Free Bird!

We took Nora to see Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players this morning. I love this singer; I often listen to his CD in the car by myself, as a matter of fact, so I've been looking forward to this concert for a couple of months. It was worth the wait. He was so natural with the kids, and he really put on a great live show. We sat on the floor by the stage, and Nora really liked watching the big kids dance and run around.

She mostly hung back with us.

But then she developed an inexplicable affection for the lady in front of us and spent a lot of time trying to get her attention.

Toward the end, she finally cut loose and started dancing.

I know she looks unimpressed here, but she really was having a good time...

Hello Mean Face! She's started doing this a lot, and then laughing hysterically about it.

Do Not Displease This Child.

Rich has created a monster.

He thought Nora would get a kick out of being swung back and forth in a little plastic laundry basket.

He was right.

She liked it so much that when his back started to ache and it was time to stop,

She was very displeased.

The little orange laundry basket is hidden now.

Catching Up

I've been remiss about posting photos, mostly because I've become hypnotized by the itouch Rich gave me, which makes surfing the internet incredibly easy but typing incredibly annoying. So let me post the record of our January adventures, starting with

A Trip to the Festival of Lights

This was my birthday celebration. It was a lovely day: breakfast with out-of-town friends, then a lovely long nap for all three of us, hanging out around the house, and then heading out into the cold for a look at the beautiful lights at the Zoo. After the Zoo, we had delicious burgers at Five Guys over by UC, and Nora won over some surly-looking college kids.

A Big Snowfall

It snowed heavily on the 7th, and when I got home from work I could see that all the kids on the street were out in their snowsuits, riding their sleds in the street and throwing snowballs. I hurriedly stuffed Nora into her snowsuit, glad to have an opportunity to use it at least once. I had bought Nora snowboots that day, and I'm still not sure how they fit-- for all I know she could be standing on her tiptoes in there. But I was grateful to have them so that we could rush out to join the other kids and parents to have a little fun before dinner.

Tickle Party

Yes, she enjoys riding her book as if it were an indoor sled. As long as she loves books, I won't ask any questions.

A lovely poem by Michael Dennis Browne.

Thanks to my mom for sending this.


Telepathy
by Michael Dennis Browne


Today I explained telepathy to you,
and telephone, and television,
on the way to day care,

and I said, sometimes when I'm at work
I'll think of you,
and if I could send you that thought with my mind,

you'd get it right then,
and maybe you'd smile, stopping a moment at whatever
you were doing, or maybe not

but just going on with it, making a mask out of paper plates
and orange and green cards
with markers and scissors and paste,

or screaming circles in the gym
either being a monster
or being chased by a gang of them, but still you'd get

the picture I was beaming
and you'd brighten inside and flash me something back,
which I'd get, where I was, and smile at.

That's telepathy, I said
pulling into the parking lot,
looking at you in the mirror.

Baby STILL Loves Zombies!

After an absence of at least 6 months, the zombie groan saved the day-- or rather the night-- this weekend. Nora woke up with a shriek Saturday night around 4:30 a.m., and after a diaper change and lots of groggy cuddling from me, still refused to go to bed in her crib. What's more, she even resisted falling asleep in our bed, usually a sure-fire solution in desperate times. Basically, she only wanted to fall asleep with her head on my shoulder while I stood there and rocked side to side.

After two hours and several nursery-master bedroom-downstairs circuits and a teaspoon of Motrin to relieve her poor molar-shredded gums, I exhaustedly brought her back into bed with me and sighed in frustration as she again began to wail. I sang songs. I rubbed her back. I attempted a game of peekaboo. Finally, I let out a long, drawn-out zombie groan-- and almost instantly, the crying stopped and Nora cocked her head to listen.

Soon she lay down with her face two inches from mine, her face slack except for the familiar, intensely listening expression in her eyes. Within minutes she was fast asleep, and stayed that way for a blessedly quiet two hours.

It's like this strange white noise turns a key in her brain. I plan to save this for desperate situations, but it's good to know there's one more trick that may work. Note to my mom: Do not abuse this power! You'll render it useless! Note to international terrorists: Please don't suggest any Manchurian Candidate-style shenanigans while my daughter is under zombie influence.

Here's a reminder of the effect the zombie song has on Nora; this was taken when she was just a few months old:

Nora, doing nothing much.

Nora's not doing anything particularly fancy in this video, but the light was pretty, and my baby has a sweet little round tummy and an awesome mullet, and anything she does is entertaining to me. Also, my mom is out of town and I thought she might like to see how Nora is whiling away the time until Grandmama comes home.