What would a first birthday be without the obligatory “let’s give her some cake and see if she throws it across the room” video? Does she throw it across the room? Does she cry? Can Buffy and Angel possibly work out their differences before the big dance? Watch and find out!
Nora’s been underweight most of her life so it’s especially important that we feed her a balanced, nutritious, high calorie diet. We employ a number of strategies: adding a teaspoon of flax or olive oil to each meal*, preferring high calorie foods like avocado and cheese to low calorie foods like carrots & green beans**, and always making sure Nora washes down her afternoon bag of Oreos with a few hits of Karo syrup***. See how happy it makes her?
* true, **true, ***not true
Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. I *swear* there will be a video post tomorrow. In another week or two I’ll (hopefully) be done with the project I’m working on and then you’ll be positively sick of me and all of my baby posts.
Nora’s recently become incredibly fond of our teddy bear, Ruggles. Here’s an outtake from our recent Christmas-dress photo shoot featuring Nora trying to put Ruggles in her high chair.
Every morning we let Nora out of her cabinet in the kitchen and allow her to make us breakfast. This morning I decided to photograph this heart-warming routine for posterity. (As always, click each picture for caption)
Nora thinks it’s hilarious when other people put earmuffs on; apparently it’s less funny when it’s your own head.
So it turns out I’ve never had the chicken pox. Two days ago Nora got her chicken pox vaccination which apparently means there’s a high probability she’ll be contagious in a few weeks. I mentioned to the dr my suspicion that I’d never had this particular ailment and she sent me off to the lab for blood work. Let’s pretend I was very brave about the blood work and keep moving. The lab tested my blood and, indeed, I lack immunity to the bawk bawk pox. They (the lab) called me back, ordered me to come in and get the dr-prescribed inoculation, and even set up the appointment for me. This was all going extremely well until Nora and I showed up to get my shot and the nurse mistook me for some kind of bizzaro vaccine junky! She hadn’t (I later got out of her) bothered to look at my lab reports, she hadn’t talked to either of the two drs who had sent me to the lab, and she, I don’t know, thought she’d unearthed a new trend of recreational immunization among 30-something males? She was genuinely mad at me and confused about why she was giving a shot she described as “for the children” to an adult-type person. I felt like I’d wandered onto the set of a bad reality tv hospital comedy show: Punked & Poked.
Nora hugged me during the shot. I was nearly as brave as she always is and I have the Road Runner band-aid to show for it.
Speaking of shots, here’s one of Nora. She surprised her mother and me by volunteering to go into her pack and play (read: she climbed up onto Jen’s couch, scaled the arm, leaned over the edge, and threw herself* into her pack and play). Sudden urge for the comfort and reassurance of confinement? A new-found desire to allay her parents fears by spending quiet time in a safe place for a little while? Perhaps a poetic longing to relive treasured moments from the past –the halcyon days of her pre-toddlerhood? No! She’d figured out that climbing into the playpen would allow her access to the forbidden CD shelf. Here she has selected the 1990 compilation album Bona Drag by British pop “star” Morrissey. Even from this oblique angle you can see how insanely proud of herself she was. :)
* it was a parentally-controlled fall; no babies were harmed in the creation of this blog post.
Nora did a surprisingly good job opening all of her birthday presents, individually hugging each birthday card (*shrug*), and then diving into the sea of generosity and expressing her appreciation by rolling around in her presents. Visible in this shot are her new snowsuit, shoes, and ugg boots.
And here is the completely amazing new tricycle Eric, Christine, and Kacie got her! She can’t reach the pedals yet but she loves riding around the house on it.
cake video, currently delayed by graduate school, is forthcoming.
I love that Nora kind of looks like a slightly girly dock worker in this hat and sweater combo.
