Nora Evelyn

It’s highly likely that this will turn out to have been a mistake, but when Nora found a cape recently (a lightly-used breast feeding cover up thingy) and started wearing it to school and insisting that we and others call her “super nora” we did nothing to discourage it. In fact, there may have been a certain amount of picking her up and running around with her so she could fly. It’s entirely fair to interpret this behavior as having encouraged her.

Happy 2²⁄₃ birthday, Nora. You are, indeed, quite super.

Nora and I picked up our Zilke Vegetable Farm CSA share today and the broccoli came with a dozen or so free green caterpillars at no extra charge. Here Nora and I are getting to know 2 of them before letting them go get eaten by our family of robins live happily ever after as beautiful butterflies. She even let me put a baby one on her thumb for a while. “He tickles!”

Today is also Nora’s monthaversary. She’s 2 years and 7 months old today. As always, click for bigger pictures and the occasional surprise.

Our little family met up this afternoon with our friends Anna and Salomé for a walk, snack (thanks, Anna) and playtime at the peony garden down at the Nichols Arboretum. When Nora and Salomé saw each other approaching the garden they ran away from their respective parents calling out each other’s names and ultimately meeting in an adorably awkward little series of hugs.

Salomé and her family are, crushingly, done living in Ann Arbor now so this was the last of our little play dates together. Living in a college town means getting to meet and know incredible, amazing, unbelievably smart people who then move on. Life is hard, boo hoo, walk it off.

It was insanely hot but fantastic company and a lovely setting can make up even for small inconveniences like peony bushes bursting into flames as you walk by them and ducks slathering one another with orange sauce as they slowly bake in their feathers. We let the girls escape the blistering nastiness of the day by frolicking in the Huron River. It was lovely and cool and provided the unexpected entertainment of watching, in surprisingly slow, stately succession, a lifejacket, floating cushion, hat, paddle, beer can, water bottle, something unidentifiable, and then 2 sadly soggy looking people floating aimlessly in a paddleless canoe. It’s like a simile (or maybe it’s a metaphor).

Nora was 30 months old today. Happy 2.5th birthday, little one.

p.s. even if you’ve never clicked on a picture before in your life –even if your personal belief system includes an interdiction against picture clicking– click the first image and check out those little faces. *sniff* walk it off.

She’s 30 months old now and, really, we’ve totally intended to buy her a bed all this time but you know how it is. What with having my bottlecap collection to organize, Jen’s cribbage league, watching reruns of The West Wing on DVD, and teaching ourselves to juggle we’ve just not had the time to get out to a store. Besides, even if she had a beautiful big girl bed all her own with an organic cotton mattress and adorable cartoon animal sheets she’d probably just climb out of it and fall asleep on the floor in the hallway.

Builds character.

Jen and I went to the eye doctor for our annual check-ups and all Nora got was a morning of pure joy hanging with Papa & Baba and these awesome sunglasses. Oh! and this is what a Nora looks like when it reaches 28 months of age.

Nora celebrated her 27 month-a-versary rock star style; in the emergency room. She’s okay, don’t worry, but we finally had our first marginally inappropriate visit to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with a (wait for it) cold (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). In our defense, her breathing was pretty scary, she was physically ill, and her fever was 102.1 before we bundled her up and headed to our friendly neighborhood world renowned level 1 trauma center (complete with helipad). Naturally, she immediately transformed into her normal playful, friendly, happy self when the medical personnel appeared. They administered motrin, talked to us in soothing voices, and sent us home at midnight.

Nora spent today tired, groggy, miserable, and in her jammies. Here she is trying to ship herself somewhere healthier.

On Tuesday we attended a fantastic event at the University for students who are also parents. There were hordes of happy kids, a corresponding number of nerdy parents, a clown, a station for making masks, a station for making wands, an unbelievably ill-advised baby pool filled with water and ducks, and free food. What’s not to love? It was also Nora’s twenty six monthaversary and her first (known) consumption of celery that hadn’t been stir fried.

Many thanks to the fine folks at Rackham and University Unions (and whomever else was involved) for a great evening of not being in our living room.

Being as today is both Thanksgiving (U.S.A.) and Nora’s Birthday (Universal), Nora’s Papa & Baba were gracious enough to let us turn their fabulous Thanksgiving dinner into a 2 year old’s birthday party. Many thanks to Papa & Baba, Granny, Aunt Christine & Cousin Kacie, and Kacie’s grandparents. It was just too bad Uncle Eric couldn’t be there (but someone has to keep Thanksgiving safe).

Nora enjoyed her cake, got to open a bunch of great presents, made a good show of opening the cards and looking at them first, had great fun with her cousin Kacie, and used a grown-up potty chair for the first time. It was a big night! Everyone’s happy & exhausted.

Good night.