An Overdue Birthday Post

People aren't lying when they say you fall further and further behind as kids get older. I've been a terrible blogger lately.

Nora enjoyed her birthday party very much, but I won't bore you with my recap -- see for yourself!

Turning Two

At this time two years ago, I was sitting at my desk anxiously awaiting my afternoon ultrasound. Little did I know that a mere 10 hours later I'd be holding my little girl. It seems so long ago, and yet it's hard to believe so much time has passed. Look how much she's grown in one year!

Per tradition, we started our day with pancakes. She even blew out her own candles this time!

Lately, her favorite color is pink, though she can point out pink, red, blue, green, purple, yellow and black.

She can count to 10 with help, and to 5 by herself.

She is becoming very independent and rarely wants help with anything.

Her favorite toys are dolls -- she loves to mother them.

She is a sponge and will repeat anything you say. The other day I was telling Charlie something from the other room. He kept saying what, and I kept repeating myself. Finally, in frustration, I asked "Are your ears broken?" Nora went over to him with a look of concern, patted him on the back and said, "Daddy. Ears broken? Ears. Broken? K?"

We are still tumbling. At class just yesterday, she did her sommersault all by herself. She loves class, the kids and Miss Kelli.

School is going well. It's so, so, so much better than daycare. You can tell she loves it by the way she endearingly waves bye and pushes us out the door when we drop her off and then cries when we come to pick her up :( What's worse, a daycare she hates or a school she loves more than her parents?! On a related note, we just got our first fundraiser for school. We're selling Enjoy the City books for $20. It's jam-packed with BOGO coupons for QC-area restaurants, clubs, plays, shows, attractions and so much more! If you buy 5, you get a 6th free. Make great gifts! Let me know if you're interested!!

Bear's offical birth celebration is going to be Sunday at 4 p.m. at our house. Charlie and I have been working on something really great -- can't wait to debut it!

Gonna Party Like It's My Birthday

Well there probably won't be any partying, but I did have a delish homemade breakfast this morning ala the hubbs. I'm also hoping to get a couple of vacation days approved for the end of this week so I can do some much needed reconnecting with the fam after a hectic couple of months.

N and I this morning (sporting the new sweater Mimi got me!).


I'm sure everyone has this realization at one point or another, but it seems so funny to think back to when I thought 24 was old...not old as in going to die soon or anything, but just grown up -- I don't feel grown up :) Cheers to another healthy and happy 24 (and hopefully more!) years!

Out With the Old, In With the New: Recapturing 2009

January: Nora hit quite a few developmental milestones including learning to roll and starting to teethe.


February: All dressed up to go out for Mama's 23rd birthday!


March: Nora started eating (and L.O.V.E.D) solid food. She still does.


April: First encounter with the Easter Bunny. In hindsight, this was much more successful than Santa.


May: First I-Cubs game.


June: Busy month! We made a couple trips to Onawa for Aunt Shannon's bridal shower and wedding, Nora had her first trip to the Omaha zoo, and Nora finally got to meet cousin Milo, Great Aunt Julie and Uncle Ken, and Great Uncle Butch and Aunt Chris at the Wood family reunion.


July: Nora got to experience frozen yogurt at the Pleasant Hill Days parade...I'll let you decide what she thought.


August: First steps! We also celebrated Grandma Mary Lou's birthday, retirement and her and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary.

September: Our Bear turned 1! We also said goodbye to Grandpa Cupp.


October: Nora played in the snow for the first time. We also made a trip to Missouri to visit Grandpa Barnes, and Nora dressed as a flower for Halloween. We also put an offer on the house that 31 days later became our new home.

November: Most of the month was spent packing. Nora was a big helper.


December: Home at last. We settled in to our mini house and enjoyed travel-less holidays with family and friends.

Wordless Wednesday: Prettier than a Picture

This is only a fraction of the photos -- Shawna sent us home with a disk that had more than 300 images! See more from our photoshoot here.

The Celebration Continues

Hat Nora came home in from day care on her birthday.

Sorry I've been a slacker lately with the blog updates and photo uploads. It has become apparent that I officially have a toddler... I find that at fairly regular 2 minute intervals I am dragging her away from something she shouldn't be playing with and redirecting her to her toys. I am ramping up the baby-proofing today. I just bought a couple of new baby gates and have been installing latches on the cabinets. She's a smart girl though, I wouldn't be surprised if she quickly figures them out. I tried tying twine on the cabinets I really didn't want her in yesterday and she's already deciphered how to untie a bow...

She also doesn't like to be held as much. Normally, I can knock out my biweekly grocery shopping all in one day -- Aldi, Sam's, then Wal-Mart and occasionally a stop at Hy-Vee (I'm a bargain hunter, what can I say?) -- and Nora is content moving between being carried and riding in the cart. Yesterday, not so much. She just wanted to run and play and had no interest in anything I had to say. We ended up having to stop home to let her burn off steam before finishing our shopping.


I need to get a new video up because she walks everywhere now. We are still breastfeeding but I have quit pumping at work, so any bottles she gets while I'm away are 1/2 breastmilk from our freezer stash and 1/2 whole milk. She seems to be taking the transition really well. Once the freezer stash runs out, she will have one bottle of all whole milk per day. I still haven't set a deadline on weaning. At this point we're both still comfortable with it and it sure is easier, especially at night since we're still co-sleeping.

I did, however, recently convert Nora's crib to a toddler bed. I figure she can get down from our bed fine so maybe the conversion will allow us to start transitioning her to her room for naps and, eventually, nighttime. Good thing we got a convertible crib because she never used it as a crib...at least we're still going to get some use out of it! Right now she mostly enjoys standing on her bed and climbing up and down and up and down and up...

We had her 1 year appointment last Thursday. She was 20lbs 14oz and 28 inches long -- 50th percentile for weight and 25th for height. Doctor said she looked great. Her iron is a little low (which admittedly is probably because my iron is low) so she recommended we try to increase her iron intake through foods like chicken and even adding baby cereal to regular meals.

Mimi came up to babysit while Mama had to go out of town for work. While she was here, she taught Nora to talk on the phone. And yesterday I put Mimi on speaker phone so she could talk to Nora and Nora said "hi" to her. I think it made Mimi's day.


We also got to pick up a birthday present from Nana Shropshire yesterday. She's too cute -- she will walk from the couch all the way to her table, pull out the chair and sit down. Gah where does the time go?!?


And the final update to mark in the list of parenting firsts: I got to call poison control for the first time today. I was changing Nora's diaper and she was playing with a bottle of baby shampoo. Concentrating on not getting any potato-soup-scented-poo on me, I look up to see Nora gulping shampoo from the lidless bottle. It wasn't that the lid just popped open, she actually got it off completely. Now I know it's baby shampoo and they probably think of these things, but I wouldn't have been able to calm down if I hadn't called. So I did and the lady basically said she may have an upset tummy but other than that she will be fine and that there was no need to bring her in. What she failed to mention is that Nora would be burping and spitting up bubbles all day...and laughing about it. What a day -- I'm scared to see what the next diaper I change looks like!