More Nora, More GROWL

Nora loves animals and babies, and she loves the millions of trucks and tools inherited from her big brother less. I found one of her dolls on the floor with a lego "baby" in its arms. While she attempts to nurture everything, she also growls like an animal, claws, stomps her feet, and displays no physical fear of climbing, falling, or leaping. She is all the riot grrrl I could hope for at the age of 17 months.

Again

I have to talk about creative thinking in class tomorrow. thinking...

There's a Bluebird on my Shoulder

In an effort to be more positive and not completely lose track of Nora's cuteness in the daily blur of coffee, book-bags, runny-noses, Indiana Jones vs. Star Wars couch surfing contests, 30-minute meals, and calendar syncing... Whew I'm going to post a list.

Nora loves to hug Thomas. Nora loves to pet Jack. Nora loves to pet Mona. Nora loves to hug babies. Nora is full of love.

Nora puffs her breath to kiss.

Nora says kitty like keeeeeey? keeeeeey?

Nora says Daddy like Daaaaaaaaaa?

Nora loves to put lotion on her hands and pat her face with it. She then likes to rub her hair.

Nora loves to play with her hair accessories, choose one to put in her hair, tug on my hand until I put it in the right spot, and then admire her beauty in the mirror.

Speaking of admiring herself in the mirror...Nora hates bath-time until she is wrapped in a towel and cuddled. No matter how loud and long she yells through the washing portion of a bath, the moment I take her out and wrap her up and bring her past our bathroom mirror, she smiles and nuzzles under my chin.

Nora loves her shoes. Sometimes she also loves her socks. She loves to sort through them and almost always chooses her prettiest pair to wear. She loves Mary-Jane buckle style, patent leather, and bows.

Nora loves her purses.

Nora loves to swing.

Nora loves other babies.

Nora loves to do EVERYTHING Thomas does.

Nora also wants EVERYTHING Thomas has.

Nora helps me unload the dishwasher, laundry, and unload the dryer.

Nora loves to throw things. Luckily we've acquired enough soft toy balls to prevent too many accidents...

Nora loves music & loves to dance...still.

Nora makes everyone smile and tell us how cute she is.

One Pot

Chad's students made this hilarious film about the studio coffee maker.

Novelist in the Making

Thomas's pre-school class is working on writing. The teacher gives leading ideas, the students finish them, and the aid does dictation. I do the translation at home.

If you give a mouse a muffin, he will: eat it up.
(He who hesitates around food in our house goes hungry)
If you give a mouse a map, he will: take his muffin some place and buy it.
(When we go shopping, we always need a map)
If you give a mouse some money, he will: try to buy the muffin.
(I just told you the mouse needed to buy the muffin. That's done with money, duh.)
If you give a mouse a mask, he will: want to clean.
(Because in our house, we wear oxygen masks to clean)

New Adventures in Stupidity

Okay, so I posted the last post to the wrong blog, after working for days to transfer posts over here. Hoping to keep it straight.
I originally signed on to post my latest morning adventure.

Scene: Tuesday morning before preschool, Mom oversleeps.
Characters: Nora, Thomas, Dad, and Mom & Dog
Era: Preschool

Thomas: "MOMMY I AM HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Mom: From a deep sleep. "Snerk, blink blink. When did you wake up?"

Dad: "He woke up with me & I'm late."

Thomas: "I WANT SOME BREAKFAST, NOW."

Nora: "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."

Dad enters with Nora's bottle of milk.

Mom: Getting up, "So, Thomas, how do you ask for breakfast nicely?"

Thomas: "Please, may you get me three bagels to eat this morning?"

Mom: "How about 2 mini bagels with cream cheese & I'll give you a 3rd if you are still hungry."

Thomas: "Okay."

Fast Forward Past Dad Walking the Dog, Taking out the Trash, Me dressing Nora & Myself, Teeth & Hair brushing (not my own, I have a hat this morning & am lucky to find clean pants so as not to embarrass the churchgoing staff at Thomas's preschool) lunch, backpack, into the car, third bagel, etc.

Scene: Re-entering house after dropping Thomas off on a very calm trip to school. It was positive all the way around. There weren't any worries, forgotten projects, or tears. Mom was thrilled, although unbathed and very hungry for her own set of bagels, cereal, or anything not moving. Mom was thrilled to have pulled off such a nice morning in the face of the oversleeping event.

Characters: Nora & Mom & Dog

"Nora, where is the cream cheese?" View pans the kitchen counter, focuses on toaster, half a bag of mini bagels, and an empty cream cheese box. "Didn't Mommy put the organic cream cheese back in the refrigerator?"
** ORGANIC (translate: Purchased at a much higher price only because the main consumers would be the small children in the house who don't need unnecessary hormones).

Sound: Dog lapping up an ocean of water.

Mom can't find the wrapper.

Mom starts to consider park ranger warnings about the horrors of dead wildlife who were poisoned from careless campers who left wrapped food in places accessible to animals. Mom then considers dog x-rays, vet calls, consulting the internet assvice about the heinous crime she has just committed & thus doesn't deserve to have pets let alone children, & should die a horrid death by aluminum foil digestion. She calls the Dad freaking out.

Dad chuckles. "He's a dog, it'll work it's way out. Don't let it ruin your day."

Over Here in the New Year!

The blog has been divided & I've decided to leave the travel dialog on lettersfromhometohome.blogspot.com and the family/other personal posts to this blog. This is where I'll keep in touch and post about home, children, artwork, and the random things I find blog-worthy.

Over time, as the children allow, I will attempt to re-post entries from 2008-2009 in order. I'm reviewing content & it takes forever. Who is the wordy chick who posted a ton of photos of her kids, spelled things wrong while using spell check, and who's never figured out how to avoid a run-on sentence?

The news that necessitated this change is that I will begin a new job next week. JOB, outside of the house, NEXT WEEK. Now I have to figure out how to sync up my iPhone & laptop and remember how to dress myself more than two days a week.

The Little Elves 12/08

Sorry that last post was up for so long. Things don't happen that way every day. Nora has been sleeping since 11PM last night, it is now 8:19AM! Holy cow I don't know what to do with my rested self. Organize? Pack for our move to Texas? Christmas, did someone say it was coming up? Play with Thomas? Bathe? Oh the possibilities.

This time of year makes me so grateful for the love of friends and family. Please enjoy your holiday!

Note to Self 12/06/08

1. Next time don't be so cocky. Just because you've had one child already doesn't mean kid #2 will be easier.

2. When you have the choice to return child #1 to bed or let him crawl into your bed just so you can go back to sleep quicker, don't be so lazy. Put him back in his own bed so that when child #2 wakes in your bed at 2AM & decides to stay awake fussing until 4AM you aren't forced to deal with child #1 waking and fussing at the same time.

3. Keep the DVD player & a candy bar by the bed so that when child #1 wakes up 4 hours later and demands cartoons and breakfast and a treat-you're all set & can stay in bed without waking child #2 after so little sleep.

4. Eat breakfast, even if everyone is crying for reasons you don't understand & think will end soon. They won't. The children will continue crying for a looooooooong time. So eat.

5. When you see the cat sniffing dried up grass or gift ribbon, remove those tasty morsels from the area or spend the rest of the day discovering cold wet gloppy mysterious messes under your toes. See above, then you will have the energy to investigate the cat's mysterious interest in said items & prevent the vomit fest.

6. Eat lunch as soon as the baby is calm, even if the laundry needs to be done, bathroom cleaned, bills paid, etc.

7. See above, then when you want to pour a glass of juice you will have both hands. Hanging baby over your shoulder to shakily pour a glass of juice one handed to get out of the massive drop in blood sugar will only result in a mess.

8. Use plastic cups for the above task, so that when someone surprises you by speaking you don't drop the large glass bottle of juice on the glass cup covering the kitchen with shards of glass and sticky juice.

9. Breathe, so that you remember the safety of the baby still hanging out on your shoulder.

10. Buy lots of interesting DVD's for child #1 so that on days when child #2 has colic child #1 remains occupied. Do not leave PG13 DVD's with scary content & impressive packaging around the house at eye level. They will make your life miserable.

11. Do not attempt to hide inappropriate DVD's with one hand while children are screaming for various reasons around you. You might break the phone accidentally rather that consciously throwing it out the door.

12. Just throw the phone out. There's no reason for communication with the outside world on days like this.

13. Do not think about the holiday plans or high school on days like this. You will not make it to the post office today & even if you could you are beautiful with messy unwashed hair & no one from high school should care when they run into you and the screaming fest of children at the post office. Get a grip. You are over 30 now.

14. Squash the stupid spider that frightened you out of getting ahead on laundry the night before a day like this. Being behind on laundry sucks when child #1 has 3 potty accidents in a row. Small accidents, but wet ones necessitating new soft pants because jeans will just not do. Reciting the benefits of getting ahead on diaper or spit up laundry is just plain redundant. Stupid spider & stupid 5 baskets of laundry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Mommy, what's a copia?"
"A what?"
"A COPIA!"
"A coconut? Um, what do you mean? What does it look like?"
"A copia."
"I'm sorry, I have no idea, I just don't know what a copia is."
"A hornuventy, Mom."
"What?"
"A HORN OF PLENTY, Mommy."

Nora Makes Her Entrance 11/16/08

Well my water didn't break all over any one's floor or upholstery, but...my sock got a little wet. I woke up around 8:30AM, noticed signs of water breaking, called Chad, notified my folks, called my doctor, and was told to go to the hospital. It took me a good 20 hours to bring Thomas into this world, so I figured we had some time, as contractions were just starting. Chad was scheduled to fly in around 3PM. My mom rushed home from school, Chad rushed on his plane, and my dad took the bumpy scenic route to the hospital-ha, ha to the woman in labor. We arrived at the hospital between 10:30 and 11AM. I was starting to feel contractions every 5-10 minutes by the time we arrived, but they weren't strong enough to make me pause. It took about an hour for me to be admitted and I was dilated about 4cm when checked in the triage. I was moved to a delivery room where Thomas and my dad could join my mother and I. Thomas started to fuss, and contractions started to make me uncomfortable and I was worried about my Dad & Thomas having a hard day separated from us. My dad reassured me as they left and a nurse came in to ask me about my drug preferences, I told her no epidural & she started trying to put an IV in my arm. The whole time Chad was in air travel hell, delays, cancellations, and calling me to update with an arrival time in the evening. The contractions started coming faster, and the nurse blew 2 veins over the next 30 min or so. I began to sweat & breathe hard & couldn't tell whether it was due to the increasing intensity of the contractions, Chad's travel trouble, or the mauling of my arm veins. The nurse gave up on the IV & went to find someone else to do it. I told my poor mom I didn't think I could do this even though she was doing everything she could to make me comfortable, but all I could think was that I had 18 more hours of intense labor. The nurse came back, saw my pain & asked, "Do you want that epidural?" I wanted whatever would make the next 18 hours of anticipated labor fly by, but luckily the other staff knew better and while an IV was skillfully inserted-for no real reason as we would soon find out-Mom fed me ice, and I felt like I needed to push. That feeling never occurred while in labor with Thomas so I was still convinced that there were quite a few hours of pushing & hard labor to go, newsflash to me...NORA WAS READY, and very supportive of natural childbirth! I was hyperventilating and everything else is a blur, all of a sudden I was pushing, wondering if the baby was really coming out, my OB was instructing me to stop yelling and push & so I did & Nora was born. Three hours of labor-from the time contractions started-to delivery, all natural. Nora Amelie Holliday made her entrance Friday weighing in at 7Lbs 13 Oz, 20" long at 1:47PM. Welcome baby, if we're all speechless, just chalk it up to your beauty.

Can You See the Stretch Marks Through My Clothing? 11/13/08

Oh, yeah, about that, still pregnant, still big, and due within the next couple of weeks. Keep that eye brow down, there's time, I swear my water won't break all over your floor. I promise...sort of.

11/13/08

A lot of people say that about their children, 3 or 4 and knowing it all, etc. but tonight I have to use that tired saying about Thomas, 3 going on 13 again. We made chocolate chip cookies today, with extra strength dark bittersweet chocolate chips, thank you Grandma Nancy for letting us raid the back of the kitchen cabinet...The residual buzz had Thomas on a roll, a very energetic, and somewhat obnoxious roll. Maybe I was buzzed too, and ignoring him while rambling to my mom, who knows. Anyway,

"Thomas, please don't kick that just because you want attention, it will break. Pick it up off of the floor and put it where it belongs while I finish talking, you've interrupted."

Picks object up, "Excuse me, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, EXCUSE MEEEEEEEEEEE," and brings object into kitchen.

I try to conclude the rambling I've subjected my mother to.

"Mommy, mommy, mommmy..."

"Thomas!" I say exasperated.

"But Mommy, I AM pattentioning! I'm pattentioning already."

Trick or Treat 11/06/08

Today we watched a video of 2 year old Thomas from last summer. Thomas started to act like a baby in my lap as we watched. Know why? Because he was a squishy baby boy last summer who spoke and acted like a squishy baby boy. One thing about watching videos of Thomas is that I can see his desire and attempts to do things he hasn't mastered at the time of recording. I can see him learning. I can also see us parents not recognizing this too frazzled, trying to handle behavior he's testing out on us, & learning ourselves, akwardly. Thomas's vocabulary exploded while we were in the Czech Republic, surrounded by Czech people speaking Czech. Hmmm, I think he may have been bored by my conversation & just decided he needed to spice things up a bit. Whatever the reason, he now has a very impressive and clear vocabulary. He catches people off guard in public quite often with his brilliance, which is like the total Girl Scout badge of mothering right? Lately he's given up on his cutest sniglets and moved on to the correct pronunciations of things, sniff.

Thomas loves M & M's. Not the peanut ones I secretly coveted, okay not so secretly coveted, in his trick or treat bounty, but hey I'm really pregnant and walked a lot of miles so he could procure the treats...so I get to let him know which ones I really like right? He's such a sweetie about sharing, even this makes me feel guilty, so I can't even imagine stealing any of his loot. I think he might have 2 "yes parents."

My big point in posting is that he calls M & M's Num n Nums, as in,

"Would you like to try the M&M's?"
"Num n Nums, Mommy, I want some Num N Nums."

There is no way on earth I will correct him.

I'm off to check on my squishy baby boy while he sleeps, because when the sun rises the articulate & eager little boy will be in my face demanding,

"Mommy, get up, I want to watch cartoons right now. It's morning time, Mommy. We need O-cereal with yogurt and fruit not mixed in, just on top...I have to potty now, Mommy, and you need to turn on the light, but I don't need to wash hands yet because they aren't dirty...Where are we going today, Mommy? You have to open your eyes, Mommy."

What's More Fun than a Blanket Tent?

Celebrate Halloween with a Pregnant Strawberry

Here is what the pregnant lady looks like without the costume hugging her mentor after a 5 hour drive in the rain. And above that is my Mom, who survived the 5 hour drive in the rain PLUS the return trip in monsoon rain, in the dark, who's really a Grandmother, do you believe it? She knows how to moisturize. And at the top is Thomas bobbing for apples, 3 year old style and of course the spoils.



My mother made these great felt fruit costumes for my brother and I as children. We also got to be blue crayons...but you'll have to wait a few years to see those again. Pregnant strawberries make more sense than blue pregnant crayons. Thomas makes an awesome banana, but moves like a monkey so we opted to visit the Batsto Historic Village Halloween celebration sans the felt costumes plus boots, since Batsto has a lake & Thomas is 3. We had a choice between the township parade and the historic village celebration, and we made the right choice. A. They gave out toys instead of candy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yey! B. We got there early enough to really enjoy all of the games. C. There were free pony rides (Thomas won't do that yet, large live animals make him a bit nervous) D. Everyone was extremely nice and non-competitive. There were no rigged costume competitions where the local PTA moms clique shunned my talented mother's handiwork for the same old princess and witch costumes worn by THEIR daughters. Guess I'm a little bitter, or a bit pregnant & witchy myself. We had a beautiful day together, counting the Hannah Montanas. Just kidding, but really, she needs a wilder look if she's going to market it for costume use.

And the Countdown Begins

Things I must do-
Stop looking at the calendar to calculate how many weeks (days) I have left to be pregnant.
Get rid of the piles (Do you hear that junk mail, student loan companies, medical billing people who can't get accounts straight since JUNE)
Fold the rest of the piles into piles of recognizable clothing & put away.
Give up on the sewing projects and pack my sewing machine up for moving. JUST LET IT GO, those cute baby clothes will never get sewn from the miniscule scraps I've saved, probably, well maybe...I mean those fabrics really are spectacular.
Figure out how to download pictures from my camera.
Find my toes and make them look presentable.

How to Get a Top Notch Hospital Tour 10/17/08

Well I'm looking at the last 6 weeks or so of being pregnant, and what does that mean? Lists. I'm making lists of things I have yet to do, need to beg, borrow, or steal, projects (ahem, translate piles of clutter) to attend to, people I must write or call, Halloween events to take Thomas to (since this holiday was non-existant where we lived last year & now he's revelling the ability to celebrate a holiday that = scary cool things + people giving him candy), oh and a list of names, etc. So on one of my lists I did everything except the first line, call the hospital I will be delivering at and schedule a tour. I'm nervous about delivery in a hospital after a home-birth and my feelings go between omigod this baby is going to be here in 6 weeks and omigod I can't believe I still have six more HUGE weeks to be HUGE before this baby is born. So calling the hospital would make this all a bit more real, like the huge belly and protruding baby kicks aren't enough. But there was good reason for my procrastination, since an A-1 tour was in the works for me.

We started out at Batsto, Thomas and a friend on tricycles, us moms slowly helping them navigate the big wheels back into riding terrain from time to time and stopping for snack breaks at every bench. Then they found the lake and rocks. I found a bench. Unfortunately Thomas found the rocks and shallow water to be old news and headed for the unfenced bank near the deep water. "What mom? Come back from there, are you kidding? That deep water is dark & still & smelly & I want to lean over and put things in it. Now, you say? Huh uh, nope not me. I'm not even going to acknowledge you are speaking to me. " I started to get up to leap after Thomas with all my huge pregnant grace, and the huge tree shading our bench sprouted two roots and took me down. Completely down. I knew there was no chance of catching myself and somehow twisted my body in a way that my face & belly did not smash into the dirt. Instead I landed completely flat out on my side, crushed the cell phone in my pocket, and will probably have a bum hip later in life. My palm and elbow filled with dirt, but I was okay because I didn't go down on my stomach, the baby was resting in the other side of my body and didn't seem phased. My ego was majorly bruised. I managed to collect Thomas from the deep shore of the lake & we continued on our adventure. However I was rattled, or my whole body was, and that concerned me enough to call my OB when we got home. He told me to go to Labor and Delivery immediately. Thus we got a trial run.

I was admitted and monitored by lovely nurses and tested by some really upbeat residents and released after 4 hours of monitoring and tests. The baby and I turned out to be fine, although I was experiencing contractions I didn't feel & am dilated 1cm. The facility was comfortable & I'm so happy I'll be going there to deliver. One of the best parts was a diagram on the wall with 8 circles all increasing in size, from 2 to 9cm. The 9 cm circle had a smiley face on it, with hair. Talk about your positive reinforcement. Hopefully I'll just keep sailing along with contractions I don't feel until 9cm.

Storm's A'brewin 10/01/08

I'm off to discover what people have been writing about the DIY movement, and try to catch up a little on where the critiques have gone in the ceramic field. It beats worrying about locating affordable organic cloth diapers, and boy are there some articulate people out there making art and posting about it online. In my corner I would like to post some brilliance of Thomas's and then some other stuff, not so brilliant.

"Walk-board," is what you walk to the beach on, makes so much more sense than boardwalk.

Baby girl is now kicking me in ways that show up through my clothes. Yes I am the woman carrying the wombat acrobat under my shirt out of the store, I swear she's paid for, wanna see my receipt?

I have to pee, almost all of the time. There's 32lbs pressing down on my inner parts. It is always an emergency, Daddy. I'm sorry, if I sneeze or snicker in the backseat of your car while I have to pee, dire things can happen.

Black town car type vehicles like to travel through the "Back way" we take to the shore. These roads are unmarked for the most part, quite wooded, parallel to NY/NJ highways & almost always empty save for pairs of shiny black expensive vehicles. Hmmmmm.

Popcorn, Courtesy of Mom