Christmas 2010

Table Shark

I love this silly series of pictures in part because there are some really radiant smiles, but also because they show Nora's true personality-- sly, sunny, curious and always ready to laugh. She sees me holding the camera and wants to hold it herself...

Trip to see the Trains & Santa

Flashback-- here's what Nora looked like last year at this time:

And here's what she looks like now:

Nora's 2nd Birthday

In this picture, I think Nora really looks like me.
More than I've ever noticed, as a matter of fact.

For her second birthday, Rich and I got Nora a doll. She'd been acting particularly nurturing towards her stuffed animals, and we thought she'd really like to be a mommy to a real doll. We were right.

She took to this one right away, although she still doesn't have a name aside from "Hard Baby"-- to distinguish her from "Soft Baby," a doll who's all fuzzy plush and just doesn't have the same pizzazz as far as Nora is concerned.


People, are you aware of the price of a decent baby doll? I wanted a doll that wasn't made in China and that got good reviews on Amazon. My other stipulation was that it couldn't be battery-operated or do anything aside from opening and closing its eyes when you lay it down. I carry with me my childhood prejudices; I always thought a doll who "peed" when you fed it, for instance, was good only for peeing and couldn't be used for other purposes. Or that a stuffed dog in a sleeping pose would forever be comatose and therefore no fun at all to play with. So I wanted the most versatile-- and quietest-- doll possible.


I ended up choosing a Corolle, which gets rave reviews from parents and grandparents on Amazon and is made in France, apparently out of pieces of Marie Antoinette's petticoats. It's expensive, is what I'm saying.


But when it comes down to it, Hard Baby was worth it. I'm writing this in January (I know, Mom) and Hard Baby still gets lots of play time. I think it's probably a good idea to invest in just one or two big toys rather than ply her with lots of junk. Tell that to me at Christmastime, though.

We also had TWO birthday parties for Nora-- one with kids from daycare and a couple of neighbors, and one with our families. Feted much, kid? We did it all on one weekend (so that I wouldn't have to clean twice) and the following Monday Nora had a fit when it was time to get ready to go to daycare. "Nooooooo!" she cried. "I wanna stay home and go to a party!" Sad life lesson learned: it doesn't stay your birthday forever.

Check out her birthday party outfit. Those shoes light up.

She had a pretty great time.

The look on her face says it all. This is during her family birthday party.

If only I'd had some way of knowing someone might take a picture of Nora at her birthday party, perhaps I would have had the foresight to wipe the schmutz off her face. Live and learn.

Halloween

This year was Nora's first time trick-or-treating, and we talked about it for weeks and weeks ahead of time. We had more than one meltdown when Nora decided she wanted to trick or treat RIGHT THEN and couldn't understand why she had to wait.

I have a philosophical objection to store-bought costumes. Growing up, we raided my mom's closet for costume ideas, which resulted in endless variations on the "hobo" and "gypsy" looks (Mom, what does that say about your wardrobe?). Motherhood, however, has so far kept me too busy to actually do many of the domestic duties I associate with motherhood, so off to Old Navy we went to check out their costume selection.

We looked at a lot of costumes I thought Nora would fall for right away-- monkey, doggy, butterfly, princess even-- but each was met with a scornful "NO!" Finally I turned to the "boy" rack and pulled a racecar driver outfit out. "Would you like to be a racecar driver?" I asked? "Yeaaaaaahhhh!" she breathed, and it was decided-- much to her father's delight.

For the next two weeks, however, whenever anyone asked her what she was going to be for Halloween, she eagerly responded, "Butterfly!" So just to be safe, I got her some butterfly wings and a little tulle skirt.

Here she is on a trial run of the backup outfit:

But when the big day finally arrived, Nora was firmly in Camp Racecar Driver. Here she is posing with her daddy, a "Pleasant Ridge Chili-an Miner."

Her first trick or treat.

Carefully inspecting her draw.

With Itsy

Checking out the neighborhood's newest little bug.

Hay Ride

There's a wonderful organic farm that's surprisingly close to our neighborhood and welcomes families for a variety of educational activities. We signed up for a hay ride and had a pretty awesome time. Nora still talks about it (and it's December now). It also made me want to be a farmhand, which I'm pretty sure means I don't have a good grasp on what all the job responsibilities would be.

Look behind you. BEHIND YOU!

Picking turnips to feed the sheep.

The farm's most exotic resident.