Wednesday, April 22, 2009

18 months

It's been a great month - busy and fun. Nora had her 18 month check up and is 23 lbs, 32.5 inches. Such a big girl! She's running around, "jumping", gardening, and starting to say some words (so far - mama, dada/papa, dogdog, mess, bus, toast, hi, bye, toy, choo choo, cheese, goose, bubbles, and I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting). She's also still signing a lot - all in all, she's quite good at communicating what she wants, which is great for all of us.

Here are some random pictures...make sure you check out the other post, below, for pics of the zoo and the farmpark! Also, stay on the look out for many videos in the near future.

Nora, helping out with some spring cleaning...




New rocking horse!



So helpful...and handy!


Walking downtown to the Transportainment and Designerosa event (Nora slept through the whole thing)...



The ever-popular avocado...


My mom came to Cleveland for her spring break earlier this month. It was great to have a second pair of hands around, and Nora had a great week hanging out w/ Grandma. They decided to trade shades for a bit...



Easter egg hunt!


Tigers and Bears and Sheep, Oh My!

Over the last few weeks we've had many fun animal adventures, the highlights being trips to the Zoo and the Lake Metroparks Farmpark. Surprisingly, Nora was not so excited about the loud baaing lambs (although she's been baaing ever since) at the Farmpark...they scared her a little...but she liked the chickens and horses and the cow milking presentation reminded her that she hadn't nursed all afternoon. Mostly, I think she just wanted to run around in the grass.

The zoo was an adventure in toddler parenting - one of many to come, I'm sure! Nora wanted to walk the entire 3 hours that we were there, always in the opposite direction of where we were heading and she was the most interested in all things un-exhibit. Such as, the rope gate thing at the food court (fascinating!), wheelchair/stroller ramps (up and down and up and down), the big turtle statue (that was pretty cool), pebbles and sticks on the path, the bridge being built over a segment of the park (Chris was also excited about that one), and each and every one of the seemingly hundreds of crying human babies (she was signing 'baby' the entire time, staring into strollers, and clearly did not think these babies' parents were doing enough to keep them content). She's a constant reminder to reassess what is interesting in the world. :) Who wants to look at a caged wild animal when you can analyze two human parents attempting to calm a crying baby in a stroller by sticking a plastic thing in its mouth? Seriously.

On to the pictures...

So many exciting things at the Farmpark!



Pigs!



Nora decided to help this lady with her presentation (Nora's best bud, Zoli, is on the right)...

On to the zoo (bridge construction shot for Chris):

Stopping to smell the daffodils...



The turtle, and some nice girls who clearly have more experience posing for pictures...




Looking at the giraffes, with her giraffe coat on...


Big girl...

Monday, April 6, 2009

Rockin'

Nora, hanging out in the rocking chair Al built, as seen last Sept (at 10 months) and today (at just over 17 months). She definitely looks like a toddler now!



Sunday, April 5, 2009

Spring

We spent almost all day yesterday outside in the yard, playing and raking and tackling vines. Good stuff. The crocus's are blooming and the daffodils and tulips are hot on their tails. I love spring.

These pictures are from last week. I'll post some from yesterday soon.

Nora and Max, watering the dried leaves and checking out the fence...


Talking to Daddy...