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. 

Is It Too Soon for the Terrible Two's?

Remember that photo book I was super excited about? I guess I was so excited to get it that I didn't check my order details. Since the last photo book I ordered was for my parents for Christmas, "Norah's Little Book of ABCs" is currently on its way to Ogden, Utah. Yeah, I forgot to check the shipping information. Oops. Typical me, though. I guess my mom gets the first peek at it.

Here are some Norah details for the week:

• Norah has started to figure out how to string words into sentences. "I want Mickey!" "I pay [play]!" "I want bubbles!"
• Since Goldfish crackers ("shishes") are orange, the color orange is now "shishes." If you ask her to say orange, she says, "shishes."
• She loves pretend naps. She puts her dolls and stuffed animals down for naps all the time. She likes to lay down with her blankie and say "seepy" (sleepy), which is a total lie - she hates real naps.
• I usually let her watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while she has breakfast. She sets up her little table and chairs and has to have her baby doll in the other chair before she will allow herself to eat.
• She calls herself "Nuh Nuh" now. She'll point to herself and say it.
• She likes to list all the names she knows. "Mommy! Daddy! Nuh Nuh! Poppa! Ga ga [Grandma]!" She'll do this for a quite a while if you let her.

The past few weeks have also shown me just how strong-willed my child is. She is back to fighting naps again. Sigh. I think my plan now is to give her two hours to fall asleep. If she falls asleep somewhere in there, hallelujah! I'll let her sleep no later than 4:15. If not, at least we tried, and I had two hours to regroup. I just need to teach myself not to stress when she talks in her crib for hours on end. She never cries about it. (In fact, I think the problem is that she enjoys herself so much in the crib that she doesn't want to fall asleep.) There's no reason I can't get things done even though she's talking.

I think we have the beginning of the terrible two's around here. I used to think that was just an excuse for parents not wanting to deal with whiny children. Now I've realized that stubbornness is the reason behind the whiny-ness. (Wow, that makes it sound like I think I have this parenting all figured out. I know that I most definitely don't.) So many things have become a fight. Things she used to love, too, like bath time and putting on her jacket. She knows that she has the ability to fight things and makes sure she takes advantage of that.

All of the fighting aside, this age is still really fun. Norah is constantly discovering things, and it amazes me how much she learns everyday. She loves to repeat words and will repeat basically any word you ask her to. She likes to copy the things we do, like when I stretch or when Rich does sit ups. She is generally a very happy girl, eager to soak up the world.

And here are some pictures from the week:

I broke down and bought a new pair of Sperry Top-Siders with my birthday money. I've been dying for a new pair for years and always search for them at Nordstrom Rack. Rich talked me into the blue pair, over a pair of more plain ones.

 We had a ward culture night on Saturday. It was really well put together, with booths from lots of different countries and lots of foreign food. Norah especially enjoyed the Hawaiian dancers, including several from our ward.

We've started saying evening prayers with Norah before her bedtime. She is usually pretty good about kneeling with us, although she can usually worm her way onto Daddy's lap during the course of the prayer. 

 I took these pictures after a particularly bad bath-time debacle. She cheered up so quickly, and I wanted to remind myself that tantrums don't last forever.

Like her outfit? I wanted to try this skirt on her that I actually made for her last year (but it was too big). She refused to take it off after that, so I tried (and failed) to make a matching outfit out of it.

Maybe she'd take prayers more seriously if I didn't always try to get a picture of it.

 We went for a walk yesterday during a break in the rain. We had a crazy snow storm Saturday/Sunday, which has turned into lots of rain and melting snow since Monday. These trees did not have moss on them a couple days ago.

 I'm adding this picture to my all-time favorites. Man, I love this girl!

Today, my friend Aubrey invited Norah and me to go to a birthday party for Dr. Suess at the Mobius Children's Museum. Norah loves seeing Alivia and had lots of fun spending the morning with her, although trying to get these girls to leave such a fun place was a disaster.

 

 Norah started off listening to the story ("Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?" - not sure that's the best Dr. Seuss book they could have picked), but she soon realized it was much more fun to collect the confetti off the floor.

They made fake cake pops, which ended up being marshmallows covered in frosting and candy, or basically pure sugar.

 They also made these Cat in the Hat hats. (Well, technically the parents made them. It was a little advanced for a class of toddlers.)

After the class, the girls got to explore the rest of the museum. Norah immediately fell in love with the slide. Aubrey supermommed the morning with two-month-old Scarlett on her front.

I definitely don't do a lot of fun activities like this with Norah, so we were excited when Aubrey invited us along for the journey! It was lots of fun, though it's amazing how exhausting it can be for the moms!

Photo Book

Okay, I am super excited about this photo book I made for Norah, "Norah's Little Book of ABCs." Thank you to everyone who helped me with pictures for it, especially the cousin pictures. The best part of this book was that it was free except for shipping! Thank goodness for free photo book codes and online discounts.

Click here to view this photo book larger.