Five Teeth

I tried to get a picture, but to no avail. Nora's front two teeth have broken through the skin and her left "I" tooth is right below the skin. That brings the grand total to 5 teeth! We had no idea the second front tooth had broken through the skin because we were expecting the same horrible reaction as the first. I guess the premier top tooth got her ready for the pain she would experience for the next few because she has been just fine. The drool is never a signal either because she always drools like crazy.

Nora and Daddy are enjoying a trip to Home Depot as I enjoy a few minutes to myself. The first few days of work went just fine. Nora successfully made it through three days of daycare while making steady progress in the area of tolerating her peers. Wow, I really am in the work mode...that sounded like a response to an IEP goal! She'll be fine next week, but it will be hard being that it is a full week of every day.

First injuries of the weekend. Nora vigorously rubs her eyes when waking up from a nap: notice the lovely scratch. She has also become quite independent while trying to move around the edge of the table. She is successful about 90% of the time, but the bruise above her right eye was from the 10% of the not so successful experiences.

Daycare, Crawling & WORDS!

Whelp, I can't say it's her favorite place to be. She isn't too keen on being around other children for a whole day. I guess she can tolerate the first hour and then wants to be held and away from the other children. When she rides in the wagon, she pushes the other kids away from her. Hopefully a little time will help her get used to being around the other children.

Nora is also starting to crawl a little bit. She takes about 4 or 5 'crawling steps' now.

Nora is saying This and That! It sounds more like Dis and Dat, but we understand her! She points at things and says her words and we tell her "That is a spoon, This is your bottle" etc.

Teeth again and Daycare

Nora's front left tooth has cut through the gum! I knew something was up because she has been extremely difficult and had a runny nose. I could see the tooth under the gum a couple of days ago and it officially made its appearance yesterday afternoon.

Nora officially started daycare today. Brian and I dropped her off (with all the necessary stuff) around 8:15. Sister Betty told me that it was ok for me to call and ask how she was doing, but not to stop in. She's right, but it would be nice to actually see how she is doing rather than just hearing it second hand from someone over the phone.

Nana's (Brian's mom) side of the family had their annual family reunion in Lake Zurich, IL on Sunday. Nora met lots of new people, but the dog was her favorite!

Ochen' prijatno!

Nora met Anastasia (Natasha and Alex's daughter) at a barbeque in the park on Friday.

Nora and Big Bird have met.

How many toys does it take to occupy Nora for 5 minutes?

Maybe a percussionist?

Nora is pulling herself up on most anything now!

Welcome Morning

Nora woke up a few times during the night, but she never cried for more than 5 minutes before she put herself back to sleep. She was up for good at about 6:15 this morning.

She has pretty puffy eyes this morning, but we'll try to get in some good naps today. Oh the joys of an independent baby...didn't you say this would happen to me Mom?

Update on the Screaming

Nora finally fell asleep at 9:15 after another forty-five minutes of screaming. I sat on the floor next to her and sang for a good half an hour before she couldn't hold herself up anymore. She was sitting up and would catch herself as she began to fall over from exhaustion. She didn't cry the last 10 minutes before she fell asleep.

YEAH! She put herself to sleep without the use of the pinky.

I'll update you in the morning to see if she woke during the night. Let's hope not for everyone's sake!

Screaming

Nora is on her second hour of screaming for the day. She screamed for one hour straight this afternoon instead of taking a nap. This evening she has decided to do the exact same thing. I sat by her crib for quite a long time (while going deaf) but it didn't seem to make any difference if I was in the room or not.

We are not allowing her to suck on our pinky finger anymore and this is obviously being greeted with some unhappiness on Nora's part.

I don't know how long we can take this!

New Position

Nora's new favorite position is Downward Facing Dog. For all of you non-yoga people that is your feet and hands on the ground with your butt up in the air. Quite an amusing sight!

Nora's New Friend

Nora has made a new friend in Sydney (our cat). Nora's new favorite food is any type of pasta with tomato sauce. Of course, this includes very messy fingers and face. Nora has started hanging her arm over the side of her highchair after every bite for Sydney to get a taste of what she is eating. With a sauce covered pointer finger, Nora lets Sydney lick off her finger between bites. Sydney loves it and Nora giggles like crazy every time!

This morning, Nora and Daddy are off to Brady Street for their normal Saturday morning coffee and observation of the 'crazies'. I get a couple cherished hours to myself.

This is Nora's new trick...pulling herself up in the crib!

Do you think it's time to lower the mattress?

This is Nora's normal response to having a hat on her head. Luckily I was able to get at least a couple shots with the hat on her head!

Nora and I visited the Jellybelly factory today and had a blast!

Up close and personal as Nora devoured her pasta for dinner. She loves Mommy's homemade sauce.

"I love pasta!"

It was a very hot day at the zoo!

Nora, Daddy, and Auntie Tracy visited the Milwaukee County Zoo this weekend while I was in Cleveland.

Nora LOVES goats!

Hanging out with the monkeys

On Sunday, Tracy and I took Nora to the Milwaukee County Zoo for the first time. It was a blast. I think her favorite things were feeding the goats in the petting zoo and watching the fish in the aquariums. She let loose a few of her signature happy "raptor" screeches when she saw the orangutangs swinging from one side of their cage to the next. She also really seemed to enjoy the bears and the elephants.

Pictures to follow...

First Weekend Away

I am leaving today for a weekend with the girls in Cleveland. Nora is going to stay with Auntie Pea this afternoon and then Daddy is going to be on 24 hour duty as of tomorrow morning when Pea leaves. Brian will do wonderfully, but we'll see how I do. I'm going to try my best to not call all the time. I'll keep you updated. I'm sure that someone will be counting the number of phone calls this weekend.

Nora has really started singing to herself. Her shrill shrieks are not as frequent as they used to be. Yesterday, Nora accompanied me to meet my new teaching partner and principal (oddly enough at the school I had my first job and the teacher that took over for me!) and she played on the floor for about 30 minutes with her books and toys all the while singing to herself.

Ten Months Old

Nora is officially growing up quickly. I never thought that it was going to be time to put her in daycare, but here we are: three weeks from the beginning of daycare. I'm excited to see all the new things that she is going to learn from the children in her classroom. She is really into mimicking others, so it will be interesting. Hopefully she'll only learn the good things that the others do.

I'll give you a quick update on the happenings in Nora's life:

She loves to point at everything. This includes touching things with her pointer finger. Right now her favorite thing to touch is the cat. Can't say that Sydney is too thrilled with the attention.

She has discovered her nose. Great timing considering her pointer finger is quite adept at going anywhere and everywhere.

Nora is starting to pull herself up on things. While I was disrobing her for her bath this afternoon, she pulled herself up on the side of the bath tub. Yikes.

Favorite foods: mac and cheese (organic of course ;-), watermelon, and zucchini

She has started her transition to cow's milk. She drank about 4 ounces today and we'll slowly start increasing the cow's milk and decreasing the formula! Yeah! No more stinky powder!

The changing table is a circus act. Nora is able to do flips during diaper changes.

Nora continues to get all the attention when we go out. While at dinner tonight, she had four or five people stop by to oooh and aaah over her.

Searching for leaves that were worthy of eating (tasting) was one of Nora's favorite pastimes while in Minnesota.

"I'd like to thank my Mom and my Dad for helping me win this amazing ring. I couldn't have done it without them!"

For some reason, Nora is really into 'licking' water, whether it be while swimming or in the bath tub. She is even putting her whole face in the water and then comes up coughing. I figure she'll learn very quickly that water isn't something that you can breathe.

Nora enjoyed having Grandpa put his hat on her head and then she would take it off and hand it back to him.

Nora really loved swimming at the lake. I was reminding her that she could splash just like in the bath tub.