Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Mothers and Child(ren) Reunion

Every couple of years, my former college roommate, Tracey, makes the trek from whatever exotic locale she currently calls home (it's been Koh Tao, Thailand for the past few years) back to Michigan to visit her family. During her stay, the former residents of apartment J1 descend upon the Wolverine state to reminisce about our days at Northwestern and drink a fair amount of wine.

It's become a little more complicated the past few years as we've had to accommodate both work and nap schedules, but last weekend Audra, Cecily, Tracey and I along with the majority of our progeny reunited to take in the sights and sounds of the greater Brighton area. Turning adjoining suites into our own version of romper room, we actually managed to entertain (or at least occupy) six kids between the ages of 5 months and 8 years and still enjoy ourselves. (It helped that Kailash and Satya have mad baby whispering skills, Colin didn't come until after soccer practice on Saturday, and Cecily and I opted to leave Dylan and Owen home with their respective dads.)

In less than 48 hours we hit a petting zoo, took a hayride, and went swimming twice. But the highlight of the visit had to be leaving the kids with Tracey's mom and aunts in order to have dinner and drinks with just the four of us. And a horse.


It was over far too soon, though not as quickly as initially intended. Nora and I caught a ride to the airport from Audra and Keegan on Sunday morning and Audra and I chatted right past our exit resulting in an extra long nap for Nora, and a mad dash to the gate for me (we made it with 5 minutes to spare). The extra rest was beneficial though as Nora, who was very vocal in her disdain for air travel on her inaugural flight on Friday (my apologies to the passengers and crew of Delta flight #DL1745), happily chatted up our seatmate for the flight back to an awaiting Allen and Owen.



Monday, September 20, 2010

We were on a break...

We generally try and update our blog about once a week, but due to the tremendous number of life changing events that occurred between July 3oth and September 7th, we wrote/edited/uploaded video for 12 posts in a scant 6 weeks. We were tired. Sure it would have been nice to record Allen reading Owen "The Hobbit" for the first time or when Owen and Nora dressed up as a tiger and elephant respectively. We could have narrated our first back-to-school open house or our new neighborhood watch program. We even could have waxed extensively about our decision to stop tracking Owen. Instead, we watched Top Chef and cleaned out our hall closet.

But after a pretty amazing long weekend which included Owen's return to daycare (for a day), soccer, Sofia's birthday party, the H street festival and Nora's inaugural sail, we thought we should at least post something. And so with no further ado, here is our little girl winching away.

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(To see the rest of the sailing pictures click here.)

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Walking, Climbing, Riding

Nora's mobility has greatly increased recently. The week before her birthday she took her first steps. Just a few at first, and generally they were more of a controlled fall into Mommy or Daddy's arms, but she quickly gained her footing and started stringing enough steps together that "walking" really is the only suitable word to describe what she is doing.



She has also extended her range vertically by finally deciding to take on the task of climbing the stairs. While Owen started climbing the stairs soon after he started crawling, Nora was so uninterested in the stairs that we haven't needed to bother with the gate at the bottom of the stairs. Now she's discovered that when all the fun is upstairs, she doesn't need to ask to be carried up to join in, but can simply climb up herself. I guess it's time we finally start using that gate.



For her first birthday present, we pulled Owen's first birthday present out of Mom Mom's attic and gave it to Nora. She loved the scooter, and had no complaints about the hand me down present (although Owen had to be convinced that he's too big for it now). It's faster than crawling, easier than walking, and is all together the perfect mode of transport for our little one year old.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

A year in the life

Nora turned one today, and I've celebrated by alternating staring at her meaningfully and crying. I know parents always marvel at how fast time passes, but it really does seem like this first year went a lot faster with Nora than it did with Owen. Allen argues it's because Nora was a much better sleeper than Owen and so we were unconscious for a larger share of her first year of life. While not completely without merit, I instead attribute it to our attention being more divided with Nora than Owen, and so feeling like I've missed more stuff with her.

But a year has passed and as Owen keeps pointing out, "Nora is almost a toddler." Happy first year of life, baby girl, you've taught us a lot.


  1. Orthodontia is a small price to pay for sleep.
  2. Hostas are not a baby food.
  3. If you build it, they will knock it over.
  4. A watched child takes forever to roll over.
  5. Mmmmm...paper.
  6. Bubbling brooks are far more subtle than shooting fountains, but no less messy.
  7. You don't need actual toys if you have a big brother.
  8. All bananas and no fiber make Nora a very constipated girl.
  9. Always get the non-mobile child out of the car first.
  10. Thank heaven, for little girls.