A Day At The Zoo

At long last, Nora got to have her first zoo adventure this weekend.

We saw peacocks


And pet a goat


Watched the otters with daddy



And laughed at the gorillas with Mimi


And watched birds and monkeys through the trees


It was good to spend a day with Mama and Daddy

9 Months and Growing

Yesterday marked 9 months since Nora's birth and I can't even begin to describe the changes I'm seeing her her daily.

In the past month, she's developed such a personality (and an attitude!), and she became mobile, which inevitably led to curiosity and getting into everything! She now crawls at lightning speed, she can open and close drawers and adjust the volume on the stereo. She also has heightened awareness to the fact that when she makes loud screaming noises Daddy or I come running -- so now she does it for attention. She can pull herself up, but if she's feeling lazy she will just crawl over, lay her head on your feet, and cry.


Her favorite word is still dada, but we have gotten a "ma" out of her a few times and I'm fairly confident I heard a "love you" once but I'm not going to put money on it. She loves to show you she is so big by putting her arms above her head, she waves, and daddy says she claps, but I'm yet to see it. She also regularly does baby signing for milk now, but we've been slacking a little and haven't been pushing the other signs too much.


She eats pretty much any and everything. Her pincer grasp is really good now so she does finger food or purees depending on what's for dinner. Oh, and I don't think we officially announced the breakthrough of her first teeth yet. The two on the bottom, while there's still a long way to go, are now visible. The one on the top is so close. All this teething business has led to a pretty crummy sleeper lately.

Nora got to open her first 1st birthday present a couple weeks ago...I know what you're thinking, and all I can say is don't ask -- Mimi is impatient. She got an adorable sunhat and she is now the proud mama to a bear that says "birthday girl".



Other than those 50 new milestones this month I think all is normal ;) Happy 9 month, Nora! We will have 9 month stats to post in a couple weeks after her well-baby visit on July 6.

Girls Day

This is what happens when Daddy leaves us on a Saturday and we have nothing to do...(and by nothing to do I mean 'we' don't feel like cleaning, packing, doing laundry, getting things ready for Shannon's bachelorette party tonight, or grocery shopping just yet. Hey I've only had one cup of coffee, give me a break!)















I guess I wore her out...


Now I'm off to be productive. Happy Saturday all!

We're Still Here

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but I'm not abandoning the blog, I swear. I accidentally left our camera in the Quad Cities this weekend and my posts just seem so empty without a photo!

Once I get it back though I have some great videos to share! Nora has got this crawling thing down pat -- up stairs and everything (which I'm not necessarily considering a good thing, but boy did it come fast!). She is now chasing the dogs all over the house and pulling herself up to standing at every opportunity.

Teeth are begining to break through -- you can finally see the ones (yes, multiple) on the bottom, but the top one is still just a bump.

That's all I have for now. I'll leave you with vintage Nora:

P.S. Shout Out

I know its Wordless Wednesday, but I can't not do a shout out when we have 2 very big birthday's in our family today! Happy 18th to Aunt T and happy 1st to cousin Max! Sorry we couldn't be home to celebrate with you both :'(

Wordless Wednesday: The Importance of Friends

Wordless Wednesday: But I Don't Want to Learn to Walk

Milestone or Disaster?

Nora has learned how to undo Velcro. She has an Old McDonald book that goes on your hand with puppets for fingers and the book, which Velcros shut, in the palm of your hand. She is endlessly entertained by opening the book each time you close it, and its positively adorable.

The problem does not lie in the opening and closing of the book; no, the problem lies in the fact that she has also made the connection between opening her book and unfastening her Bum Genius diapers, which also use Velcro closure. Oy, the perils of having a smart kid.



We can now check "learning the art of fastening diaper while putting pants on simultaneously" off the to-do list.

On the babyfood menu this week is chicken. Yesterday, I boiled two medium chicken breasts on the stove until they were cooked through, and pureed them using water to help thin the mixture. Charlie was a little disturbed by the mushy meat, but I can assure you this looked (and smelled!) much better than any jarred meat I've seen served to a baby.



Since Nora isn't quite ready for a variety of spices just yet, I mixed the pureed chicken with a cube of apples I had made previously to give it some flavor. She seemed to approve.