Life Sized Artwork

One day last week, I got home a little early and Norah and I spent about an hour playing with markers and working on this 'big' project. It's a life sized tracing of her, which I then thought we'd color. Well, we colored alright, everywhere! I think I traced her hands and feet about a dozen times each.

One kind of funny thing is that she seems to like to use the black a lot - crayon, pencil, marker - it doesn't matter. When I was about her age, apparently I showed the same preferene for purple... and to this day I still love purple! My mom, at the time, wondered if I would end up with hyper activity disorders or the likes. In my case, I wonder if we're looking at teenage years full of goth clothing and hair dyed black... I sure hope not. Maybe she'll be like me, despite the fact that I do love purple, I pretty much prefer all my shoes and pants to by black... I can hope, right?

Norah HGTV: Socket Wrench

Norah is really coming along in her HGTV training. In these videos, she is helping Matt take apart the patio furniture to store it for winter. Someone asked me this weekend whether Norah was tending to be a girly-girl or more of a Tomboy, and I think the answer is "both". She loves worms and bugs, but is also pretty choosy about her shoes and her hair pretties. Today, she insisted on keeping her dress on after church, but her tights are covered in mud. Also, just after I cut this video, she went uncovered her play credit card and went over to her play cash register... "Credit Approved"

Class Picture

Well, pictures are back and her's this fall's class photo. There are no fewer than five girls here born in the same month as Norah... can you pick out which ones?

Is that you, Cindy-Lou?

A couple of times in the past two weeks, people that we do not know have commented on Norah being Cindy Lou Who. You know, from the Grinch stole Christmas (the cartoon version, not the 1999 movie) The first time, at a wedding last weekend, she was dressed in a little pink dress, a bunch of women and I guess I get it, but the second time was this past weekend, at the grocery store, she was wearing overalls, and it was a grandfather aged man... go figure. Here's Cindy Lou - one with us and one cartoon pic for reference... what do you think?

Norah News: Taking after her Mom

Those of you who've known me for a long time may recall that I had my first 'business suit' at a young age - like 11 years old. Those of you who haven't known me that long - stop laughing. I had a greay pinstriped suit - jacket, pants and skirt - from the Sears catalogue. I loved it and I even wore it to school. Let's just say I had designs on a corner office from a young age. Well life has a way of changing your perspective and while I'm pretty happy with my career, I don't have a corner office, but I do have a wonderful balance.

In any case this post isn't about me, it's about Norah. (go figure) She's like me in many ways, both good and bad. She likes to tinker, and figure things out, but she also gets frustrated at times when she can't do something. She also has a flair for the dramatic, which my Mom and husband claim she gets from me (I don't see it myself, but I'm just reporting) I passed by the bathroom the other morning and look what I found! A bit early to be worried about what's going on in the business world don't you think? She looks a bit concerned too...

Neighbourhood News: New Playground

There is an awesome new playground just around the corner from our house. It's a special playground, in memory of a Little Boy who died at 6 months old of something called Leigh's disease. He has a big sister, and his Mom recently gave birth to twins. His Mom built this special playground in his memory, and for all kinds of kids - normal kids like Norah, kids in wheelchairs, kids with sensory disorders, and kids with other kids of issues that we can't even think of.

The Little Boy's Mom raised money and co-ordinated volunteers to build this wonderful playground. As we've been watching it grow out of the corner of a parking lot over the past few months, I've come to appreciate what this must mean for the Little Boy's Mom. I've never met her, but it makes my heart heavy to think how it must feel to lose a child at 6 months old. I wish I had paid more attention to the fundraisers and calls for volunteers - I know we'll certainly be regular visitors in the years to come, and if this weekend is any indication, I expect we'll meet a lot of our neighbours there too. I wish I could thank this little boy's Mom. If you'd like more information about this playground, drop me an email, and if we know each other, I'll send you a link - this is the internet after all.

In any case, Norah and I took advantage of the nice weather to check it out for the first time. Here are some pics!

Meet Mr. Stinky and Mr. Baggy

As you can see in the pictures that follow, Norah has become a bit averse to having her picture taken… She used to respond to a request “picture smile” with an adorable toothy grin - now all I get is a sour expression, and sometimes, she runs away or hides! So, to my dear sisters, who are asking for more pictures, more pictures… here you go!





I do, however, have a cute story to share. Norah has a couple of new friends - meet Mr. Baggy and Mr. Stinky.
Original, I know… it all started on a weekend afternoon a couple of weeks ago, with a paper bag and some coloring pencils… Matt cane in and joined the fun with Stinky and the legend was born. Norah will actually ask for Stinky or Baggie by name, and loves to give them hugs and kisses. Tonight, I was working Baggy, and Norah opened her arms and said “hug, hug“ so she gave Mr. B a big hug. Then, we started looking all over for Mr. Stinky … who was no where to be found, despite the fact he was in Norah ‘s arms with a bunch of other random stuff. Finally, she dropped him, and he was found. I offered to operate him for her, but alas, she wanted to do it herself… she put the big sock, er, I mean Mr. Stinky, on her little hand and said “hug, hug” so Mr. Baggie and Mr. Stinky had to hug each other. Then, she obviously wanted to hug Mr. Stinky herself, so I showed her how she could….

So cute, my kid hugging and old, holey sock!

Helping Mom make breakfast

Airplanes!

Norah has been pointing out airplanes overhead all summer... Imagine how excited she was to see them (kind of) up close!

Sunday Photos

This weekend has just been beautiful, weather wise! This morning when we got home from church, we took a few minutes to stroll around the yard, and take a few pictures.

Bachin' it!

I'm heading to Chicago later today, and this time, there is no back-up. Matt and Norah are on their own - Bach'in it, if you will. I'm not worried, Matt's a great Dad, and he'll figure out whatever he needs to. Norah and I have a certain rhythm to our days, and I expect theirs will be totally different, and that's ok. Matt's not me, and I'm not him! It's always hard to leave Norah, (and Matt) but my schedule is so packed while I'm there that I won't really have time to pine for them... much!

Anyway, in honor of Matt going it alone, here are a few shots of him and his girl from the past week or so

Norahs Knowledge Demo

I took a couple of videos of Norah earlier this week, demonstrating a few of her new skills... she knows EXACTLY who she is.... as can be seen in the first video. In the second video, she demonstrates her vast knowledge of her body parts, stopping on occasion to pose for the camera, of course.

A Scary Halloween Tale...

You may wonder why you haven’t seen any pictures of Norah on Halloween.. I mean I post pictures of pretty much everything else, why not Halloween? Well, it’s because we missed it! Not the whole day, just the trick or treat part. Where were we, you might ask? Sadly, we spent it I the ER – yup, as in Emergency Room.

We actually had a great day up until that point, we went to a touch the truck event, spent some time playing the leaves, and I was relieved that Norah went down for a LONG nap, and was ready for the fun to come that evening. After she woke up, she caught sight of Matt working on something in the yard, and insisted on going outside, to see what was up.

After a couple of minutes chatting over the fence with one of the neighbors, we came back to inspect the work Matt had been doing on the shed, and talk about our plan for the rest of the day. It was a really windy day, and the leaves were falling off the trees at an incredible rate! That wind also caught the door that Matt had been working on, and blew it over – and it landed on Norah! All three of us screamed, we picked Norah up, and I tried to calm her while Matt made sure she was OK – it had hit her on the back and we were concerned about her neck and head. After a few minutes, she seemed to return to her usual self and we counted our blessings that she seemed to have escaped unscathed.

Unfortunately, a few minutes later, when I took her inside, I realized she wasn’t putting any weight on her right leg – first I thought it was rocks in her shoes, then that she was just clingy, but I soon realized that she must have hurt her leg when the door fell over. Matt and I immediately took her to the hospital, where they took X-rays and generally checked her out. While I’d say she’s not crazy about any of the folks in white coats, she was brave and did very well. The overall result, however, was inconclusive – it seems she may have a growth plate fracture… whatever that was! We were instructed to keep her off her foot and see an orthopedist on Monday.

We got home, and of course the first thing I did was get on the internet and try to figure out what a growth plate fracture was all about. I could see that Matt was really beating himself up about what had happened, thinking that it was his fault. It wasn’t, of course, it was an accident, but I could understand where he was coming from. We ad no choice but to wait until Monday to get her in to see an orthopedist, so Sunday was spent explaining, and trying to keep Norah occupied, while sitting down. Thank goodness for strollers, shopping carts and the Veggie Tales DVD we had just picked up on Friday!

Getting to the point of it all, Norah is going to be fine… we didn’t get in to see the doc until Monday afternoon. Matt stayed home with Norah and I went to the office, but, after Friday and the silly parade, I knew I wanted to go to the doc with them – Matt is more than capable, but I know myself, and I wanted to be there. He looked at her Xrays and her leg, then asked her to talk, without the splint… to our relief, she did! She limped a little, and even today, is still limping a little, but she walked on it and didn’t cry out in pain! Hooray! It’s likely just a bruise of some sort and as long as she continues to improve, we’re to assume she is A-OK! She has a follow up scheduled for next week, but if we’re not concerned, he said to just cancel it.

So, that was our sordid Halloween story… it was by far the scariest Halloween ever for us!

Music Class Photos

Norah's daycare has a shared photo site, where they post pictures periodically of the kids, doing their thing. Recently, they posted some pictures of her class with their music instructor. I'm honestly not sure if she comes in weekly, or if she was a special guest! In any case, it looks like they were having fun.