Norah's New Hobby - Baking!

As often happens when we visit with either set of grandparents, we realized Norah was capable of a little more than we realized, this time in the kitchen. Just before Christmas, Matt and I ran out to run a few errands, and this is what we came back to... in case you don't recognize this, it's Nanny and Norah cleaning up after their pie making adventure.


Norah got a couple of aprons, and some toy baking equipment for Christmas, so I've really tried to take this new interest and run with it! In addition to being really fun, it also makes getting things done in the kitchen much easier, and much more enjoyable. Norah get so excited when I ask her if she wants to bake! She runs to (try) to get the stool, and one of her aprons, and "I do it" and "own" are oft-heard phrases! She very literally squeals in delight, leading Matt to say that he's never seen her so excited about anything! I'm not sure it's so great for my waistline, but it sure is fun!

She doesn't discriminate either... Matt was on pick-up and supper duty the other night, and I came home to find them both hard at work getting dinner together. Here are a few pictures of her new culinary skills!

Drama Queen

Norah's been a bit of a handful the past couple of days, and it's lead me to reflect on her dramatic tendencies. From an early age, she had a cry that was cleary pure exasperation with the world around her and totally unrelated to any of her basic needs being met.

These days, the drama is a little more, shall we say, obvious. At times it makes me want to crack up, like when she isn't getting her way and she grabs the bridge of her nose with her fingers - you know, like you might see some stressed out executive do? Only it's not over earnings reports or delivery schedules - more like not being allowed to swap her milk into her Elmo cup. Yesterday morning she was having a meltdown about which shoes to wear, and actually left the room we were in, went into a corner in the living room, threw herself to the floor and assumed the 'turtle' position while she cried herself into exhaustion.

She clearly likes to throw a performance, something which I am certain will lead to some trying times in the years to come. Over Christmas, we had the opprtunity to have our family pictures taken by Scott McIntyre, who also did our wedding photos. When he was done, with the family shoot, he asked if we wanted some pictures of Norah.

To say that she worked the camera is an understatment! She stood exactly where Scott asked her to, and seemed to have a blast smiling for the camera. We thouroughly enjoyed watching her 'perform' and even more so, the results! You can see a slideshow of our shoot here.

Enjoy our drama queen, we do!

Things I never thought I'd say to my two year old

"Norah, you got the beer?"
As we were coming up from doing some laundry in the basement on Friday, bringing up some beer to put in the fridge

"No, Norah, you can't have your own bra"
This morning, as I was getting dressed and she was trying to put one on, and couldn't figure out how to get it under her shirt

"Norah, it's time to go, do you have your cell phone?"
Nearly every time we're going somewhere, it's a toy cell phone that provides hours of distraction, but still...

"Norah, put away your Glockenspiel"
Need I say more, I didn't even know what a Glockenspiel was!

"OK, I'll get you some hand cream"
After I put some diaper creme on her red bum, she was concerned about her dry hands, apparently.

"Boy Norah, that poo is BLUE!"
Who knew blueberries could do that to your body... scary really.

Chillaxin'

Here is Norah, taking a break from shopping on Sunday

Fashionista!

We've all been fighting a headcold recently that's making it hard for me to get my but in gear to blog... but rest assured, the Beantown Bugle is alive and well. My sister Susan was in town this past week on business, and we were lucky enough to see her last weekend, at her hotel, as well as having her here with us for the weekend. It was great to see "Aunt Zie", despite an unfortunate virus that had her feeling a bit under the weather while she was here.

This picture was in her hotel room last weekend. We took advantage of the access to a pool to head in for a dip. Norah seemed to like swimming ok, after such a long time, but really liked lounging around in her penguin robe and butterfly shoes...


This weekend, we had a bit of a lazy morning on Saturday, and Norah had a fine time dressing up with her beads, backpack, purses, hats, and whatever else she could find. It is important to note that Aunt Zie, sometimes known as the Fashion Police, was napping during this time, and in no way sanctions this outfit :)

Toddler Games

Norah has reached that stage in her development where she's really testing the limits. Sometimes this results in the typical toddler tantrum, but sometimes it results in in some pretty funny stories. Here are a couple
- Yesterday, I was guiding Norah thru the morning potty/jammie change and got as far as getting her down to her diaper. She took off laughing, and I found her, without her diaper, hiding under the kitchen table
- Also yesterday, she came prancing into the living room in nothing but a diaper and her flip flops - apparently she caught sight of them while Matt was getting her ready for the bath...
- Saturday night, we were at the neighbours for dinner, and as the adults were all finishing up, Norah decided to drop her pants and say "I pee" She didn't of course, but it was good for a laugh
- After an early and short nap yesterday, I tried to coax her into another one with a snuggle with Mommy in the big bed... well, she snuggled alright, but then started playing with her lips, you know, that thing you do when you're bored...

This is just a small sampling from the last 48 hours!