Oma's Visit

In June, my mom came to visit us for about a week.  It was great to see her, and it was a lot of fun to watch her relationship with Nora grow in person.  Nora is at an age now where she gets really excited anytime someone she knows from pictures is coming to visit her.  Before she sees someone for the first time in a while (whether it's a few weeks or a few months), she asks to see pictures of herself with that person (kids these days!).  Since Mom also sends Nora little video clips often, we spent several days getting ready for her visit.  I've said this before, but it's so nice to live in a time where Nora feels completely at ease with my mom right away, no matter how long it's been since she saw her in "real life," since she sees her on video and video chat fairly often.

We had great weather while Mom was here, so we got to enjoy a lot of outdoor activities!

We spent an afternoon at Aunt Vickie's pool: check out Nora's cool Portland Thorns hat Oma brought her!

We all got to go to an Orioles game together!  This is the only game I've made it to all year, and the Orioles got blown out-- so I'm glad I was with good company.  If they have to lose to someone, I'm happy for it to be the A's.

We went to a little festival at a park near our house that had crafts for Nora to try and included a hay ride (sans hay).

And Mom, Nora, and I went to Down's Park on the Chesapeake Bay to see the owls, play on the playground, throw rocks in the bay, and take pictures for Billy's Father's Day collage.

Sidebar: This is our third iteration of the "DAD" collage, but it's the first year Nora has been able to paint the letters herself!  Here are a couple of the out-takes I liked best:

While Mom was visiting, Nora's favorite song of the moment was "Say Hey (I Love You)." Originally sung by Michael Franti, I think Nora's teachers play her the dreaded beloved Kidz Bop version.  Here's a video of her singing the chorus!