Thursday, November 5, 2015

Nora Kay Love ~ 11 Months

Well, it's here.  I am officially 1 month away from having a 1 year old, and a 4 year old.  How is that even possible?  

We are still trying to figure out how to survive each day with Nornado running around the house...but we're having a blast as her personality continues to just explode.  Oh she's ornery, but she's oh so loveable at the same time!  
 Weight/Height:  My poor second child.  I have no clue.  I guess we'll find out at your 1- year well check in a few weeks.  All I know is that you're still growing and eating like crazy...so we must be doing something right!  
 Clothes: We have boxed up all of your summer clothes which means we're full into 9-12 & even some 12-18. I remember this transition phase being difficult with Elyse because she was so long and lean.  I'm so thankful that we have boxes of clothes from Elyse that Nora can wear, but I'm also definitely wanting to dress Nora in her own style...so you can bet there'll be some new outfits showing up for birthdays & the holiday season!  
 Food;  Nora has 8 teeth, which means she enhales most things that we put in front of her.  She's not a huge bread fan or plain cheese fan, but most anything else she will eat & go back to time & again.  She eats everything that we eat at meals and she's definitely starting to express her desire for certain items (berries, Veggie Straws, berries, green beans, berries, noodles, berries...she's gonna be a berry lover just like her sister!) She has this adorable little grunt that she uses when she's not getting exactly what she wants. She has learned the importance of a snack cup, and even if it's empty, you can typically find her with a snack catcher not far out of arm's reach.  Cheerios have become a normal decoration & the crunch of them under feet doesn't even surprise me anymore.  She is still nursing 4x a day, but she's taking less & less at each feeding which I'm hoping means that weaning will be a quick & easy process. (another post for another day). 
 Sleep: We've been fighting a family cold the past couple of weeks so sleep has been a little more difficult, but she still loves her sleep.  She goes down anytime between 7:30-8 and sleeps until 6:30-7 and also has 2, 2ish hour naps during the day.  She's incredibly flexible though and seems to handle things ok if she has a later nap or goes to be later than normal.  In true 2nd kid fashion, she has quickly learned to go with the flow and I'm so thankful for that.  
 Activity: All the time.  This girl doesn't hardly stop moving except for when she's eating or sleeping. She's always on the move and is FAST.  She can pull up literally on anything and while I'm not sure if she'll be walking by her first birthday, I know that when she starts it will be straight from crawling to running!  Unlike Elyse, it seems that she doesn't want ANYTHING to be in it's rightful place. Her favorite past time is to remove everything from the shelves in the playroom and throw it all on the floor.  Any stack of blocks will only last as long as it takes for her to realize it exists before she knocks it over.  Elyse was never a climber, but I think we're going to have one with Nora.  Almost anytime she pulls up to something, she hikes up one leg as if she wishes she could just get a little bit higher up...life may get really interesting when she can actually walk! 
 Personality: This has completely blossomed in the past few weeks.  She is starting to show a little bit more of her independence and also her displeasure if we take something away from her.  She is still the happiest baby in the world, but is quick to show her frustration if things don't go perfectly her way.  She seem to always have this ornery little sparkle in her eyes, which keeps us on our toes at all times.  She is starting to respect the word NO (or at least at times), but the first time we use it...she crinkles her little nose and gives us this adorable ornery grin.  Other times, NO doesn't cut it and I've actually had to gently slap her hand a few times.  She puckers out her bottom lip as far as she possibly can and I end up turning my head away because I'm about to laugh hysterically at how cute it is.  It won't always be cute...but for now, it's adorable to watch her be pouty! 
 Elyse & Nora: These two are best friends.  Seriously.  Nora typically wakes up from her afternoon nap before Elyse & always starts saying "Eese!  Eese!" to try and find her.  Other times Nora crawls into Elyse's room before I have a chance to shut the door just so she can wake up her playmate!  There are plenty of times that they aggravate each other as well...Nora really just wants to play with whatever Elyse is playing with, and that typically doesn't go over very well.  However, we are working on sharing & playing together and Elyse is learning that Nora is really only interested in something for about 2 seconds.  I love to watch them both just LOVE on each other, even if it is a pretty wild, crazy, and hard crashing love most of the time!  

Nora Kay, Snuggle Bunny, Sugar Booger, Little Squirt, Noisy Nora, 

Oh my baby girl how I love you.  You truly are able to brighten up most anyone's day with that ornery grin of yours and as you continue to grow & develop I am just in awe of what God is going to do with you.  You might be a girl, and you might be born in the month of December but I can already tell that you & Elyse are going to be so different but yet love each other so hard.  And it makes my heart burst with joy that both of you call me momma. You are such an incredible little person, and I know that God has big plans for you. It's my prayer that your daddy & I would be able to shepherd you & your heart in ways that would lead you towards Jesus.  We love you sweet girl, thank you for being our one & only Nornado!

Momma


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Project 365 ~ October

This is pretty much the extent of my blogging...but I'm determined to keep it up through at least Nora's 1st Birthday!  Instagram has become my documentation mode of choice, so let's take a look at our exciting month of October. 
 
We had some threenager issues and I was thankful that "joy comes in the morning..."

Nora turned 10 months old and thus started the beginning of Nornado...


We had Nora's 9 month photos taken aka Christmas card photos, and I fell in love with every single one of them...

We lit the fire on our back deck for smore's and some fabulous family memories...

 
Nora made herself at home in her very own Lucy tent...
 
Since starting preschool, Elyse has become a teacher most nights...so we've had lots of "learning lessons." 

I attended Designed for Life, a local women's conference, with one of my best friends from college.  And it was fabulous!  

Nora learned some serious climbing skills from Mamaw...

We made funny faces in our full-length mirror...

And I went on Elyse's first official school field trip to a local pumpkin patch...and we had a blast!  

We welcomed a little Prince Charming into our family of princesses, as my nephew, Baby Troy was born on October 12.  

We enjoyed some beautiful fall days outside in the sunshine...

And we collected more pacifiers aka ba's...

We celebrated our two oldest nephew's birthdays...
 
And attended a wedding at the beautiful Top of the Rock. 

We dressed in our Halloween finest...

Cinderella joined me in the kitchen for pumpkin muffins topped with sprinkles...because, why not?!?

And we watched as these two grew better friends by the minute...

Nora seemed to grow up before our eyes...

And we made Fall crafts after our a few leaf hunting adventures...

We had a family day at Silver Dollar City & Nora rode her first ride with her Big Sis!


Nora showed us more of her completely ornery side...

And Elyse continued being a pretty, pretty princess for her first PJ day at school.  

We attempted a cute Halloween sister photo, but this is reality...so this is what we got.  

We did some pre-trick or treating to my grandparent's houses & my aunt's home a few days before Halloween.  

And we opted for painting pumpkins and mummy dogs instead of the whole carving process...
 
And in probably one of my favorite memories to date...we joined up with some good friends for trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  Our precious Cinderella & Gus Gus were just precious! 


 

 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Sun, Sand, & Priceless Memories

A little over a month ago, we packed up our car, loaded the girls in their car seats and headed off for our first long roadtrip as a family of 4 (well actually 6, we took Papa & Gigi along for reinforcement!)  Growing up, my family considered the Florida gulf coast our second home, and I hope to raise up Elyse & Nora to feel the same!  Destin, FL was our destination and the trip down was a breeze.  We took our time traveling & spent the night in Hattiesburg, MS which left us only about 3 driving hours left to our destination.  

Our days really aren't worth specifically documenting because it was basically the exact same routine every day...and I was perfectly happy with that.  

Our mornings consisted of a toddler and a 10 month old waking up around 6:30-7, breakfast around 7:30-8, a good dose of sunscreen application, and beach gear gathering.  We were on the beach most mornings by 8:30.  




We'd all play on the beach for an hour or so before someone would bring Nora up for her morning nap.  We'd come back down to the beach for a bit before lunch, lunch was served (typically carryout from somewhere close), and then it was naptime for both girls!  



When afternoon naps were over, we'd come back down to the beach for an hour or so, and then finish up at the pool before heading back up to the condo to clean up for the evening.  




Evenings were for eating dinner at any one of our various favorite Destin restaurant locations...The Back Porch, Pompano Joe's, The Surf Hut, McGuire's Irish Pub, and even carry-out pizza all made an appearance this time around!  









The water the first day and a half was so incredibly calm that it was almost like a  pond.  The ocean waves were literally just lapping the shoreline which made for a perfect environment for Elyse to play.  She played & played in the water with her puddle jumper & I couldn't have been more happy with how much she loved the ocean.  She also spent lots of time building big sand holes & sand pyramids that she would promptly stomp on & knock over. 






Of course our time with Nora consisted mostly of trying to prevent her from eating too much sand.  She definitely ingested her fair share, but she absolutely loved the water & even became quite the pro at crawling through the white sands.  










Nora was an absolute breeze as most nights we pushed her past her normal bedtime to squeeze every second of family fun we could out of our trip.  I think by the end of the week she was definitely ready to get back to a somewhat normal routine, but for the most part she just went completely with the flow.  


















Our last night we made another stop at the Back Porch (probably our favorite for sure).  And finished off the evening with a stop designed purely for Elyse...a mini-carousel, a mini-train, and other kiddie rides galore!  Elyse did incredibly well the entire trip too...but I think by the end of the week she was DONE with vacation and ready to be back on familiar ground again.  And honestly, I can't really blame her. 



We headed out bright & early (6am) on Saturday morning and said our goodbye's to the ocean & the sand & the carefree days.  We arrived home on Saturday night right at 9 pm, 15 hours & 11 stops later.  I honestly could not have asked for a better family vacation, and I know that there will be many more to come.  Elyse has already asked when we're going back to the beach...so I think I've definitely passed on my love of the clear blue ocean to my girls!   The beach is definitely my favorite place for vacation and my second home...but there truly is no place like my first home.  Back among our four walls in Missouri with the three people I love most.