Nora Evelyn

Nora and I visited the Matthaei Botanical Gardens during spring break for a little no-cost fun. We learned that chocolate, bananas, and olives comes from trees and that vanilla comes from a flower. We tried very hard to fall into two separate koi ponds. We ate a picnic lunch in the lobby. We pretended to touch some cacti. We stomped on a translucent walkway. And we had a lovely pretend tea party at which, Nora informed me, her old friend Salomé was present. It was certainly nice to pretend to see Salomé again. It’s amazing how big we imagine her to have gotten.

[ as always, be sure to click on pictures ]

Nora has had 1 professional haircut, 1 haircut by me, and when asked which she wanted for her third trim she chose… the professional (smart kid). :) We waited in a packed shop for over an hour and Nora was extremely good natured and calm about the whole thing. She’s too much fun.

When Nora sat down in the chair she wiggled her little bum back on the seat, stroked her chin thoughtfully with her right hand, looked up at Joey (the barber) and sighed, “I don’t need a shave.”

A couple weeks ago, Kevin and I had eye doctor appointments. Nora was with us for a few minutes, until Grandma came to take her to breakfast. Nora was nervous, because she thought she might get a shot (having recently had just such an experience at the pediatrician’s office) but all was well once she got a ride in the chair:

Also, this picture is from Nora’s 39-month-a-versary.

This week was the University of Michigan’s ironically-named “Spring Break” and Nora had Monday off school to hang out with her daddy all day. We went to the fabulous greenhouse conservatory at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens (free for students and people under 4 — which am us!) and out for totally yummy ice cream. Here are some ice cream pictures.

Nora’s Papa and Baba took all of out to Cottage Inn for Jen’s birthday dinner (back when it actually was her birthday). There were balloons and (cheese)cake and delicious pizza, and tremendous fun for everyone involved.

Pretty much the most important thing the department does every year is recruit bright new graduate students to admit into the program. Part of this is a big chili dinner which Nora attended this year, last year, and in 2008. I’m not sure what happened in 2009 (but probably I just forgot to take pictures).

It is raining at the moment and, with any luck, we have broken the back of Winter, but way back on February 2nd we had a snow day that threatened to bury our house. Nora, of course, loved it. Here we see her “helping” me shovel. See all the shoveling that she’s helping with?

As previously noted, the pool that Nora and Daddy swim in is freezing. So we bought her a spiffy wetsuit to wear and she wasn’t the least bit excited: