March 12th-19th

Rich and Shara Notes for the Week:

• Gonzaga had their first outdoor track meet of the season, at Spokane Falls Community College. It was a good opening meet, and Rich is excited for the what the team is going to do this year, especially the steeplechasers.
• Rich is also back in school after his spring break. His class now is on conflict management.
• I am currently working on getting back into better running shape. I was doing so well last summer - I even made it up to a 10-mile run, but that obviously didn't last. I had to start from almost the beginning again, and I can feel myself slowly but surely getting my endurance back. 

Norah Notes for the Week:

• Norah likes to pretend she can count, except she only knows two numbers: three ("free") and six. And since six often gets forgotten, her counting usually goes, "Free, free, free, free, free..."
• Norah absolutely loves church. She asked literally every day last week for church. We have such a righteous child. I'm sure it has nothing at all to do with the fact that she gets to go to nursery where she plays with toys and friends and eats treats and colors pictures.
• If there is music on, Norah runs up to Rich, yelling, "Dance!" Soon, she demands that he help her climb Daddy Mountain. She loves it, and it melts my heart to see them having so much fun together.

Wednesday, March 12

For mutual last week, Norah and I hung out with the Beehives. They have this tradition of "kidnapping" the incoming beehives in their birthday month, so Sydnie and Aubrey got blindfolded and dragged to the church for a little party.

Thursday, March 13

 There's a huge water tower in the woods by our apartment, and Norah and I lave been checking it out a lot lately. I've been examining it for it's picture-background potential. I want to see if my amateur photography skills can do anything with it for Norah's birthday pictures.

 Friday, March 14

Norah has figured out how to worm her arm through the Grandma's car seat strap. Luckily, she hasn't been able to do it in our car seat. Yet. I'm going to have to start tightening that thing like crazy.

Saturday, March 15

Half-naked Norah. This child insists on stripping off her clothes during nap time and bed time. I wouldn't mind so much if it were warmer, but then she doesn't fall asleep because she's so cold and moves around too much to stay under the covers. Plus, I'm afraid she's going to start working on the diaper soon. I have heard horror stories about kids taking off their diapers in bed. I don't want to face that AT ALL.

 Sunday, March 16

She can't just let you work on the computer. She likes to work right next to you. 

 It amazes me how long a toddler can squat like this.

Monday, March 17 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our green smoothies in the morning, along with wearing green and watching "Waking Ned Devine," was the extent of my St. Patrick's Day celebration. Oh, and I dyed the toilet water green, too, just to see what Rich would say. But, seriously, people are going crazy with holidays lately, and I don't have the energy to keep up with them. I'm glad Norah's not old enough to care yet because she would have been seriously disappointed with her super lame mom. (I liked this article my friend Aubrey posted. I am glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks this way.)

It turns out Rich's old BYU teammate was a Disney Channel star! There are so many things we don't know about Merriman, I guess. Yes, I'm joking, but does anyone else remember this Disney Channel original movie from back in the day?

Ugh. So jealous of this girl's eyelashes.

Tuesday, March 18

I was doing something on the computer yesterday and looked to see Norah like this. I took that as a hint to turn off the TV.

 I managed to get a picture of Norah pouting. She makes this face A LOT.

It didn't last long, though. This girl wants to be happy. 

This is what happens when the cable cuts out right in the middle of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There was some confusion with Comcast yesterday, and it just happened to come right at the wrong time. Poor girl was devastated.

Wednesday, March 19

 I'll leave you with this gem. I may have actually found a solution to our nighttime stripping issue, thanks to this article. She knows how to get a shirt off on her own, but I'm hoping it's enough of a deterrent at night to keep her jammies on. Or that it will work long enough to make it to warmer weather jammies. I don't think Norah was as enthused about my brilliance as I was, but at least it worked!

A Rather Unfortunate Milestone

I want to try a new way of organizing my posts. My mind thinks better with labels, so I'm going to try that out here.

Weekly Norah Notes

• When you ask Norah what color something is, she always answers with blue. (Unless it's purple. That was the first color she learned, and it has stuck pretty well.)
• Norah loves to be in her pajamas, which she calls "jambies." Getting her to change in the morning can be a struggle.
• "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" has become one of Norah's favorite shows. One night, Norah was in the tub, and Rich accidentally started an episode on the computer. As soon as she heard the opening notes of the theme song, her eyes lit up and she yelled, "Jake!"
•  I decided to try Norah out sleeping on a pillow. I'm telling myself this is the first step towards moving her into a toddler bed. I think it's helping her stay in one place in bed instead of her rolling around all over the place. I think I'm going to work her down to only one blankie, too. Because, seriously, she does not need FOUR of them.
• Norah loves to listen to the Disney Pandora station. She calls it "Dizzy." Rich and I now have the "Frozen" soundtrack memorized, though we still haven't seen the movie

Weekly Rich and Shara Notes

• Rich is currently on spring break right now. He's in between classes in master's program, so this is the first time he's gotten a spring break since he was in high school, since BYU doesn't do spring break.
• The Gonzaga outdoor track season starts this Saturday, which means we are hitting the busy season! Along with assisting in other events, Rich is in charge of coaching the steeplechasers, and he's getting really excited for it.
• I got a new phone last week (thanks to my brother, Tyson!) and have discovered the joys of the Kindle app. I'm currently re-reading Divergent, seeing if I can like it more the second time around. I want to read the book before I see the movie and finish the series this time.

Thursday, March 6

 Getting Norah to take a nap is so hard, and then getting her to wake up is just sad. She usually gives me this pouty face.

My friend Aubrey's little girl, Scarlett. I got to hold her at our friend Heidi's baby shower. It's hard for me to imagine that Norah was ever that small.

Group selfie at the baby shower, with Kristin (front right), the queen of selfies.

Friday, March 7

Norah and I got to hang out for the night, since Daddy went on a camp out with the 11-year-old scouts. If only I knew what the next twelve hours had in store for me...

I got a new journal! For the first time in six and a half years... I've kind of been on a journal-writing kick lately, but I doubt it's going to last long enough to help me fill this journal any faster than the last one.

This girl loves to be cuddled up in big blankets. This won't be the only one like this you see on this post.

Saturday, March 8

 Any guess why I had a bathtub full of Norah's blankets and jammies at 3 in the morning? Hint: it has to do with the title of this post.

Norah had her first real throw-up experience early early Saturday morning! I'll spare you the yucky details (I feel sick thinking about it), but let's just say we were up for three hours dealing with a giant mess. This is one of those times where I desperately wanted our washer and dryer, which are unfortunately just sitting in storage right now since our apartment doesn't have the hookups. Instead, I just put everything to soak in the tub (including four pairs of pajamas, six blankets, and I don't know how many towels and rags) until I could wash it the next day. Yuck. And, since Rich was on his camp out, I got to do it all on my own. Double yuck.

I thought we were in the clear Saturday after she woke up, but there was a relapse in the afternoon. After two more times, I figured we were just safer keeping her shirt off for a while. For the most part, Norah was pretty happy through all of it. More cuddly and sleepy than normal, but she handled being sick pretty well.

 Sunday, March 9

 I thought for sure Norah would be better on Sunday, but she was absolutely drained. Norah hasn't slept with us in our bed for over a year, but Rich brought her in Sunday morning, and she cuddled right up and fell asleep. We even got up and left her in there for another hour. That is not like my baby at all!

There was a lot of cuddle time on the couch.

Good news, though, Sunday was the last day of sickness. She was much better by Monday, which I could tell because she was back to throwing fits and taking hours to fall asleep.

Tuesday, March 11

Two of Norah's favorite places to hang out.

Yesterday morning was one of those days when she didn't want to get out of her pajamas. So, I tried to convince her that wearing a pretty dress was a fun thing to do.

Me: "Do you want to wear a pretty dress today?"

Norah: "Pincess?"

Me (running with this princess thing and holding out a denim dress): "Is this a princess dress?"

Norah: "No. Pincess."

Me (holding the dress she's wearing above): "Is this a princess dress?"

"Pincess!"

I have no idea why, but her outfit above is a princess outfit, including the leggings and the socks. She did the same thing today, with a blue outfit that looks nothing like this. I guess a princess can wear whatever she wants, right?

 A couple times over the past week or so, Rich has started giggling (in as manly a way as possible) at random times, and he wouldn't tell me what was up. I figured he was just doing it to tease me, but I found out the real reason last night. This was waiting for me in the mailbox! He pre-ordered it for me and had it shipped to our house. He knows me too well! But now we have to wait to watch it for a couple more days since our nights are pretty busy the next few days.

Wednesday, March 12

 

The beautiful sun has been shining the past couple days, and, even though it's still a little chilly, we had to take advantage of it today with a walk in our woods.