Easter

For Easter, we enjoyed a ham dinner with all of the trimmings courtesy of Mama Diane. There was an egg hunt with the cousins and candy was consumed. Sunday afternoon we decided to head up to Minnesota to visit Lily and Finn (and those aunts and uncles, of course.) We had a great week with them, including Nora's first visit to a zoo. She loved it, especially the monkeys.

Checking out the loot.

Alena was so excited to see the Easter Bunny at the greenhouse on Saturday.

Nora took a nap while we dyed eggs.

But there were plenty of plastic ones to play with when she woke up. Plastic eggs are pretty much her favorite toy.

All dressed up in their Easter finery.

Nora update

A couple of updates on 11 month old Nora:

Favorite foods: bread, oranges, bananas, cauliflower, blueberry pancakes. No more spoon feeding this girl. And don't even think of cutting food into bite sized pieces. She also has to have food in each hand while eating.

Teeth: 3! A top one finally came through this week.

Personality: Happy! She smiles at everyone--just don't try to take her away from her mommy or daddy. If someone gets too close, Nora clings tightly to one of us while continuing to smile. She has become quite the jokester. Yesterday she kept stealing the visor from my head and throwing it in the water table while laughing like crazy. She is always laughing when told "no" and at all of the crazy things that Alena does.

Locomotion: Crawling, cruising, and climbing. She loves climbing everything from stairs to couches to pillow piles. Nora is a fast crawler, especially when she hears the gate to the stairs open. She loves to get into the corner of the couch and bounce and laugh.

Strange baby behavior: Nora loves to find small things off of the floor to stick in her mouth, from previously dropped food to boxelder bugs. She will roll the item around in her mouth for hours if given the chance, kind of like baby chewing gum. She will scream and struggle if you try to remove it. No one is allowed to get a hand near her face for any reason.

Weekend

It was the warmest St. Patrick's Day ever with a high of 82. Who could resist not spending most of the weekend outside? Any time that we go to a playground, Alena thinks that we should have a picnic. Friday her dreams became a reality when we went to the park with Kaelyn and Brielle. Alena was running around the playground yelling "I am having so much fun!"

Saturday Alena and I went to Pinkalicious: the Musical. It was her first experience with the theatre and she loved it. Pinkalicious is a book about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink herself. We celebrated by making pink cupcakes. Yes, Alena did end up turning pink. Her hands were stained from pink sugar and her leg was stained pink when her new dress got wet and bled on her. Grandma gave her a Pinkalicious doll the next day and Alena decided that her pink cow, previously named "Pony," now should be called "Goldilicious" (the name of an imaginary unicorn. It is all very confusing.)

All that fresh air can really wear a baby out.

Alena hiding Easter eggs. She partially buried most of them in mulch.

Nora found an egg!

The water table is so much fun!

Those crazy baby pants.

Swinging

The weather is starting to feel like spring. Alena said it is summer and refuses to wear pants or a coat. She also got to open up the sandbox this weekend. Both girls have gotten a lot of use out of the swingset. Alena got the idea of using it as a jungle gym. She kept saying, "This is fun," and "I am very careful." Last night they were both swinging when I ran into the house to take supper out of the oven. When I got back, Alena was pushing Nora on the swing and they were both laughing. Alena thinks it is fun to make Nora laugh as do we. She has a cute little laugh!

Jumping

Alena and Nora like jumping side by side, Alena on her trampoline and Nora in her jumper. Here are some pictures through the month of the two of them.

Alena started putting pillows all the way around the trampoline to keep her safe. Nora is holding the hotly contested credit card.

Maribelle and Rapunzel like to sit on the pillows and watch Alena jump. Here they are taking part in the action!

Sometimes Nora crawls over to her jumper so she can go in it and bounce. When she is in it she is not trying to climb up on the couch, so it is a nice break. I let her climb the stairs today to let her feel like a big shot. Alena loves when Nora climbs the stairs. The other night she sneakily opened the gate. Nora heard it open and made a beeline for it. She got up 3 stairs before she was stopped!

So big!

Nora loves that she is getting so big. This is her variation which always includes clapping to start. Daddy claims she took four steps last night, but it doesn't look like she is going to start walking too soon. Tooth number two finally came through this weekend, 3 weeks after the first one. And she is starting to bust out of her 6-9 month clothes.

Ulterior motives?

Lately Alena has wanted to give Nora hugs. I believe it is mostly an effort to injure Nora, just a little. Nora's intentions aren't entirely pure, either. She is trying to chew on the brown buttons on Alena's shirt.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Daddy celebrated his 33rd birthday this week by working. Good thing Alena and Nora came through with this fancy apron when he got home. Alena also helped make a mint cake and carefully placed the candles. On a less festive note, nothing makes you feel your age more than solicitation from a funeral home about advance purchasing of your funeral services. Thanks Cedar Memorial.

Cake balls

Alena, Daddy and I made cake balls for Valentine's Day. Alena helped in every step of making them. I think they turned out pretty well--we made nearly 100 and took them to work and daycare and they were gobbled up.

Stirring in the frosting

Sampling the mix

Alena put the sprinkles on every single ball

Alena thinks that smiling for the camera should always include squinting her eyes shut

Nora's poses

Nora is too busy now to smile at the camera. She doesn't like to look up from what she is working on for anything!

The little tooth

She is very secretive of the new tooth. Look closely.

Nora finally has a tooth!

I was starting to think it would never pop its pearly head out, but Nora's bottom right tooth has finally appeared! I swear it wasn't visible this morning but was at lunch. It didn't seem to bother her at all and she is happy as usual. She is 9 1/2 months old.

Sunday we went sledding down the icy alley. It was Nora's first time on the sled. She liked it as long as she was going very slow. Alena, on the other hand, requires speed! The wheel tracks in the alley made a good luge track for her. Monday she made a snow family with Daddy. They are almost melted away today after the stretch of really warm weather.

Snow

After a dry December and one of my only green birthdays, the snow has begun to fall. Friday all of the schools let out early and we celebrated the snow day with snow ice cream. We collected clean snow in a bowl and added sweetened condensed milk. Ben and I liked it, and while Alena did say it was yummy, she still prefers good old fresh snow eaten outside. Saturday only got up to 18 degrees, but there was no wind so Alena got her eating snow request. It was so fluffy that she brought a spoon to assist her in her efforts.

Snow ice cream

Off the charts!

Nora's stats at 9 months: 25 3/4 inches, 14 lbs, 11 oz. No surprise to me, she has dropped off the always exciting growth chart for weight. The doctor was quizzing me on her food intake (clearly she is malnourished) when I pointed out she is only 4% for height and perhaps she is just small like her mom. Social services was not not called...this time. We are putting her on a steady diet of cookies and Cheetos so she can be considered healthy.

What Nora lacks in size, she makes up for in ambition.