What's wrong with this picture?

It's 1:30 in the morning, and my child is asleep while I'm wide awake. There's just something so wrong about that, seeing as how I'm supposed to be up for work in a matter of hours. Needless to say, this is why people refer to having "a case of the Mondays"...

Anyway, while there hasn't been much to report lately, the biggest news is that I've once again been knocked flat with muscle spasms in my lower back. Nothing like ringing in my 30th year like a legit old lady. Last Saturday I was, I shit you not, throwing out a kleenex when my back just seized up and I could hardly breathe. I spent the better part of the next 4 days lying on the floor of the living room while Norah went between destroying the house and enjoying insane amounts of "screen time".  I missed two days of work and let the rest of my responsibilities go to pot in the interim. We are now dealing with undoing the TV/ipad monster I created and trying to wind our way down from hideous tantrums about "watch agin, Einshines".  Poor thing has a cold and terrible cough to go with it. Lovely :)

It's definitely still winter around here, and we're in for another winter storm this week it seems. Everyone in this house is starting to show signs of cabin fever (and that extra layer of winter padding we all seem to feel the need to acquire like we live in the arctic or something).  We are yearning for the telltale signs that spring is around the corner - just a peek from a crocus shoot would probably improve my mood for days! What are your best tips for end-of-the-winter blahs, especially with kids/dogs?

Here's a quick peek at Norah from this weekend - she is growing up faster and faster every day I think...

Catching Up

Well, clearly since the last time I updated was in November and we are indeed all over the wretched gastro virus...it's time to catch up with more enjoyable news. There's way too much to include in one update, but I'll start with what's shakin' these days.

Norah is talking, talking, talking and is *thisclose* to really communicating in full sentences. She repeats anything we say, and new things are overheard every day around here.  *Note to all, keep it clean up in here, as we've definitely heard "aw f&*^" once! I love toddler language, and some of my favorite things she says right now:
"Line Cones" - Lion King, which she says for just about every lion
"Okhay" - her preferred affirmative statement
"Comfy" - comforters, blankets, or just literally to mean gettin' comfy
"Laff" - giraffe
"Ah-shines" - Einsteins (one of her Disney Jr. shows is Little Einsteins)
"Sofa" - Sofia (from another Disney Jr. show)
"Pulair" - polar bear
"uh-her one" - other one, another, the other
"love you much" and "kank you much"
"geeses"
"Nakey"
"lil bit"
"Entent" - elephant
"Wah-wah twy" - Norah try

"pa-cakes" - pancakes or cupcakes

typical, refusing to put on pants, she says "nakey minute"

While it's so amazing and rewarding to watch her learn about the world and put language to the people and places and things she sees, it's also a little bit sad for me to suddenly realize that the adorable words she used to use for things are replaced by words that are closer and closer to the real ones.  She no longer calls coffee "waff", or "ma-churs" for markers.  Language acquisition is probably one of the most incredible things to witness so far in development. I'm amazed every day at how well she can communicate with us.

more dip! gwapes! 

loves yogurt, and chicken-dip (chicken with ranch)

sorting mail in her mailbox

DIY felt mail

I was talking to a close friend last night who has a little boy who turned two in January, and we were noting how each child is just wired in such a unique and mysterious way.  It just seems they have traits that are innate, no matter what we think we do to provide them with certain unbiased non-gendered play options.  Norah mothers. She mamas her stuffed animals and her baby dolls. She diapers them and feeds them and snuggles them. She rocks and walks them. She covers them up with "comfies" and pats them to sleep. She "cooks" food and feeds us her tasty treats.  She loves to make little stories up with her animal figurines and stage interactions (that only she knows what is going on).  She plays house with the "little people" in the old plastic dollhouses my sister and I used to play with, placing the people in their rooms and driving them around in cars, and making them give each other kisses and hugs.  My friend's son, well, he likes wheels and gears and trucks and diggers. He is obsessed with the blender, and wants to watch how it goes on and off, over and over. Of course, some of these things are learned about in their daily lives and picked up on from influences they are (maybe subtly) exposed to...but I do think that males and females are just wired differently, and it's incredible to see it from the very start.

Having some tea

Making cookies

Unbeknownst to me, she is aware of her shapes. My father in law discovered her sorting through a bag of foam shapes and putting them into piles by shape and color one day. She has been labeling colors accurately for at least a month or so, with the exception that yellow often gets called "pink" (which is funny, because for a long time as a kid I called yellow "lello-pink").  At the store yesterday, she said as I picked out some produce "Two red peppers! Gween pepper too!" She also surprised us by counting to ten recently...I tell you, this child hasn't stop amazing us yet!

Sorting shapes at the Hands On Museum

She has been into trying out playdough a few times, but is still tempted to eat it quite often. This recent batch I made was a new recipe, and definitely NOT tasty (2 cups baking soda, 1 c cornstarch, 1.5 C water, plus I added maybe 3 T oil and some jello to color it).  She does like the feel and squish of it, though.  

She is strong-willed and opinionated, and isn't shy about expressing herself! She must choose her own outfit (ok, sometimes 3 outfits before getting it right) and usually it must include purple. She'd wear her "pa-cakes" shirt every day if we'd keep it clean (has cupcakes on a purple long sleeved shirt).  She chooses what she wants to eat (has been "chicken-dip" for breakfast the past two days).  I guess this is what the professionals refer to as a "spirited child", and we wouldn't have her any other way! She keeps us challenged, both in patience and intellectually, she is outrageously cute (of course we aren't biased), and she drives us crazy on a regular basis. We are so enjoying having the privilege of watching her grow, and recognizing that we are so in for it for the foreseeable future! Norah Annabel,  you warm  our hearts :)

home for a rare Mama-Norah day! 

and then there was the time we ALL got the stomach flu...

Yeah, that happened this weekend. Guess it's a rite of parenting passage, to have everyone in your home knocked out with the pukes at the same time.  Norah started throwing up Thursday while home with my mom, and seemed better by the time we got home from work. We sent her to Pa's on Friday as usual and both of us went to work, and she was fine there all day. Then, 6 am on Saturday morning, BAM, I had the full blown GI bug. Just in time for Matt's mother's memorial service :(. Norah's GI tract got the lower end of the bug Saturday as well, and hasn't quit since Saturday, poor thing. She now runs away when we say it's time for a diaper change.  This cloth diapering family has gone through a whole package of disposables this weekend, because I just could not bring myself to wash that many diapers in one day (seriously, at least 15 in 24 hours and still going).  She and I stayed home and missed the memorial service for Carole (yeah, felt like wife of the century there).  3:30 am Sunday, it struck again, and Matt was down for the count all day.  I was mostly on the mend by Sunday, so spent the day going from top to bottom of the house with a bottle of Lysol and Clorox wipes - at least I could be thankful for the last nearly 70 degree day of the year so I could open the windows and air the house out!

Whew...at least the adults in the house are back to normal today. Poor Norah is still off, but hopefully it will run its course in the next day or so. I'm ready to deal with a normal amount of bodily fluids again, thank you. And our washer and dryer will be grateful for the break in the heaps of laundry that piled up after all of this. Thankful for running water, Gatorade, and antibacterial Febreeze this week!

Cozy Farro Stew

I was home yesterday with a not-feeling-so-hot toddler, and with only one car which Matt had at work, I was stuck at home without a vehicle and my food options were somewhat limited. Sure, we have canned soup, tortillas and cheese for a quick "quesadilla", cereal and such...but I wanted something warm and cozy on a chilly November day (how can it be November already?). I started poking around the fridge and cupboards to see what we had that I could use to create something. Didn't have ground turkey, beans or canned tomatoes for chili. Didn't have thawed chicken for chicken noodle soup. But, I scrounged up some habanero green chili chicken sausage that had to be cooked like, today, and found some farro (which is an Italian grain with a size and texture similar to barley, but with a nuttier flavor) and that jump started this delicious pot of hearty fall stew! I will be making this again for sure! Also, if I'd had kale instead of spinach, I would have used that as I prefer the texture of kale in soups over the wilty spinach, but I wrote it as I made it with what I had on hand, so there you go. 

Farro Stew with Chicken Sausage and Spinach

• Ingredients:
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 chicken sausage links, casings removed (I had these on hand)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram
• 6 cups chicken stock (homemade is best - I had plenty in the freezer)
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1 cup farro (could substitute pearled barley but I prefer the nuttiness of farro)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1/4 t. celery seed
• about 3 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves, washed (or 1 bunch of kale, stems removed and leaves torn into bite sized pieces)
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes (I had some fresh frozen tomatoes from this summer to use up, so just substituted those)
• Grated Parmesan cheese for serving
• 
  
• 
  
• 1. Heat 2 T olive oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Turn heat down slightly and add garlic, stirring constantly to avoid burning and cook until garlic becomes fragrant, about 1 min. 
• 2.  While onions are cooking, in a separate pan, heat 2 T olive oil and crumble sausage links into small pieces, cooking until browned over medium heat. 
• 3.  To dutch oven, add carrots, celery, farro, sausage, all herbs and seasonings, tomatoes and stock.  Bring to a boil then turn heat down to simmer for 35-40 minutes, covered, until farro is cooked to a slightly chewy texture, stirring occasionally.
• 4.  Add spinach and stir to wilt into stew.  Serve with grated fresh Parmesan cheese. 

Sugar Rush - Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Norah's first Trick-or-Treating experience was a total success! After a 5 minute meltdown about putting on the tutu, she was bribed with chocolate and ready to head out! Our version of Olivia the Pig (which is her current obsession, books, movie, dolls, you name it, Olivia is where it's AT!): 

She rode in the stroller for a few streets, and wouldn't say Trick Or Treat at any houses, but once she got the hang of it girlfriend went running from house to house clutching shiny wrapped candy in each little mittened paw. She said Thank You to everyone, and loved getting to sneak in a "pat-pat" to anyone's dogs who would allow it! 

She had a preview of what was to come last Friday when Pinckney hosted a Spooktacular in the Park with "trunk or treating", and we went down to give the whole costume thing a trial run. She loved it! 

Not so sure about going in the straw maze, but watching other kids run was fun too

Enjoying some "pop pop" and having a little rest

"mmm nummy!" 

I am just loving seeing the experiences of childhood from the side of being her mama lately.  I could not stop smiling tonight as we walked around my own childhood neighborhood and knocked on the same doors and stood on the same porches to say trick-or-treat to some of the same neighbors (and many new ones)  that I did growing up. Watching my girl fly from lawn to lawn and smile with glee at the prospect of a totally new experience like Trick-or-Treating is one of the things I imagined all those years before being her mama, and it is all better than I could have ever anticipated. I hope to craft a childhood experience for her that is carefree, happy, safe, and imaginative. A space that when she looks back from her own view as a mama someday she will remember with glowing memories and smile her own ear to ear grin reliving.  

I hope you all had a happy Halloween!  This is one mama who is so excited for all of the holiday festivities to come in the next 2 months! Can't wait to create more traditions and memories with our girl! 

So, so behind...

I'm beyond overdue for a post...I know it.  We've packed and moved since the last update, and I only just plugged the computer back in after being at my Mom's for the past 2 weeks...Let's just say life is busy and exhausting! But, that's not unique to us or news to any of you, just the lame-o explanation for lack of posting over here.

Dexter Cider Mill

Norah's doing great! She is 17 months now, and is every bit a full blown toddler. She has so many new words and expressions, I couldn't even count them anymore if I tried. She's been saying two word sentences (things like "bye mama", "two puppies", "more please") for a while, and I'm so curious as to what the first three word sentence will be...hopefully something appropriate because she is into repeating whatever she hears now! Time to watch the language over here ;)

Bird bath at Grandma's is fascinating, and she points it out every day saying "Ucky Wata" (yucky water). She's also looking in the sky at an airplane here, and she usually waves and says "Hi Ah-pane" when they go by. 

She did a somersault the other night and wouldn't stop after she figured out what she did - it's her new trick and she loves it! I see some gymnastics classes in her future!

We are loving the fall - the colors are absolutely brilliant this year, which is a surprise to me given how hot and dry the summer was, but I love it nonetheless! We've been to the Dexter Cider Mill and Norah enjoyed her first cider mill cinnamon donut, and of course she loved it (how could you not?).  I'm working on her Halloween costume slowly - it's nothing major this year because I didn't think she'd leave a costume on for long and didn't want to spend a ton of time or $$ on a short lived novelty. She's going to be Olivia the Pig, which she adores.  Photos of that to come soon!

First taste of a cider mill donut

She kept asking for "more please!"

The girl is obsessed with busses - she points them out when we see them driving or if she hears one go by.  She can answer "what color is a school bus" with "ell-oh" and she loves to take a turn behind the wheel when she gets the chance. 

We went to the Harvest Festival at the Child Care Center and Norah got to see and pet some baby animals. She was NOT sure about the goats, but she did like the cow and the piglet.  She kept her distance though, unless she had a grip on one of us. 

I scraped my leg pretty well moving and have had quite the healing scar for a few weeks, and Norah has spied this. She was very concerned when I told her I had a boo-boo, and that it hurt but I was ok. She is now very interested in talking about "hurt" and "ow" and pulls up her pant cuff to look for her own boo-boo. So interesting how toddlers absorb all of the things in the world around them, and what they can remember day to day.

Overall, life is good. We are exhausted from moving, not sleeping enough, and trying to fit in all of the enjoyable things around us, but we are so lucky to have family here who loves us and helps us out when we need. Hopefully I'll be better about posting more often again, now that we are getting settled and the computer is plugged in again (that usually helps!). Looking forward to enjoying the rest of my favorite month and Halloween, followed by the glorious holiday season. I'm really just wanting a simple, relaxed holiday time this year, and want to enjoy Norah in her littleness for the time being. Excited to see what she thinks of some of the fun Christmas things in store for her now that she is more interactive than last year. So much fun to look forward to!

Belated Norah Grows: 15 Month Update

Well, I think the fact that it's been 3 months since I wrote an update on Norah's development is probably proof in the pudding that she has been a time-consuming, challenging, busy little lady of late!

Norah, you are our little Firecracker, plain and simple. You have gone from a wobbly baby to an independent toddler, overnight. Your strong will and stubbornness continue to be the dominant features of your personality, and boy are you exercising your ability to voice your opinions lately!

You have at least 35-40 words in your vocabulary, and it seems you add new ones just about every day. You now regularly say: Mama, Daddy, Pa (Papa), Mimi (for grandma), Tryn, Liam, Lainey, "Bonzer", "Ash", "Hope", puppy, kitty, hot, up, bottle, hi, uh oh, more, please, thank you, all done,sit down, peas, pasta, cracker, snack (so cute - you say NAAAAAACK!), water, tree, ball, bath, splash, shoes, toast, pizza, baby, pee pee, trash, yuck, hat, eyes, potty, bus, truck, leash, glasses, socks, chalk, "coffee" (you say "Waff").   You still sign "more", "please" and "all done" but have started saying the words along with the signs when you use them.  You try to repeat words you hear and you watch our mouths closely when we say new things, and we can just see the wheels in your heading spinning while you try to figure out how we make the sounds. Language development is truly incredible, and you seem to be less frustrated in the past couple of days because I think you can finally communicate better using your words.

You now have 14 teeth - 14! And...unfortunately you have learned that you can use them to bite, in addition to chewing your food.  We are working on curbing the biting, but you still resort to it pretty frequently right now when frustrated or angry. We try to give you things that are OK to bite instead of us, and we offer cold teethers and popsicles when we think it's due to teething pain. But when it's just bite after bite mid-tantrum, we are also starting brief time outs, or at least abruptly removing you from whomever you are trying to bite and walking away, giving you no attention/reinforcement of the behavior. We do have some luck redirecting you to give us a kiss instead, which is always a sweet diversion.  We are hoping this biting is a brief phase.

As previously mentioned in other updates, your sleep has not been the greatest, and we are rounding out a month-long sleep regression. You seem to finally be fighting sleep a little less, but you are still VERY reliant on your bottle in order to go down. In fact, you wake at 5 AM most mornings demanding a "BA-DUH", and NOW! We are trying to wean your dependence on them, but it's not been very successful. Hopefully in the next few months you will give them up on your own?  Please?

You have been so funny lately favoring one or the other of us.  Sometimes at the end of a workday when we pick you up, you won't give Daddy the time of day and you are all about the Mama. But in the evenings and around bedtime lately, you are 100% in need of your Daddy time. He is the first one you ask for in the morning when you open your eyes, and the one you have been asking for in the night if you wake up.  You really love your Daddy, that much is clear! 

 You also REALLY love your Lainey dog.  You two are seriously best buddies. You say puppy as often as you say Daddy, and most of the time you say "daddy-puppy-daddy-puppy-daddy" in the same breath.  You are so sweet to her and love to give her snuggles and kisses. 

You are fully into climbing mode, and anything and everything is a possible climber for you, including the pantry shelves, dining room table, TV stand, couches/chairs/beds, etc. Outside, you love to push your cart down the sidewalk and could seriously spend hours in the pool.  You Love the slide at the park, and have gotten so independent most of the time you go down by yourself!  You have noticed the moon and airplanes and now point to the sky when you hear one flying overhead.

You LOVE books - it's the one thing that you will usually sit down and do for the longest periods of time. You love Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight Moon, The Rainbow Fish, Olivia, Winnie the Pooh, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Sandra Boynton books. You have a board book called Puppies, which you also adore. I hope you always love to read, and can't wait to share some of my own favorite childhood stories with you.

You are still our funny, sweet, bright little one, but you have an added streak of spice lately.  No lie, your Daddy and I are challenged some days with trying to figure out what to do with you next. You keep us endlessly busy, and we just hope that you will always know how loved you are, even on days when we might seem tapped out, tired, frustrated, or discouraged.  You are you, and we love and appreciate every crazy bit! You could not be more beautiful to us, little love. Keep growing, beauty, just not too fast, OK?