Norah News: First Solo Vacation

Due to circumstances beyond my control (My Babysitter moved to California!) I was in a bit of a bind for childcare during the last week of summer.  For some reason, there is no available child care for school aged children this last week before school starts!  I wasn't terribly worried, I had back-up plans - her sisters, our old sitter and an unemployed friend, or worst case, I would work at home/take off the week.  Turns out all of those fell through and I was in a real bind.  Thankfully, I live in an awesome neighborhood with awesome friends, several of whom came to my rescue!  

 

The first part of the rescue week entailed Norah joining her friends Erin and Allie and their parents for part of their week-long vacation in Maine.  (Now that's friendship!)  We drove her up on Sunday, spent the afternoon on the beach and headed back to real life after dinner.  I was a little anxious, but as you can see, Norah was just fine.



Jen, knowing I was a little anxious about this whole thing, sent me pictures throughout the two days she was with them.  Norah is right between the two girls in age, so the three of them can be as thick as thieves.  This was the shot from the first night

Movie Time!

The next morning, by the time I got to work, Norah was enjoying their traditional vacation breakfast - fresh donuts.  Good thing she got sugared up, since she looks so sad...

They had a busy couple of days, beach, arcade, trolley ride, ice cream, mini golf... it was hard to keep track!  Jen called me a few times to let me know how she was doing, and tried to get Norah on the phone.  Sadly (for me), but awesome (in the big picture) mostly all I heard from Norah was a whisper to Jen, in the background "I don't really want to talk right now"  Sure, a small part of me wanted her to need me, but overall I was really proud of her!  We didn't plan this trip because I thought she was ready for such an adventure (though clearly she was) so the working mom guilt thing was weighing heavily on me. 

While they were mini golfing, apparently Jen was snapping pictures of the girls and someone asked if she wanted a family pic with her three daughters.  Laughing to herself, she agreed.  Kind of seems fitting, given the way the kids were back and forth between our houses and yards all summer. 

"Family" Vacation Portrait.

When she came back, she seemed like an older, more mature version of herself.  Still our Norah, but with a new sense of confidence or maturity about her.  I am so thankful for such great friends!

BFFs!