Nora Evelyn

We’ve come a long way from the time Nora first started napping in her crib. Back then she was this tiny little bean who was essentially lost on the vast sleeping surface of her crib mattress. It’s even been 2 years since we first introduced her to sleeping in her toddler bed –which was really just the crib with the mattress lowered and the front more or less removed.

Now we’ve converted that bed one last time. The front of the crib makes its triumphant return and now the sides have been replaced with runners to give Nora her very own full size big kid’s bed! We’re back to “essentially lost on the vast sleeping surface”, but she still manages to fall asleep with some part of her hanging off the side.

You can still see, in this last picture, the places where baby Nora gnawed away the finish on what is now her footboard.

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.

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).

Two or so hours after normal bedtime, Nora stumbles up to me looking for all the world like a drunken sailor 3 days into shore leave.
“daddy?”, she slurs at me. “daddy?”
“yes, honey?”
“daddy, are you mommy?”
“no”
“okay”
*goes back to bed, climbs in, and falls instantly asleep*

every syllable the truth.

We gave Nora her first ever lolly on Tuesday. It was blue and, shortly after these pictures were taken, so was she. [not shown: Jen walking around the house with a washcloth wiping sticky blue substance off everything]

Nora recently went on a scouting/fact-finding mission to the dentist. She didn’t have anything done; she just watched her mom (whose teeth are the stuff of legend) get a routine check-up and cleaning. She absolutely loved parts of it (like being given a sticker, ransacking the box of toys, people fawning over her, and when we let her play with the crazy powerful handheld suction tube) and other parts made her leave little shoe-shaped skid marks as she leapt from the chair and ran to the lobby. It was too dark inside to photograph with our camera anyone who moves this fast, but here’s a shot on the way back home.

A few days ago Nora and I were playing in the living room (she was reading herself a book and I was playing video games* because I’m an awesome parent). At some point she came over to me, climbed up into my lap, looked into my face and whispered very seriously, “Daddy, my eyes make noises.” She then proceeded to make wildly roving bug eyes at me for about 20 seconds so I could lean in and listen. She sat back with a look on her face like, “see!?”

I said, “Do my eyes make noises?” and she leaned her ear close to my face so I could make wildly roving bug eyes for a while (I had to take off my glasses, she was that close). I finished. She sat back, considered deeply for a moment, and shook her head, “no.”

“Oh good!”, I said. “Let me know if your eyes make noises again, okay?” She agreed and we went back to playing.

About half an hour later she came back, stood at my feet, and we had the following exchange:

Nora: Daddy, can I lick my tongue?
Me: I don’t know, love, what happened when you tried it?
Nora: *works tongue furiously for a while, eyebrows furrowed*
Me: so?
Nora: Yes. I can.
Me: Oh good! What did it taste like?
Nora: *grabs tongue and, tongue in hand* like THIS one.

So there you have it. Nora’s eyes make noises and her tongue is (A) flexible enough to lick itself and (B) tongue flavored.

We’re looking for the appropriate journal to publish these findings.

* Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess

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!

Here are a pair of videos shot outside Papa & Baba’s house in Livonia. Video one is entitled, “Biking is hard” and shows our hero in the denial and bargaining stages of cycling. Video two is entitled, “successful cyclist”. It seems the hard part of biking, for Nora, is remembering only ever to push with one leg at a time. Figuring this out and helping her alternate with her legs has made all the difference. Do please note the understated and, to my ears, very sweet, “my did it!” 14 seconds in to video 2.

Next up: scooting along on 2 wheels with no pedals. Prep the band-aids and neosporin; this one’s going to sting a little.

The first annual Purple House Pi Day celebration was called on account of illness yesterday. Today, though, everyone is feeling better and we’re all decidedly in the mood for pi. So here’s how the new tradition works:

1. bake a delicious pie
2. measure its circumference
3. measure its diameter
4. divide the circumference by the diameter
5. see how close we can get to π
6. eat the pie!

We got 79.5cm circumference and 25.3cm diameter or a ratio of 3.142292. Not bad for our first try!