A champion in training

After seeing Nana and Papa's post about the Easter Trival Pursuit showdown, we have started a rigorous training program for Nora. Be warned: she will be a serious contender when she comes back to Wisconsin in June!

Lullabye

Some background is necessary to truly appreciate this.

Over the past two weeks April and I have been waging a pretty relentless campaign to get Nora to sleep in her own bed through the whole night. Our strategy is a combination of restricted physical access (putting a gate up in her doorway) coupled with positive reinforcement (she gets an m&m...that's right, one m&m when she stays in her own bed for the night).

It has been working like a charm, and for the past two weeks Nora has been doing a great job of sleeping through the night and staying in her own bed. That tiny m&m is an incredible motivating factor for her. It's the last thing she talks about before falling asleep at night, and the first thing she asks for in the morning: "Daaaaaadyyyyy, I slept in my own bed, time for a chocolate treeeeeeeat!"

This morning, we were driving back home from running some errands. Nora was in the back seat, singing one of the songs from her "Lullabye" CD to herself. She kept repeating the same verse over and over again:

"yay you dowwwwwn, take a reeest, may your swumber be bwessed....."

About 2 miles from home, she decided to improvise a new verse to the song:

"yay you dowwwwwn, go to sleeep, if you stay in your bed you get a chocolate treeeeeeat"

April and I laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes.

Loving the park!

 

Cougars and Coyotes and Bears, oh my!

 
This week April took Nora out with some friends to Northwest Trek, a nature park near Mount Rainier. They went on a kind of safari through the woods and got to see all kinds of cool animals that lurk around the Washington countryside: elk, bears, and even a cougar!

Success!

Last night, Nora slept, in her own bed, without waking up from 8:30 to 6:30!!!!!

For those of you that didn't know her sleeping habits, she was usually up at 1:30 and in our bed for the rest of the night. This week we decided to get tough and put the gate back on her door. It only took a few nights of being awake for a couple of minutes (while screaming bloody murder) before she would crawl back into her own bed.

We have won the sleeping war! This is a skill that MUST be mastered before the new baby arrives or we are all going to be in BIG trouble!

Throwing rocks into Elliott Bay

 

Walking along Alki Point

 

Out in the Sunshine

 

April and Nora this morning on Alki Point, enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

Nora's Favorite New Toy

Thanks Uncle Drew and Aunt Leah!

 

Thanks for the new clothes, Nana and Papa!

 

Nice Outfit!

 

Making Easter Rice Krispy Treats

 
Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

 

Is That One?

 

Nora-isms

Nora has made huge progress in her command of language. She still manages to come up with some pretty funny words of her own...here is a list of our favorites:

• "everyguys" and "allthebody" are frequently used instead of "everybody" or "you guys"
  
• "yesternight" instead of "last night"
  
• "sit down by next to me"
  
• "peek" instead of "hide and go seek"
  
• "yub you"
  
• When we pick her up from school and ask how her day went, she says "I had a good nice day."
  

Nora is going to be a big sister!

That's right! As April announced on her blog, we recently found out that we are expecting our newest addition to the family sometime around Thanksgiving. In just a few short months, Nora is going to be a big sister.

She took her first steps toward "big sisterhood" last night, by spending the whole night in her own bed. Ever since we transitioned her from the crib to the bed, she has been consistently waking up around 1 AM and crawling into bed with us. Last night she finally stayed in her bed all night long.

She has also gone over 2 weeks without any accidents at daycare...it's really amazing how motivating those little stickers can be. We have a flipchart-sized piece of paper stuck to the wall in the bathroom that is now covered with dozens of stickers...each one symbolizing a conquest of The Potty. She proudly signs her name (a little circle) next to each one with a marker.

Nora has also been doing a lot of exploration into the world of Latin music. Her favorite song for the moment is "Suavemente" by Elvis Crespo. Anytime we play it, she rushes out to the middle of the kitchen and starts wiggling her butt around with reckless abandon. When she really gets her groove on, she has even been known to lead conga lines around through the kitchen and living room.

Her favorite game these days is a variation on "Hide and Go Seek," something she calls "peek". Basically the game consists of her and an accomplice laying down on the floor and covering themselves from head to toe with a blanket. She then cries out to everyone else in the house to "come and find me", which invariably results in her getting tickled. She then covers herself back up and the process repeats. The novelty of this has not worn off, even after several weeks: every night when I get home from work, she runs up to me and says "Daddy, let's peek! Will you peek with me?"

Now it's bedtime once again. Here's hoping that tonight will be another peaceful night.

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

Painting with Papa

Papa is here!

Papa arrived this morning, bearing gifts. Check out Nora's new Wisconsin wear!

Nora fashion show

Here is Nora wearing the new outfit that Nana gave her for Christmas...more to come...

On the Mend

Nora seems to be feeling much better. She hasn't had a fever since noon on Thursday when we visited the doctor. Although the doctor did scare the s#@* out of me when she mentioned that her ears were clear, urine and throat were also clear, so it might be pneumonia. WHA? "Yes, Mrs. Remfrey. If Nora's fever doesn't go down tomorrow, we'll have to take a chest x-ray." The whole time I'm thinking, "That's interesting, you said you didn't hear anything in her lungs...how could something magically appear tomorrow in a chest x-ray?"

Thankfully, we didn't have to go down that path and Nora happily returned to daycare yesterday. She was all smiles as we pulled up. Upon entering the classroom, she turned to me and proclaimed, "Bye Mommy, GO!" I was actually happy to leave her. We had had our fill of each other over the past few days.

Tonight Nora is enjoying her second family (Kellie, Terry, Dyanna, Jillian, and Shannon) while Brian and I take the night off. It is so nice to have a wonderful family that begs to play with our daughter every once in a while! You know, we just have to keep them happy :-)