More snowdays!

The crazy weather here continues...yesterday we were pounded by another snowstorm, which threw the area into a panic once again. Streets are closed, and schools are not opening again until next Tuesday. This nice 5-day weekend means that the school year is going to extend to June 27th. In contrast to the last storm, we are not having any problems with the electricity.

Nora went out to play in the snow this afternoon, sporting her new pink snowpants which were originally purchased for our upcoming trip to the mountains this weekend. Little did we know they would come in quite handy this whole week!

In other news, we found out today that we must have been torturing Nora with shoes that were too small...we had her feet measured today and she has gone from a size 6 to a size 8 1/2 in a matter of months. Unfortunately her new shoes are not nearly as cool as her cousins' as there are no sound effects or blinking lights.

Daycare Change...thank goodness

I've finally had enough of Nora's daycare. Nora was sent home from school at 10:00 last Tuesday because she had bit a child three times. Nice, huh? Don't you think after the first time you'd...there's no need to rant right now.

I took off the next morning to go in and chat with the director about her thoughts on why she thought all of this was happening and make the recommendation that she be put with the older group. When I arrived at 8:30, the director was 'out' and the teacher for the room Nora was supposed to move into had not yet arrived. Nora and I went into her new room and I showed her around. We looked at all the new toys and friends that she was going to get to make. By 9:30, the director had not returned and the classroom teacher was not there. Nora's group of 2-3 year olds were grouped with the 4 year olds as well. There were two teachers in the room with 20 students. They were well over the 7 to 1 ratio that is mandated by law. I was not a happy camper.

When the director returned, I gave her a few minutes to get settled and went into her office. She was having a personal conversation on the telephone when Iwalked in. She said to her friend, "Just a minute," put the phone on her lap and asked, "I only have second." What? A second to discuss how to help my baby? You've got to be kidding me.

I left Nora's daycare (reluctantly) at 10:00 and went to observe two other centers. I was very impressed with one place and put Nora's name on the waiting list. I was told there would be about a one month waiting list. Not the best scenario, but the best we could do on such short notice.

On Friday, I found out that the eldest of the family that watches Nora is off from her normal nanny job until the end of the month! I was so excited that I called that daycare to confirm that Nora would be able to be in there by the end of the month. To make a long story short, Nora is starting at Kid's Country in Woodinville on January 22nd, and Dyanna is going to be watching Nora, in our home, until then! I couldn't be happier! I think Nora needs a little time by herself, and then she'll be entering a wonderful environment that has a REAL teacher (and has stayed in her job for 6 years!) and real curriculum.

We're finally back on the right track.

Hanging out in Milwaukee

Nora hanging out with Auntie Nessa

Opening presents is so much fun! Especially when Santa follows me from one state to the next!


Showing off dance moves to Louise


With Angie and Ava at the Milwaukee Children's Museum

Tackle!

Highlights from Wisconsin

Nora had lots of fun playing with her cousins Ethan and Logan last week. It was amazing to see how much the boys had grown even since we last saw them in August.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!


We arrived safe and sound in Seattle last night, shortly before the turn of the New Year in the Pacific time zone. The journey home took us a little over 18 hours, and we were all very happy to get some sleep. Our thanks go out to Grandpa and Grandma, who braved the 6-hour roundtrip through a snowstorm to get us to the airport on time!

Getting ready for Christmas

Speech

Nora came into our room this morning, nudged me and said, "Daddy, wake up, Grandpa made pancakes and bacon with syrup on it."

Every single word was perfectly clear. Every week her speech is improving by leaps and bounds. We just hope she doesn't pick up *every* word that Mommy and Daddy say :)

Science is FUN

We arrived safe and sound in Iowa yesterday. Nora is having a blast playing around with Grandpa and Grandma, and gosh it sure is nice to have electricity.

This afternoon we checked out the Imaginarium at the Grout Museum in Cedar Falls. It's the kind of place where school kids can go to learn about science. We had a really good time playing around with all of the exhibits and seeing Fluffy, the huge Burmese python. I think Nora's favorite was the gyroscope exhibit, which required her to stand on a platform and spin around and around and around. Despite being unable to walk in a straight line for several minutes afterwards, she pleaded with us to put her back on the spinner for another round.

Big Girl Bed

Nora's 'big girl' bed is being delivered tomorrow! We (Brian) have taken apart the crib and changing table to make room for the big switch. Nora has been sleeping in 'Grandpa's' room (the guest room) for the past week or so. She has been putting her foot up on the side of the crib and all around feeling trapped. I don't want to wait until she falls on her head to make the change!

Yesterday, after her nap, Nora came walking into the kitchen saying, "Hi Mommy!". She didn't have to scream for someone to come and get her which puts her in a terrible mood.

It was recommended that we leave the bed on the floor for the first couple of months until she gets used to the width of the bed. We got a half-size box spring so it won't be as high as a normal bed too. I can't wait to be able to crawl in next to her to read books before going to sleep!

Biting

Nora has been written up three times for biting in the last two days. Mommy and Daddy were not happy campers. Two of the instances were provoked, but one time she just bit out of no where.

The perception of the teachers in her room is that she is frustrated that the others in the room can't talk to her like she expects. She is not the oldest in the room, but her language skills are a bit higher than anyone else's'. She knows that when she speaks to most people they respond and she may not understand why her friends can't.

What ever the reason for the biting, I'm told it's normal. I don't really care if it is normal, it's my kid doing it and I want her to stop. Thankfully, she only has seven more days of daycare before we leave for our trip to the Midwest. Hopefully she'll forget about this attention seeking behavior during our three weeks away from school. We are looking forward to our trip immensely (especially Nana, Papa, Grandma, and Grandpa!)

Auntie Pea arrives for her holiday break on Tuesday. We are going to have a blast cooking and doing Auntie and Niece things. Nora is really into helping with the measuring and pouring during a recipe. That will make holiday baking even more fun.

Nora's painting project

Nora's painting project
Originally uploaded by binmke.

The Poop Position

Yes, Nora has a poop position. While Nora is sitting on the toilet, I usually sit right in front of her on the step stool. Recently, she has made me lean in to her and she puts her head on my left shoulder and I put mine on her left shoulder. Then she says, "Put your arms around me." This must give her comfort while doing the deed because not seconds after the position is assumed, the poop drops out of her!

Strange but true. The things a mommy will do to get her child to poop on the potty!

Newest find

Nora has a birthmark! It is a small little brown circle right behind her right ear. Cutest little thing I've ever seen.

Stacking Blocks at Macy's

Enjoying Macy's

Riding the Carousel downtown Seattle

Thanksgiving Dinner with Nora's new friend, Cynthia

Fun with Auntie Pea's Scarf

Rolls rising and the turkey staying warm

Reading Curious George while waiting for the turkey to cook

Big girl underwear!

Putting up the lights

A walk to the neighborhood park

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving in our new house this week with Dwayne, Rachel, Amber and Cynthia, one of Amber's housemates who is from Kenya.

Nora wasn't too fond of the turkey, and ended up reading a book during dinner. She is definitely enjoying having so many people around to play with and being the center of attention. We made lots of play-doh snowmen together over the past couple of days.

On Friday we put up our Christmas tree, and Nora enjoyed helping Mommy and Auntie Pea put up the lights. She did not quite understand the concept of leaving the ornaments on the tree, and for every one that we put on, she would hand one back to us.

Enjoy the pictures!

Better Late than Never

  

It's a Success!

Nora has made it through three days of daycare with only one accident! She has been doing quite well at home as well, but last night we got both a pee pee and poopieccident. The best accident so far has been the poopie in the bath tub. I heard a shout from Nora's bathroom from Brian the other night, "Your turn!" Brian cleaned up the last bathtub poo, but it was delagated to me this time. The tub and warm water must be the best place to poo if you know you can't do it in your new Elmo underwear!

I'm really proud of her that she is holding it on the new and improved 30-45 minute car ride to and from daycare every day. The teachers put a sticker on her chart every time she goes on the potty at school. For the first time, I walk into daycare and look to see if she has on the same clothes. It takes on a whole new meaning now!

Raking the backyard

Raking the backyard
Originally uploaded by binmke.

We moved into the new house this weekend. April and Nora got to work right away cleaning up the leaves in the backyard.

UNDERWEAR!!!

Nora made it through her first weekend of a diaper free butt! I thought it would be the perfect time to transition while all the transitions were happening at once.

So far, we've had only one accident (the poop sensation seems to be much harder than the other).

She's on a one hour schedule and daycare is taking care of it while she's there. She was so freaking proud to show her teachers her Elmo underwear this morning!

I just picked up two children's books (one by Fred Rogers) about going pee-pee (as we call it) on the potty. Anything with Mr. Rogers on the front will be loved by Nora and her daddy :-)

Stay posted for further updates.

Nora joins our demolition crew

We finally got the keys to our new house this week, and we are having the floors re-done. We spent most of the weekend tearing up the old "1970's casino floor"-style carpet and the engineered wood floors in the kitchen in order to make way for the new oak flooring.

It's not our usual idea of family fun on the weekends, but we all had a great time.

Nora helped by drawing all over the floors with markers. We explained to her that this was the ONLY time in her life that she would be able to do that...so she enjoyed it!

I started tearing away at the carpeting and old engineered floor. I never knew how theraputic crowbars, hammers and big scary-looking utility knives could be. The destruction continued well into the evening hours.

April spent most of the day keeping Nora away from the aforementioned crowbars, hammers and big scary-looking utility knives. Here is a picture of her with the hammer...she wanted to "go boom boom boom like Daddy".

 

Two-Year Old Stats

This may seem a bit late, but we just had Nora's two-year check-up last Thursday!

Height: 33.5 " (50%)
Weight: 24lbs. 4 oz. (40-50%)
Head Circ: 48.9 cm (HUGE!)

Nurse questions:
Is she saying two-word sentences? Huh? More like 6-8 word sentences!
Can she name four body parts? Nora, show the nice nurse where your arm pit is!
Does she have at least a 50 word vocabulary? Who can count that many words? I think we surpassed 50 words six months ago.

Needless to say, even though Nora was six weeks early, she is well beyond where she needs to be at this point. Let's hope she stays ahead of the curve ;-)

I can't imagine what is going to happen in the next year! The changes we've seen this year leave both Brian and I in awe. I wish I could learn things as quickly and Nora!

New Short Do

Sorry for the fuzziness, but it was the best I could do with Brian hogging the camera in China ;-) Friends stopped over and I had them take a picture with their camera phone. 

Nora loved the Yakama apples this weekend. 

Goin for a short do

On Saturday I'm going to take Nora to get her hair cut after we come back from visiting Auntie Pea. I have decided that she would look super cute in a little bob and it may help with the hair twisting as well.

On the Halloween costume front, Nora and I went shopping for hers yesterday. I had her try on a chicken suit and a pumpkin. The chicken suit was adorable and the pumpkin suit was so-so. I held up both costumes to let her choose. She chose the pumpkin. Crap. I decided to make is two out of three. All three times she chose the pumpkin. So it is, Nora is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween.

On Friday, after school, Nora and I are going to drive to Ellensburg to spend some time with Auntie Pea. We are going to go to a children's orchestra Halloween concert. This is where Nora will get to sport her costume for the first time. On Saturday morning, we are going to go apple picking and then we'll drive home Saturday afternoon for the 5:00 PM haircut.

On Sunday, Nora is going to spend some time with her favorite babysitters (OK, only babysitters) while Mommy and a new friend go out for lunch and get our nails done. Should be a blast...for both of us!

Back at Daycare

After a full 24 hours of no fever and cabin fever setting in, Nora is back at daycare. I took all of today off because the doctor told me that the virus would last a good 72 hours. Well, she has been fever free for close to 36 hours and is sick of being around Mommy. This morning she promptly awoke and asked for Cherrios and raisins (thanks mom) and Brandon (her best friend from daycare). I told her we'd see how the morning went.

By 9:30 she was playing in her bedroom and "reading" her books to Brandon. I decided it was time. I may as well use my time off to pack a few more boxes because it is just me for the next nine days.

When I dropped Nora off at daycare, the kids were all playing outside. I wasn't really sure about her relationship with Brandon. I wasn't sure if Nora was just obsessed with him or if it was a mutual friendship. I soon found out that Brandon loves Nora just as much as she loves him. We walked out the back door onto the playground and I heard a squeal from across the play area. Brandon came running up to Nora and gave her a big hug. I guess it's mutual!

NuNu, Nora's favorite daycare teacher, told me that Nora and Brandon nap next to each other on their respective cots. Every day, Nora rubs Brandon's back and tells him to "Go sleep, close eyes, shhhh..." Hysterical! This is exactly what she does to Ernie when she lays down for bed. She goes through our bedtime routine with Ernie and makes sure that he is ready for bed as well. Gotta love that!

I've taken the plunge. I just ordered a parenting guide to potty training and a book for Nora about potty training too. One is by Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers) and I'm sure she'll LOVE that one just as much as Brian will.

Virus

Yup, you read right, Nora is the excited recipient of a 72 hour virus! Here is a time sensitive list of the exciting events in the Remfrey house:

Monday 5:00 PM - Mommy picks up Nora and she falls asleep on the way home. Not her normal self that serenades her driver the whole way home.

Monday 6:00 PM - Mommy takes Nora's temperature and it reads 100.5. Not too high, but enough to send up warning flags.

Monday 6:10 PM - Mommy gives Nora Tylenol and she pukes all over Mommy and the kitchen. It even got in the air vent on the front of the dishwasher as we violently turned during the puke to make the sink.

Monday 6:15 PM - "Mommy, I want Cherrios and raisins!" Nora was back to herself.

Monday 8:00 PM - Nora turned into a monster during bath time. She didn't want anyone to touch her or wash any part of her body. Her hair is still dirty ;-)

Tuesday 1:30 AM - Nora woke up with a 101.5 fever. Mommy gave her some crackers and Motrin trying to avoid the previous evening's mess.

Tuesday 1:30-6:30 AM - Nora slept with Mommy and Daddy for the night. Mommy jumped at every movement scared she was going to puke on one of her parents.

Tuesday 6:30 AM - Nora woke up bright-eyed and ready for her usual: Cherrios and raisins.

Tuesday 11:00 AM - Daycare called saying Nora's temp was up to 103.2.

Tuesday 12:20 PM - Dr. Chang reported that Nora was her third case of the day with high fever and tummy and back rash.

Recommended treatment: Stay at home for the next 72 hours and wait for it to pass. Ugh. Mommy is off to write lesson plans in the morning while Daddy stays home with the babe. Daddy leaves for China tomorrow afternoon, while Mommy and Nora recover in isolation.

"Don't make a knot!"

Nora's newest phrase. Nora has always been a hair twirler. For some reason, all of a sudden, it has turned into making knots in her hair. We've even had to use a scissors a few times! I've tried to get her to realize that obsessive twirling will make a knot. Hence the phrase, "Don't make a knot," which is simply Nora repeating me when she starts to twirl her hair.

Hopefully she'll still have hair by the time we get home for Christmas!

Carving pumpkins

Yesterday we helped Nora carve her first pumpkin. In this picture, she's showing us her creative drawing which would have been quite difficult to render with a knife...so we had to compromise and cut out a smiley face instead.

I think her favorite part was reaching in to pull the guts out, the look on her face was precious. "Yucky! Yucky!"

 

Infection?

Nora seems to be back to her old self. The initial pee dip test at the doctors office didn't show any signs of an infection, but they said that doesn't mean one wasn't brewing. They sent if off to the main lab where they let it cook for 48 hours to see if anything grows.

All that matters now is that she is eating and sleeping well! She woke up this morning at 5:00, ate a banana, slept on a big chunk of it in our bed, and woke up with us at 7:30! We've had a nice morning filled with pancakes and kisses. She's already asking for the castle park.

We are going to make our way to the pumpkin patch this afternoon and meander through the corn maze. Don't you think that pumpkin farms should have a place where you can carve your pumpkin so you don't have to make the mess at home? All they would have to make available were a few markers, carving tools, and lots of brown paper bags to take the seeds home. Maybe I'll suggest the idea when we are there ;-) I'm sure they'll love that!

Uh Oh

Nora is sick...really sick. Last night she threw up right before going to bed and then threw up a couple more times this morning. Her temperature started going up and we both got scared.

I took her to the doctor and they sent me home with a prescription for a bladder infection (hopefully we've caught it at this stage) and directions to get a urine sample before starting the antibiotic. I'll do my best so we don't have to have a catheter! As some of you may remember, Nora had a horrible kidney infection last September that turned into a blood infection quickly. I don't want her to have to be hospitalized again, so I'm trying to be as proactive as possible.

I'll keep you up to date.

Nora's new bike- vroom vroom!

When we got home yesterday there was a package waiting for Nora at the front door. Lo and behold, it was a birthday present from Uncle Eric and Auntie Ruth!

"Nora bike! Nora bike!" she said. "Vroom vroom!"

We opened the box and I started to pull out the parts. Nora looked at me with the gravitas of someone about to perform brain surgery. "Daddy help it?" she asked.

"Yes, daddy will put it together," I replied.

As soon as I got the frame put together, Nora started climbing over my arms to sit on it. She picked out random sockets from my socket set and handed them to me. "Here, daddy."

We put her on the bike and she rang the little bell on the handlebars with a huge smile on her face. "Good job daddy!" she said.

(incidentally - this is what she says anytime she hears someone in the bathroom. April emerged from the bathroom a couple of days ago and was congratulated by Nora for her amazing ability to use the potty all by herself. "Good job mommy!")

She hasn't figured out how to use the pedals yet but absolutely loves her new bike. Thanks Uncle Eric and Auntie Ruth! 

The New GoGo Boots

  

Yummy

  

Nora still loves to be naked after 2 years

  

Messy and Yummy!

  

The preferred 2-year-old birthday cake

  

Nora Loves Her New Trains!!!

Thank you Auntie Tracy and Auntie Dar!