42 Weeks Old

Another busy week! The biggest change in Nora this week has to be that she's mastered pulling herself up onto things (anything!) and has even started to take a few little steps once she's standing (while holding onto the couch or whatever). I can't believe she's only been crawling for a couple weeks and now she is no longer content doing that by itself, she has to pull herself up wherever she's at and stand. She even does it in the bathtub! She has also mastered the "fake" laugh as we call it. If she hears other people laughing she laughs along with them but it is so clearly a fake laugh that it is hilarious. The other fun thing I've noticed her doing is dancing when she hears music. I tried to get a video of her doing it tonight but she was more interested in the camera than dancing...I will try again and also try to get one of her pulling herself up. Her crawling has changed to a proper crawl now although she does occasionally still stretch her left leg out for leverage. And she's speedy! Like super, super fast. It's pretty crazy to see her go.
Last Friday we went to the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro. It's a great fair - big enough to be interesting but small enough to not be overwhelming. It was hot, hot, hot when we went, but we still had lots of fun. Of course Nora enjoyed the animals...in addition to watching her brother, of course.

Here's Henry playing a guitar at the fair...and Nora watching him.

Nora watching Henry pet the sheep.

And, finally, she got in on the action too!

Henry started a week long soccer camp this week. He is doing so well and seems to like it a lot. He did request we get him a soccer uniform though. We told him in the fall he can play on a team now that he's old enough, and he'll get a uniform then!

And, of course, Nora loves watching him. Here she's crawled off our blanket and gotten right up to the edge of the field to watch him.

One final picture, just because I love the expression on her face!

41 Weeks Old

Nora's now officially been on the outside longer than on the inside! ;) Since she was born three days overdue, I couldn't say that last week when she turned 40 weeks old, but this week I can. Crawling, crawling, crawling...that's what she's been doing this week. She's also getting better at climbing up things and made it up onto her feet today at the couch. She loves to get into things she shouldn't...cords, drawers, etc. I don't really remember Henry being like that...I have a feeling she's going to be a bit of a handful while she continues to explore everything around her.  The video above is a bit on the boring side but the story behind it is cute: she was crawling across the floor and caught sight of her reflection in the brass part of the fireplace. Her head swiveled around, she backed up and sat down right in front of it and started talking to herself. I imagine she was thinking something like "well, hello best friend! I didn't know you lived in there as well!" She has some toys in her hands and, as you will see in the video, it appears that she is trying to get those toys out of her reflection's hands.

We've been spending a lot of time outside taking advantage of the amazing summer weather we're having. We've been swimming quite a bit (although not as much as I'd like to be...it's my goal in the coming weeks to go more frequently). Last Friday night we went to see Brave outside in the park - great movie but we were out until 11:30 pm! Luckily Nora went to sleep when the movie started and slept right through the whole thing. 

Look how grown up Henry looks in this picture (taken at the movie)!  We also went to "Sand in the City" and the Portland Farmer's Market on Saturday. Here's Henry next to his favorite sand creation...a representation of one of his favorite books "There's an alligator under my bed."

We went to a summer concert downtown last night and today headed to the Willamette river to get some relief from the heat. I am going to start going there more often - the water was calm and warm, the sand was great for building sandcastles and there were lots of other kids for Henry to play with (and lots of dogs for Nora to look at!)

Plus we were right  by a pirate ship (or so Henry decided)...

Finally, one last picture of Nora partaking in one of her favorite pass times - pulling out the wipes one at a time!

40 Weeks Old

A crawling video! The change in her in the last two days has been astounding. She no longer wants to be held all the time; she wants to be down on the floor and exploring. She is no longer content to lie down in bed and fall asleep; she rolls away, sits up and crawls off. And she is also already now trying to pull herself up on everything she can. (She was doing a bit of this last week, but it's increased exponentially since she started crawling.) As you can see in the video, just like Henry, she has her own special "crawl" she does. I'm hoping that, unlike Henry, she will evolve to a more traditional crawl rather than a seated scoot as Henry did. It looks to me like she will, but we'll just have to wait and see. Speaking of Henry, he is learning very quickly that his toys need to be up, out of her reach. What I don't think he realizes, however, is that what is out of her reach today most likely will be within her grasp very soon. She's already pulled open drawers in the kitchen and living room and, as in the video, books of the bookshelf and toys of the toyshelf. She has a nasty bump/bruise on her nose from a toy bonking into her as she pulled it down.

She had her nine month check up today and is continuing to grow...a lot! She gained 1 pound 10 ounces in the last month which puts her at 21 pounds, 10 ounces and in the 89th percentile for weight. She is 30 1/2 inches long which jumps her up to the 100th percentile for height. I still don't see her as particularly long, but I suppose it's because she's fairly evenly proportioned...unlike Henry who always seemed long to be due to his high percentile height and low percentile weight. She's meeting all her milestones and the doctor was pleased to hear that she is essentially just eating what we eat and feeding herself rather than being fed. Also pleased to hear that she's still nursing on demand and frequently. He did say that it wouldn't be surprising to see her weight gain drop off at this point (and that some babies even lose weight at this age) due to increased mobility. Hmm...we'll see. :)

She had two vaccines today; including her DTap, which is the one that causes the worst reaction. I anticipated this and gave her Tylenol before her appointment and another dose this evening to try and ward off the pain.

Here she has crawled over to Henry's goodie bag from a birthday party, dumped it out, found the swedish fish candies, dumped them out, grabbed one for each hand and taken a bite out of each one. I basically had to wrestle them out of her grasp.

40 Weeks Old - Postponed...

I will blog tomorrow. I don't have any new pictures (!) and, additionally, Nora's 9 month check-up is tomorrow, so I'll have more to write then anyway.

However, one piece of news...she is mobile! I thought I would have to write (again) that she is "this" close to crawling, but low and behold, she started today. It's kind of a scoot/crawl, but she's moving...A LOT! I'll try to get a video of it too.

39 Weeks Old

Nine months old! Wow! She's waving, clapping her hands, signing "more," and talking, talking, talking...of course not actual words (other than "mama") but she sure does babble a lot! Still no crawling but every time she gets into the crawling position I think this will be the time she gets that forward motion going. It seems like it could happen at any moment. She's started pulling herself up a bit on some things - especially on my leg when I'm standing and she wants me to hold her. She only gets up onto her knees, but she's figuring out how to pull herself up higher. 

 This is what she looks like when I think she's going to crawl. Any day now! Her hair is really coming in...it's almost the same color as Henry's; just a bit lighter. It also has a touch of red in it, just like Henry's did when he was younger. Her dark, dark hair that she was born with is pretty much all gone and this new, soft brown color has taken over. I'm just so happy she has hair! Not like Henry at this age - he barely had any. Her eyes have stayed blue so far but I suspect they are changing to green - they seem to be to me at least (even if no one else sees it!).

We went to the zoo today and she loved looking at all the animals. She clicked at the hippos (a sounds she makes when she's trying to get someone's attention). Below is a picture of her and Henry waiting for the Birds of Prey show to begin. I haven't taken her in to get weighed. She has her 9 month check up next week, so I may end up just waiting until then. 

California Dreaming

I missed two blog entries...but for good reason - we were in San Diego on a wonderful 8 day vacation. We did so much that I'm having a hard time remembering it all. Let's see...we started off staying in downtown San Diego, right across the street from Balboa Park. After two nights there we moved to a waterfront, island location from which we could see gigantic Navy ships sailing by from our hotel windows. We spent our last night in Old Town San Diego just a block or two from the old city center (just in time for their 4th of July celebration).

Some of the highlights...While Brett, Mom and Henry toured the USS Midway, Nora and I walked the Embarcadero and enjoyed the beautiful weather and views.

We spent some time at Coronado Beach where Brett and Henry ventured into the water, but it wasn't a very warm day so the rest of us stayed in the sand. It was Nora's first time playing in the sand, and she loved it! I mostly spent my time trying to prevent her from eating too much of it.

I had originally thought that two days at Legoland was not going to be enough time for us to enjoy everything (Legoland, the waterpark and aquarium), but it turned out to be just perfect. It helped that the weather was not too warm (and, actually, on the second day it was a little chilly at time). If it had been hot we could have used more time at the awesome waterpark, but as it was it was just right.

Henry had a blast riding all the rides. Having thoroughly studied a map of the park prior to going, Henry knew exactly which rides he wanted to hit first. We managed to ride most of the rides twice in a row taking advantage of Legoland's parent swap system. Since we had Nora who couldn't ride many rides, one of us would go on the ride with Henry while the other stayed behind at the start of the ride with Nora. Then we would switch with the other parent getting to ride again with Henry without having to wait in line again. It was awesome - especially because lots of the rides there are pretty short. Henry did all of the roller coasters and loved every second of them.

 Although he loved the rides, one of the definite highlights for Henry was the Star Wars exhibit. These are only three of the many, many pictures and videos I have of the Lego mini Star Wars scenes. He recognized each scene and knew which movie it came from. The pictures above are of Brett and Henry standing in front of the largest Lego model ever built which just so happens to be an X-wing fighter! Also above are Henry and the Millennium Falcon and the cantina scene from Episode 4.

Everyone told us how great Legoland was and, I have to say, I completely agree. Henry was just the right age to enjoy it...although we did have to fib a bit to get him onto one of his most favorite rides - driving school. They had two tracks, one for 3-5 year olds and one for 6-12 year olds. The younger kids one was just so small and boring that we told him it was okay to say he was 6 and drive on the bigger track. He did an amazing job....most of the time. I have videos of him driving perfectly, stopping at the red lights and stop signs, etc., but they are not as funny as the video I've shared above...where he rear ends the same poor child twice. :) Much more entertaining!

 <<< This picture says it all!

Nora mostly just enjoyed Henry's company and attention...as is usual! She is still not crawling which was fantastic for this trip! I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to keep her safe and out of trouble if she was mobile (not to mention I imagine she wouldn't have been as content to stay in her stroller or sitting on our laps if she was moving around).

And of course, we spent lots and lots and lots of time in the pool. Sometimes it was too cool for Nora but it never stopped Henry and Brett (and Mom too!) from swimming daily. Henry brought his snorkel and mask and just swam and swam and swam. In the video I posted above be sure to watch carefully at the beginning of when he starts swimming (both from the wall and also from Brett) to see his new signature move - a spin while swimming. On one of the last days there we went to Mission Beach where Henry got an "official" red Lifeguard shirt which he then proceeded to wear to jump into the pool and rescue us. :)

We left on the 4th of July but not before being able to check out the festivities in Old Town San Diego's town square. It was all 1800s themed but very well done. I wish we'd been able to stay for longer there and we all agreed we should come back for another 4th sometime in the future. 

My camera's battery ran out before the end of our trip, so I don't have many pictures from the last couple days, but once I get copies of the pictures Mom took I might share some more!

Nora says "Good Bye from San Diego!" (She learned to wave while on vacation!)