20 Weeks Old

 Look at the little lady! Getting better and better at balancing herself. Still not too ready to sit up on her own yet, but she's certainly trying. She is definitely happiest sitting up so she can see what's going on around her and try to grab for things. Henry takes his role as big brother pretty seriously most days - here he is reading her a story before bed the other night. He asked if he could change her diaper today...maybe with some more practice that can become his regular job! Today Nora was in her swing and I stepped out the front door to call Wilbur inside. Henry came to the door and said "well, Nora's not in her swing anymore." Panic! "What do mean she's not in her swing anymore?" "I moved her to the couch." I ran in to find her on the couch kind of slumped over but otherwise in good spirits. "Umm...let's wait until Mom or Dad can help you from now on, ok?"

 She has a check up tomorrow - technically it's her 4 month appointment, even though we are closer to 5 months at this point. I'm excited (as always) to find out how much weight she's gained.

Since she's been gnawing on her hands so much that her poor fingers are red and raw in places I've been trying to find a teether that she'll actually use. I've tried basically every type I can buy as well as homemade ones like washcloths, etc. But with every single one of them she acts as though I am trying to poison her - she squishes up her face, thrusts her tongue out, gags and sometimes starts to cry...then puts her hand back in her mouth. Well, since Henry was a baby I've been hearing about this "Sophie the Giraffe" toy for teething. No way was I going to spend the $20 on a teething toy....but everyone I talked to swears their kid loves it and chews on it, etc., etc. Well, I broke down and ordered the mini-version. And sure enough, as the picture shows, she's chewing on it! Here's hoping she continues to do so - her poor hands need a break!

19 Weeks Old

*Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them! The video quality is so poor (due to the website's size restriction), I think it's better to view it small without putting it on full-screen mode.

 I'm including a video with this post that shows us hanging out at home on two different days. It's not very exciting; I suppose it could be called a "day in the life of" video. In the first part, Henry is trying to get Nora to laugh and the second part shows her in her exersaucer she got for Christmas. She's just about tall enough to really get her feet planted beneath her and use it comfortably. She still is enthralled with the same insect toy attachment on it. For some reason that particular toy catches her eye and keeps her interest pretty consistently whenever she's in the exersaucer. I'm posting the three pictures of her in it so you can see what I mean - she just stares at it and talks to it. It's really cute.

 Unfortunately we've all had a case of pink eye this week. Yuck. Henry got it first about a week ago. Then Nora got it, then me, and last Brett. It's a viral case so there isn't any medicine we can take; we've just had to wait it out. Luckily it doesn't seem to last too terribly long and according to Geoff (it's so nice to have a doctor in the family!!) we shouldn't be able to pass it around continually. So let's hope it's gone for good now!

In the top right picture Nora is all bundled up for a walk outside. She isn't liking the Moby wrap lately nor does she like riding in the stroller. This makes for challenging outings. Henry, Nora and I went to the zoo last Friday and I ended up having to carry her while pushing the empty stroller because she wouldn't be worn in the wrap nor ride in the stroller. I've got to figure out a solution to this...or hopefully she'll begin to enjoy the stroller (maybe once she's sitting up on her own?).

Fire Trucks and Archery

 Henry has had another exciting week. On Friday his preschool class took a field trip to our neighborhood fire station. I wasn't able to go with them, unfortunately, but Brett did and said they had a wonderful time. They have a small class, but three are missing from this picture. Being such a small class, they are really close - I've so enjoyed my time parent-helping and getting to know all of them. Hopefully now that Nora is getting older I will be able to participate in more school activities. I'm already planning on being a chaperon for the next field trip - to the grocery store next month. I'll just bring Nora along for that one since it's essentially

 what we do every week anyway (go grocery shopping).

Then, today, Brett and Dad took Henry to an indoor archery range in Tigard. Henry has been begging to get a bow and arrow set for the last year or so. Of course that's not going to happen...so, when we found out about this place it sounded like a great idea. And, sure enough, Henry loved it. They even have kid-sized bows and Henry was totally able to use it all by himself. Brett said he was pretty good too after he got the hang of it. He even got a bulls-eye!

18 Weeks Old

 Officially 4 months old now! Amazing to think that in just 2 months we might be starting some solid food, she'll most likely be sitting up and will probably have a tooth (or two!). At least that's what I'm thinking based on all the teething she seems to be doing lately. But I know that they can teethe for months sometimes before a tooth finally breaks through. Nora is really reaching out and trying to grab different things - especially her toys or Henry's toys. Another favorite thing for her to reach for is my plate as she sits on my lap at the dinner table. She's actually grabbed it and moved it a couple times. She continues to be such a happy, happy baby. I remember Henry being very content, but with Nora I find her to be quite happy - if that distinction makes sense?

I love these pictures of her. I got her balanced in a sitting position (she is not actually sitting - just precariously balanced that way). She's tolerating it alright in the first picture on the left, then about 10 seconds later I got the angry, annoyed face on the right. Then she started wailing. She'd had enough!
Still waiting to see what color her eyes are going to be. I don't remember when Henry's started changing to green, but hers are still pretty blue. Henry's are actually still changing - getting more and more hazel as he gets older. Speaking of Henry, the picture of him above was taken during his acting class's performance last Monday. It was a much bigger class and there was a pretty large audience which caused a bit of stage fright for Henry...something he'll have to get over if he expects to become a big Broadway star. :)

17 Weeks Old

Nora is almost 4 months old! I had to take Henry in to the doctor's office today for a vaccine and so I weighed her while we were there. She weighs 14 pounds, 2 ounces. Since the last time I weighed her (at 3 months) she's gained an average of 6 1/2 ounces a week.  So her weight gain has slowed which is to be expected as she gets older, but the funny thing is that she jumped up on the percentiles chart. Not that it really matters where a baby falls on the percentile chart as long as they are following their own curve, but she went from the 42nd percentile to the 52nd percentile this month. I continue to be amazed at how easy and less stressful nursing her has been in comparison to Henry. I know part of it is having the previous experience and knowing what to expect but I think on top of that Henry's issues with his mouth muscles really affected his ability to nurse which of course made it tough for him to gain weight and made the whole thing more stressful.

 I haven't been measuring her - I suppose I should. She definitely isn't as long as Henry was. I am having the opposite problem with  her clothes than I had with Henry. With him, his arms and legs would stick out of clothes before they would fit properly around his waist...with Nora the sleeves and legs on her clothes are longer than her arms and legs but the clothes are snug around the waist.

Right now she is sleeping on my lap - every time I put her down she wakes and starts fussing. This is pretty unusual for her; I'm thinking it's because she is fighting off a cold. I've felt like I've been getting sick for the last two days and today her nose has been running and this evening one of her eyes has gotten red and watery. Hopefully we are able to get it out of our systems quickly and without it progressing too much.

Below is my favorite picture (so far!) of Nora and Henry. Taken this afternoon.