Nora Evelyn

Due to some rather unfortunate nap time scheduling issues on Christmas day (the excited baby refused all attempts to make her sleep), we were forced to quit the festivities early and ended up finishing presents with Granny a few days later. Pictures of that are still working their slow way through the rubberducky editorial department, but here are some snaps of Nora opening a fantastic gift from Aunt Colleen that somehow didn’t get opened at her house.

Nora seems to really enjoy playing with the letters (and so do I):

Nora had a terrific time hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa’s on Christmas day. Here we see her: teaching baby K. how to use her new wagon, playing with ribbons, and generally being helpful and fun. Many, many thanks to Aunt Christine for (a) remembering to bring a camera and (2) fighting the horror that is Windows to send them to us (seriously, everyone, get a Mac*).

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The plan was to pick out Nora’s Christmas present from us by taking her to our friends’ excellent toy store and letting her get any one thing she wanted. This is, of course, an absolutely terrible plan because (a) she wanted everything and (2) the thing she most wanted was the 5 foot tall teddy bear guarding the door.

Instead we got her a cool pop-together caterpillar thing (not shown) and this very cool zoo train. Of all the toys we track down the parts for and reassemble after she goes to bed every night this is our favorite.

I have been more than a little lax in attending to my duties as Nora’s webmaster this last week and more and for this I humbly apologize. Here is the first of what will be rather a large series of make-up posts documenting Nora’s second Christmas holiday. Here are some shots of her helping us wrap presents on the 27th day of Kislev. Note how she has helpfully helped wrapping paper, bags, and tissue paper out of their boxes and onto every square inch of available floor. She is nothing if not thorough.

Last year Nora’s participation in cookiefest could best be described as “awake but uninterested”. This year, though, she was significantly more engaged in the festivities:

For what are probably obvious reasons, there is no tree in our house. Nora still got to decorate, though, at Grandma & Grandpa’s.

How does a guy allow his toddler daughter to play in the drawer under the oven? What horrible thing was I doing that distracted me long enough for this to happen? I, being an evil man and a terrible father, had chosen to stop at the front door and take my boots off. Meanwhile Nora, shown here thinking she’s the greatest thing ever, ran to the kitchen, opened the drawer, threw a glass lid out onto the floor (not pictured), climbed in, and started laughing her little fanny off.

p.s. I am not one of your plodding footwear removers; indeed, my average shod to unshod times could stand proudly alongside the best in the business.

Here’s are a couple of pictures of Nora going for a swim in her new snowsuit. It’s entirely possible we’ll need to get a slightly smaller one — she ought to be able to wear this one in June or July. :)

Also (barely) visible in these pictures is Nora’s spiffy new velour track suit courtesy of Sylvia in the Linguistics Department (thanks, Sylvia!).

If you could ask her, Nora would most likely brag that she got an awesome purple shoebox from Deidre O’Reilly for her birthday. It’s even true; she did get this awesome purple shoebox. It contained shoes, of course, but Nora has seen fit to right that error — making room for all manner of small toy, bits of food, daddy’s keys, remote control, cell phones and whatever else she can gain control of.

Our daredevil baby toddler had a bit of an accident this morning. Here are the steps Nora followed to fling herself into the side of the table and cut herself just below the eye. Note that this recipe does not work and should not be reproduced. Past performance is an indicator of future success. Kids, please don’t try this at home.

1. Figure out how to use highchair as a ladder to get onto the kitchen table.
2. (Admirably) figure out how to get back down.
3. Absent-mindedly move highchair about 2 feet further from table while playing a different game.
4. Climb chair and discover it’s too far from table now.
5. Jump anyway.

All this before 7:00am (note the darkened window). She’s completely fine now but her face was covered in blood when Jen got me up. Here’s a picture of Nora basking in the glory of her initial successful summit of the table:

The highchair has since been modified and is no longer usable as a ladder. We’re going helmet shopping tomorrow.