Bath time

Nora took her first bath in the big tub this week. Yes, she had fun! Alena was a good big sister and she used a washcloth to scrub that baby down. Alena has been better about sharing with Nora lately. It might be due to Santa's upcoming arrival. Other things Nora has been up to, now that she is 7 1/2 months old: Crawling, though only for short distances. Pulling up on short toys--constantly! Her favorite thing to pull up on is me when I am sitting on the floor. The goal is to grab my hair so she can stick it in her mouth and suck it while she sucks her thumb. She can say mamama and dadada to the correct parent. I think she might be saying ahahah for Alena. She is finally eating food and she loves it. She hasn't turned down any food offered to her lately. I am going to try green beans out on her tonight. She contunues to hate formula, though. She will agree to a 50/50 mix as long as it is warm enough. No hint of upcoming teeth, yet. She continues to be a good napper and gets about 3 hours of sleep a day. That is why I am here on the computer!

Thanksgiving, again

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Jensens yesterday. In addition to the usual suspects, Gisele's aunt and uncle who are visiting from Brazil joined us. We hadn't seen them for over three years so it was their first time meeting Alena and Nora. Nora was happy to have people holding her and paying attention to her, and Alena got along well with Jorge. He taught her how to say "more" in Portuguese. She gave him an arm hug and multiple kisses when he left. How does he rate so high?

Martha and Nora

Jorge learns more about Thanksgiving traditions--sitting around watching football after overeating.

Alena showed Rusty proper blanket smelling technique. He was pretty brave as I don't think kitty blanket had been washed in awhile.

Baby Nora playing with Grandpa Steve

Early Thanksgiving

We went up to Minnesota for an early Thanksgiving last weekend. We got to see Angela's and Julianne's new houses. The whole family was there, as well as Cousin Steve and Krista. Angela and Julianne did a great job on the feast! Nora played with toys the entire meal and we hardly heard a peep from her. She did crawl over and started to eat a magazine when nobody was watching, though.

It snowed on Saturday, so Uncle Tyler pulled Lily and Alena around on the sled. Lily was nice enough to give Alena a pair of princess boots to wear.

Nora reads a magazine while relaxing with Mommy and Aunt Julianne

Nora and Finn played together a lot while the big girls did their thing. Finn is really good at sharing with Nora and she loves him!

Angela put on the Baby Bjorn for old time's sake. Finn spent a lot of hours in that thing.

Crawling

After a couple of weeks of scooting around, Nora finally is starting to crawl! It is pretty cute; too bad I can't get the video to post. Here she is hanging out with the toy pile Alena made for her. She is trying to look in the mirror on the yellow block.

Big red barn

We brought home Ben's barn toy box so we could store some toys. Alena put it to other use. She brings her flashlight and toys and climbs into the box to hang out. Yesterday I came into the living room and I heard her laptop but couldn't find Alena. She soon peeked her head up--yep, she was in the barn. She also encourages others to join her in the barn. No, Nora cannot join you in the barn. Yes, Jones and Ruby can come in if they want.

Crawling lessons

Nora has been working on her crawling skills lately. She has the "get on hands and knees and rock" technique down, but when it comes time to move her legs she collapses. She will do an army crawl to get what she wants, but has yet to move more than a couple of feet at a time. Favorite temptations are pretty standard: cell phones, paper, remote controls, and of course the most tempting of all--Alena's toys!

She leaves a pile of her toys behind to go for her big sister's stuff

Nora "eating" the toy

Alena is sharing some wisdom, obviously. She has the pacifier in because she is pretending to be "Baby Alena." The lemon container is pretend medicine and is dosed using a nerf dart. Alena's imagination is serious stuff. Right now she is sad because her friend Nonie broke her leg and can't come over to play.

Crawling position in gnome hat. She even has a rosy nose from her cold.

Trick-or-treaters

The girls got decked out in their costumes to get some candy. They lucked out and got to see both sets of grandparents! Nora was a little grumpy due to sickness and lack of sleep, but she perked up once she was being carried around outside. It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating!

Alena (monster dog)

Nora (teddy bear)

Let's get this show on the road!