A month and a half to go!!

Apparently, being pregnant and chasing around a 2 year old has dire consequences for this blog. So sorry, loyal readers. This will be short and will, hopefully, be followed up with some more substantive updates on our wonderful Nora and our growing little b!

I'm feeling good (assuming the normal complaints of late pregnancy). I seem to be carrying the same as last time - perhaps slightly lower - but everything else about this pregnancy feels totally different to me! Little b is a big time mover (although s/he is getting a bit cramped) and I get to frequently enjoy those wonderful sensations of feet/butt in the ribs, punching of the bladder, and that weird (TMI) feeling that can only be described as him/her "pinching" my cervix. I love feeling the baby move, but am a little worried that it means we're going to have a "no sleeper"! Ah well, we'll love him/her anyway.

Here's me earlier this week (at 33 weeks):


And, me at 34 weeks with Nora (wearing the same pants)!


Nora is growing more adorable and hilarious by the minute. Last night she was fighting sleep (again) and chatting in her crib (while I lay on our bed) and said "Mama! Mama! Whatcha' doin', Mama?! when she received no response: Mama! What's your name, Mama?! no response again...Nomi - Nomi Bongorno". SO cute!

Here she is walking across Wade Oval last weekend at the annual Holiday Circlefest...



With Papa, at the Natural History Museum...


Petting a reindeer!


With her pal, Sofia...


And, a cute pic with G'ma B...


Until next time!

The Many Moods of Nora

Nora has been a riot of late. As some of you surely saw, I posted on Facebook the other day that she said her superhero name is "Ats" and that her super power is dancing - So true! Her favorite words are "delicious" and "apple piss," which of course means octopus. We've got tons of ladybugs around the house (happens every fall... not sure why) and she's enamored with them. She's named the baby in mommy's belly "Joe," no matter if it's a boy or girl. Her sentences have gotten longer and more coherent. She's also been great at making faces on cue. The best one may be the "hairy eyeball," which is hard to capture on camera and can intimidate even the hardest among us. Here are a few of them and a video roundup to boot!

Surprise, part 1 (this makes me think of me for some reason):

Full surprise face:

So sad:

Don't mess with Nora! Angry face:

Watch out! It's the hairy eyeball!



Here are a few other photos from post-birthday. Nora has been loving her new stroller, doll house, big-girl booster seat, and STICKERS (they're everywhere!). It's impossible to cook anything without her pushing a stool across the kitchen, saying "Nora help Papa/Mama."

The only downside to this is that she's a bit of a slow, deliberate walker!

One of the aforementioned ladybugs:

Cooking with Papa:

Sitting on her Mama perch:

We spent Halloween weekend in Yellow Springs. It was great to trick-or-treat with Corrie & Tiger (the ginger bread woman) around Naomi's old neighborhood, where Mimi and Carolion (Corrie's mom) live. Naomi made the most awesome flamingo costume for Nora. She loved it and wore it proud! See for yourself:

Corrie doing the makeup:

Nora & Naomi get ready for the cold YS night:

Nora's fabulous headdress:

Tiger & Nora's first treat, from Big Foot/Sideshow Bob (?) (Donna):

Nora & Tiger started out in the bike buggy, pushed by Corrie:

It didn't last long, as they had to run up to every house for candy!

In other news, Nora is still kicking me out of bed when she's ready for mommy to "nurse mums" so she can go to sleep. I'll get her washed up (baths are enjoyable again - hooray!) and brush her teeth and then we read books until lights-out. Then she starts pushing me out of bed with her "papa moose please!" It hurts my feelings a little bit, but it's so cute! One of my favorite times with her since day one has been the towel wrap-up immediately after bathtime. Sure, she's bigger now than she once was, but she still fits snugly in an adult-sized towel and I just love to wrap her up and hold her in front of the mirror to show her that she's still my little baby. It's one of those things that I'd like to believe neither of us will ever forget.

Terrific Two's!

Our baby girl turned 2 on 10.23.09. Here are some fun facts about our Nora at age 2:

1. She's hilarious, adorable, stubborn, smart smart smart, caring, and fun!
2. She's got a respectable amount of hair that will, occasionally, even hold a little clip!
3. She's about 25.5 lbs, and 34 and a bit inches tall.
4. She speaks in full sentences (no perfect grammar, of course) and is a great storyteller (her current favorites are "two guys way up high on roof", "baby come down, go boom boom", and "
5. She likes to reverse roles when things aren't going her way (ie, she points at herself and says "mama now" and points at me "nora now" and sometimes both Chris and I are Nora and she's the single parent).
6. She is still a wonderful and creative dancer and absolutely loves music.
7. She loves to kiss my belly and talk to the baby. She often asks when the baby will come out and says "loves baby" - she also points to different parts of my belly and says "little feet, little bum, little legs, etc." When asked whether she thinks the baby is a boy or a girl she responds, "just baby".
8. She's becoming a very good sharer, although it's still challenging at times - she seems to really understand the concepts of taking turns and trading
9. She's shy in new situations or around a lot of people, but is quite the ham around familiar friends/family
10. I tell her that when the baby comes the baby is going to have mums (nurse) a lot and she can have mums too if she wants, she responds with "no, just baby has mums". We'll see if she sticks to that!

In short, she continues to amaze us regularly and I learn something from her every day. Here are a few pictures from her Bday party (we were having so much fun we didn't get many good pics!) and our apple picking/Fun Fest outing the next day.


Opening a present with new hat and neck warmer on, hand-made by our friend Jen!


With Great Gma Miller...


The Bongorno's at Patterson's...


Her first pony ride!




With Mimi...

Catch up!

Man, it's been a busy month AND our camera is on the fritz...anyway, big apologies for the super overdue post!

Nora is talking up a storm lately. I swear she learns about 20 new words every day, some of which I have no idea where she heard them. Surprisingly, no curse words yet! She's always been very good at getting her point across, but it's been just amazing to hear her verbally communicate clearly and tell stories and sing songs and ask questions...it's really fun. She kisses and hugs the baby (my belly) A LOT and we talk about when the baby will come out and what kinds of things the baby will do (she thinks the baby will have lots of mums and play with toys and cry...pretty accurate, really). I think she's going to be an AMAZING big sister, if slightly bossy (that's what big sister's are for, right?).

I'm 26 weeks now and feeling good. We had our ultrasound last week and little b is looking good and healthy! We didn't find out the sex, so we'll have to post another poll soon for you all to guess whether you think it's a girl or a boy. When I ask Nora she always says "just baby". Good perspective. Here's a pic from the laptop (not the best quality) from last week:


And, more pics from the past month!

We don't eat at the dinner table anymore - it's all of us collected around Nora's table these days (with G'ma B and Papa):



Apple picking at Patterson's earlier in the month...









Then, off to Yellow Springs for the Autumn Street Fair. Nora LOVED the belly dancers:




Cute milk mustache:



Nora and Papa showing off the trophy they won at a recent 5k run in Midtown. Chris got 2nd place, while pushing Nora in her stroller! What a good team.


Nora, with Alta and Jamie...


Reading at home, with her sunglasses on (the band aid is what's left of an earlier sunglasses/slippy sock-related dancing accident...it's risky to feel the beat as much as Nora does).



And, all dressed up in her flamingo costume (homemade!) for the annual Babysitting Co-op Halloween party...we have an amazing video of her with the whole thing on (head-piece and all) that I'll work on getting up here.



With Alta, the pumpkin...


Finally, Nora being very helpful around dinnertime...


And, to close, Nora and Papa looking too cool for school in their 3-d glasses:

Porch Time

Just a quick post to celebrate the installation of our porch swing! It's been up for two weeks, but we hadn't shared these pictures yet. Nora loves it and so do we! We also had a porch/yard sale a few weeks back, so we've been spending more time out front these days. We even had Nora's pool set up on the porch to keep her occupied while we sold our wares!

Mimi & Nora take the dog for a walk down Franklin:


Mimi & Grandma B with Nora:

Granpa B & Nora:

Bye!

Big girl bed

Over the weekend we were able to complete Nora's big girl bed with mattress and bed rail (the frame was mine when I was a little girl and both my little brothers used it), and she was very excited to give it a test drive! She took her first nap in it on Monday...it went off without a hitch. She also wanted to go to bed in it that night, but woke up around midnight and was pretty scared to be in a different room (even with nightlights and all) so she joined us in our bed for the remainder of the night. Since then, we haven't had much success in the sleeping dept but she loves to climb in and out of it and we've been spending a lot more time in her room reading books and such. All in all, I'm happy with baby steps. :)

Mama and Papa snuck in to take a few snapshots of the sleeping beauty...

Fort Bongorno

Papa, Uncle Deets and Nora made this awesome fort yesterday. Even Sadie got in on the action!








Gpa Rex, Nora and Sadie hang out in the tent.