11 Months Old!

Only one month until the little lady turns one! I'd have a hard time believing it except for the fact that she is SO big! I still haven't gotten her weighed...terrible, I know...but I know she has grown a ton in the last few weeks. She's pretty much outgrown her 12 month sized clothes and is moving into the 18 month size ones. Not walking yet but she is starting to talk - she clearly says "mama," "daddy," and "Gigi" and I'm pretty sure she says "baby" but not with much regularity. She's added some more signs to her repertoire: she signs the words for "nurse," "please," and "hat" now consistently. There may be others that I am forgetting as well.

She's still eating like a champ - as is clear in this picture. She eats just about everything although her favorites are still anything with cheese or carbs. She does like her veggies as well (just like Henry!) - in fact broccoli and cauliflower are two of her favorites. Carrots, string beans, asparagus and zucchini are also popular. She isn't a huge fruit eater although she does like the little squeeze pouches of fruit I give her on occasion. The few little sips of cows milk she's gotten have been huge hits so I'm even more hesitant to introduce milk in greater quantities anytime soon in fear she'll favor it over nursing.

She loves exploring - she's much more mischievous than I remember Henry being. She likes to open drawers, try to climb up on things, pull books off the shelf, pull all the toys out of their bins, etc., etc. I caught her climbing into a laundry basket the other day only to have it tip over onto its side, at which point she just crawled into it like it was a cave and was thoroughly delighted with herself.

 Speaking of climbing, the above picture is why she's not going to be taking anymore baths in the kitchen sink! The video is just a little montage of some random moments I caught on camera today.

First Day of Kindergarten

The first day of kindergarten is officially in the books! Henry is now an elementary school student. I can hardly believe it! There were no tears (from anyone, myself included!) this morning as he headed off to school for full day kindergarten. We all took him in to his classroom, found his desk and said our goodbyes. He didn't have a whole lot to say about the day other than he had fun and didn't have enough time to eat his lunch. I wonder if that had something to do with the "fight" he got into with another boy over their lunch bags...they both had the same one and each thought the other was trying to take theirs! They also got two recesses which he was very excited about.

I can hardly wait for back to school night so I can learn more about what his days will be like since he doesn't give up much information. :) Unfortunately he didn't get put into a class with any of the kids that he knows already, but I'm sure he'll make lots of new friends. Plus all the kinders have lunch recess together so he does get to see some familiar faces then. The picture below is of him waiting with his class for dismissal.

47 Weeks Old

Tick, tock, tick, tock. That's the sound of the clock counting down the days, hours, minutes until Henry starts Kindergarten. As the principal of his school said this morning at orientation, it marks the first step in launching our children into the world. Bittersweet for sure! But he doesn't start until Monday so I still have a few days to enjoy with him.

We've had another fun week - swimming, play dates, enjoying the last few days of warm weather. 

I got a bubble machine on clearance at the store and the kids have both been enjoying playing with that (as Nora is doing in the above picture). I love the look on Henry's face in the background here:

He's intensely focused on popping the bubbles.

No big developmental changes in Nora this week that I can think of. She's working on tooth number 9 still. Her hair continues to get thicker (hooray! so happy she has hair!!) and it's getting lighter as well. It will be interesting to see what color it ends up being. I'm still amazed at how dark it was when she was born though. She makes this hilarious growling sound which contributes to a running family joke we have about her being a quasi-monster called "the giant baby." When Henry and I are playing with his Fort Brave set or Star Wars (or anything really) and she crawls over and smashes our people or grabs something we say "oh no! The giant baby strikes again!" Or when she gets mad at mealtime because she's out of food and growls and smashes her hand on her tray we say "oh no! The giant baby is angry! Give her more food!" Etc., etc. So I just couldn't resist taking the following picture a couple days ago when she was messily eating raspberries...we were laughing that it looks like the giant baby has feasted on something bloody...

Oh no! Don't make the giant baby mad!

We made a "car wash" for Henry's cars one day and the kids both had a blast washing the cars while I made dinner....until the giant baby decided it would be a good idea to climb into the carwash. It's sort of hard to tell in the picture, but she's sitting in one of the pans of water. 

Family Resemblance

Nana (Gigi's mom) gave me a picture of her father when he was a baby; taken in 1896. Immediately I was taken aback at the strong resemblance to Nora. This is the picture:

 I tried to find a couple of pictures that show the resemblance and compare them side by side...

While these pictures definitely show the similarities, I don't think either one truly shows how much she looks like him. It's amazing to me because all along I've seen the Winder family resemblance but clearly there are Cuff genes in there too! :)

46 Weeks Old

I just realized that in only 8 weeks Nora will be one year old! I'm having a hard time believing that! Luckily the next 8 weeks will be busy as Henry starts kindergarten so hopefully it will seem like longer. I don't think I'm ready for her to be a year old yet.
This week she's continued to improve her mobility...mainly in discovering that she can move out an open door and outside...which is problematic when we want to have the front door open! She is also a climber and explorer. She loves to open drawers and cupboards and to try and pull herself up onto just about anything. She takes after Henry with her amazing sense of humor (yes! at 10 months old she definitely has a sense of humor!). Her latest trick is to hang a wet wipe (or piece of paper or tissues, etc.) out of her mouth and shake her head around. She can do this over and over and over and crack herself up every time. The first video is one of her doing her crinkled nose and "snorting." She also finds it immensely funny to do and, strangely, also must think that it's very charming because she does it when she wants something from someone. I have to apologize for the quality of the second video - terrible camera work on my part. But I decided to still post it because it shows off her exploratory skills as she gets into a cupboard, her speed crawling (albeit only a short bit) as she tries to get away from me and, best of all, she signs "light." I also tried to get her to sign bird but she wasn't having it. Probably because there wasn't an actual bird in the house!

This week we took a trip to the zoo, the river, and went mini-golfing again. I hope to squeeze in a bunch more activities next week before school starts. Finally, a picture of Henry at the zoo that he himself posed for and insisted I take. :)

45 Weeks Old

Both kiddos are better and, as a bonus, Brett figured out a way to fix my seemingly irreparable computer. Hooray!
In the two weeks since my last blog post Nora has started doing so many new things. For me, the most exciting changes are the ones that facilitate communication. On that front she has started saying the word "woof!" to mean dog. It's awesome! She just loves dogs (all animals actually) and to hear her be able to say the word in conjunction with seeing a dog is so cool. She also has started signing! Yippee! It's kind of amazing to me because I don't sign with her nearly as much as I signed with Henry and she's already signing. What's really interesting about it is that both her and Henry signed the same word first: "light." She's also done the signs for "fan" and "duck."  Knowing that she can sign has made me more determined to review all the signs I learned with Henry and be more deligent in signing with her. I remember a lot of signs, but I could be a lot better about doing them with her...plus there are lots I have forgotten and need to relearn. (Surprisingly she hasn't signed "more" or "eat" yet!)
Apart from the communication developments, she is continuing to get stronger (and braver) with trying to walk. She uses the couch, tables, walls, etc., to walk around and will even occasionally take a tiny step from one piece of furniture to another (e.g. couch to ottoman). She's lightening fast with the crawling as you will see in the video. It's short and the best part is at the beginning when you get to see her signature pivot move. she loves, loves, loves to be "chased" and especially when the person chasing her is Henry. She's also up to 8 teeth now, with a swollen spot on her gum that I am pretty sure is tooth number 9 getting ready to come through.
The picture above was taken today at the park.

We've been only moderately busy the last couple weeks. Henry finished up his woodshop class and I'm proud to say only made one gun this time...and it wasn't even for him but rather a collaborative project he and his friend made together that his friend kept. He also made a boat for himself and he and his friend also made an airplane together. We've been going swimming pretty regularly with a preschool friend and heading to the river whenever it gets really hot. We attended the Multnomah Days parade last weekend. Last year Henry was in the parade and so it was fun for him to have the experience of watching instead. Plus his preschool was in the parade again this year so he got to see his former teacher and some classmates he knew. We also attended one of the Little League World Series games at Alpenrose. (Picture of Nora below...she was so serious while watching intently.

And, of course, lots of trips to Gigi's house and the park!

And, finally, I just love this picture of Henry (taken today)...

Delayed Post

Two sick kiddos (101+ degree fevers) + one crashed computer = no blog post today.
Stay tuned...