Norah had her first playdate a few weeks ago. I know I’m slow on updating but I’ve finally got some time to sit down and write. So anyway on Presidents day daycare was closed so we took this opportunity to invite Norah’s boyfriend Daniel over to play. It was so much fun! He had just celebrated his first birthday 2 days before and was ready to party.
When he got here Norah was so excited. We had been telling her for days that Daniel and his mommy were coming over to play and did she want that. She didn’t get it. Then they knocked on the door and came in. Norah was so happy! She really loves Daniel and his mommy too. Sometimes I think she gets more excited to see her than me! But anyway. Once they were in and settled we introduced Daniel to his Weeble affectionately known as “Daniel Wobble” in our house. Norah’s weeble tree house came with 2 weebles. A red headed girl (um…hello…that would be Norah Wobble) and then a boy with brown hair which we promptly named Daniel. We then got out all the weebles (9 to be exact) and had a wobble party. This is where we bunch them all together and waive our hand over top them causing them to bash into each other and yell “WOBBLE PARTY!” Good times.
The kids seemed to be having fun as we visited with Daniel’s mom. Norah did get very….we’ll just say….bossy. She did not like it when we would give Daniel one of her toys to play with. She would scream and try to take the toy. And a couple times she would push him down. I was so sad to watch her do this. I thought she would do so well having him over. I guess it was because he was at her house playing with her toys? Daniel didn’t seem to be phased by this but it was devastating to watch. I thought she got along well with the other kids.
There were more highlights than lowlights during this date which is good. The kids had fun sharing Cheerios. At one point Norah was actually putting the Cheerios IN Daniel’s mouth! What? We feed each other now? So cute! They also had a ton of fun sitting on the couch and bouncing together.
The date was ended by Norah who demanded it was lunchtime. And she needed her lunch right that second. Then I looked over to catch Daniel rubbing his eyes (it was WAY past his naptime). So we said goodbye and Norah ate her lunch. I think she had fun. And we plan to do it again sometime. They only live 2 blocks down from us and we’re hoping the weather gets nice soon so we can take the kids to the local park. I’m sure there will be many more dates in these two’s future.
Ok who did it? Fess up. Who hit the fastforward button on my kid? Seriously. She’s like growing and learning so much by the minute I can’t keep up!
The other night we were watching Yo Gabba Gabba. The one where Muno’s family comes and they sing the “Nice to meet you” song. Well, we thought it would be funny to stick out our hands to shake and say “nice to meet you Norah.” Um…yeah she got that right away. She shakes your hand and sometimes will say “meechoo.” I die!
We taught her to say “please” ok well it comes out more like “EEEEESE” but we get the point. So the other night she asked for something and Mitch said “What do you say?” And she goes “eeeese daddy!” Um? Really? We’re gonna make a full statement there? She says “eeeese daddy” all the time now. Even to me (that’s another story). It’s so crazy how all of a sudden it seems like she is learning all these new words. I mean those two were both in the SAME DAY! Genius I tell you genius!
The next night we were asking Norah if certain people in her class are her friends. She usually responds “Yeah” when we ask. Except for Bea she always yells “BEEEAAAAA!” every time we say her name. So we were listing the other kids in her class and we said “Norah is Eleni your friend?” And I’ll be damned if she didn’t look at me and say “Leni.” So cute! She also says “Emmy” now for Emily. Where did that come from?
She’s growing up so fast. I wasn’t really ready for her to start talking so soon. She just turned 15 months on Monday. Where has the time gone? Where is my little baby? My little girl is a big girl now. So whoever hit the fastforward button if you could please stop it that would be great. Kthx.
We’ve never been big partiers. We usually do something very low key for New Year’s. A couple of times we have gone to the downtown celebration. We usually end up freezing to death and leaving as soon as the rose “rises.” Yeah we live in a pretty cool place right? No dropping something at midnight. It rises. Ok I heard that they dropped it this year but when I went it went up.
The most we have ever done for New Year’s was go to New Orleans. But even then we didn’t do anything. We went to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve 04/05 because our college marching band was playing at the half time show at the Sugar Bowl. And well…my husband was in the band. So I went with him. But we got there around 7, got some take out and hung out in our hotel room. We rang in the new year twice that year. Once at New Orleans time and one at our home time.
So why would this year be any different? This year we went to a pizza buffet with my brothers and their families. Then we went back to my oldest brothers house to play games and have cake. When Norah was ready for bed we did a count down to the new year for her and then we headed home.
After Norah was in bed Mitch and I got into our jammies, grabbed a glass of wine and watched the festivities on t.v. It was great. We both got pretty tipsy. Ok I was tipsy he was DRUNK! It was so hilarious. If you missed it check out my tweets from that night and you can see some of the ridiculous things he was saying/doing. It’s very rare that either of us drink enough to get drunk so when it happens it’s golden. We rang in the new year watching the ball drop in Times Square and then headed to bed.
The next morning I woke up feeling a little sick to my stomach. I thought it was the wine so I started to eat. BAD IDEA! I got sooooo sick. I lost count how many times I was sick that day. I maintain that it was a stomach bug (since Mitch had been sick earlier that week with some sort of bug) and not the wine. I only had 2 glasses of wine and I have drank far more than that and never been sick from drinking. It was not the best way to ring in the new year. I spent the day on the couch going in and out of sleep only waking to see my beautiful little girl standing next to me saying “hi” with her big cheesey grin.
Recap: NYE=awesome. New Year’s day=crap
Christmas is always a very hectic time for us. I work at a place where Christmas is the busiest time of the year. So between working what felt like every day right up until the holiday (4pm on Christmas Eve to be exact) and the traveling between families I am exhausted. But here is my recap of the day.
Christmas Eve after I got home from work Mitch and I woke Norah up from her nap to open presents. She wasn’t all that excited at first but she got more into it. She first opened her Three Little Kittens book. It’s the one that was in the movie Despicable Me. When I saw the movie I thought Norah would love that book I wonder if it’s real. It was! It looks like they made the book after the movie. She wasn’t all that interested in the book at the time but I know she loves it. Then we let her open up her Melissa and Doug pound & roll tower. Again, she wasn’t too interested at first. All she wanted to do was carry the balls around. Now she likes to push the balls through the holes with her hands and occasionally she’ll use the mallet. Finally we let her open the piece de resistance her Brobee cuddle pillow. I was expecting her to freak her freak and scream with excitement. Instead she opened it and was all like “Momo!” Um? Momo? Does she mean Muno? Does she like Muno? I thought she liked Brobee! Did I get her the wrong one? She still likes it and will go get it when we says “where’s Brobee?” But she still calls him Momo. Whatever.
Next up on Christmas morning we got up and packed in the car to head across town to Grammy and Grandpa’s house. There we had a lovely french toast breakfast before opening presents. Norah got better as the day went on at opening her presents. I didn’t think she’d really pay much attention to it but if you helped her start a piece she would pull it off. It was so cute. At Grammy and Grandpa’s she got more clothes and toys. I think her favorite toy was the musical school bus that her Aunt got her. It has like 8000 buttons on it that do a million different things. So yeah that was a big winner.
After presents it was nap time and time to pack it up and drive an hour and a half to my parent house for lunch and more presents. First we had a very low key lunch. Everyone brought something. There were meatballs, chicken tenders, lasagna and my mom’s baked mac & cheese (the best EVER). It was a delicious. I like having the low key meal. It was also nice that my mom didn’t have to make all the food again. Since my mom and dad hosted Thanksgiving as well we thought it would be nice if they didn’t have to cook another big sit down meal for 16 people again so soon. Lots more presents were had and it was a good time for everyone. Christmas was very good to our kitchen this year. We got new dishes, a new tea kettle, a cutting board and a new coffee maker. My kitchen is set! I felt so old asking for kitchen appliances and dishes for Christmas. Is this what getting older is?
We came home Christmas night and spent the next few days at home detoxing from all the food and fun.
Here are some pictures we took at Grammy and Grandpa’s house (we forgot to take out the camera at Grandmom and Pop-Pop’s with all the kids running around).
Daycare has been going back and forth on when they are going to be sending Norah to the young toddlers room. First it was we don’t want to move her until after Christmas. “We have big plans for her at Christmas.” I was fine with this. That gave me plenty of time to adjust to the fact that she is now one year old and prepare myself for dropping her off in a different room every morning.
Then a few weeks ago they told us that there are a lot of new babies starting (3 to be exact) and Norah would have to be moved by mid-December (um that would be now). Ok now I’ve got about 3 weeks to adjust to this. I can do this just take deep breathes.
Kids were moving up and 2 new babies started and things seemed on track for Norah to be moving up. Then last week they told us that one new baby is going to stop coming because a family member will be watching her now. And they other new baby, the one that would be making Norah move, isn’t going to start until January now. So now Norah doesn’t have to move and they aren’t going to make her.
Norah gets very nervous when things change so in turn I’m nervous for her. She has been taking time to visit with them in the morning which is good because she really needs time to adjust. Her papers will say she had fun…once she got used to the room. I just picture her cowering in the corner or crying wanting to go back to the baby room that she knows and loves. It breaks my heart.
I’m a little concerned though that they are waiting so long to move her. I feel like she is ready and they say that she is so I’m not really sure why they are holding her back. I’m sure she’s got to be bored being the oldest in the room. The next kid is 9 months old so honestly what is Norah doing all day? I always find her following one of the ladies around at the end of the day or helping take the trash out. They say she’s ready but they are concerned about her eating and napping. I guess the one year olds just all sit around a table (just a regular little table) and eat their lunch all together. They don’t eat until 12 and Norah usually eats around 11:30. Well they also have a morning snack so she would be fine to wait until 12 to eat lunch if she has a snack to hold her over. I guess their nap is at like 1 and Norah has been known to stay up that late or not nap at all so I don’t know what the problem with that is.
I don’t want to bash them. They are great people so don’t get me wrong. But Norah will never get on their schedule if they don’t move her over there. She will need time to adjust and she’s only going to the room in the morning to play and sometimes she makes it til lunch time with them and then goes to the baby room the rest of the day. I don’t think keeping her from that room will make her be on their schedule when she moves in January (or whenever they decide to move her). Maybe that’s just me making something out of nothing. I’m sure they know what they are doing and I guess I shouldn’t question it. It’s only a couple more weeks.
Norah has earned herself a new nickname at daycare. She is now known as the Blanket Monster. This came as a shock to me because I’ve never really noticed her attached to a blanket. Turns out Norah likes to reach into her crib (and others cribs) and pull out the blankets. She just wants to hold it and carry it around but it trips her so they don’t let her have it so she’s not falling all over the place.
The cribs line the walls of the room so they put all the blankets at the bottom of the cribs up against the wall. Problem solved right? Nope. My kid must have seen someone roll one of the cribs out from the wall (they’re on wheels) so she walked over to her crib one day, kept her eye on the one lady who was working that day and was watching her, slid up the side of her crib to the wall, pushed it out and slid along the wall to grab her blanket out! What a stinker! In the last week I have seen her blanket on the counter by the changing table and hanging across the top of the coat hooks. My child is so bad y’all!
Like I said I’ve never really noticed her do this at home. But in the last week she has started to get attached to things. She likes to hold the clothes that we are going to dress her in in the morning while we are changing her diaper. This is fine but this week she has started to throw a HUGE fit when we take it away to put on. She’s also started to carry her sleep sack with her. This weekend I gave her a blanket to see what she would do and she hugged it and carried it away to get her kitty to snuggle with. So I guess she is started to like soft things that she can carry around? It’s too bad she trips over the blanket all the time. Maybe I’ll try her little kitty/blanket again to see if she likes that? Poor kid just wants to snuggle with her blankie.
About a week ago Norah went to get her first haircut. I know she doesn’t have THAT much hair yet but it was covering her eyes and at certain angles it looked like she had a mullet. I didn’t trust myself with scissors near my child’s face so we took her to a local kids hair place. I thought it was a good choice because it was designed for kids. It had special “chairs” for them to sit in. There was a Thomas the Train, a Pink Jeep (Norah’s choice) and a motorcycle. There is also a t.v. at each station so the kids can watch a movie to distract them from the scary haircut. We thought we were golden. Sadly they did not have any Yo Gabba Gabba which is the only t.v. show that will keep Norah’s attention for any period of time. So that was a negative right there. Then I notice the jeep has no straps to keep her sitting down! Seriously? Are babies just supposed to just sit there? Cause Norah wasn’t gonna have that. As soon as the cape went on she started to get nervous and start trying to get out of the chair. I think she thought it was going to be like the Dr or something. So then she cried and clawed to get out of the seat the whole time.
The place had a package where we could get some of her hair in a bag, a pic and video of her first haircut. So we have the whole thing on tape. I’ll spare you that. It’s about 5 minutes of pure chaos. The dude from the place trying to get Norah’s attention while she’s crying and trying to climb out, the girl asking me what I want done and does this or that look ok and people walking in front of the camera. It’s a pretty painful 5 minutes of video. But I will share her before and after pics. She looks pretty nervous before and then still upset after. Poor little girl. But now she can see without hair poking her in the eye!
Before
After
On Saturday we had Norah’s first birthday party. It was just for family so you would think that would be a small party but between my family and Mitch’s there were 21 people in attendance. Crazy huh? My family including us is 16 people with the spouses and grandkids and Mitch’s is 5. We live in a tiny city home so we obviously did not have room for everyone. Luckily my parent’s renovations are done (hello we need to fit 16 people in there on the holidays!) and they were kind enough to let us use their home.
The day went very smoothly. We made the trip out to their house (an hour and a half) when Norah was ready for her morning nap. We got there and set things up. I tried my hand at being craft and made a birthday banner. What do you think?
Mitch and my dad went to get the pizza and cake while I fed Norah lunch. Everyone arrived around the same time and the party was off to a great start. Since Norah had already eaten we were free to eat and just keep an eye on her as she made her rounds saying hi and exploring.
After a little while we started to open presents. Norah loved the wrapping paper and tissue paper. Maybe a little more than the toys themselves. She got lots of awesome new toys to play with plus some cute new clothes.
(This toy is the devil. No on/off switch and No volume control. And it’s LOUD)
A little while later we decided to try the cake. We got the best cake ever. Mitch called the local food store and asked the bakery to make a 1st birthday cake that was pink and with kitties. I asked him if they said they could do that and he said, “I asked for a pink cake with kitties and they didn’t say no.” We had no clue what this cake was going to look like until we picked it up. And let me tell you I think whoever did the cake had fun. I loved the cake. Here it is!
We put Norah in her seat to sing to her and she sat there looking a little nervous as 20 people gathered around her to sing. Then we gave her a little cake to dig into (the place we got the cake gave us a little cake free for 1st birthday when we got the big one). She put her finger tips on it and looked around nervously waiting for someone to yell at her for sticking her hands in. When no one did she put her fingers in a little bit deeper and deeper. She didn’t want to eat the actual cake part but the icing was delicious. Here she is digging in.
It was a great day spent with family hanging out and celebrating my beautiful little girl. I still can’t believe it’s been a year already.
