The Babysitters Club, Part 2

I guess Rich and I do good work because we were recruited once more for babysitting duty. My friend Jaime and her husband (and their 6-month-old) went out of town last week, so I watched the four older kids for a couple days. Rich had an incredibly busy week, so he didn't get to help in the babysitting, but I had a bunch of help from their oldest, Taylor, so it went really well! Norah was a lot happier this time around, too (probably because she wasn't trying to grow 4 teeth), which helped things go much more smoothly.

Also, I don't know what has happened between last week and now, but Norah is all of a sudden an awesome sleeper. Starting last Friday, she has been going down for naps right away, and it hasn't taken her long to fall asleep for naps or bedtime. She is almost excited to go to sleep lately. We even got her to take a nap before church on Sunday! Never thought that would happen! I don't know if we're back to normal or if this is just a break from the normal, but I hope it lasts a long time!

This chair was a hot item during our stay. Norah thought it was the perfect size for her, but it clearly had Easton's name on it.  

 I don't know who invented this game, but Taylor and Brody were great sports for it!

I absolutely loved the dog, Oliver, and I guess Norah did, too. He even let her cuddle with him for a little bit (of course, as soon as I go to take a picture, they move).

This was just precious.

Norah had her first taste of Nutella during our stay. Obviously, she was a fan.

Back home, cuddled up in a blanket after Saturday nap time.

Rich was able to go to the BYU vs. GU game with the cross country recruits. Tough loss, Cougars, but at least we can say, "Go Zags!"

 Sunday mornings are for walks now, enjoying nature while Daddy goes home teaching.

On this last walk, Norah discovered just how many rocks there are in the woods next to us. And she made it a point to touch each and every one. (She's saying "rock.")

She invented this new game. Who knew falling off a couch could be so fun.

I went on a run Monday after Daddy got home, so he was left to watch Norah. This is how Daddy babysits. (I promise this was not staged.) 

Right after Norah wakes up every morning she asks for Mickey. If he's not on, we sure hear about it.

Oh man, I've been spoiled with shoes lately. Thanks to Nick Roche for the sweet Nike hookups! (It helps that my foot is the perfect size for all of the samples!) Few things give me more motivation to run than to be able to use my awesome new shoes!

This is how Norah sleeps. With a blanket over her head. I'm pretty sure that's not encouraged by pediatricians.

It finally snowed today! No fun for driving, but it sure is nice to look at. So much better than the brown gloom of late.

And just one more of this cutie. I love her so much!

Video Overload

Usually I go crazy with the pictures, but this week is all about videos. Norah has been especially hilarious, and we managed to capture some of it.

Here's our week in pictures and videos:

I understand if you don't watch all of these, but I find them so stinkin' adorable. There is nothing cuter than watching a daddy play with his little girl.

Yes, Skittles are necessary to have moves like these.

Rich went to Seattle for the first indoor track meet of the season. They had some pretty good times, which is encouraging for the rest of the season. If you look really close in this picture, you can see the Space Needle, all lit up in Seahawk colors (going to the Superbowl, baby!).

 Norah and I tend to spend a lot of time at Grandma and Poppa's house when Rich is out of town. Here's Norah with her little table and chair setup, her favorite spot to color.

Naptime has been absolute torture lately. It takes her AT LEAST two hours to fall asleep. Every. Single. Day. It's worth it so she's not so cranky in the evenings, but I usually have to wake her up so she can go to sleep at night. Sometimes, you just need to be snuggled in a blanket to make waking up a little easier. (Side note: this is one of my favorite blankets, technically a quillow, from when I was little. Yep, still have it, and still love it.)

 

 

The weather in Spokane has been less than desirable. We have seen the sun for a total of about 4 hours in the past week and a half thanks to an inversion. We have been getting some crazy freezing fog that leaves everything coated in layers of frost. Norah and I went for a walk on Sunday (to waste some time before 1:30 church), and I couldn't help but admire the frost, even if I'm sick of the fog.

All bundled up for the walk. Who cares about matching when you're trying to stay warm.

We also caught a couple more adorable videos of Norah before church. This girl loves books, and it's so much fun to watch her "read." When I say Norah jabbers, this is what I mean.

Okay, if you don't watch any other videos, WATCH THIS ONE!

I am still laughing at it, hundreds of views later.

I don't know where she learned her pensive face, but I hope she never loses it.

Look closely to find out what's off about this picture. (Hint: she's holding what's supposed to be on her bum in her hand.)

And, finally, we'll end with the workout routine Norah developed on her own. Yes, the grunts are necessary.

(P.S. I am writing this during Norah's naptime. She fell asleep in less than an hour today. Hallelujah! I can't remember the last time that happened.)

Potty Success!

There was no more sickness in our house this week, but there was a little sleep deprivation.

This Sunday was our first time with 1:30 church. I've been dreading this for months, and now it's finally here. I do enjoy the sleeping in part, but no-nap Norah is not much fun. Not getting a nap on Sunday and refusing to nap on Monday (and we tried for 3 hours to get that nap) led to an awful night on Monday, like the worst night she's had since she was nursing. I think things are back to normal for now, but I really need to come up with a better plan for Sundays. I can't go through the sleep deprivation process every week.

Yep, that was us this week, although it was no sleep driving me crazy and not a shaved dog.

Last week also brought Norah's first success on the potty. We bought one a couple weeks ago, just to have one when the time came. We finally set it up this week, and Norah was pretty excited about it but didn't really know how to use it. She usually tried to straddle it, backwards and fully clothed. I tried sitting her on it a couple times just to get her used to it. But I never really took her seriously when she asked to go potty.

Last night, Norah came up to me and lifted up her shirt and said, "Pee?" Why not? I stripped her down and put her on the toilet. I even managed to snap a picture, but I didn't hear anything, so I didn't expect anything. Lo and behold, I lifted her off the potty and saw a wet surprise!

I guess I need to take her requests for the potty a little more seriously, but I don't think we're going to full out potty train just yet. Just keep taking it slowly. Let her lead to way for now.

Building the potty and testing it out. She still needs to learn that the potty isn't a toy.

She really wants to dress herself but still needs a little practice. Yeah, her leg is in the sleeve.

I used this adorable fabric to make a car seat cover for my brother and his wife's newest addition, Logan Tyson Fredrickson. He is a seriously adorable boy!

I mean, look at that face! Those cheeks are so cute!

 She was loving this brownie, enough to earn me a glare.

How is that comfortable?

This was her potty success, before I even knew it!

And one more of this cutie doing her favorite thing.

Flu Bug

I always start out the new year thinking, "This is the year where I'm going to get at least one picture every day."

Nope, not happening this year.

We started out the year getting a flu bug instead. Rich started coming down with it on Thursday and was pretty much knocked off his feet until Tuesday night. I started feeling it Saturday night and got hit hard on Sunday. Luckily, Norah never showed any symptoms (maybe because she got the flu shot and we didn't).

Norah was a champ for us through our misery, especially on Sunday. Rich and I were basically on the couch all day. She ran around and tore out all her toys, but she was as happy as could be! Rich's parents took her Sunday night through Monday afternoon to help us out a little, and that's the first time I've spent a night away from her. I always thought our first night away from Norah would be for some fun romantic weekend together, not because we were too sick to care for her. Oh well. Thank goodness for grandparents that come to the rescue.

But, anyway, things are basically back to normal here. Still a little coughing, but no big deal anymore.

So, that being said, I have very few pictures to show for the week. Which is probably a good thing considering how many I've been posting lately.

 Bath time eyelashes are the best.

I was supposed to give the Young Women lesson on Sunday, and I even made a handout for it! Thanks to Kristin for covering for me. The quote I used on the handout is one of my favorites. If you haven't read Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson, I highly recommend it! This talk tells a little more about the parable I used, if you're not familiar with it. I actually had Brother Robinson for a couple religion classes at BYU (although he was nothing like I expected from reading his book).

I went to my friend Aubrey's baby shower on Tuesday night. She was induced on Thursday and now is a mother to a second beautiful, and tiny, little girl.

 And this is what Norah and Daddy do while I'm away. I got home from the shower and Rich told me about how entertained she was with this diaper box. Okay... This picture is actually from the next night, when Daddy was alone with her again. Does this make anyone else think of ET?

 She really has a hard time keeping her eyes open for the flash.

She seriously loves this box. New favorite toy (and it's already starting to fall apart).

It usually takes a lot of practice for Norah to learn a word. Some words, though, she picks up right away. Yesterday, I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the first time, and she started chanting "Mickey." Like really well. I don't remember even telling her who Mickey is. There's just something about that mouse, I guess. (Another word she picked up right away was purple. That was her favorite color for a while. And by favorite I mean the only one she knew.)

I was making some lunch for us yesterday, and Norah really wanted to help. She found kept trying to grab my spoon and stir the food on the stove. Brilliant mom moment here - I gave her a bowl and her own spoon and let her go to town. I love it when my clever little ideas actually work. She fell for it again today.

Daddy pushed her around in her little stroller for a while, and then she stopped off for a drive-through snack. (For some reason, she loves using the footrest of her high chair as a food tray.)

Now that we're almost better, I'm looking forward to a better rest of the new year. This also means I'm running out of excuses to work on my New Year's resolutions. (That's the attitude, right?)

5 Years and a New Year

Our fun Christmas break didn't end with Christmas! On the day after Christmas, the Kidd family made the trip up to Spokane, so we got to spend some fun time with them (and the Wings, too).

There were lots of games at Grandma and Poppa's house, more lunches at Eat Fresh, and the traditional trip to the family favorite Fiesta Grande in Spokane Valley. Perhaps one of the best moments was when we introduced 14-year-old Alison to one of the best movies ever, "You've Got Mail." It actually turned into a bit of a history lesson. ("You hear that sound? It's called dial-up. That's what you used to have to do to get on the Internet.")

And in the middle of all this fun, Rich and I celebrated 5 years together. We've never done much for our anniversary since it's not exactly the most convenient time of year. This year was pretty low key, too. But it was really fun to think back over the years. I feel like I was especially reminiscent this year ("At this exact time 5 years ago...") Here's to 5 years and so many more to come!

I'll try to let the pictures do the talking for the rest of this post.

Norah and cousin Hailey

Rich tried to make a big deal about how he wasn't going to get my flowers this year because we wouldn't be home to enjoy them. And I was completely fine with that (and I really am being 100% honest). But, of course, he tricked me.

Fiesta Grande night

Just a little goofiness...

Since Cami and Ethan's anniversary is only two days after ours, we decided to do a double date anniversary dinner. We went to Red Robin (very anniversary-y, I know). The food was delicious, and the company was even better! (Not the best picture, but it was the only one we got.)

 When there's family in town, that usually means we're at our house basically only to sleep. We put Norah down to bed at Grandma's house, get her up to drive home (where she falls asleep in the car), and then get her up one more time to get her in from the car. She was a champ through all of it, basically going right back to sleep once we got home.

Norah and Kelsey usually got along pretty well, but it was pretty funny when they started fighting.

Games at the church. I wasn't exactly dressed for the ocassion, so I ended up with some pretty good blisters from my boots. Also, I know you're jealous of my basketball form.

 Talk about adorable!

New Year's Eve brought us bowling, a science fair project, and a rousing game of Telestrations.

Norah was way too interested in Rich's phone to take a picture. 

I think one of the main reasons Rich liked having Ethan up here was that he finally had someone to play video games with. (Ethan was definitely a fan, too.) 

Hailey had a science fair project to complete, so we all got to play the guinea pigs in her soda taste test panel.

Here is one of my favorite Telestration moments. Things get interesting when one of your players is only 7 years old.

Whitley's word... She told us later that it says light.

So, of course this was her dad's interpretation of her word.

Well, at least we got "light" right.

Okay, here's another one, too:

 Please don't make fun of my terrible art skills, but I really think I did a great interpretation of "The Office."

Nope, my art skills really are that bad. 

 This might have been my favorite written interpretation. "Church on stake conference Sunday." Yep, I can see that, too, Alison.

And my favorite Whitley interpretation of the night.

"I didn't know what the paper said, so I just drew mac and cheese!"

It was a great New Year's Eve, although staying up until midnight is hard these days. My toddler wears me out way too much! Unfortunately, both the Kidds and the Wings had to head home on New Year's Day and Rich had to work at 6 in the morning, so once New Year's Eve was over, the fun was pretty much done.

Do any more family members want to come to town again, and soon? We miss all of the excitement!