Let me help Mommy!

 

Kisses

Nora is still sick, but she graciously gave Baby Jesus a kiss to make him feel better. She had a slight temperature this morning and still had a horrible sounding cough. We call her the Motrin baby.

Nativity Set

This is the nativity set that I got for our wedding! Finally someone can enjoy playing with it ;-) 

Next Illness?

Croup it is. It seemed that we were on the right track to a healthy December when a barking seal emerged from Nora's bedroom this morning. I immediately recognized the sound from when Uncle Drew was little and standing in the upstairs bathroom with the shower running for hours. I still remember the condensation running down the wallpaper.

After a quick visit to the doctor, I learned that croup is going around and not to worry. Despite the horrible sounding cough, Nora has been in wonderful spirits. She and I had a great time playing together today. She is very contagious and couldn't be around other children today or for the next few days for that matter. Darn, had to use a sick day ;-) I'm happy to be in a position where it isn't a big deal to stay home with Nora. Good thing I'm not very important right now.

On another note, hopefully Brian will make it home tonight from Seattle. His flight into Minneapolis was delayed because it is snowing there again. His flight lands at 10:10 and his next flight to Milwaukee leaves at 10:35. I sure hope he makes it! It would really make for a short weekend if he had to take the redeye. Nora has been saying "da da" all the time. She loves to hear him talk on the phone while watching him on the webcam!

Great News!

Nora has officially been cleared of having kidney reflux!!! She had a second VCUG yesterday and they saw no signs of reflux!

The urologist concluded that if Nora ever gets bladder infections, they directly progress to her kidneys without any warning. So as a precaution, she will continue to take a 1/4 does of antibiotics until her uterers extend into her bladder further. That should occur around the age of 3.

We were just thrilled to find out that not only does she not have kidney reflux, but she won't have to have surgery on her kidneys!

YEAH!

Daddy?

Things in the dual-Remfrey households have been difficult lately. It is hard to live apart like this. Especially for Brian and Nora. Nora has become quite good at talking on the phone. She frequently tried to kiss the phone and doesn't understand that Daddy can't see her gestures while she is listening to him.

All in all Nora has been coping very well. I'm sure when Brian gets home this weekend she will be absolutely thrilled to see him! I know he will be!

We have officially signed Nora up for a daycare in Redmond, WA. It is about 15 minutes from both of our jobs and the townhouse that we will be renting. Hopefully it will work out well. We were very happy with it while visiting a few places last weekend. We weren't too thrilled with the price tag of the first daycare, the second was pit, and we knew right away that the final one we looked at was going to be perfect. We are very excited about the BA Nora's daycare teacher has in music as well as early childhood! She is going to be running an extra music class that Nora will go to three days a week.

We're on the home stretch! We are officially moving on December 29th.

Hello, little tree!

Hello, little tree!
Originally uploaded by binmke.

This one is from Nora's hike through Nana and Papa's back yard. She's grown so much that she's bigger than the trees!

Nora and Papa eating snow

Nora and Papa eating snow
Originally uploaded by binmke.

Papa, why are you eating all the snow? Can't I have some?

Nora and Nana playing outside

Nora and Nana playing outside
Originally uploaded by binmke.

Nora in the Snow

Nora walking in the snow
Originally uploaded by binmke.

Nora spent the weekend at Nana and Papa's house while we were doing some househunting in Seattle. She had a great time walking around in the snow and listening it crunch under her feet!

Long Time No See

Sorry it's been so long since my last entry. Things have been a little crazy here.

Brian has officially started his new job and moved to Seattle. He is living in an apartment that MS has given us until February 1st of next year. I will be joining him to look at rental properties (we can't make up our mind on where to live out there and can't swollow the house prices yet) next weekend. He will be back here every weekend until the holidays when we will officially move to Seattle.

Nora is officially a full-fledged walker. She would much rather walk everywhere than be held. She is quite good at telling us this as well! Her vocabulary is also coming along wonderfully. She is able to say down, done, more, row, hi, mama, dada, and some other things I can't think of right now. She has also become quite good at feeding herself with a spoon. Yogurt is her favorite thing to feed herself at the moment. She is also down to a bottle in the morning and one before bed. Those two will easily be replaced with the sippy cup soon.

Her biggest issue right now are her bottom molars are really hurting her. It has made sleeping at night very difficult.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the whole family and ate ourselves silly. I was expecting Nora to like the turkey more than she did, but we'll have many more chances for her to try it as we have leftovers for at least a week.

Ta Da!

 

First Haircut!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a great celebration today with the entire family. We ate huge amounts of turkey and all of the yummy things that go along with it. Nora didn't have the patience to sit through the whole meal with us, so she started exploring around on her own and chasing her uncle Eric around the room.

We haven't posted anything in a while because things have been quite busy...we are getting ready for the big move to Seattle in a few weeks. Nora keeps growing every day and is now walking with confidence. She has also started to eat with a spoon, which she demonstrated to our surprise this morning with her yogurt!

Lots of pictures were taken today...they will be posted soon!

Long bangs

Nora got her first barrettes this week. Her bangs are getting so long that they are in her eyes. Unfortunately, she doesn't leave the 'pretty' in her hair for very long! 

Banana pancakes are deeeelicious

This morning we had banana pancakes and clementines for breakfast. Nora scarfed down a whole plate of Mickey-Mouse-shaped pancakes and helped me tear the peel off of the clementines.

She is doing very well at using signs to tell us whether she wants "more" or if she is "all done". Signs are much more effective in comparison to what she used to do: take fistfuls of food and fling them from one corner of the room to the other.

I love purses!

Nora's new favorite thing is emptying my purse and playing with everything. I dug out an old purse and we've filled it with things for her to pull out, play with, put back into the purse, and start the process all over again. She can do this for up to 30 minutes alone!

Look familiar?

This must be the Johnson in her! Butt up! 

Nora's new hiding place!

 

Nora loves to have her feet tickled by Grandma

 

"Hi Grandpa and Grandma! Thanks for bringing me a piano this weekend!"

 

Nora's Curls

 

We're Moving!

Daddy has officially accepted an offer with Microsoft in Seattle, WA. He is going to be moving there at the end of this month and we will be joining him after Christmas.

We are all very excited about these new opportunities and hope that we will have lots of visitors in Seattle!

Happy Halloween!

 

Nora is SO BIG on Halloween Morning

 

Third night in a row

Nora is officially putting herself to sleep. Last night was the third night in a row that she put herself to sleep in less than 5 minutes and slept until 7:00 am! We are thrilled! Hopefully we are officially passed the difficult sleep pattern and can now look forward to the next one ;-)

Sleeping through the night!

In an amazing transformation, Nora slept all the way through the night AGAIN last night. We put her in her crib, awake, at 7:30. She cried for 5 minutes, then fell asleep by herself. She woke up again at 6 AM.

We were expecting a repeat of the Oscar-worthy performance we saw the previous night. What a huge improvement.

I love playing with you, Mommy

 

Playing Row Row Row Your Boat

 

Big Steps in the Remfrey House

Nora slept from 8:30 pm to 7:00 am for the first time in over a month! It was a challenging listening to her scream for 45 minutes before she put herself to sleep, but it was well worth the wait. Brian tapped me around 7:00 the morning and said, "It's 7:00 and we're still in our bed and Nora's still in her bed!" It was a huge milestone for us!

The second big event of the day was Nora taking her first three steps! I set her down in the standing position at daycare this morning to show the ladies and Nora decided to make her walking debut. She took one step toward Miss Lachelle and then clapped for herself and repeated this performance three times. It was very exciting! We are going to try to replicate the show tonight at home.

I have no doubt that sleeping through the night had something to do with the walking. I haven't been functioning very well lately because of waking up two or three times a night, so I can't imagine how she was handling it!

Nora got to go to the Children's Museum this weekend when Grandpa, Grandma, and Auntie Pea were here. She obviously had a good time!

The horsey is always one of her favorites

"OOO, I love this slide!"

What was so funny over there?

Riding on the cart with Auntie Pea

Mommy and Daddy got to enjoy a little R & R in Napa Valley this past week while Grandpa, Grandma, and Auntie Pea took care of Nora. THANK YOU!

A picture of the three couples lucky enough to spend a week in Napa to go to Brad and Susanne's wedding!

This past week, Brian and I traveled to Napa Valley to witness the marriage of our friends Brad and Susanne. It was an amazing wedding set right in the middle of a vineyard!

Look at me! Nora gave us her first 'standing alone' show tonight! She stood without any assistance for about 30 seconds a few different times this evening. She wasn't quite ready for steps.

This is Nora's new favorite thing. She loves to walk behind her walker. Hopefully she'll figure out how to turn around by herself in a few days...for now she just gets frustrated once she walks into the wall!

Back to normal

The spots and the fever are gone, and yesterday Nora was taken in once again for her 1-year checkup. 4 immunization shots and a blood test later, she was released back into the wild with a clean bill of health. She is even sleeping through the night now, which is something she hasn't done regularly for almost a month. We are very relieved to have all of this behind us.

Nora's new obsession is walking behind her little push-car toy. We had her walk up and down the hallway with it. She gets the biggest smile on her face and is so proud of her new-found mobility!

Just when we thought it was over...

We woke up this morning to another nasty surprise. Nora has a rash all over her body, which we have now found out is the calling card of a viral infection called roseola. With all of the visits this month, I think we are going to qualify for VIP status at the pediatrician's office.

Playing with Ethan, Logan, and Ana

What a party!

We just wrapped up the festivities. Nora's first birthday was quite an event, and we were so happy to see so many of you come out to help us celebrate!

Before the beginning of the event we were a bit apprehensive as Nora seems to be struggling with an ear infection that landed us back at Children's Hospital again on Friday. It has been a rough weekend for her and we were a bit worried that she would not feel up to doing much celebrating today.

But it all worked out for the best. Nora had lots of fun playing with all the other kids, not to mention hanging out with friends and relatives who came from far and wide. She had a huge smile on her face when she attacked her birthday cake (pictures are below) and after a couple of handfuls of frosting, I think she was feeling better than she has in a long time.

THANK YOU to everyone for all the great presents, and for making the trip out to celebate with us. It's been a great year!!

Nora dives into her birthday cake with reckless abandon!

Where did the flame go, mommy?

Here's Nora with her first birthday cake...a butterfly cake made by her mommy. Nora plunged right in with no hesitation at all, smearing frosting all over the place!

Happy 1st Birthday Nora!

This was one of the first pictures taken of Nora just a couple of minutes after she was born, a year ago today! Looking at these pictures it is incredible to see how much she has grown. Let's take a look to see how much things have changed:

Weight (then): 5 lbs., 3 oz. (2.35 kg)
Weight (now): 20 lbs., 4 oz. (9.19 kg)

Height (then): 18" (46 cm)
Height (now): 29" (74 cm)

Vocabulary (then): crying and drooling, occasional grunts
Vocabulary (now): "baa" "daa" "maa" "pfffffff" and the occasional rasberry

Favorite activities (then): sleeping, pooping, metabolizing biliruben.
Favorite activities (now): giggling, chasing after the cat, swinging, watching Sesame Street, going out for coffee with Daddy on Saturday mornings

Favorite foods (then) - breastmilk, formula
Favorite foods (now) - cow milk, pasta, peas, watermelon, cat food, lasagna

Happy 1st birthday Nora! Updates on the celebration will be posted soon!