Happy Halloween!!

Happy halloween from the cutest baby cow around!

She laughs!

Nora was hanging out with her Aunt Claire, laughing at Daddy, today at Mem and Grandpa's house - here's the video evidence.


The very best part of this is, Mem and Grandpa finally got a computer, so we are posting this from their house! This even means that they can check her blog from home now!

Drummer girl

Nora plays the spoon and bowl drums - but is more interested in teething on her spoon. Clearly, she's itching to feed herself!

Weekend at Nana and Babchi's, Take Two

Mama, Daddy, and Nora all slept over at Nana and Babchi's last weekend, too! Good thing, because it meant that we got the camera--and all these pictures--back.

We really try to limit Nora's screen time (TV and computer - she's scarily mesmerized by it, so we aim for roughly, um, none), but it's impossible when Aunt Sara and Aunt Abby are around... :) Here Aunt Sara is enabling Nora to send her first ever IM to Aunt Emily.
Clearly, Daddy is not impressed.
Nora was super excited to see Uncle Ben!
Spoons are the most delicious thing ever.
If you're wondering where those fabulous and stylish stripy overalls came from, why, Nora's Nana made them for her! What a lucky girl she is. Thank you so much, Nana!
The reason we were in Mattapoisett was for the Readers Become Leaders 5K, which Aunt Abby and Uncle Ben ran. Mama was planning on running with them, but arthritis in her hip curtailed training, so she ended up walking it with Nana. Everyone had a great time! After the race, Nana offered some of her water bottle to Nora, who loved it.
But she didn't want any help! She kept lunging and grabbing to hold that water bottle all by herself.
Smiling up at Aunt Abby, but not letting go of that bottle for a second!

Weekend at Nana and Babchi's, Take One

Two weekends ago, Mama and Nora spent the weekend at Nana and Babchi's while Daddy went to Brightwater to close up the cabin for the winter. (And I forgot my camera there in the intervening week, which is why it's been so long since an update.) Here are some of the highlights!

Meeting Great Uncle David.
Nora the sunflower farmer.
Hm, pumpkins are bigger than me!
Windy day at the orchard with Nana.
Mmmmmmmmmm, TOES!!!!
I ate them all up. :)
Storytime with Nana.
Ready for bed, but first we have to play with Nana....
....and Babchi....
....Ok, now you can take me to bed, Mama!
Having a shower on Sunday morning. I always bring my keys in the shower, don't you?

Visits! And Photoessay on Water.

Mem came to visit!!! Yay! Grandpa and Meme were here too, but we didn't get a picture of them. Nora was too distracted by eating her hand and looking out the skylight... Later on, Great-Aunt Trina, Great-Uncle Steve, and cousins Alex and Max came by too. It was a great day of visiting family!

This is my current favorite picture of Nora. She looks so curious, which she certainly is these days!

Nora really wanted Mama's water glass...

So we let her try it!
Lapping water like a kitten.
It's exciting to drink out of a big girl glass! (And Nana just pointed out to me that if you click on this picture to see it bigger, you get an uncoerced view of Nora's teeth!)
And, it makes your chin really really wet.
And your shirt, and your overalls...

And finally, a picture of the teeth (good thing we have a digital camera - you can't imagine how much film we would have gone through trying to get this shot)! Both of Nora's bottom central incisors are in. (The white spot on the left side of her gum is just from my finger pressing there, it's not another tooth.) She's not actively--or painfully--teething again yet, but she does spend a lot of time chewing and chomping on anything she can get her hands on, and she's a little drool factory. You can see her upper incisors under her gums, but they're not close enough to start breaking through quite yet.

How to get your daughter tired out when it's already an hour and a half past her bedtime

Nora delays bedtime with an Irish stepdancing routine.


We paid for this with a wide-awake baby at 5:15 this morning. Counterintuitively, sleep begets sleep - when she stays up late she's up EARLY.

Cheese!

Nora's exersaucer has a Farm Discovery theme, which means that it comes with accessories like cheese. She approves.

Teeth!!! And vacation.

Well, the biggest news around here lately is that Nora now has two teeth! Her second one popped through this morning, and the first one has been around since the Friday of our recent vacation, 9 days ago. Teething isn't much fun for any of us, but perhaps we'll have a little break before the next teeth, because her sleep and happiness both seem back to normal today. Here's hoping! I'm trying to get a picture of Nora's orthodontic genius, but so far it's not photographable. :) I'll keep trying, though...

Here are a bunch of pictures from last weekend in Maine. We went up to attend the Common Ground Fair, as we do every year. The weather was pretty rainy the day we went to the fair, but we had fun anyway. Nora slept through a lot of it in her carrier, and was quite taken with watching all the people when she was awake.

These first few pictures are from the Rachel Carson Salt Pond Preserve on the Pemaquid penninsula, which we explored on Sunday. It was very windy!

AirplaneSuperBaby!

We stopped in Freeport on the way home on Monday to go shopping at LL Bean so Mama and Daddy could spend a wedding-present gift certificate (thank you, Jon and Pat!) in honor of our upcoming first anniversary. We got lots of fun stuff, and while we were there, Nora rode a bear!

Now that we're back home, we've gotten out Nora's handmedown exersaucer (thank you, Ruby and Eric!) since she likes to be upright so much. She really enjoys standing up and playing with all the toys, especially anything chewy (all that teething...). Here is a picture from this morning while Daddy was having his coffee, before she even got dressed!