Nora's first non-baby birthday party: Cowboy Theme

 

Photo Op

 

Pony Ride with Farmer Linda

 

Yuck

Tonight Nora decided to play with a bouillon cube! I took it away from her and threw it in the garbage. Before I knew it, Nora was chewing on something like gum. Unfortunately, it wasn't gum, it was the bouillon cube from the garbage can! Within seconds, Nora threw up! We got most of the puke in the sink.

Hopefully she won't choose bouillon cubes for snack in the future!

Nice Headband Grandpa!

Grandma and Grandpa are Here!

Yummy Breakfast!

 

Sydney's New Hiding Place!

 

All night, all day

Last video for today: Nora singing "All Night, All Day"


Video: Nora sings All Night, All Day

Nora sings the classics

Here she is singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".


Video: Nora sings the classics

Nora's nursery rhymes

Here is a short video of Nora "reading" her nursery rhymes to us.


Video: Nora reading nursery rhymes

Nora's Room

Here's Nora's room with her new comforter and paint job. Thanks again Papa!

Neat tool for blog junkies

For those of you that follow a lot of different blogs, I would like to make a recommendation. We use a program called Bloglines to keep track of all the different blogs we follow. The program allows you to subscribe to the sites you visit most often, and lights up when the content on that site is updated.

The blog idea seems to have spread to quite a few of our family and friends, so we use this tool to be sure we see the latest updates on all the sites. It sure beats thumbing through our bookmarks everyday. Check it out: http://www.bloglines.com.

Talking to Grandma and Grandpa

Here is a picture of Nora and April talking to Grandma and Grandpa on the webcam. Moving the computer into the kitchen has made it a lot easier to chat with friends!

New Favorite Food

Scallops!

Fun Saturday morning

After weeks upon weeks of crap weather and lack of sunlight, this morning served as an excellent reminder of why it is great to live in Seattle.

We headed out to the Pro Club in Redmond this morning so that I could work out (!) and Nora and April could go swimming. Nora had been talking non-stop about going back to the swimming pool since we first mentioned the idea to her last night, and she enjoyed herself immensely.

We emerged from the gym a little while later, turned our gaze skyward, and squinted. What was that strange, bright glow? Could it be...? YES! THE SUN! HOOOORAAAAY! The thermometer in the car read 66 degrees, and for the first time in recent memory there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Nora excitedly pointed to the sidewalk and said "Daddy! There's your shadow!"

Inspired by the beautiful weather, we then headed over the lake and into the city in pursuit of brunch.

There is an area on NE 45th St. in Wallingford that we had wanted to explore for a long time, so we spent a few minutes checking it out. The first jewel we uncovered was a little place called Juice Goddess where we got a smoothie. And this was no ordinary smoothie...in true Seattle style, the drink was made by taking heaps of different fruits and vegetables (organic, of course) and either squeezing them or blending them into a delicious concoction. The freshly-made carrot-ginger-apple juice was also fantastic. My favorite part was watching them decimate carrots one at a time in the gigantic industrial-grade blender.

A short walk further down 45th we encountered the second gem: a French bakery called La Boulangerie. It's a tiny little place run by a Vietnamese man who makes fantastic bread. And it's set up just like a place you would see anywhere in France, with the baguettes in a rack behind the counter. The smell of the place alone brought back a lot of great memories for April and I, so we decided to stay put and share a pain au chocolat with Nora. We also got a baguette to have with dinner tonight, although I could not resist nibbling off part of it on our way back to the car.

It was getting close to naptime, so we headed back over the lake. Once we got onto the bridge we were treated to an incredible view of the Cascades, which were visible in their entirety for the first time in weeks. We could even see plumes of snow blowing off the top of Mount Rainier.

Our last stop was the Uwajimaya Market in Bellevue where we stocked up on funky Asian groceries. It's great anytime they hand out samples in the grocery store...but here instead of frozen chicken nuggets and jalapeno poppers, they hand out samples of gyoza and shrimp. Yummy!

Now our culinary adventures have come to an end, and Nora tells me that it is now time to go ride her tricycle.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Thank you Grandma!!

This is the sun dress that Grandma sent Nora for Valentine's Day! THANK YOU! Notice all the chocolate on her face ;-)

ValentiMes

As we speak, Nora is on the floor 'signing' her name on her valentiMes to her friends at school. I love how she says the 'm' in valentimes. She and I folded all the Pooh cards in half and she put two stickers on the edges to keep them closed. She is very excited about giving them to her friends tomorrow.

I'm not so excited about the kids at school tomorrow and I'm sure Nora's daycare teachers are feeling the same. I can't wait to pick her up tomorrow afternoon on a roaring sugar high.

Nora can officially clothe herself! She is able to get her own pants, underwear, shirt, and socks on in the morning. In the evening, she is able to put on her pull-up and jammies! The best part of this is that she is able to put on and zip up her coat! She is SO proud of herself. She is wearing her coat around the house now most of the time. She walks around proclaiming, "I'm did it!"

About this time two years ago