I forgot to post this here back in August. Nora found it earlier today, though, and laughed so hard she literally ended up rolling around on the floor holding her belly. Not shown, Nora tracing an unsteady parabola away from the spinny chair as she tries to run a straight line to the swings. :)
How wonderful to grow up in an age when two approximately three-year-old friends can share a banana, a glass of water, and something approximating a chat in high quality, real time, trans-Atlantic (free to their parents) video! I don’t care if you spend your day with puppies and kittens trying on tiny little sweaters with matching hats, you’ve never seen anything as cute as Nora and Salomé video chatting.
Nora recently convened the first annual meeting of the blue house tiggers. One small tigger was forcibly excluded for having whiskers. The others were surprisingly thoughtful guests and, apart from themselves, left precious little mess.
July & August may be unbearably hot and humid. December onward may be bone-chillingly cold. But in-between them, every year, comes the best reason I know of to own teeth. Cider mill time! (aka Autumn).
We took Nora to the Dexter cider mill and great fun was had by all (including the bees). Then we went to a quiet spot we know by the river to sit on a bench, watch the water, and hang upside down from playground equipment while making sugar-fueled monkey noises. A more bucolic scene you couldn’t reasonably wish for.
This was Nora’s first semi-successful attempt at a boardgame.
She mostly understood what she was supposed to be doing, though when my piece got too far behind hers, she picked me up, put me down on the square right behind her, and said “Nora has to stay with mommy on the sidewalk.” And when I told her that the whole point of the game was to be the first person to get to all the candy at the top of the board, she picked up both our pieces, moved them up to the top, and then pretended to eat candy. That’s my girl!
Nora’s wonderful Aunt Colleen took us all to a pro-bono teddy bear outpatient clinic at the hospital where she works last weekend. Ruggles felt much better afterward and Nora had a fantastic time!
I have 2 seconds of video of Nora on the inflatable slide; this I will post at a more reasonable hour.
This is, honestly, how Nora leaves the house in the morning. Not every morning, mind you, but many more mornings than it is reasonable for a person to feel this way about it being morning.
Nora’s normal media are crayon or marker on paper (or table or wall or floor or house). Lately, though, she’s been branching out into photography. Here are some of her recent pieces. I call this series: “feet”
Shortly before the school year started back up in earnest, Nora and I made our first ever attempt at a father/daughter camping trip. Her Uncle Brien (not to be confused with her Uncle Brian or her cousin Brien or her deceased grandfather Brian or her new little cousin Briahna) outfitted us with tent, fly, ground cloth, stove, axe(!), and self-inflating pad. Mother Nature outfitted us with near 100% humidity and scattered thunderstorms.
We had a lovely drive with much duet singing of Beatles songs, Nora loved putting up and playing in the tent, our beloved umbrella went kaput, we saw wild turkeys, we heard wild turkeys, we endured the drunken festivities of Ted Nugent fans drunk out of their minds (presumably on Wild Turkey) and undeterred by either bedtime or torrential rain. We shared a damp, exhausted late night drive home through the rain to warm towels and the comfort of our own beds. On the way home Nora said, “I bad at camping, Daddy.”
Not true, little one, you did great. We’ll definitely try again next summer.
