Nora Evelyn

So a few weeks ago (before we’d unpacked, even) I was practicing speech sounds in our living room in preparation for one of my classes. One class of speech sounds involves using your tongue, rather than your lungs, to move the air necessary to make speech. I complained to Jen that my vocal tract (throat, tongue, epiglottis, larynx, etc.) hurt because I’d tired myself out. Out of nowhere, Nora took it upon herself to teach me how to teach my students to produce these sounds. Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t rolling for the best part of the lesson (one hand on her hip, finger wagging in the air), but you get the gist from this, I think.

Jen snapped this pic of me and Nora enjoying each other’s company, I with my iPad and she with her (Jen’s) iPod touch. It’s nature, not nurture.

Here’s what our house looks like (from the outside) here in Texas.

And, of course, one of the first things we did here was to start interviewing neighborhood parks. We still haven’t made a final hiring decision, but we have a couple of decent candidates.

Back in mid-August, with the generous help of Brian, Uncle Bumpy, and Jim, we packed all of our stuff into a big, yellow moving truck and loaded our little purple car onto a trailer. My incredible friend Cameron Rule took a week off from his life to drive this truck (and me) from Ann Arbor to Houston. This is an absolutely gorgeous drive once you get past Ohio and until you get past Tennessee. ;)

I’m not sure what “inconvience” is and why it needs managing, but the keypad totally worked. Luckily Cameron and I are both the sort of people who appreciate that not everything you read is likely to be true.

Here’s another old shot of Nora in the dining room of the blue house. She’d made a baby carrier/asphyxiation device for her doll Marabelle and here she’s proudly showing it off.

This right here is the last ever post from inside the Blue House.

Nora loved our deck back at the blue house. Here she’s just finished walking around the perimeter (outside the railing) on her toes so she could peak into the living room from outside.

Here’s a shot of us playing with my beloved iPad back in our old living room!

Of anyone in the family, I think Ruggles likes it best here. Although he doesn’t eat, he’s particularly excited about the Ruggles Cafe.

Back on August 5^th I successfully defended my dissertation. Afterwards there was a lovely party at Pam Beddor’s home to celebrate getting rid of me. :) We took some pictures.

Sure, planking is stupid and dangerous, but that’s like the definition of being 3. Here’s Nora planking on the new deck at our old house.