on the wagon

September 22nd, 2008 by clunis

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.

kacie day!

September 21st, 2008 by clunis

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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better stanley cup pictures

September 19th, 2008 by clunis

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!

[photo not available]

September 18th, 2008 by clunis

This morning I was awakened by Nora yelling “dada!” and jumping out of Jen’s arms to pounce on my head. Then we giggled and cuddled for 5 or 10 minutes while she crawled all over me still saying “dada dada dada!”

How could anything go wrong today?

the stanley cup

September 16th, 2008 by clunis

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.

alcohol & sex

September 12th, 2008 by clunis

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.

piano (but not pianisimo)

September 8th, 2008 by clunis

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)

girl gone wild

September 7th, 2008 by clunis

We’re so proud.

uh oh.

September 7th, 2008 by clunis

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.)

crocodile rock

September 4th, 2008 by clunis

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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