Foto Finish Friday: Week 44

Norah News: Fashionista!

In order to streamline our morning routine a little, I've started working with Norah to pick out her outfit the night before.  I didn't think we really had time in our evening routine, but we don't have time for the inevitable hassle in our morning routine either - especially on days when I might have an early meeting!  It seems to be working out well so far, and it's actually kind of fun picking out her outfits with her.  As you may know, Norah definitely has her own sense of style (part princess, part Cyndi Lauper and no jeans, under any circumstances - only soft pants) and I largely let her run with it.  Here is a direct quote from her last night that pretty much sums it up:

"This is a great outfit Mom...flower pants, a purple shiney skirt, a fishey short sleeve shirt and polka dotty long sleeves. Oh, and doggie socks and shiney church shoes"

Love you Norah, don't ever lose sight of who you are!



Norah's Family Picture

I did a boatload of filing last night, and I found this family picture Norah drew over the summer (I did say a boatload!!)  The scan isn't quite as clear as I hoped but it's pretty cool nonetheless.. that's me, with all the curls (?!) on the right, Matt on the left, Roddie floating near my ears and Norah in the middle on the bottom (a little hard to see in the scanned copy)

Sunday Outing

We went to a "Touch the Truck" event at a local ice-cream-stand-turned-amusement park.  Touch the Truck is an opportunity for kids to see fire trucks, dump trucks, school buses, police cars, snow plows and the likes up close and personal.  In fact they are even allowed to climb in and over the vehicles and really take a good look at them.  I took Norah to one 2 years ago, and she really wasn't into it.  She was a lot more interested this time around, though she still doesn't like the sirens and horns. 

Roddie, on the other hand, was in heaven. He was beside himself he was so excited when he'd sit in a tractor or truck with Matt and try out the driver's seat.  I continue to be amazed at at the number of more typically male pursuits that Rod is really drawn to.  He also took his first swings at a baseball (ok, it was a plastic T-ball set...) today and was pretty excited about that as well.

Sadly, I didn't realize I had my phone/camera with me until after we were all trucked out.  However, we were in a really nice setting and the kids looked adorable in their church clothes, so I belatedly tried to get a few shots.



School Photo Proofs

It's that time again - school photo shoot!  These are just the proofs, as usual, but I just loved the poses and wanted to share!  Norah decided to accessorize her own outfit this morning and I decided to just go with it, as I think it really shows her personality at this point in time.  Note, all her "jewels" match both her cast and her dress - that was not *my* doing...

LOL, ok, I don't love this one, but it is kind of funny...

Looking so grown up and mature!  Big changes since the April version!

These were taken in early October, so Norah was 3 years 7 mo and Rod was just about 14 mo.

Foto Finish Friday: Week 43

Adventure Chronicles: Apple Festival

We were looking for some outdoor family activity to do this past weekend and a friend of Matt's told him about an Apple Festival at a local ski hill.  Turns out it was half fall festival, half German Ocktoberfest, totoally kid focused and very busy!  They had everything from super slides,bouncey houses, and pony rides for the kids, to ski lift rides, to a beer tent with a buffet of German food and a traditional band.  Adding to the excitement was the fact that the weather was all.over.the.map - hot and sunny one minute, really cold and rainy the next, and everything in between!  As a result we were constantly putting hats and vests on and off.  In the end, we had a good time... we even saw a Bengal Tiger demonstration!

Here's Norah, not quite convinced there is nothing down there..

Norah having a go at the pony rides.  Rod wasn't up for the challenge this time around

Norah looking thoughfully down at the beer tent?  after the cole and rain blew through and we went back outside

Norah and Roddie cutting a rug while the band plays

Roddie making a grab for Mom's beer - typical!

Big Boy Pictures

Here are a few pictures of Roddie to go along with my post from the other day...

Vegetables, who needs vegetables?

The "Fancy Tower" taken with my iphone

I've recently returned from a trip to Paris - ooh la la Fancy Nancy might say, but it really wasn't as exciting as you might think.  Note I said *I* just returned, not *we* just returned... it was a business trip.  I was gone, to another country, in another timezone from Sunday afternoon until Friday evening, and Matt was on his own with the kids.  Oh yeah... did I tell you he had a huge deadline at work while I was gone and we found out Norah broke her arm the day before I left? 

Apparently they managed without me, though from all reports, no one ate a single vegetable the whole time I was gone.  Oh well, the kids were clean and happy, the house was tidy, and Matt appeared to be in one piece when I got back home on Friday.  This was the longest I'd been away from the kids, ever... or Matt either for that matter, and I missed them terribly.  With a little help fro our neighbour Megan, and an all nighter on Matt's part, we all survived the week.

Work wise, the trip was a bust, but you gotta admit there is something cool about seeing the Eiffel Tower or the L'arc de Triomphe when you leave a restaurant.

I didn't even suffer too much from jet-lag, either coming or going.  Turns out a teething toddler is good training for international travel and the prolonged lack of sleep in the weeks leading up to my trip really paid off.  All that being said, I'm not anxious to travel for a full week again any time soon.

The Age of Suprise

Roddie has kind of surprised us recently… suddenly, he’s no longer a baby, but a little boy! Of course the change has been gradual, and he’s 14 months old after all, but there have been a few days recently where I was acutely aware that my baby boy is no more… well, he’ll always be my baby boy (sorry Rod!) even though he’s not a baby any more. We met a new biker chick recently, baby Emily was just one month old – and I could barely remember Roddie (or Norah for that matter) being that small. I also saw a lady carrying a very small baby at church this weekend and looked down at Roddie who was sitting scribbling on a piece of paper and thought – wow! Anyway, it’s bound to happen and of course I am happy that he is growing and developing like he should, but the extent of it all just kind of took me by surprise! Here are a few examples from the past few days:

• Roddie doesn’t like his high chair anymore! He was getting impatient with it, so I tried him in the booster seat yesterday – he happily colored (yes, with crayons and paper) for 20-30 minutes yesterday while I worked on tidying up the kitchen. He didn’t even eat any crayons and hardly got any on the table! Then, this morning, after following Norah and I out to the kitchen on my request, he walked right over to it and tried to climb up (paid no attention to the highchair which is still there) He ate his breakfast (cheerios, in a bowl, with milk) with a spoon as happy as can be. *sniff*
• Not only can he run around the yard (and he does, typically away from me!) but he can climb up the ladder and down the slide, all.by.himself!!! He started out yesterday with going face-first, but after a little coaching, he now turns himself around so he’s sitting and flies down the slide! He LOVES it! He can also climb all the way UP the slide (well, almost, I need to help him at the very end, and of course spot him!)
• We went to a fall festival thing the other day, where there was a Bengal tiger demonstration. Matt grabbed Norah and put her on his shoulders so she could see. I was standing there with Roddie, who was in the stroller and could see nothing but knees, and realized that when Norah was his age, we would have been all over showing her the tigers! So I picked him up and put him on my shoulders and sure enough, he was enthralled, maybe even moreso than Norah.
• We were having a great time playing outside yesterday while Matt worked on refinishing our front door. When snack time rolled around, Norah requested a picnic. So I grabbed a blanket, milks for everyone and a few things to nibble on, including a ziplock bag that had some animal crackers in it. We sat in the warm sun near the back door and enjoyed our snack. Roddie took the ziplock, and I thought he wanted another cookie, so I opened it for him… apparently that wasn’t what he wanted, since he closed it up again. Then, he took off across the yard. I grabbed him and brought him back, but off he went again, towards Matt who was out by the shed, working on the door. I decided that I’d just let him go and see what he was up to, and lo and behold, he headed straight towards Matt, and proceeded to offer him some cookies! Such a sweet boy!

I guess we shouldn't have been surprised, being "experienced" parents and all, but the 2nd kid is a lot more difficult to keep track of in the same level of detail as the first, and he just caught us by surprise!

Foto Finish Friday: Week 42

Foto Finish Friday: Week 41

Norah News: Broken Arm

This post is a little delayed, since I was in Paris last week... more on that, and how Matt and the kids fared later.  This post is about what happened BEFORE I left...

The Wednesday before I was to leave, Norah and Roddie were playing in the living room.  He was sitting on the sofa and she was hugging him/smothering him and trying to join him.  She fell off the sofa, as she has many times before and hurt her wrist, cried, and asked for ice - a near daily occurrence for some appendage or other, so we didn't think much of it.  Her arm didn't swell and she really didn't complainn about it much, though we did notice her favoring the other arm, and occasionally she'd say "Actually Mom, I can't do that because my arm is sore"  Matt has been dealing with some back issues over the past few months and we kind of assumed she was copying him.  All reports from school were that she seemed fine.  Still we were a little uncertain.

Friday evening, she went to pick up a puzzle piece on the floor and put some weight on the hand and screamed out in pain.  It swelled, even with ice on it and we knew we'd better have it looked at, stat, before Matt was on his own with the kids for the week.  Here's what we came home with:

The X-ray revealed a "green tree break" meaning more of a bend than a clean break - apparently quite common in young kids, whose bones are still developing.  Norah got a temporary cast (purple, seen above) and a sling to wear until she could see the specialist the next week.  She didn't like the sling, which in fairness really didn't fit her right, so we rigged up a little something to match her outfit, which took the sting out, for a few days at least.  Matt took her to the specialist on Tuesday and she's now sporting a hot pink cast (pink is her new favorite color, alongside purple now, and her outfits must match the cast) 

Here she is telling Nanny all about it, at least for pretend.  She was decidedly not chatty on the real phone!