I’m looking forward to spending time with aunts and uncles I don’t see very often, as well as the rest of our family. I really wish we could live close enough so that a trip to Grandma’s wasn’t such an ordeal, but that’s just not in the cards right now.

Nora’s saying her ABC’s right now. Her voice sounds funny with the engine vibrating it. We’re sitting in the very back of the plane. Now she’s eating pretzels (MY pretzels; she finished BOTH of her bags already). She’s roaring now. “Oh no! Nora monster!”

Well, we should be landing in about 15 minutes. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

On Wednesday (6/23), she went pee-pee in the potty for the first time! I sat her on her potty as she brushed her teeth, and after a couple of minutes, I heard a little tinkle! It was pretty exciting. She hasn’t gone since then (well, not in the potty anyway ), but I think it’s a good first step.

She is getting better and better at handling herself in the pool. She should, since we’ve been going swimming almost every day (being laid off does have some benefits). We have floaties for her arms, and she likes to swim off of the steps of the pool. She also likes to jump into the pool now and go underwater. This was a bit scary at first, but I feel more confident of her abilities (although we definitely know not to leave her out of arm’s reach when she’s in such a position).

We went to the zoo about a week ago, and she enjoyed the first half, at least. She was pretty tired (as we all were) by the second half, so she didn’t really get excited by those animals (like the elephants, even though she had been talking about them earlier). We did get to feed a giraffe, ride the carousel and watch a 4-D Dora movie (for those who don’t know, 4-D means that it’s in 3-D and they spray you with water at appropriate times. No, seriously, they did.). She also had a lot of fun watching the turtles and frogs. All in all, a nice outing.

Nora amazes me everyday with something she does or says. She figures things out easily and structures sentences instead of just words. Some of the sentences aren’t completely intelligible, but what were you expecting? She’s 2! Her hair is long enough to tuck behind her ears, and she’s got a rockin’ tan! My little girl is growing up a little every day. I love her so much and can’t wait to see what she does next.

Okay, here’s the Nora breakdown so far:

Favorite Foods: Cheese, Fruit cups, Peas, Green Beans, “Hot” (Gardenburgers), Cake (can be actual cake, or muffins, anything cake-like), Carrots, Pickles (Oh no, Pickle!), and much more.

Favorite movies: Finding Nemo, Happy Feet (those are the two she’s requested recently)

Favorite show: YO GABBA GABBA (still obsessed with it)

Favorite places to play: Gymboree, the park, Monkey Joes, the mall

Favorite words/phrases: “Oops.” “Mommy/Daddy tickle?” “Happy cocoa?” “Mo please, (object/action).” “Back, away? (when putting things away)” “Hug, kiss? (when one of us leaves)” “Jumpy-jump!”

What Nora can do: Count to 13, sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the Alphabet song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, recognize all the letters of the alphabet, recognize all single digit numbers and 10, dance, jump, run, hug trees, draw circles and faces, blow kisses, play pretend with toys, and gives us lots of love!

Things she’s done that amazed us: Recognized the words Spongebob Squarepants and Yo Gabba Gabba, recognized that fries were hot and a Frosty was cold without having seen or touched them (I got fries in a bag, which she hadn’t seen the contents of and a Frosty. When we got home, she said, “Mo please, hot.” I gave her a couple fries and she said, “Mo please, cold,” while gesturing to the Frosty.)

Well, there’s more I could write, but Nora wants me to play with her, so I gotta go (she came over and said, “Help,” which means she wants to get on my lap). I’ll write more soon!

Nora’s doing really well right now.  She’s got a new thing where she furrows her brow all the time, whether she’s happy or sad.  It’s really cute!  Especially when she does that and then laughs or smiles.  She is still the object of all affection wherever she goes.  We were in a waiting room the other day, and everyone was so taken by her.  It really makes me feel good that she’s so smiley and friendly to everyone.  She’s really an outgoing baby.  I love her so much. 

Well, we’ll see you all soon!

I wish Nora could have spent her first Thanksgiving with everyone, but we’ll be back in Indiana for Christmas and New Year’s, so at least we’ll have that time together!

Oh, we found 2 more teeth on the top the day after Thanksgiving!  We had no idea they were there, so they must have shot in overnight or something!  You can’t really see them unless she’s turned upside down (which she often is), but they’re there.

I was planning on doing some work today, but there seems to be an issue I need to figure out before I can, so gotta go!

My mom’s visiting us right now, which is allowing me to work all day with James, which is something I haven’t been able to do, since day care is SOOOO expensive here. Here’s a pic of Nora waiting for Grandma to come:

From Nora 11-9-08 to 11-23-08

She was so happy to see her (Nora and Mom are interchangeable in that phrase)! We’re excited to have Mom here for Thanksgiving. It’ll make the time fly by until we get to come back to Elkhart for Christmas and New Years! I’m so excited to see everyone, and for everyone to see how big Nora’s gotten. Will write more later…gotta get back to work!