Nora Evelyn McGowan

We’ve held off on posting about this because we don’t want to be accused of grade inflation, but it’s hard to deny that Nora’s started standing!

Also? She’s starting to get hair.

Nora doesn’t know how she ever got along without a wagon to lug all of her stuff around in. Long gone are the days of crawling from the living room to the kitchen with Red Bird in her mouth. Such form. Such poise! Such grace! Such bunny slippers!

Recently she’s mastered backing up without running herself over. She even looks where she’s going now!

And she goes so fast she’s just a blur.

Such a goofball.

Last Sunday Nora’s cousin Kacie had her baptism. Nora had fun too.

Good news: we finally got a picture of Nora with her two great (and I mean great) aunts Ginny (on the left) and Marge (not on the left). Bad news: we didn’t get this picture until after Nora developed her goofy “I see a camera” face. Note Grandpa in the background looking proud but relaxed. :)

(caution, sacrilege follows)

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Brien and Colleen’s camera contained better pictures. Nora was very sleepy here, this being during her nap time, but she’s a trouper. We really ought to have let her take a nap in the cup — think of the motivational poster!

Nora’s Aunt Colleen and Uncle Brien came out to Ann Arbor because their friend Doug had (and I am not making this up) the Stanley Cup at his house.

I think perhaps you did not appreciate the full gravity of the preceding sentence.

Their friend Doug. Had the Stanley Cup at his house. Also? There was a buffet.

Here are some shots of Nora and her humble servant meeting the oldest trophy in professional sports.

This is important. If your kids don’t learn about alcohol & sex from you in the safety of your own home? Then they’re bound to learn about it crawling around in Mom’s recycling bin at work.

Nora loves pianos even when they *don’t* have big, pretty google eyes, giant chompers, and wildly unfortunate color and layout design flaws. Here’s Grandma giving her a lesson:

and, later, Nora rockin’ out on her own. Her Grandpa McGowan would have loved this… *sniff*

(many thanks to grandma and grandpa for sending us the pictures)

We’re so proud.

To our great alarm, Nora has discovered The Catcher in the Rye. It even seems to be affecting her behavior.

(note: this picture is not posed — none of them are. she dug Salinger out of the bookshelf, took off a sock, and decided to make an evening of it. I have no idea.)

Nora’s paternal granny bought her this very nice crocodile xylophone toy. It’s colorful, it’s noisy, it rolls around, it’s great, and she loves it. And I love that she loves it, but?

I have to admit that I find this toy incredibly frustrating. Before I point out what bothers me so much (it’s not the noise!), here is a picture of Nora loving it (to remind myself why it didn’t go out on the curb this morning).

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