasn't kidding when she informed her daddy the other day that she's a monkey. I had the morning off on Monday so we were able to take her to open gym at the local gymnastics place. I'll pretty much just let the pictures take it from here.

There was balance beam walking.

And ring swinging.

And parallel bars.

And ring swinging.

And the single bar (that's what that's called, right?)

She did really well on the suspended balance beam. She was the youngest and the only girl to try it out.

And, of course, what trip to the gym would be complete without a little weight lifting?

As you can see, there was a lot of swinging and a LOT of trying to go upside down. Looks like a monkey to me!

Conversations with a Two-Year-Old

Last night at church the kids watched the cartoon version of "The Ten Commandments" (produced by that little company we'll call The Mouse House). They got about 75% of the way through it and then asked to turn it off and play games.

The following was the conversation we had on the way home:

"Norah, did you have fun watching the movie with your friends?"

"I didn't like it."

"You didn't like the movie? What didn't you like about it?"

"I didn't like the guy."

"Which guy?"

"The talking guy. I didn't like the talking guy."

"Moses?"

"Yeah. I didn't like him and the movie was.... It was..... it waaasss...... it was..... I didn't find anything out from the movie."

"You mean you didn't learn anything?"

"Yeah. I didn't"

"But you got to eat popcorn."

"Yeah. That part was good."

I think the word Norah was searching for was "boring". Not that the actual movie was boring, it just might have gone over her head a little bit. But I was really happy to hear her try to express why. That's a very important concept.

*****

Here's a conversation we had about why Norah's grandma and grandpa were coming to visit but her Uncle Matthew was staying home:

"Why Uncle Massew not coming?"

"He has to stay home because he has to go to school. There are lots of things for him to learn at school and it's too important for him to miss."

"Oh! He learnin' coloring and sharing and playing with his friends. He gonna make something for his mommy and his daddy. He gonna learn drawing and ABC's. And when he all done, Grandma come pick him up!"

(I was laughing pretty hard at this point)

"Well, Matthew is actually old enough to drive, so he might drive himself home from school. Or maybe he takes the bus."

"Oh yeah! He take the bus instead. When I get big, I take to bus to school!!"

*****

Finally, a conversation with her daddy just this evening:

"Daddy, you AWESOME!"

"Aw, I think you're awesome too."

"I think not! I'm a monkey."

Yup! That's our little monkey.

Family Picture Preview!

Our sweet neighbor (and her awesome camera) were kind enough to meet up with us for 45 minutes or so and snap some family photos. Norah was in a great mood and the photos turned out AWESOME! Of course, we just took them yesterday afternoon so we haven't done any photo shopping or any of that yet.

I just couldn't resist giving a little sneak preview.

Hold Me Closer Choni Dancer

My mom and Norah just finished a 6 week class called "Dance with me". It's for toddlers 15 months to 3 years and their caregiver and it teaches basic dance and movement skills. Basically, it was Norah and her Grammie with a bunch of other kids and their moms. But since I work and all of the classes in our town are in mid-morning, my mom was a super awesome, extra fun Grammie and took Norah to what she referred to as "Dancing Class".

The last class of the series was supposed to be a recital. Basically it was all of the kiddos doing all of the moves they'd learned over the course of the earlier classes. Since it was held just a couple of blocks from my work, I took half my lunch break and walked up with my camera to get a few pictures. I actually got some video too, but I can't get it to work right now. So pictures will have to do for now.

But I feel like I should explain something first...

Every other Monday I had dressed Norah yoga pants for dancing class. I don't know why I put her in different pants the last day of class, but I did. My mom took Norah to class in the bike trailer for a little exercise. When she does that she doesn't bring Norah's bag (with her extra clothes in it) because it adds about 10 lbs or so to the total weight she has to pull in the trailer. Just a few minutes into Dancing Class, my mom noticed that Norah wasn't moving much and was tugging at her pants. Now that she's out of diapers (PTL!) her pants were falling down. So... like any good Grammie who has had her share of slightly embarrassing kid situations, my mom made the obvious choice. Strip Norah down to her chonies and let her dance her little heart out. After all, one little girl wore a leotard to every class. It was basically the same thing, right?

So that's my kid in the green tank top and.... very little else.

Makes her pretty easy to pick out though, right?

So she marched...

And she rolled...

And rolled some more...

And crawled...

She even did a little break dancing!

She absolutely loved dancing class. And dancing in her chonies? My tiny dancer didn't mind a bit. I figure, there's a very short window of time when dancing in your underwear is considered cute, so I might as well let her live it up while I can!

Don't Cry Daddy

I'm sure most of you parents can agree with me when I say this...

Sometimes the most inappropriate things our children do and say also happen to be the most hilarious. Say, for instance, when your daughter asks her Grandpa if he has a baby in his tummy like Mommy. Or when she announces to her daddy that he "has hairy boobies" and she "just has little boobies". Both if these scenarios are completely hypothetical, of course...

But I digress!

My darling husband has developed a fantastic coping method for those times when we wish to highlight the impropriety of a situation and hide the hilarity.

He fake cries.

This accomplishes two things for him. First, it allows him to hide the uncontrollable peals of laughter. Second, it forces me to be the bad cop. I have to stay solemn and inform my daughter that her bad manners have made Daddy cry. She almost always apologizes right away, corrects her bad manners and says, "Don't cry Daddy." When she's not covered in food (lots of "bad manners" situations happen at the dinner table) there's even usually a hug in it for him.

It's a win-win for him, and honestly I don't mind. I'm much better at keeping a straight face than he is. She's such a daddy's girl, I'm pretty sure he can't help but think that nearly everything she does is adorable. Besides, I don't think it's a bad thing for her to grow up knowing that the men in her life are sensitive to her behavior. Words and actions have power, hers as well as ours.

This past week, Norah and I were in the car together when "The Only Exception" by Paramore came on. I have to be careful of what songs come on in the car now, because Norah actually listens to the words. The first line of this particular song says, "When I was younger I saw my Daddy cry and curse at the wind."

Suddenly, I heard a little voice on my right-hand-side in the back seat ask, "Daddy cried?" then solemnly observe, "Daddy cries when you have bad manners."

I turned to the left, stifled a giggle and said, "Well, yes sweetie. Sometimes he does."

Wordless Wednesday - Fall has Descended

In case you were wondering...

...Norah loves being a big sister. So far.