Nora Evelyn

Nora is learning to share (sort of):

Nora practicing for a future trip to the city:

Nora was very excited to receive a Valentine’s card from her great aunts Ginny & Marge. She carried it around all day and then it received a place of honor in her toy wagon overnight. She enjoyed the card even more the next day when she tore it into confetti – for there is nothing that Nora loves more than ripping paper.

At the restaurant Sunday night, no fewer than three people asked us if Nora and Kacie are twins. Most of them also thought that both of them were boys. Oh well.

When I retrieved Nora from today’s afternoon nap, she was dressed a wee bit differently than she was when I put her down:

I must have arrived before she had time to remove her second shoe.

Nora’s willingness to help in the kitchen does not end at emptying cabinets and stirring pots. Now her favorite thing seems to be to climb into my lap in the mornings and help me finish my cereal. This is obviously an essential service what with the 35 years of *almost* finished bowls of cereal I’ve left strewn behind me.

Here, though, my policy of “one spoon for me, one spoon for you” has clearly proven inadequate and she’s decided to take matters (literally) into her own hands.

Nora’s cousin Kacie came over tonight (with some other people) to help someone celebrate something. As will often happen with babies, Kacie brought her carseat along for the ride. This particular carseat happens once to have been Nora’s and she, no doubt feeling sentimental about the long-lost days of her youth, decided to take it for a spin.

You may recall how very excited Nora was to get her new (current) car seat. Still, though, this old one has a certain undeniable charm.

Nora, Jen and I went out to dinner this evening at the Cottage Inn pizza place near campus. Toward the end of the meal Billy, the absolutely fantastic general manager, brought Nora a helium balloon and I can’t believe I got caught without a camera. This was not her first run-in with balloons, but she was an erupting volcano of joy. She giggled, squealed, bounced, punched the balloon, bit the balloon, made her voice reverberate in the balloon, peaked at us through the yellow, played peak-a-boo, and generally was beside herself with glee.

She was still at it 45 minutes later when we got home (despite being 30 minutes after her normal bedtime) and I got a few not very good photos.

Nora’s (somewhat older) cousin Brien has a new CD coming out this Thursday and his record label are throwing him a release party. I have it straight from the horse’s mouth that rehearsals are going well and a great time will be had by all. Sadly, Nora can’t make it as the show doesn’t even start until a couple hours after her bedtime, but she’ll be there in spirit.

Brien also has a snazzy, new myspace page: Brien Patrick.

Enjoy!

Nora’s first swimming lesson was this Saturday morning and I am not exaggerating in any way when I report that she HATED every second of it. I think she actually kind of liked all the water but the relatively large crowd of noisy, splashing people was just far too much for her.

What we really need, I think, are a couple of opportunities between now and next Saturday for just the two of us to spend some time playing quietly in the pool. Sadly, we don’t have that kind of pool access so we’re probably in for a very long 8 weeks.