Norah News: 6 month stats

Norah didn't have much to say about turning a half a year old....

Her new stats are: 14lb 4oz, 26.5" long and a 16.5" head.... 25th, 75th, and 50th percentile respectively. Pretty average overall, though she continues along her long and thin path -- we should all be so lucky! Developmental milestones meeting or exceeding, so all is on track! Pretty uneventful visit to the doc -- just the way we like it!

Almost forgot -- there are actually TWO teeth coming in!

Norah News: Cuts Like a Knife

So, the last few nights Norah has been waking up around 2 am, thus precluding the solid sleep for myself that I have come to expect in the last month. We're all still fighting this cold, she fell asleep without any Mom time on Monday.. what could it be??? Being a newbie at this, of course I was rubbing her gums each morning and evening, looking for signs that her first tooth was on its way... Funny enough, yesterday I had a funny feeling that something was up with her, though I couldn't put my finger on it... she seemed happy when I dropped her off, but it nagged at me, and I called to check in her at daycare. Her "teacher", Digna, mentioned she was a little off, and maybe she was teething...

Now, various authorities on the matter have told me she's been teething for several months now... the drool, the chewing everything in sight, so honestly I just thought - sure, she probably is, but no sign of that tooth yet! But, much like her arrival into this world herself, there was no sure sign when I rubbed her gums last night, but lo and behold, this morning there is a little sharp spot on the bottom right, as her first of first teeth is pushing thru!

Of course, Mom and Dad are very proud and excited, as though any of us had anything to do with when Norah's first tooth arrived! All in all, it wasn't too painful a process for us, let's hope they are all like this!

Norah News: 6 down...

and many more to go! Norah celebrates a birthday of sorts this week... I think she'd like an Ice Cream cake, I think it might be her favorite.

I was planning a new video for you all tonight, but the little tyke fell asleep at 6 and I haven't heard from her since! Maybe tomorrow.... in the meantime here is one from Saturday...

The Olympics are over. So what?

Did you know that Canada tied for 19th along with 9 other nations including Brazil, New Zealand and Georgia?? Did you know Canada won a total of 18 medals? Did you know Kenya came 14th, with 5 golds and a total of 14 medals (all in track and field)? If you are reading this from Canada, then you might, but if you are here in the US, odds are you haven't heard much other than how the Americans have been doing...

Shawn & Nastia, Michael Phelps... sure they are the Rock Stars of the Olympics (and oh-so-marketable!) but I haven't felt so much like a foreigner here since 9/11!

Don't get me wrong, the US and China certainly dominated these Olympics, but there *were* a few other countries that fielded strong teams! Or so I hear. I tried to get into watching a few times, but after watching such one sided coverage, it was hard to get interested. For instance, we watched womens springboard diving one night, where a Canadian (I am sorry I don't recall her name) was in the hunt for a medal... they showed some of her dives, and NONE of her scores! We did see the focus on Shawn Johnson (as all American as she is) about a dozen times that night though. Maybe I am wrong, but seems to me that CBC at least let you know when someone else won!

In all honesty, I am not sure how much of the Olympics I would have watched this year anyway... there is something much more interesting to watch at my house these days, at least until 8 or so when she goes to bed, but it does make me think about how biased the rest of the news coverage we see here in the US is...

The other thing that struck me about the Olympics was the sight of the opening and closing ceremonies... (admittedly I didn't watch much of that either, but I did read about both) While the sight of several thousand drummers drumming is fairly amazing, couldn't the time and resources applied to such a feat be put to better use? Maybe I misunderstand the extent of the economic impacts on a host city, and within that, the impact of the opening and closing ceremonies. It just seems in these times of conservation, the increasingly over the top spectaculars are heading in the opposite direction.

Lest you think I am off my noggin, yes, I understand the vast dollars at stake in advertising, and also the National pride thing for China... my observations here are not very in depth, but rather my lingering memories of the Bejing Olympics.

Norah News: Beach Baby

Nothing too much to say today other than the sun is still out, and we had a great day at Hampton Beach on Saturday...

In the Blink of an Eye

When Norah was born, everyone told us to enjoy every moment, that they grow up so fast...yada yada yada... at the time, we were still in sleep-deprived fog, and honestly couldn't imagine what everyone was talking about... now, nearly 6 months later, here's Norah, moving on up to size 2 diapers, and anxious to not have to rely on Mom to do it for her... and to think, I was worried about her going to daycare :)

The rain has lifted

Here in New England, summer seems to have passed us by! June started out with a heatwave, several days over 100 deg F, but we haven't seen any heat like that since. In fact, We've already had nearly three times as much rain in August as normal! It seems even the days that start out sunny end up with thunderstorms in the evening or overnight. The good news is that we haven't had to water the tomatoes in weeks... the bad news is, they're drowning! We've harvested a few, but the droopy plants are not producing the bountiful harvest we saw this time last year... something about photosynthesis requiring sun I suspect.

The sun has come out the past few days, but it's heat is gone. It's that back-to-school kind of sunny day - you know, you're going to wear shorts as long as you can, even if you need to put a wool sweater on too!

September always seems like a new year, even when very few in my day to day life are heading back to class... this year, back-to-school (ok, daycare!) came early. Nearly two weeks in and we're getting into a groove... Norah seems fine, I'm learning to go with the flow, and I even show up for work on time now and again! I'm not Supermom every day - just Norah's Mom, and that's just fine!