Happy 2012!

Now, this may look like a harmless way to kick off 2012 but as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  So, here's the story...Nathan started having a tough time with naps and pretty much refused to lay down and sleep; instead, he would sit in his bed and sing, scream, cry, yell 'Mommy!', talk, or whatever he could come up with instead of sleeping.  Well, after doing some reading on the subject I decided to try the approach of letting him "cry it out" for a full hour like we did when he was a baby.  So, here we are on the first day of implementing this new approach.  He was having his fit for 59 minutes and then it was silent; I couldn't believe that with only 1 minute to go he finally succumbed to sleep.  I snuck in to see what was going on and when I cracked his bedroom door open I didn't see him lying on his pillow; after some brief heart palpitations I noticed that he was lying down at the foot of his bed.  Ah hah...now I understood the high pitched screaming that I thought was just a part of his fit...apparently he had gotten himself STUCK between his bed and the wall.  After taking this picture I tried to move him but he was really stuck; he woke up screaming, 'Nathan not tired!'  I really couldn't get him unstuck so I had to move his bed and pry him out. I asked him how he got stuck and he told me that he was trying to turn his light on. Thankfully, there was no harm done except for a bruise on his butt cheek - and by the way, for the most part, he now lays on his pillow still as a statue and goes right to sleep at naptime, I think for fear that if he moves he'll get stuck again...

January brought with it G-Ma's 60th birthday!  Here's Nathan helping to make her birthday cake...

Norah and G-Ma spending some time alone at G-Ma's birthday party...

Happy Birthday!

Such beautiful ladies...

Uncle Steve sleeping on the job (looks like we'll definitely have to make sure Aunt Hanna is around whenever we have them sit the kids)...

Nathan made G-Ma this beautiful stained glass rainbow that he picked out himself (like the old school Shrinky Dinks) that she promptly displayed in their front door window...

G-Ma thought she was having a girls day out luncheon at Josephine's Tea Room on her actual birthday but she was pleasantly and VERY surprised to be greeted by her in-town guys...

Sexy in their sixties - what a lovely couple...

The St. Louis Fam...

G-Ma and her youngest grandbaby...

Another January highlight was Nathan's trip to see Sesame Street Live - Elmo Makes Music at the beautifully renovated Peabody Opera House.  Mommy and Nathan went with Aunt Carrie and Sarah and it was a blast! We kicked off our afternoon with some fun in the "Play Zone" including a visit to Oscar's trash can...

A whirl on Elmo's piano...

A hello to Elmo's goldfish, Dorothy...

The Muppet of the hour...

We learned that Big Bird is actually a canary...

The funnest street in town...

A visit with Nathan's other favorite Muppet, Ernie (whose laugh he just loves to imitate, 'heeheeheehee')...

Showtime...

During the show Sarah introduced Nathan to one of the finer things in life...cotton candy...

 Which Nathan thoroughly enjoyed...

I was shocked at how enthralled Nathan and Sarah both were the entire time, their eyes glued to the stage...

What a FUN and special afternoon!

Nathan was still in the Elmo zone for a few days after the show; thankfully Aunt Hanna and Uncle Steve had gotten him some fitting jammies for Christmas that he could sport...

Baxter and Hobbes enjoying some downtime while the kids were napping...

This month brought some new things for Nathan, including crossing his arms (how cute does that look!?!?!), Daddy taught him how to put on his coat all by himself, if you ask him if he needs anything he'll respond, 'I'm fine!' if you ask him how he is he'll respond, 'Great!' he expanded his manners so that when he wants something, instead of just saying 'please!' he'll now say 'may I have...please?' he started putting his bathroom stool away after washing his hands, when having his morning or afternoon snack (which he calls a 'nacky nacky') he will get it out of the pantry by himself (like the box of crackers), get out a bowl, fill the bowl, put the box back in the pantry, sit down at the dining room table to eat and when he's all done he'll put the bowl in the kitchen sink, throw out any wrappers (like from his fig bar), push his learning tower over to the kitchen sink, wet a washcloth, wipe his hands and mouth and push his learning tower back.  Unbelievable!  He started clicking his tongue (not sure where he picked this up) and he really likes to try to undress and dress himself (he's pretty good at getting his jammy pants off, his jammy shirt mostly off (he usually gets an arm stuck around his neck), his underwear on, his pants on (but still needs help with the zipper and button) and he still tries to put his arm through the neck hole which makes things quite challenging.  He's pretty good at getting his shoes off and on and now we're working on tying his shoes (Mommy needs to learn some shoe tying rhymes to help with this process).  One of the cutest things he's started doing this month is "story time" which he must have picked up from Sunday School.  After we read him his nap or bedtime story he'll want to take the book and do "story time" which consists of him sitting on the floor, reading us the book (which always has the words, 'I know Jesus lives...the only Son of God') and showing us the pages - it is so precious!

We've also got some cute Nathan stories from this month but the best one is probably this...he, Norah and I were in WalMart one morning and while we were shopping in an aisle Nathan exclaimed 'Mommy!  That's Mary!'  I turned around and there was a Muslim woman standing there in her full attire which resembled what Nathan had seen Jesus' mommy wearing in all the Christmas books we had been reading him for the past month.  Nathan said again, 'Mommy!  That's Mary!'  The woman kind of glared at us and I said, "no honey, that's not Mary."  I couldn't get out of that aisle fast enough and once we were out of ear shot I asked Nathan if he thought that was Jesus' mommy and he said, 'Yes - that's Mary!'  I couldn't contain my laughter!

I'll tell you, this little guy's memory just blows my mind.  We were watching a CedarMont kids video one day and when a particular song came on, without missing a beat, Nathan jumped up, ran out to grab one of his Mikey Mouse sound books, flipped it open right to a particular page, pushed the button and lo and behold, it was the same tune (but different words).  Wow!  Wow!  Wow!

A few other cute stories include the time he was supposed to be napping and I was out in the office working on my Bible study and I heard a strange noise; I got up and walked into the hallway to see what was going on and there was Nathan pushing his stool out of the bathroom and into his bedroom.  He told me that he wanted to turn his projector back on (which is up on top of his bookshelf).  I so wish I had my camera because the look on his face was priceless when he got busted!  He hasn't come out of his room during naptime since!

One cute, but possibly embarrassing story later in life, is when he was going to the bathroom and as he was peeing he said, 'Hi pee pee.  How are you pee pee?  I like pee pee!  Pee pee happy!'  Where does he come up with this stuff!?!?!

Another funny was when I was trying to get Norah's pumpkin seat out of the car and it was stuck in the base of the carseat.  Nathan was still sitting in his carseat watching me struggle and when I finally got the seat out he yelled, 'Yay Mommy!'

It's definitely been a fun kickoff to 2012 and I can only imagine the stories we'll have to share as the year goes on, so stay tuned!

Week 32 - Modeling

Would you look at this beautiful little sweetheart in her Sunday best!  Although I am the biggest fan of pink, I must admit that our little girl looks really great in purple...

Here's Norah with her favorite stuffed friend which I think resembles her - pretty in pink with magnificent blue eyes...

Hmmm...I think we're going to have to kiss the bouncy seat goodbye because she prefers to sit up and lean over in it rather than lounge back in it, which gets Mommy a bit nervous...

Modeling her cute slippers (that Great Aunt Sandy had actually bought for Nathan after he was born)...

Speaking of modeling, we decided to do a modeling shoot with Norah in some of Mommy's "antique" baby clothes that MaMoo passed on.  Here she is in the bunting that my Great Aunt Lenny had made for me when I was just a babe.  At first she kind of gave me the "stink eye" as if to say, 'WHAT are you doing to me?'...

'Seriously, Mom, get me out of this thing'...

'I can't get my arms out to suck on my thumb and that does not make me happy at all'...

'ok, fine, I'll just chew my way out'...

'I beg of you, please help'...

After freeing her from the baby straight jacket we moved on to this sweet cape that my Mom made for me.  This was more of a hit with her since she could freely move about...

Norah has always been a fan of the activity center but now she just has an absolute ball jumping in it...

Speaking of enjoying things, Norah really enjoyed her menu additions this week including zucchini (which she thought was "yum!"), butternut squash (which at first she scowled at, but then raised her eyebrows with enthusiasm for more) and sweet potatoes (which I think is her favorite food yet...that's my girl, having a bent for anything sweet)...

Sporting some black and white (soccer ball colored) hair accessories in honor of Uncle Ross' soccer season kickoff (he's the women's soccer coach at Columbia High School over in Illinois)...

Week 31 - Norah turns 7 months!!!!!!!

This has been a huge week for Little Miss Norah!  To kick things off, she was introduced to this fun play table  that MaMoo got Nathan for his first Christmas and she has taken to it just like he did!  Her favorite thing to play with is the mouse and she likes to shut the computer top... 

She was also introduced to Pete the Penguin and she has been having a ball with him!  There are so many fun things to play with now that she can sit up.  One day this week she seemed to start dancing while she was sitting, but perhaps she was just a bit unstable...

However, she took a break from sitting and decided to lounge back on her Boppy and kick Pete for a while...

Here's big brother Nathan showing his little sister how to "shake, shake, shake" a container filled with pennies...

She got the hang of it very quickly...

And has been practicing all week long.  Now she'll pick up anything she can get her hands on and just shake it like crazy...

Norah is really smitten with kitty and puppy!  Here she is giving some love to Hobbes the only way she knows how - by pulling ears and hair.  Once again, just as with Nathan, Hobbes is extremely patient and takes the abuse...

Here's Nathan introducing his buddy, Scout, to Norah...

Norah graduated to the high chair this week and she seems quite comfy!  As far as her growing menu, this week she tried carrots (at first she seemed to think they were just ok - she didn't spit them out but she was crying through the first few bites; however, she seemed to take to them as time went on), avocado (which she loved and ate right up) and yellow squash (which she found quite yummy).  One funny thing she's started this week is grunting for more food - we can't seem to get it into her mouth fast enough... 

She looks so tiny in this big chair...

We needed some pink to brighten up these cold, gloomy, winter days!  We cannot believe that our baby girl is 7 months old - the time is flying by way too quickly!  She's growing up so much and doing new things every day.  This week has been an especially big week in her little life.  On her 7-month birthday she watched her first video, Baby Einstein's World Animals, and she went crazy when the lions came on - she's clearly a fan of the felines!  She learned how to take balls out of her play fish bowl (and she dropped some balls in too, but I think that was just by accident) and she learned how to bang the balls together (at first it was by accident, but with more practice it was very concentrated).  We are having so much fun watching our sweet little girl grow, learn and develop and we thank God every day for blessing our family with her...

This week Nathan decided to jump in on the bear shot with his teddy...

Week 30 - working on crawling!

Here's our baby girl catching up on some reading while enjoying tummy time...

Norah is still enamored with the whole concept of utensils...

As far as food goes, she finally ate peas all by themselves this week, without any oatmeal mixed in, and she seemed to think they were yummy!  She also tried green beans which she loved and broccoli which she really loved...

I would say that hands down, Norah's favorite thing to do these days is put anything and everything she can get her hands on into her mouth.  Here she was attempting to apply her lipstick but decided to just eat it instead...

On January 12, 2012 Norah got to see her first real snowfall (we had one earlier in the month but it was barely a dusting, so that doesn't count).  Here she is sporting her "My First Snow" bib...

Whenever Norah wakes up Nathan likes to be the first one in her room and this is how he greets her...jumping up on her crib, peering in and saying "Hi, Baby Norah!"...

Here's big brother Nathan helping his little sister try to crawl by pushing on her feet.  She does scoot along like a little inchworm if you put her on her belly and let her push off the palms of your hands as she kicks (however, she usually just lays down, turns her head to one side and starts sucking away on her thumb).  I don't think she cares in the least to be mobile...

Some more crawling training with the help of Nathan and his trusty friend, Follow Me Fred...

All in white in honor of her first snow this week.  Our "big girl, pretty girl, sweet girl, honey girl" (as Daddy and Nathan affectionately refer to her) had her 6-month pediatrician appointment this week and she weighed 13 pounds, 9 ounces (5th percentile) and she measured 25 inches long (9th percentile).  Looks like she's living up to my nickname for her, "littlest love"...

Whatchu lookin' at?

Week 29 - Fun while sitting up!

Well my goodness, you start a girl on "real" food and she just plunges right in!  I had put Norah in her Bumbo seat while I went to do something and when I turned around she had pulled Nathan's shopping cart down and grabbed a box of pretzels to start gnawing on.  Speaking of real food, she still wasn't too hip on the peas we started giving her last week.  We had to hide the peas in her oatmeal in order to get her to eat them at all, but if the ratio wasn't quite right she was on to us instantly and wouldn't eat them at all.  Sometimes after a bite she would just keep her mouth wide open and let it fill with saliva so that everything would just ooze out - little stinker!  But, by the end of the week, she loved her peas...as long as they were mixed with a 1:1 ratio of oatmeal!

She's really doing a great job sitting up on her own and she's even added a new trick to the mix - playing with toys while sitting...

She's still a fan of sucking on her thumb but more often you'll catch her sucking on her fingers in this backwards position...

 Some morning playtime - we just love her "tired eyes" look...

Norah has never been a fan of "tummy time" but this week I figured out that she does much better at it if she's on a solid colored surface like here on our bedroom floor (guess her tummy time mat was too busy for her).  Nonetheless, she would much rather roll over onto her back than work on building her muscles in preparation for crawling.  Here I caught her in mid roll...

But boy, she just loves sitting up like a big girl...

I don't think she's a fan of sharing the chair with the bear anymore - looks like she's trying to toss him off...