Nora, Girl About Town

Here are some of my favorite photos from the past few months, which also do a pretty good job of capturing what we've been up to this Spring and Summer.

Nora on Opening Day of baseball, supporting Team Vowels:

Reading with Anne-Marie and Julian:

Easter fun with Cash and Lily:

Cuddling with Daddy:

First trip to the movie theatre-- she thought Rio 2 was all right but she REALLY liked movie theatre popcorn and Junior Mints.

Mother's Day 2014

Hanging out with Uncle Brian:

Throwing rocks at Quiet Waters Park:

Riding the carousel with Aunt Vickie at the Bowie Baysox game (wearing her hat in the style of All the Way May):

I assume this is what everyone means when they say they had a "dinner party":

Butterfly face painting from Hamden's HonFest:

Her best school friend Layla's birthday party:

Lunch and duck feeding at Friendly Farms with Gram and Pop:

Boat tour through the Annapolis Harbor:

Fourth of July at Aunt Nancy's with Aunt Vickie:

Reading with Aunt Vickie: 

More reading for Julian and Nora (sorry kids, your moms met in a literature MA program):

When Nora had her eyes checked by our pediatrician's pediatric vision scanner at her 30 month well visit, we discovered that her left eye failed the test.  A visit to the ophthalmologist revealed that she is extremely farsighted-- the prescription in her left eye is an 8.0.  She quickly acclimated to wearing a contact lens in that eye, and when we returned three months later, her ability to see with the contact in improved dramatically.  Now our ophthalmologist wants her to wear a patch on the good eye about two hours a day to continue the improvement.  We weren't sure how she would feel about wearing the patch, but since she is quite proud that her muscles are growing strong, we told her the patch would help her eye grow strong like her muscles.  She insisted on wearing it immediately, and her only objection is when we tell her it's time to take it off.  We feel so fortunate to have caught her eye condition early, to have found a good ophthalmologist who Nora likes, and to have a daughter who is so eager to take on life's new experiences.

A few months ago, my Aunt Carrie sent Nora some seeds to grow.  We started out putting them in a little planter, where a lot of the seeds started to sprout:

We then transferred them into the yard, but I guess I don't have a photo of that?  When the first zucchini was ready, Nora was anxious to harvest it:

We have put them in pasta and we've put them on the grill, and now she is even started requesting "a slice a zucchini, please" as a snack.  Look how proud she is of eating food she grew!

So, yes.  I'm 40,000 words into writing a dissertation chapter that still feels like it has no argument, is getting nowhere, and only yet mentions 3 of the 6 novels I mean to cover ... but life is good.

The Best of 2013

Despite its typical ups and downs, 2013 has been a great year for our family.  The very best thing of the year was watching Nora grow.  At this time last year I could still call her my baby, but now she really is a little kid!  She has also become less of a mama's girl each day, and I've loved watching her become more independent and more comfortable with all of her family members!

It feels like Billy and I spend most of our time at home, and that's fine with us, because home is our favorite place to be.  Our ordinary daily life is exactly what we've worked to make it.  But when I look back on all the pictures of the year, I realize just how many fun activities we've managed to fit in!  Here are some of my favorite less ordinary moments from throughout the year.

January

Oregon visit to meet Everett James and to see all of our Oregon family and friends PLUS Mimi and Aunt Dana

February

The Ravens win the Super Bowl: Nora is appropriately thrilled

Baby Julian arrives

Vickie and I meet Mat Kearney before attending his show

March 

Nora's first snow day

April

Nora's first baseball game

June

Summertime family fun with Cash, Lily, and the rest of Billy's mom's family

Visit from Oma

July

Anniversary Vacation to Bethany Beach

Visit from Kelsey

DC Tennis Tournament with Vickie

August

Killers Concert on my birthday

Visit to Oregon

September

Nora's first Orioles game

October

Family trip to Rocky Acres Farm

Nora's Birthday Parties

Birthday visit from the West Coast Family

Heather and Jeremy's Wedding

November

Research trip to Yale

December

Lots of visits from family and friends!  In the past two weeks, we've had friends and family members from near and far visit us at home, which has made me hyper aware of how fortunate we are.  So as I get ready to bid farewell to 2013, I have so much gratefulness in my heart for all the large and small scale privileges Billy, Nora, and I enjoy.

Nora's Second Birthday!

Nora turned TWO on October 14!  In celebration of her birthday, my mom, brother Nate, sister-out-law Ashley, and nephew Everett came to town for a visit.  I'll write more on that later, but since they were here, they got to participate in Nora's birthday parties!  We hosted a family party at our house on Saturday and a friends party on Sunday.  We split them up because our house is not big enough to accommodate all these guests at once, but as it turns out, both parties were pretty packed all on their own.  We are feel very fortunate to have so many friends and family actively involved in Nora's life, and we hope they didn't mind that it got a little crowded at her parties.  As far as I could tell, Nora loved every minute of her parties, and we liked getting a chance to show everyone what she is like in her own element.

I used a Go, Dog! Go! theme this year.  It is Nora's favorite book, and she is getting good at "reading" along with it.  It's also a tradition in my family and a favorite of Nora's second cousins, Lily and Cash. Growing up in my family, my dad frequently asked us "Do you like my hat?" and we were always made to wear crowns on our birthday, so making party hat crowns as our "craft" for the little ones seemed like the natural choice.  In addition to the decorations from the book I put up around the house, I used dachshund fabrics I found online to make Nora two skirts and coordinating 2 year old shirts.  These were fun projects for me, and she liked wearing her "doggies."

Here are my favorites among the pictures that family members shared from the family party!

And here are the highlights of the many pictures Tres took from the friend party!

Thank you to everyone who helps make our two year old's life so sweet!