Nora Evelyn

Nora stopped by the Linguistics department today to take a shift as an office clerk and to work in the phonetics lab. She did pretty well at the greeter part, but the janitorial staff will most likely frown on the smudge marks left by her enthusiastic service. Unfortunately, you can’t tell that she’s very confidently standing in this picture: not kneeling and no hint of a wobble.

Many thanks to Sandy and Sylvia for sending me the pictures. As always, click on the picture for a zoomed version and (hopefully) witty comment.

I apologize for the mealtime theme this week, but eating is kind of a big deal right now. Here’s a picture of Nora taken right after she’d eaten her last bit of dinner (oatmeal, applesauce, and self-fed cheerios). Note the clean placemat, note the clean baby! Please pay no attention to the Jen on the floor. I’m not explaining that. Nope. Not me.

Nora’s recently learned a cool new trick: feeding herself. So far she’s eaten banana (which left a terrible mess), rice (which left a TERRIBLE mess), and peas (which left a more or less manageable mess).

Our gracious hosts in Montana gifted a small stuffed pony to Nora while we were visiting. As can be seen here, Nora likes this pony very much (he is a most huggable pony). Here is a quiz, though, is she:

1. kissing his muzzle
2. whispering a secret or
3. viciously tearing at his soft mane with her razor-like teeth.

We can’t thank Sally and Rich enough for their hospitality. If Nora weren’t currently blessed with the memory of an earthworm* I’m sure she would have accumulated a tidy bundle of treasured memories.

* I often wonder what Nora will think of this blog when she emerges from infantile amnesia and can go back and watch herself grow up. I hope her eventual reaction is “cool” and not “oh my god!!!”

Nora loves the books. Here she is embarking upon the Chaucer; quite a feat for someone who has yet to finish “Hop on Pop”.

The amazing log cabin we were staying in in Montana was about an hour and a half from Missoula so we decided to stay in a hotel near the airport the night before our 8:00am flight. It was a Hampton Inn packed to the gills with (I swear I am not making this up) Hells Angels and Amish people. I overheard one of the Hells Angels asking the desk clerk for the WIFI access code. Also, perhaps even stranger, there were Amish people on our airplane!? (Maybe it’s okay because it’s plane?) Here’s a couple shots of Nora playing in the hotel.

We have a little bit of a backlog of Montana pictures still to post, but we’re home and safe and Nora is happily exercising her newfound crawling and pulling-up abilities. Last night we put her in her crib to learn that it urgently needed to be lowered yet again [not pictured: screaming Nora standing at the side of her crib and reaching both arms out over the front pleading with one of us to pick her up]. So we lowered the crib to its lowest setting, she got a great night’s sleep, and this morning she learned to do this:

It’s a darn good thing we baby-proofed the living room before leaving.