Nora Evelyn McGowan

clearly the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree(s)…

Yesterday we went to Bigfork, MT — a tourist town similar to Saugatuck, MI; Park City, UT; Portland, Maine; or countless other such touristy places.  We passed up the fudge, t-shirts, and “art”, but being in possession of a cute baby girl fairly obligated us to purchase a cute baby outfit:

Happy 8 month birthday, Nora (and watch out for grizzlies)!

Sally, Rich, and Kwala took us on a delightful (if rather populated) hike near Holland Lake yesterday. We hiked up a mostly stroller-accessible trail (we’re not quite lazy enough to bring a stroller on a hiking trail, but other people tried and they didn’t give up their quest until about 2/3 of the way in; it was a very easy trail) to a lovely waterfall.

The waterfall pictures are forthcoming (they live in Rich’s camera right now), but here are some photos of Jen and Nora clowning around down by the lake after lunch. Note to any local social workers: no babies were thrown into any lakes during the taking of these pictures.

Nora and Jen have been spending a lot of time in the guest cabin while here in Montana. Here are a bunch of pictures of Nora apparently enjoying herself.

Nora’s hiding out in a cabin in the Montana woods not far from where the unabomber was eventually apprehended. Here is a view from our front porch:

Here we find our heroine completely surrounded, besieged if you will, by toys. What does she want to play with?

This was BY FAR the most benign thing she chose to play with on this, day two of Nora’s exciting new game: “will this kill me?” So far since mastering crawling she’s attempted: electrocution, strangulation, radiation (not kidding), choking, falling (jumping), cutting her toe on granny’s heating vent (actually, that wasn’t just attempted), rolling off the changing table, slamming her head backwards into the floor as hard as possible, climbing the curtains, eating the recycling, pulling a bag down onto her head, smothering herself with bubble-wrap, smothering herself with her playmat, smothering herself with the living room rug, standing up in the bathtub (eek!), and a thrilling choking/strangulation/electrocution triple-action super stunt. All of this happened under careful parental supervision and she was almost never in any real danger, but I can literally feel myself getting older.

Before you ask, yes. We are babyproofing. It just happens we seem to have produced some sort of self-destructive prodigy. All of which, of course, she finds simply hilarious.

What do you do when you’re so tired you can barely keep your eyes open? Why you crawl forward for the first time, of course. As if in response to Jojo’s request of yesterday, a (21mb) movie of Nora crawling.

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Willie, Katie, and Ellie stopped by this weekend and dropped off a box of Ellie-me-downs to augment Nora’s wardrobe. As you can see, Nora took a brief break from scrambling around the living room to investigate. (edit: turns out many of these items are 2nd generation Zara-me-downs by way of Ellie. It’s good to know your history.)

and celebrate

and… then went back to scrambling around the living room. :)

See that bruise on her head? That’s from crashing it into either the floor or a table. Either we’re terrible parents or have achieved a simple Zen-like calm that will serve Nora well throughout her formative years. Maybe both.

Nora’s newfound mobility* means she’s free to roam the living room and explore the many wonders it has to offer. Naturally, no tour of the living room would be complete without a stop at the Pack ‘N Play Café for a gnosh on the front leg nearest the loveseat. Frequent visitors to the café know, of course, that the rear legs are much more tender and well worth the effort of digging one’s way under the CD cabinet to get there, but our little girl takes pleasure in even the most pedestrian of treats.

* No, you didn’t miss anything. She’s not crawling *forward* yet, but she can really motor in reverse. She’ll actually see something she wants, spin around until she’s facing the other way, crawl backwards to the thing, and then spin back around to pick it up and, you guessed it, put it in her mouth. That’s our Nora: determined but predictable.

Nora had oatmeal with blueberries for lunch today and heavens is blueberry hard to wash off a wiggling baby!

So what does Nora eat? Yesterday she had a lovely dish I like to call `peanoa’ (mushed steamed peas in very lightly spiced quinoa). So far she’s had (in addition to breastmilk, of course):

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