Nora Evelyn

Nothing happens in this movie. There’s no “plot”, no “character development”, no “resolution”, and no “denouement”*. What there is is about 3 minutes of Nora feasting on Cheerios and being a goofball. If you’re basically a casual Nora fan you should go watch the “15 month old cabinet cracker” video instead. This one’s mostly for the completists.

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p.s. imagine having such a nerd for a father.
p.p.s. Nora bit first.

* the lack of these features obviously inspired the George Lucas allusions.

I hear you asking, “why is there tupperware all over your floor?  Didn’t you guys spend a tidy fortune on fancy magnetic locks?”

Why yes! Yes, in fact, we did spend a tidy fortune on fancy magnetic cabinet locks. Then we foolishly got into the habit of leaving the key where Nora could play with it (because magnets are fun) and she figured out how to do this…

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Happy 15 monthaversary, little one. We love all 19lbs 10oz of you.

p.s. One and a quarter comes after one.

No, I am not making this up; baby school has parent/teacher conferences. It was tremendous, actually. Nora seemed to think that having all four of her teachers to herself with no other babies in the entire building was absolutely the greatest thing that could ever possibly have happened ever in a million years ever omg ponies!!!?! Of course, Nora almost always seems to believe that whatever is happening is just about the greatest thing that could ever possibly have happened.

Here’s a pic of Nora getting pulled down the empty hallway in a sled by teachers Lena and Michelle. Word is she both had a ball and very clearly said the word “ball” when asking for a ball. The conference was great fun for us too. We adore Nora’s teacher Katie and the whole thing was basically her showing us pictures of Nora doing things we didn’t realize she could do*. We particularly enjoyed getting to see the teachers wearing things like makeup and jewelry.

*all of which seemed, from Nora’s various expressions, to be absolutely the greatest thing that ever happened to anyone ever, hahahahahaha, yay! omg ponies!?!!!1

I’m just too much fun for the baby — she can’t handle it. Monday ended with her taking a three hour nap and Tuesday ended like this. I took her to the Michigan Union where Jen and I let her run freely and greet whomever she wanted. Three observations: (1) she’s remarkably fast (2) `toddler’ is now a laughably inaccurate label and (3) how did we manage to produce such a friendly, outgoing baby?

Yeah, okay, that last one’s not an observation.

Nora and I hung with her Granny on Monday in celebration of day one of “the University is on holiday so we have no daycare this week” week. First, Nora demonstrated as clearly as she could that Granny does not know from “baby-proof” and then she performed the same service for the mall. We caught a brief glimpse of Aunt Colleen, Nora attempted (with remarkable success) to befriend everyone at the mall, and I came home completely exhausted. A great time was truly had by all.

Jen’s folks took and e-mailed us this great smiley pic of the bean. I have no recollection of where it was or what she was wearing (maybe they can comment and vague this all up for us?) so I’ll totally just make something up.

Here’s a shot of Nora in her new scrubs. She’s volunteering at the University of Michigan hospital as a boundless source of happiness for patients who might benefit from a puppy visit but who are, sadly, allergic. She would ride her pet unicorn to and from work but its left hoof is currently covered in marshmallow fluff.

Thing 1: Nora noticed this morning that I was showering but had stupidly neglected to stock up on duckies. So she did me a solid and tossed each of the four duckies currently doing a tour of duty in the bathroom into the tub with me. I’m just glad it wasn’t the hair dryer. Luckily for you, there is no photographic evidence of this.

Thing 2: We may have jumped the gun on the love interest thing. Nora gave her friend Samantha a big hug today when I was getting her ready to come home from baby school. So Nora’s still playing the field, keeping her options open, and testing the waters.

Nora and Jen went to the grocery store today to pick up some essential being-sick supplies for all of us (yes, again). It seems Nora had a particularly exciting day at school today. For a few weeks there’s been a little love interest brewing between her and a little boy named ‘Micah’. Micah runs around the room yelling “Nowra!”, “Nowra!” when she gets there, pokes her, steals her food, takes her lunchbag, etc. Unmistakable signs of little boy love (I know them all well having employed similar tactics late into my teens). For her part, Nora makes kissie noises when I list his name among the people she’s going to see at baby school.

Today Jen was picking Nono up and had just snuggled her into her snowsuit when Micah came over and tried to take the lunchbag. Nora’s response was to give him a big, warm, snowsuity hug. Her parents’ shyness is apparently not heritable or, if heritable, has not yet exhibited. Little Micah got enthusiastic congratulations from his dad, but I’d really hoped not to have to have “the talk” before she could, you know, talk! :)

Anyway, here’s a shot of our little lovebird helping to unpack and disperse the contents of the grocery bag:

I caught Nora trying on her mom’s sneakers on Friday morning. I’m totally impressed that she was trying to put them on the correct feet but, of course, even a broken clock is right twice a day. :)

Nora’s been sick (again) lately, but this does not stop her helping in the kitchen. Yesterday she figured out that the pot I’d given her to stir (with a potato masher) was put to much better use first as a comfy seat and then as an improvised sit-n-spin. She got herself pretty dizzy.