Nora Evelyn

Parker took us to play at a fun park:

One of Parker’s favorite places to visit is the Alligator Museum (also known as the California Academy of Sciences). Our first trip there was derailed by an enormously long entrance line, so we played outside by the fountain instead and then had lunch.

During our trip to San Francisco, Nora and Parker bonded over their shared love for Mickey Mouse, dinner, IKEA, and laughing. Behold:

Our friend Willie e-mailed us this photo of his daughter, Ellie, driving a firetruck while Nora rides shotgun.

Nora went to her friend Avanti’s 4th birthday party — held at a gymnastics school! Everyone got to tumble, use the trampoline, climb a rope, walk the balance beam, swat a piñata, eat cake, and generally have a blast. Most of the photos are filled with other peoples’ kids and we’d neglected to bring a stack of release forms (I’m kidding, there isn’t actually a form (yet)).

Nora really seemed to take to gymnastics in a way that she has not at all taken to soccer or swimming. Look for more gymnastics posts in the future!

Sometimes you just want to get dressed up in your nicest, most refined outfit and take Granny grocery shopping. Am I right?

Nora has inherited most of the clothes she owns from our friend Ann Fitzsimons’ daughter Michaela. Yesterday we let her dig through our boxes of new-to-her clothes to find things she’s grown into and she found some real treasures. Nora assembled this outfit herself:

Nora likes to recite the words of books she’s memorized while turning the pages (Madeline, The Going to Bed Book, Pajama Time, Fancy Nancy, etc. You know, the classics.). She can tell you with better than 80% accuracy what letter a word starts with (consonant clusters like ‘st’ and ‘fl’ are confusing and she absolutely insists that ‘Colleen’ starts with a ‘k’ — she’s right, of course, it *does* start with a /k/). Yesterday we went to Granny’s and read some books.

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.