We've been had!

Ever had the feeling you’ve been had? I’m sure you have, and I’m here to tell you it’s much harder to distinguish when delivered by a just-getting-over-being-sick 2 year old. However, there are sometimes moments when you’re absolutely sure. Take for example this conversation between Norah and Matt at around 2 this morning – the third night in a row of very little sleep for any of us, thanks to Norah

Norah: “Mommy, Daddy, whhaaahhh” generally, boo-hoo poor me, at this point it’s been going on for 30 -40 minutes, having exhausted all of our other tricks over the previous two nights

Matt: in his best stern voice, “Norah stop crying and go back to sleep”

Norah: "..............." yeah, that’s silence

Matt: “Norah it’s the middle of the night, and time for sleeping, now just roll over and go back to sleep”

Norah: in her tiniest voice, “ Hug?”

Me: in the other room, laughing into my pillow

There was another similar exchange later where a toe allegedly was hurt, but whether she just got tired of the fight or we actually got through to her, we were all fast asleep within the hour.

As usual, there are a few forces at work – Norah was sick, so we had been checking on her when she stirred during the night, which we generally don’t – I mean who wouldn’t like a little midnight back rub?? We were starting to suspect she was working us, but now we have proof! In addition, a little internet research revealed that it’s actually pretty common for this kind of sleep disruption to occur between 2 and 3 – something to do with development.

Whatever the reason, I hope it passes quickly, I’m exhausted and August and Brudder and sleep deprivation will be here soon enough!

Pox or Not?

Does this look like a kid with chicken pox to you? No? Me neither. This picture was taken around 9 am this morning (yes, a Monday, when we should have been long gone) as Norah had a ball flooding the kitchen, er, I mean playing in the sink. I sent this picture to Matt, who was already at work, as we waited to leave for our doc appointment to verify that she did not have the dreaded pox!
Well, let me fill you in on the background...a week or so ago, a note came home from daycare that both chicken pox and hand, foot and mouth disease had been diagnosed at Norah's school. Even though Chicken Pox can be very serious in pregnant women, I wasn't all that worried, as Norah had been vaccinated, and Matt and I both had it as kids.

Last Friday Norah woke up (or rather, I woke her up :( ) with a slight fever, and obviously not herself, so I kept her home. Her fever spiked in the afternoon, and while Tylenol wasn't touching it, Motrin seemed to keep it under control for the most part. I was worried, as she and I had tickets to see Curious George Live Saturday afternoon. Mid Day Saturday she still had the fever, but we loaded her up with meds again and put her down for her nap... and then snatched her from sleep to toss her in the car and head to see Monkey George -it'll be fun, I promise!

Anyway, the show was a hit, and the fever abated... she was a bit restless on Saturday night but woke up "not hot" as she said. Then the next thing hit... she started showing a few spots on her face, neck and hands... uh oh. So we watched her all afternoon and evening, waiting for some definitive sign that it was or wasn't one of the dreaded VOW - Virus of the Week.

This morning she work up, with no new spots and yesterday's spots looking a lot less angry, so I was fairly certain that she didn't have a VOW. The problem is, if I sent her to daycare with an unchecked rash, she'd get sent home to get it checked... soooo I called her doc when they opened, explained my plight to the nurse, and made an appointment for mid morning. As I suspected, it was neither of the VOW, and I dropped her back at daycare in time to catch the end of circle time (ok, maybe in time to disrupt the end of circle time) and in time for me to make it to my morning's meeting.


Alls well that ends well, I guess!

Bike RIde

Norah and I were out running errands today, and on the way home we saw a guy on a bike. I pointed him out and Norah waved to him - no biggie, that's her usual MO. But then she said, " Me bike, in Driveway - pink bike Mommy, NOT red bike!" Well, that was quite a mouthful for young Norah so naturally I did as she asked. (Note, the red bike is her trike)

Here she is, posing for a picture, on her sweet ride, look carefully, you may not be able to distinguish if from the video below :)

We didn't have much success with biking today, at least not in the tradional sense, but she did manage to master getting on and off (including swinging her foot over the seat!) and knocking it over and picking it up. She also started to warm up to the idea of her helmet and did a thourough inspsection of most of the bike. All in all, not a bad day!

Hi Brudder!

Well as you can see in the picture from earlier today, Norah and Matt are spending the day together today. It’s one of those charming Massachusetts holidays that only schools, banks and, apparently, daycare, are closed. Since I'm hoarding all of my vacation days to extend the precious little maternity leave I have, Matt took today off. It’s a busy time for him at work and I know it’s a tough day to take off, but, as with most things kid-related, you do what you gotta do!

Matt also went to Norah’s parent-teacher meeting this morning. We both attended the first one, but ever since I’ve attended solo, since it’s usually me that takes the day off. Matt called afterwards with the report – which was all good! They basically review an age-appropriate checklist to see how she’s doing against milestones for her age. She has absolutely no areas for concern – as usual, she doesn’t give us much to worry about!

The other thing that was cool today was that Brudder really made himself known! I’ve felt him kicking for nearly a month now, but wasn’t showing any movement on the outside. Well, just now, as I was sitting her working away, by belly got hard and tight and pushed itself against my desk! I absently rubbed it with my hand, only to discover it was him, moving around! I don’t know if he likes the clickety clack of the keys or if he doesn’t like these pants (which honestly are a little tight when I sit down!) but I do know he pushed his little head around to let me know he’s there! As Norah would say…“Hi Brudder!”

What Happens When Dad is in Charge!

Good stuff, no?

Extreme Nesting

I’ve been surfing the web, trying to figure out if there is any correlation between pregnancy and major home improvements. I haven’t found anything specific, although it’s a well known fact that we women like to ‘nest’ as the arrival date looms near. The last time I was pregnant, we took down 2 walls (one interior, one exterior), de-paneled and painted one room, painted two ceilings, installed sliding doors and built quite a large deck. And then we started tearing out the kitchen. While the other moms in our prenatal class were buying crib bedding and wall hangings for their nurseries, we couldn’t actually get into ours, because it was filled with kitchen cabinets (no room anywhere else, the appliances were in the living room, after all) It turns out that we were back up and running just about 8 weeks before Norah arrived, and we’ve been picking away at minor finishing touches ever since.

This time around, we started out in the basement, tearing down a wall. At the time I said, “No more kids, there are no more walls to tear down in this house!” So what did we do? We geared up to build some more – a second story on our house to be specific. That does NOT imply more kids, by the way. Now, we’d always planned to expand our tiny house – some of the last pregnancy’s changes cemented that. Also, we love where we live, we have a nice big yard on a quiet street, we can walk to the lake and an awesome playground, we’re close to a couple of key major highways and tax free shopping is only moments away. Best of all, our neighborhood is full of families like us. There are 5 kids within a year or so of Norah’s age that she can visit without ever crossing the street!

So why, pray tell, would we decide to do this now? Well, I’m generally known to be one who ‘goes big or goes home”, so I guess that’s part of it, but much like the last time around, when would be a better time? Mortgage rates are low, most contractors are looking for work, and really, now there are only 3 of us to move instead of 4! The initial hope was that we might move back into the house shortly after Brudder arrived, but a more recent and realistic estimate is that we hope to be started before he is born.

Last week, I wondered if we’d lost our minds… baby #2 means daycare x2, not to mention I’m not exactly at full capacity right now due to Brudder catching a ride for the next few months. In addition, here in the US maternity leaves are so short that they don’t hire or assign replacements; the plan is for me to do all of my work before I go! Poor Matt bore the brunt of this stress I was carrying, and of course, he’s an architect, so he’s doing all the house plans. So not only was his pregnant wife having a meltdown, but I was also keeping him from working on the plans! Anyway things are looking much better this week, the plans are coming along, we visited a home show on the weekend and got a lot better feel for some key items, I had a nice chat with both the mortgage folks and the town permitting folks and more fully understand the process for both of those and most importantly, I’ve let go of the idea that I’ll be spending my maternity leave in my beautiful new house.

Anyone have a alternative suggestion to nesting, cause I think Matt will kill me if I start bringing home blue nursery decor items

Easter in Reverse

I've been a little delinquent in posting (an excuse that is getting old, I am sure) but there is lots to say, just not too much time to say it, or so it seems... In any case, I am just getting around to posting the pictures from our Easter trip to PA a couple of weeks ago... but I loaded them in reverse, so you'll get the story in reverse as well. We haven't been to PA for Easter since Norah was born, but as you can see, it's cousin central!

Here's the Easter Egg hunt in full swing!
Here is Norah, with Olivia, Ella and Abby... Olivia wasn't all that interested in sharing her little sister with Norah, but that didn't stop Norah from following them around, trying to hold hands or snag a hug

Norah and Brian had an unusual fascination with tossing stuff down the storm drain... leaves, sticks, maybe an egg or two?

Here's all the little kids, Norah, Brian, Abby, Katelyn, Ella, Adam and Olivia

Norah finds her first egg, and stops to investigate... but competition was fierce, no time to see what's inside each one!

Norah leading the charge, despite the fact she had no idea what fun she was in for!

Friday night, Norah was serenaded by Opa before bed time HE started out with a livelier number...

Painting her first eggs!

Well this one has nothing to do with Easter, it was the weekend before, as noted by the winter jacket and hat! We met a friend of mine and her daughter for a play-date... I kinda forgot to take some pictures, except this one! Regardless, it was nice to hang out with someone that I had more than just our kids in common with.

Norah and her Words

As I've mentioned, Norah has been getting a lot more verbal lately, putting words and phrases together in the proper way. She is big on expressing her likes (Elmo is my favorite!, Milk is good! I like fishies!) though her dislikes are still mainly communicated by tantrum-like behaviour, or an emphatic "No!" regardless, it's all progress!

One of her latest turns of phrase is "Be right back!" usually accompanied by a knowing look, and a hand to tell us to stay put. She did it when going to the potty at Oma's this weekend (followed shortly thereafter by "Help Please!" when she couldn't get up on the toilet herself) and she did it last night.

On Tuesdays, Matt usually works late, so it's just us girls here for the time being. I was pooped, and sat on the bed to change my clothes. I then tried to coerce Norah into reading a book with me, in the big bed, before supper - she agreed, as she usually does. I asked her to go and pick out a book. She jumped off the bed, pointed at me and said "Mommy lay down, Be right back" It was all I could do not to crack up, so I did just as I was told... listening carefully for sounds of a disaster, but she returned shortly with a book.

Happy Easter

Here's Norah in her Easter finery, ready to head to Mass... we were in a bit of a rush after a big day on Saturday, so this is the best picture I got! Guess we'll have to wear this dress again!