Happy Thanksgiving!

As I posted last month, my cup runneth over!

It's hard to remember sometimes when the few times I get to turn on the news, it's doom and gloom... stores going out of business, more people losing jobs, more companies needing bailouts... then there are the closer to home things like trying to find time to buy Christmas presents, write cards, get a tree, and just generally be festive. I usually LOVE the holidays, and LOVE choosing just the right gift but this year, so far at least, it's just getting me down.

Some might say that the holiday spirit doesn't really move them until after Thanksgiving, and I'm hoping that will be true for me too! After all, I do have very much to be thankful for, very much to celebrate! I can't wait to take Norah to see Santa, to see her eyes light up as she tries to figure out what the Xmas tree is all about. I am putting money on her having a blast playing with the paper and boxes this year, and looking forward to hanging out with her in our jammies all day on Christmas!

Hmm I'm feeling a little more festive already! Thanksgiving isn't until tomorrow, but maybe putting my thoughts on virtual paper was all it took!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we're headed to Matt's family for some turkey tomorrow... should be quite the scene - 29 adults and 9 kids!

Waffle-Mania

Little Miss N is showing less and less interest in baby foods, and more and more interest in big kid foods that she can feed herself. This week she had noodles, peas, turkey meatball, bread, pancakes, and waffles. And of course she and I have our Cheerios together every morning (who needs baby cereal?)

Here she is on her 9 month birthday, eating a waffle

Norah News: One Step Closer

Norah is getting ever closer to taking her first real step! She's very brave, so she tends to dive from one thing to the next, like from the chair to the table. She'll sometimes take a little step from the table to me, but I don' t think that really counts as her first steps... or does it?

She also surprises herself by standing on her own quite often. She'll be playing with something on the table or other surface, and decide that she really needs TWO hands to shove it in her mouth... so she does! Then, invariably, she'll realize what she's doing and fall flat on her but!

The latest step towards walking is the walker - the shopping cart one we have at home, as well as the one at daycare - which she had too fight poor Blake for yesterday... let's just say I'm glad he didn't end up with a black eye, and Norah needs to work on her sharing skills!

Anyway, here she is walking & shopping around the living room! A couple of days ago it seemed like she'd only 'walk' to keep from falling over, but she is increasingly pushing the cart along.

Norah News: Toxic Slime Update

I've been trying to teach Norah to blow her own nose.... here's how it's going... not so well :)

Girls Night!

While it's true that Norah and I had a night to ourselves tonight - just us girls - I also got to see some other gal-pals of mine this week.

I've known this particular bunch of women for about 10 years, originally through work, though I've only ever worked directly with one of them. There was a time, when we were all new to Boston, when we used to meet weekly - on Wednesday - for women who wine (or whine, depends on the week) Back then, none of us had found our personal niche in Boston, and we were happy to have something to do, some cool people to hang out with. Then there were times when we only managed to get together a couple of times a year, and other times when we managed to pull it off every month or so. Sometimes some of us see or talk to each other in between, sometimes not. One thing we can always count on when we do manage to get together, is that the days or weeks or months since we've last talked seem to slip away, and we're soon laughing like we've just seen each other yesterday!

We've been through a lot in 10 years... somewhere between 10 and 20 jobs between us all, in probably a dozen different companies, 4 companies that went under, 3 weddings, 3 graduate degrees, a brush with cancer, a parent's passing, several kids graduating and off to college, and a couple more getting their applications ready, 3 new kids to the mix, leaving work (and not) to care for these kids and parents, first dates too numerous to mention, and twice that many trips around the globe, new friends, old friends, old friends that are new again, and new friends that were someone else's old friends!

Sounds exhausting doesn't it? But really it isn't, really it's energizing and invigorating! This set of ladies are great inspiration, no matter what you aspire to be! I love getting together, and hearing what's new, getting advice and sometimes giving it. Sometimes solving problems, but always putting them in perspective.

So Crystal, Jodee, Gillian, Nancy, Lisa and Jin (who lives in China now, but without whom I would never have been part of this group) it was fantastic to see you all, and as always, I look forward to doing it again soon!

The sweetest kiss

Periodically I end up giving Norah a bottle in the semi darkness of her bedroom... sometimes before a nap or bed, or early in the morning. A couple of times this past week she did what may very well be the sweetest thing ever!

When she's finished with her bottle, she usually likes to put her head on my (or Matt's) shoulder, even if it's not time for sleeping. These times, she put her head on my shoulder, and then lifted it up again, and looked me square in the eyes, very close. In the semi darkness I wasn't sure at first if she was upset, or still hungry or what. But she smiled at me and leaned in and pressed her little lips against mine, then smiled up at me again.

It's almost impossible to describe how that simple gesture made me feel, but if my heart could actually explode, I think it would have then!

As long as she keeps her kisses for me (well, OK, and Matt too) and not those boys at school....

Writers Block

I know, I know... it's been nearly a week since I posted... this stupid virus has literally had my head in a fog for nearly two weeks. This is particularly a problem since I have a large volume of documentation to write at work these past couple of weeks. The good news is that Norah seems to be feeling better, and her appetite has finally returned (with a vengeance!) I still have some of that toxic slime she shared with me lingering in my throat and nasal passages, but as of today I can smell and taste again, so that has to be a good sign!

I've always believed that things happen for a reason, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a minute to thank your lucky stars! The week before last was truly a demonstration of Murphy's Law for me, in that almost anything that could go wrong - did! I won't go into details because all's well that ends well, but suffice to say one great big thing that went right was that my parents arrived for a visit, just in the knick of time!

Norah's Nanny and Grandpa came down for their pre-Christmas/winter/tax-season visit, and also to help us out on Veteran's Day, since Norah was off, but we were not. Little did we know, we'd all be feeling under the weather, the leaves would literally be a carpet in the back yard, and just how much we appreciated their help!

So Mom and Dad, since I know you're out there - THANKS!

And let's hope this block is over!

Norah News: Highland Fling?

I stole this picture from my Dad's Facebook page. Norah was dancing in this picture, maybe working on her Highland Fling? Special thanks to Aunt Susan for the super cute outfit!

What Norah is Learning

As I mentioned in my last post, last week was a heck of a week! Lucky for us, Mom and Dad arrived for a visit on Thursday, just in the knick of time too! It's been great having the extra set(s) of hands around - I'm still under the weather myself, and we had literally a blanket of leaves covering the yard that is now looked after. I think Norah has enjoyed hanging out with her Nanny and Grandpa, and I KNOW they loved hanging out with her.

So, I was wondering what they were doing all day... now I know.. I enjoyed it, I hope you do too!

Running Ragged

Contrary to my plan for the week, I haven't got out for a single jaunt around the block. I'm itching to figure out a way to start running again, and figure that lunch times on my work at home days are ideal -- I mean I save 20 min per day commuting on those days, and I won't need to shower in the morning (or heck, even after the run, I'm here by myself, it can wait until later!) Anyway seems we've all been run a little ragged around here lately instead.

Norah is still not feeling well, though I took her back in to the doc this afternoon for a check up. The virus just has to run it's course (5-7 days) and so far she has no signs of any of the scary complications! On top of that, Matt and I both are also sick!

Adding to my own woes are that I have a pretty big deal meeting on Friday, so missing work is hard, but wait - my laptop has decided to be difficult this week, and after spending 2 hours on the phone with some guy in Brazil, I dropped it off to some other guy locally and have yet to see it back! The up side of that is that I was free to go and pick Norah up and take her to the doctor. Funny how things work out isn't it?

I'll presumably be putting some hours in tonight, when I get my laptop back, to catch up from today, and tomorrow is unlikely to be a fun work day either... but we're lucky that Nanny and Grandpa just happen to be on there way here to see Miss N! HOORAY! Back ups! They'll be here until the middle of next week, so here's hoping we're all recovered by then!

So, things around here can best be described as chaos, but we're getting by, and they could be a lot worse!

Cranky Monkey

Well, it appears that Monkey Girl underwent some kind of transformation on Halloween... she is now Cranky Monkey. The thing about Cranky Monkey is that she's really clingy, and sleeps for only an hour or so at a time. Cranky Monkey also sometimes has a fever, cough or is otherwise pretty miserable.

As you might guess, Booger Womom is not immune to Booger Monkey's toxic slime.

Needless to say, Norah and I are both sick. I took her to the Doc this morning and she has RSV. She slept a lot today and seems to be a bit better this evening, but it was a long day today! Here's hoping for better news tomorrow!