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).
Nora, Mommy, Grandma, Kacie, Aunt Christine, and Kacie’s other grandma all took an exciting trip to Sesame Street – Nora’s first live theater experience. There was singing! And dancing! And Muppets! Nora loved it. Many thanks to Aunt Christine for chasing Nora down when she made a break for the stage (event not pictured).
Nora’s pal Jisoo recently celebrated her 4th birthday party at an indoor play and junk food consumption place called “Jungle Java”. They really need an adults-only version of this place; the little kids crawling around on the climbing gym are forever getting in my way.
Warning: the following video is known by the State of Michigan to cause tooth decay and hyperglycemia in research subjects. Watch at your own risk.
This is how Nora felt about Christmas this year. I hope your solstice-proximal holiday celebrations contained this much joy and excitement for you.
It is increasingly the case that downloading pictures from our camera comes with some exciting and unexpected shots taken by Nora herself. Here are two selections from her recent series of portraits.
I’ve posted before about the fantastic striped onesie Nora got to use for a while when she was little. Now I’m happy to say it’s getting love again on the back of Zara’s little sister, Amity.
Note: Amity is just being held upside down in this picture. She’s normally oriented the other way.
The day after Museumfest 2010 was, as so often happens, Sunday. I know it was Sunday because Nora told everyone who would (or wouldn’t) listen, “Today is Sunday because mommy is coming home today!”
We began the morning with a video chat with Salomé (not shown) which consisted almost entirely of two three year old girls whipping their heads back and forth and consoling crying dolls. It takes a while for Nora to get into the swing of a video chat but S is a dedicated conversation partner and this ended up being another remarkably successful chat session. Start watching the skies for Marty and his DeLorean because we totally live in the future.
After the chat we headed off to Livonia for lunch with Granny and the Baumgartners and then, after a long nap, off to the airport! Below is a ready-for-nap girl cuddling with Aunt Colleen and the happiest Nora ever tickling with Mommy and (a well consoled) Yellow Baby before a delightful dinner with Papa and Baba. I think Nora and I needed a weekend after our weekend.
Here is a pair of lost videos from Greenfield Village of Nora riding on things. The first is a very short video of Nora, mommy and grandma on the carousel. The second video is much, much longer and shows Nora being happy about riding on the old steam locomotive.
Way back on September 23rd when Nora was only2 and was but a mere toddler, her grandparents took us all to Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI. Somewhat ironically, the task of recording this trip for posterity fell through the cracks and the photos and video taken that day have gone unseen… until now!!! [as always, click for larger image and captions.]
