From our family to yours...

Merry Christmas!!

We'll have lots of pictures of Nora's many holiday celebrations later this week. In the meantime, we wish you all a peaceful, relaxing, and joyful holiday.

Love,

Nora, Sarah, & Aaron

Daddy's rocker

Yay Mem! We got the pictures that you emailed to us this afternoon... Here is Nora at Mem and Grandpa's house, trying out the rocking horse that used to be Daddy's. Looks like a good ride, huh?

Baby's First Orchestral Performance

We had another busy weekend last week (and of course we're gearing up for another one with Christmas next Monday). On Saturday, we went to visit Mem and Grandpa, and Nora got to ride on a rocking horse that Daddy's Uncle Artie made for him when he was a baby. It's the perfect size for her right now, because it's really low to the ground, and it has nice big handles to hold onto. Some pictures were taken and I'll post them when Mem figures out how to email them to me... :)

On Sunday, we attended the United States Coast Guard Band's annual Christmas Concert. We weren't sure how Nora would do, but she was great and it was a fabulous time! All three of us really enjoyed it, and we're going to try to attend more of their concerts, since they're nearby and free!

Nora's all dressed up in her snowflake dress and polkadot "prancer" BabyLegs in anticipation of her first concert. (This outfit was so festive that she wore it again to Elise's gymnastics recital on Tuesday and it's in the wash again to wear to playgroup tomorrow! It's on an every other day rotation with her snowflake overalls, which she wore Monday and today.)
Mama thought we'd try to keep her hair out of her face with a pigtail this time. Nora's bottom two teeth are clearly visible in this picture, and if you look closely you can see one of her elusive top fangs on her top right. She has all four top teeth now, but they're very difficult to photograph!

In other news, Nora's added a nightly bath to her bedtime routine, and she really enjoys it. She's still a little small for the big tub, but way too big for the kitchen sink, so she bathes in the luxury of a laundry basket. As Wade said, it's a baby colander! Plus, very handy for keeping the duckies corralled. It's very important to always have a ducky within eating distance.

Thank you Nana!!!!!!

Nora received two packages in the mail yesterday (which were mailed two days apart from each other but inexplicably arrived on the same day. Weird). They were from her Nana, and contained a whole array of lovely things that she's been making for Nora!

An adorable long sleeved bib/smock. I wanted to get a picture before putting the tray on Nora's booster seat. (Don't worry, she's buckled into her chair under there!) Post peaches and bananas, Nora experiments with her sippy cup. Mostly she likes to chew on the spout - she gets a little mad when water comes out and gets her mouth all wet. As you can see, the bib protected her clothes wonderfully!

Not one, but two!, soft and cozy purple fleece sleep sacks. Nora wears these at night instead of blankets, since she tosses and turns and rolls in her crib and blankets wouldn't be very safe. We had a couple of storebought ones that she outgrew before it got chilly, and a couple more handmade ones that Nana found at a neighbor's yardsale, but Nora outgrew those last month. The new ones are extra long for Nora's long legs!

And the pièce de résistance, snowflake overalls! Mama was bemoaning the fact that Nora has very little seasonal apparel (and as Aunt Abby pointed out, unless you're a certain kind of kindergarten teacher, there's a pretty limited window in your life when you can get away with seasonal apparel, so Nora needs to take advantage of it now! No offense to any kindergarten teachers), so Nana came through once again. These are corduroy embroidered with snowflakes, so they're not just Christmas and will be seasonally appropriate right through the winter. And so so so cute and soft and cozy.

(I was trying out a barrette to keep her hair out of her eyes in these pictures - not the best solution since it falls right out because her hair is so fine. Oh well.)

As you can see, Nora's sitting really well on her own now! We can sit her up on her blanket and leave her that way to play with her toys - she rarely falls backwards anymore. Instead, she'll bend forward, flop onto her chest, and kick her legs out from underneath her. Once she's on her tummy, she can roll or pivot to get where ever she wants to go. And she gets there fast! She gets up on her hands and knees for a few seconds at a time, but it's getting longer every day, and I think crawling is in our not-too-distant future. How exciting!

Lots of news...

Lots has been going on in Nora's world lately! This morning, she got her second tooth this week, bringing her grand total up to six. She now has all four top middle teeth, and well as the center two bottom ones. She's also learned to grind them, which drives Mama crazy. Hopefully that habit is shortlived...



Even more exciting, we have a first word!!!! You guessed it - "Mama." In case you didn't suspect it, I'm thrilled. Thrilled enough that I popped out of bed to cuddle her every time she called me by name between 11:30 and 1:30 last night. She doesn't really use it yet when I'm right there, because why would you need to call Mama when she's already holding you? But if I'm in another room, or if Daddy is holding her but she wants nursies, "Mama, Mama, Mama," it is. Sometimes it comes out, "A-Mama," which is pretty cute too! Hopefully "Dada" will be next. :)



We had an exciting day last Sunday when we drove around and visited several people who haven't seen Nora in a while (or at all!). She had great fun unwrapping a Christmas gift from Jon and Wendee, and now thinks that all paper is there for her to tear and chew. We also visited Daddy's friend Andy, and met his lovely wife Mary. While we were at their house, Andy put some corn in the backyard to feed the deer, who quickly gathered. We held Nora up to the door to check out the twenty-three deer who were chowing down (I don't think I've ever seen that many wild deer in one place before - it was really neat)! Nora was totally fascinated, and responded by laughing, kicking, and pressing her face up against the glass to see better. It was adorable! I had been thinking that she's too young to enjoy something like the zoo, but maybe not... Here are some pictures that Mary took of Nora checking out the deer (and licking the window).

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We went out last week and tromped around in the woods behind Nora's Meme's house (Nora's great-grandmother) in search of a Christmas tree. We're kind of partial to the Charlie Brown look around here... A few days later, the tree is up in our dining room, complete with lights and ornaments. Nora is totally fascinated by it - A Tree!!! In Our House!!!! It's fun to show her the various ornaments - she really likes the sparkly ones.


Nora riding on Mama's back to go pick out a tree.
Trying to take a picture over my shoulder...
Daddy bringing the tree back to the car.
The finished product! (It's hard to take a picture of a lit Christmas tree in the middle of a sunny morning!)

Nora's BFF*

Nora LOVES bananas! This video proves that a) she's really getting the hang of solid food, and opening her mouth for the spoon, and that b) bananas are a whole lot more popular than sweet potatoes! Actually, of the things she's tried sweet potatoes are not too high on the list. So far, in order of preference, Nora's had bananas, carrots, applesauce, sweet potatoes, and peas. Either green beans or avocados are next on the list, to try out tomomrrow! *BFF = Best Friend Forever, for those of you not up on your junior high lingo.