08 Saturday Oct 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, comprehension, Daddy, Granddaddy, Grandma Duncan, new word, Norah, norah face, video, vocabulary
This gallery contains 10 photos.
Can you smell that smell? A couple of weeks ago we received a call from my mom asking if she …
28 Monday Mar 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Big Girl Bed, Dining Out, mimicking sounds, new word, Norah, sleeping, Stacey, talking, Wes
"The Look" from Mommy
Well, the “big girl” beds have been up for the past three weeks. Bella has done great with hers and sleeps in it all night every night without a problem whatsoever. Unless you count her trying to find excuses to get up a dozen times after she has been tucked in. It is too funny because she would get up and try to get a book or she would drop a toy or her paci and then say, “Uh-Oh!” thus then having to get out of bed to get it. Bella will also want to have a hug…you get the idea.
Sweet Norah
Aaron or I have been staying with the girls after they get tucked in for 20-30 minutes until they fall asleep. The reason that I was staying in the room with them in the first place was Norah. She would lay down and get tucked in, but would start to cry and run for the door when we started to leave the room. The first night she slept on the floor right in front of the door. I know this because I was going to go in and move her back to her bed, but she was blocking the door and I didn’t want to wake her.
Norah sometimes will sleep in her bed the entire night, but some nights she would wake up halfway through the night, cry for a couple minutes and fall asleep on the floor in front of the door. Other nights, I don’t know if she stayed in bed the whole night, but didn’t hear any crying except for when she woke up (about an hour earlier than normal). She would wake Bella up early and Bella is a grump in the morning anyway without being woke up early, and this is especially the case if she is not allowed to wake on her own.
Bella said "outside" & this it what happens
Now, for some reason over the past couple of nights, Norah has been waking up as soon as the door clicks when it closes. The girl can be asleep and as soon as she hears the door knob engage she bolts up and runs to the door crying. We swear the girl has some extra sense about her! We tried putting her back in bed, but she kept getting up and crying. She bangs on the door screaming for Mommy or Daddy. Finally, Aaron just quit going back in and she fell asleep (in front of the door, of course).
It has been like this for the past few nights. Last night almost broke my heart because when we went up to bed I saw two of her little fingers peeking out from underneath their door. We tried asking her if she wanted to sleep in her crib again, even put the mattress back in it and put her in it. She hated that and cried to get out. Aaron asked her if she wanted to sleep with Bella and she said, “yes.” So, Aaron tried to put her in bed with Bella. Bella was not the least bit happy about this and threw a little fit. Bella obviously wants her own space and does not want little sis Norah to cramp her style. We tried switching who sleeps in which bed, giving Norah the one by the door and pushing their beds together. Not sure if that is going to do anything. Wendy (from daycare) suggested we make Norah’s bed on the floor and see if maybe reverse psychology might work. I am not sure what to do at this point in time other than let her cry and sleep on the floor. I welcome any suggestions!
Put my shoes and take me outside NOW!
Bella continues to talk more and more and more. She is talking is short sentences and still surprises us with words that she has learned or picked up from somewhere. She is also starting to repeat words she hears on TV. Norah is more reserved and quiet yet. Wendy tells us what we already know, which is Norah (who is the loud screamer of the two) is very quiet when she does talk. It is indeed very soft, gentle voice when she telling you things she knows. Bella is the more shy of the two often taking much time to warm up to people and talk to them. Norah has never met a stranger in her life.
We capped the week off as we went out to eat with our friends Wes and Stacey as well as their three kids. It was the first time we have attempted to eat out with 4 adults, 2 kids (age 8 and 4), 2 toddlers (age almost 2) and a 3 month old. As you can imagine, trying to find a restaurant that can accommodate our very specific seating arrangement is not easy. So we ate at McDonalds…..just kidding–that is what we joke about. That being one of the few places we can eat. Anyway we ate O’Charleys. The wait was not ideal, but they were able to seat us. We had a good time, then went over to their house so we could watch the Tournament and the girls could play with their kids. It was a good time.
So you might be wondering about this point in the blog why we titled this post, Poker and “Craps”….so here is the story behind the title:
The second night I stayed in the room with her until she fell asleep and I did that every night the first week. On Friday night of last week, Aaron was at his friend’s house for the guy’s poker night, so I had the girls all to myself. We did the normal routine as I got the girls bathed and dressed. I tucked them into bed, read them a book and kissed them goodnight. I went into the next room to listen to make sure they fell asleep. Now normally, as most parents know, there is not that immediate “go to sleep” mode. There is the rustling around, the noise of getting out of bed, the “peeps” and the taking. I only been out of the room for a few minutes. Norah was upset and started to cry. This is normal so I decided to let her cry for a bit. I was in the computer room (right next to their room) for about 5 minutes and went to check on them because it got awfully quiet. This in itself should have been a sign; a notice that when it gets too quiet, something is up.
So I walked over to their door and took a peek in. What I found is something that I would rather forget. Norah had her PJs unzipped and her diaper off. No big deal, right? Has happened several times before as we have discovered she wants to be a nudist. And normally, I could handle that, but this time the diaper contained poop. And again, as a parent for almost 2 years, poop should be no big deal. But this time, it was different. She had it on her stomach, her leg, the inside of her PJs, her hands, sheets, bed, etc., etc. If that was not bad enough and to top this evening off, Bella had poop on her hands and there were poop spots on the floor. So there are my two girls, one half naked covered in poop, the other eyes as big as could be with poop on her hands telling me, “Mommy! Mess!”, as if I did not know or could not see.
Apparently, when removing the diaper the poop fell on the floor and Bella took it upon herself to pick it up and put it in the diaper champ. Because Bella you see is the champ of picking up trash and putting it where it goes. This includes things we give them to throw away such as bottles, boxes, you know–trash and even dirty diapers that have been properly wrapped up by Mommy and Daddy. So I guess Bella just thought she was doing a good deed, a service, something that Mommy and Daddy would be proud of. So we can now add poop to the list however I am not sure if we should be proud of this or not. On one hand she did a good job of identifying the poop as trash and putting it away, thus helping her sister out. On the other hand, it was POOP! I had to clean the diaper champ were it stuck to the surface and I had to clean up where it had bounced around while she was trying to dispose of it.
I ended up having to re-bathe and PJ the girls. I also had the pleasure of wiping down the diaper champ, a couple of the bed rails and changing their linens. I also made sure to stay with them that night until they fell asleep–lesson learned. I will also say that Aaron is very lucky he was not home because he would have been more than a little disgusted with the clean-up. So while he played poker, I got stuck playing with the “craps”. Doesn’t quite seem all that fair.
Aaron will be with the girls most of next week as it is his Spring Break. Hopefully the girls will take it easy on him. So enjoy the pictures and don’t forget to check on the Picture of the Week and the full collection of pictures on Flickr.
14 Monday Mar 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Big Girl Bed, Chastity, Clothes off, colors, crying, cutting teeth, Daddy, Dining Out, Mommy, Naked, new word, Norah, Ponies, Pony Tails, Toddler Bed
Sadie also doubles as a foot rest
The dreaded 2 year molars have started to cause grief for all involved in our house. So far, it is just Bella who is cutting her molars, but as she is our resident drama queen…it has affected us all. She has been moody and needy with both Aaron and I while every single little thing Norah does annoys her or causes her to cry. Norah touches her, she cries. Norah screams at her, she cries. Norah plays without Bella, she cries. It has been almost nonstop fighting between those two. They will hit, shove and try to bite each other. Norah will take Bella’s teether and a fight ensues, Bella will take one of Norah’s baby blankets and a fight ensues. Are you seeing the pattern here? I think there are evenings where Aaron is almost to the end of his rope before I even make it home from work. Lots of time outs and even some spankings too.
Gitty up horsey
The girls are also become expert disrobers. Yep, they like to run around in the buff, nude, au naturel, unclothed, buck-naked. This would not be so bad in itself, however they have a tendency to not only take off all the clothes, but also diapers. And taking off the diapers would again not be so bad, except for the fact that they tend to take off the real dirty ones more so than say, just the pee diapers as Aaron recently found it. He went out to the garage to do a few things. Gone no more than 2-3 minutes by his account. Comes back in and there is his oldest standing au naturel holding a dirty diaper. Of course, Bella wants to lay down to be changed, however the dirtiness is still there. So Aaron grabs her to keep her from spreading this dirtiness to the carpet. Wanna guess what he sees next? Yep….Norah. Buck-Naked. Diaper in hand; dirty diaper in hand. I can also attest to this (at least the dressed to naked in 4.6 seconds) because the same day I ran up stairs to get them some clothes to change into as we were going out to dinner. Came back down–in the buff running, skipping, screaming, having a grand ole time. Strippers. A mother’s dream come true….ugh!
Playtime
On the plus side, Bella has begun to recognize colors. She will get her favorite ruby red slippers and she will say that they are red. I asked them to get their coats and Bella brings hers up to me and tells me, “white” which the coat is white and pink. I am sure Norah probably knows this stuff as well, but she doesn’t come out with what she knows the way Bella does. Wendy (their daycare provider) told Aaron that Norah is doing really well with flash cards at daycare, so I know there is a lot she doesn’t let on. But that is her personality. She is more reserved. Even when she does tell you things (ie shapes, dog, cat, etc.) she does it in a very quiet voice. But you can tell those wheels in her head are always turning as she is very inquisitive and seeks to understand how things work.
Norah Pigtails
Norah's "ponies"
I have also started to put Norah’s hair up in pigtails in the morning. Little girl hassome crazy hair, so it is almost my only choice. Otherwise she runs around with a crazy baby afro type look, which doesn’t really work for me. She rips barrettes out, but ponytail holders are ok. Of course Bella gets jealous when I put Norah’s hair up, so she will yell, “Pony, pony” at me. Norah sometimes asks for me to put her hair up, but Bella is starting to demand it every morning. She will even go to the cabinet and pull out the container that holds the elastics. She has just enough hair to put it up in a little “pebbles” type of pony tail, but she almost always will take it out within 20 minutes and then comes up
Bella's "pony"
to me demanding another “pony.” We will have to post a picture of Norah’s do because she looks so stinking cute with her hair up. And hopefully Bella will grow enough hair soon that I can start to do more with it as well. Poor thing, she has hair like a little boy.
We also had a chance to go to dinner one night with our favorite neighbor, Chastity. We packed up the truck and all went to a little mom and pop Mexican restaurant. Bella was not quite herself or if you count the way she has been lately, then you could say she was her normal self. She was moody, fussy, and big downer at our little fiesta. Both girls did enjoy dipping their chips in the salsa as usual. Bella even managed to pull the salsa dish off the table and spilled some on herself. Even though it was not the greatest fiesta, we hope Chastity might consider going out again with the girls because both girls love their “Chasy” very much.
Our BIG Girl Beds
On a quick note, we bought the girls “toddler” beds the other day. With Norah escaping and crawling out of hercrib, it became more clear that perhaps it was time to move to this stage. I tell you, that girl with climb and tackle anything in her way. Sunday night was their first night in the beds. It took only 3 trips by me and it was Norah each time. Finally after 45 minutes, they were both out. Bella in her bed and Norah on the floor by the door. Aaron and I decided to go down stairs and watch a show. We thought that when we got done, we would then move Norah…..nope. Didn’t happen because Norah rolled even closer to the door, so much so that we could not even open it! So Norah slept on the floor all night and Bella in her bed. Oh well….1 out of 2 ain’t bad, is it?
So the next post will feature their escapades with the new Big Girl Beds. Check out the pictures below as usual and don’t forget to check the picture of the week.
27 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Chastity, Daddy, making animal sounds, Mommy, naming animals, naps, new word, Norah, talking, tattletale
Norah
Bella and Norah have been really into their Baby Einstein animal books over the past couple of weeks now. Bella is really getting good and I think she knows every animal in all three books now and she can tell you what sound a good number of them make. Norah still likes to tell you that every animal says,“moo.” I really think that she is playing down what she knows because when I asked her what some of the sounds particular animals make when we were in the car she would tell me more than what she does when we do the books after bed.
Short Video of Bella doing Animals
Bella
Aaron likes to joke that Bella will be our scholarship student and Norah will go to college and do the 6 year plan like her daddy did. I think sometime soon little miss Norah is going to just surprise us all–she is just waiting for her moment to shine. Norah does provide us with great comic relief and just helps to light up our lives with how she is, the faces she makes, her drama, her laugh and so much more. It is hard to believe how different each of them are; two little people with distinct personalities and how we love each one of them so much.
Short Video of Norah providing Comic Relief
Daddy's Girls
Bella has been funny in that she has taken to randomly telling us what things are. Last night she pointed to the wall and said, “Wall.” She then proceed to point at every wall and tell Aaron what it was. Tonight after their bath she went up to the chair in their room and told me, “Chair.” It is sooo cute when she does it because you can tell how proud she is to tell you that she knows. Aaron said the other day she did this with “light” and “hexagon” from the shape puzzle she has. She also has started trying to get Norah in trouble. Our little-oh-so-Miss-Innocent will take the television remote and then hand it to Norah. It doesn’t quite end there though as Bella will then point at the buttons telling Norah to “push it.” She doesn’t touch the buttons herself when she does this though, but the girl wants to watch Mickey Mouse so she tries to get her little sister to the dirty work.
Bella reading to Norah
Norah’s big accomplishment for the week was that she is learning to put her shoes on by herself. She has managed to get her socks on a couple of times as well. The only problem is that she usually manages to get the shoe on the wrong foot and then gets angry with me when I have to correct it. She is so sensitive that some times I do have the heart to correct her. So if you see Norah and she has the wrong shoe on each foot, please know that her mother is not a complete and blind idiot.
Norah also becomes more proficient at tattling or as Norah probably sees it, letting Mom and Dad know about anything that is not right. This of course tends to include anything and everything that Bella is doing that is not Norah approved. Just the other day, Aaron went upstairs for a minute. He heard Norah yelling for Daddy and when he began back down there he saw Norah waiting at the bottom exclaiming at the top of her lungs. Now when Norah gets excited, she mixes in words with babble. So it was something to the effect of, “Daddy! abababe! Bell-bell! babab mopa beh! Pants! Bell-Bell! No! Stop!” Now understand that Norah is doing this at the absolute highest level of seriousness and drama (see video above to get an idea) and when Aaron arrived at the bottom of the stairs, there is Bella with her pants on the ground.
Oh NO!!!
I cannot tell you how much fun it has been just these past few months as their little personalities begin to show more and more. The joy of watching their vocabulary grow and speech develop has been amazing. We can communicate more and more with them as they can with us. No matter how rough each day is, they definitely make each and every day better and the joy they bring to our hearts is amazing. Aaron was also able to accomplish a first this week, when he was able to take a nap with both girls in our bed. Aaron is not much on naps, but absolutely loved being able to do this with them and wake up with two beautiful, smiling and happy faces.
With the weather warming up, we have had the front door open more so the girls can look out through the storm door to see what is going on. Bella really likes to do this, however Norah insists on shutting the door and all doors in the house. On a few occasions we have seen our favorite neighbor Chastity. Now both girls get excited when they see her, but Bella will start saying, “Chasy! Chasy!” which is very cute. The girls also like to walk around in our shoes which I think every parent has pictures and/or video of this happening. Of course we are no exception and here is another short video to leave you with followed with the rest of the pictures. Enjoy and Check out the Picture of the Week. It is a great one!
13 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, crying, Grandma Duncan, mimicking sounds, new word, Norah, potty training, sick, talking, vocabulary
Our sweet Norah
Man-oh-man what a week! It was a week that saw that things getting back to normal without the normalcy. Yeah, it was that kind of week. Stacy’s mom (AKA Grandma Duncan) came up on a day tripper to see us, well not really us–but rather the cutest twins that she knows. I know that the girls absolutely loved having Grandma up to visit and play with them. I would say that there was only one complaint which was when she left. It was a very traumatic event for our two little drama queens in the making. Stacy wanted me to “distract” the girls as she tried to leave. My attempt was futile to say the least and Bella began to cry, screaming and pleading for “Gra-ma” to return. Through her chorus of cries and over emotional demands to return Grandma Duncan, Norah our resident sympathy crier, decided to chime in making it a delightful duet.
Behind those Blue Eyes
The girls were able to return to day care as normal this past week after being “iced” in the previous week. I know that they enjoyed seeing and playing with their friends. It also provided a more structured routine that they are accustomed to having. The girls did tend to struggle with nap time this week. Often when I would pick them up, Wendy would provide the fair warning disclaimer that the objects of my affection may indeed appear closer to cranky than normal. I would say that was a fair description and heeded that warning taking the lumps of their lack of sleep in stride. Stacy received a text from Wendy this week also that said that our youngest daughter by 11 minutes, had demonstrated another step in the potty training stage–Norah went poop in the potty! Stacy of course forwarded it me. After changing hundreds of poopy diapers, I am personally more excited at the prospect of NOT having to change those diapers more than her actually doing it. They even had a little “cheering” party for her at daycare after her big accomplishment.
How Norah uses a fork
Bella’s vocabulary continues to grow exponentially. Her new words this week include: teethbursh (not a typo), oranges, mess, door, chair, glasses, Oh Toodles (from Mickey Mouse), and the word “yeah” has even made a rare appearance here and there into her vocabulary. Mess is definitely her favorite and she is quick to point out any mess that she sees. She is definitely quite the talker and repeater of words! Both girls will also bring me the remote and ask for Mickey Mouse or Ruby (another show they watch–Max & Ruby although it comes out more like “Wuby”). We have been using the DVR to record these shows. We do this for our own sanity to avoid having to watch the same on-demand versions over and over and over again. Bella is also beginning to jump and skip around the house.
THE $1500 POTHOLE
On Tuesday Stacy was coming home from work and hit the (and I quote), “the mother of all potholes” from the north side through downtown Indy. I was on the phone with her and she did not feel anything vibrating/vibrating/shaking on the car and perhaps the only thing she thought was the front end was out of allignment. The next day she let me know that the tire had a big knot on it and the rim was bent. Sure as can be they were. We were close to the end of the life for the tires, but still we have to put on 4 tires, a new rim, alignment, taxes, labor, etc. to a whopping cost of around $1500. That was indeed some pothole. Check the pictures below to see some of the damage.
Knot on tire
Bent Rim
The damage
Stacy was without a car on Thursday because of the repair so I had to go pick her up from work. I had the girls with me and took them in since I got there a little early. They behaved better than I thought they would being it one of those days that they came with that disclaimer of more irritable than usual. Bella was quite funny as she was practicing her jumping skills around the store. Of course what I did not mention is that when Bella jumps she tends to always find a way to fall down. The strategic falling down after the jump then leads to her exclaiming “Ouch” or “Ow” to anyone who will grant her court. Don’t get me wrong, it is cute the first 100 times, but after personally witnessing this for at least 10 times that it does grow old. She did it at least 50 times in 5 minutes.
Bella's favorite Ruby Red Slippers
Stacy has also been working with the girls on sounds that animals make. Both Bella and Norah are great at “mooo” with the cow. In fact they are so great that all animals make the mooo sound, especially with Bella. Bella is getting good at naming them though. She knows dog, cat, horse, cow, chicken and sheep pretty well. Norah knows dog, cat, cow, and chicken along with the sound that a chicken makes. There pace of learning with speech these past few months and even these past few weeks has been so amazing. The girls will say things or identify things we did not even know that they knew. It all seems to be going way too quick–except for the potty training which I can’t wait to start all out this summer. That is the one thing that I will not miss and can can’t get over quick enough.
So a new week begins and hopefully we can begin to get back to a more steady, real normal week and routine. The girls are showing some signs that they are getting sick. The snotty noses and some coughing has started. We hope that it stops there. But for right now, we are are the personal snot servants. As usual, more pictures are below. Check out the Picture of the Week
12 Wednesday Jan 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Christmas, Christmas pictures, clothes, defiant, diva, melt-down, new word, Norah, pictures, potty training, shoes, sick, talking, Terrible 2s
About as sweet as Norah gets
The past week has been a good week for the girls. Aaron’s winter break ended, so he is back to work and the girls are back in daycare. Wendy(our daycare provider) moved while the girls were staying home, so they have a new atmosphere to adjust to and Danni and Alex are back after their mother started a new job. They seem to be adjusting to the new place quicker than I have. I am still adjusting to the extra time it takes me to get there, especially if I am working in Greenwood, as I have to go farther north and then come back south. I haven’t been late yet, so I guess that is a good thing.
Prelude to cuddling
They have finally both been feeling well (at the same time) so we just got around to doing their Christmas/18month old pictures this past weekend. We have had to cancel a prior appointment and scrap a couple of potential appointment times that we tried to make because the girls have been sick on and off. As soon as one would start to get better the other would start to get sick. We finally caught a break–or so we had thought.
The process was pretty much what I expected it to be, maybe a little more difficult even. The girls were looking so cute in their Christmas dresses and they seemed to be in a pretty good mood. We showed up a little early and tried to give the girls a little time to warm up to the studio and Desiree (the girl who has done all their pictures since they were 3 months old). Desiree had warned me that around 18 months/2 years old kids decide that they are scared of the studio or just plain uncooperative for the most part. I hoped that we would get a couple of good pictures with the two of them together right as the session started as we have in the past. Things were looking good, but we could not convince Norah to take her thumb out of her mouth. Then once we convinced her (okay we didn’t really convince her, it was more of redirection mixed with distraction), neither one of the girls wanted to sit down. Instead they wanted to explore the stuff in the prop closet, they wanted to fight over ornaments, seats, whatever they could find. Basically they just wanted to fight over anything and everything.
GIRLS IN THEIR CHRISTMAS DRESSES
Our other BEST Xmas Picture
Our best XMas picture
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Bella had a plate and started to have a melt down when I tried to take it away, so Aaron had to take her out. Norah and I stayed and we got some really cute pictures of Norah. We might have gotten more, but I wanted to try to at least get some individual pictures of Bella. So Aaron brought our Bella back in the studio and then took Norah out. Finally, we were able to get some ok pictures of Bella. We then tried one last time to get a picture of the two together and almost got it, but Norah turned her head at the moment the camera snapped! The luck I tell you! After that Bella started climbing off the seat and we decided to call it a day rather than face any more stress. We ordered a few pictures for us and the grandparents, but we didn’t get near as many as we normally would because we just didn’t have a lot to pick from this time. I am hoping that the ones we try to get for their two year old pictures go better–because honestly I cannot imagine them going worse and God help me if they do. And if it does and you think getting Christmas pictures in January is bad, we will probably get their 2-year-old pictures when they are like 4!
You figure out what happened
The girls are definitely entering that terrible 2 phase. They pick and antagonize each other; they cry over every single thing, do not want to listen, are defiant when corrected, terrorize the dogs, and steal each other’s toys. Aaron wants to make a formal apology to his parents for any and all actions, both recognized and even those unrecognized he did when he was younger. He apologizes completely and is sorry for the stress, agony, suffering and any alcoholic induced medicating that Jon and Paula received as a direct recourse of his actions. I on the other hand was a perfect angel and I blame my sister Meredith and brother Kurt. Yep, that’s my story and I am sticking to it.
Finger-licking good!
Multi-tasking
Both Bella and Norah continue to do well with the potty at night before bath. It is so cute the way they have picked up from watching me, that they need to get toilet paper and wipe. Although they do not pee every night in the potty, they do enjoy sitting on it and wiping so much that we have trouble getting them in the tub. Then once in the tub, the keep saying “pee-pee” or “potty” pretty much non-stop. This fooled us for like the first 3 weeks, but we soon caught on to their scheme. Bella is so comfortable in the water now. She “swims” if you will, lying on her belly in the water.
Ummm...don't even ask
The girls continue to pick up more words every week. Bella still talks more than Norah and repeats more words. We often think that Bella is ahead of Norah with this, but just when we do she shows off her stuff. She is just selective (or hard-headed) about repeating or doing what Mommy and Daddy wants her to do. Although the little girl can scream louder than anything you have ever heard, when she actually talks she is quite soft spoken. Now if we could only translate that quality to the screaming we would have it made.
The innocent look
Lastly for this post, I thought I would let you know about our little diva in the making–Bella. She has now decided that she is old enough to begin picking out her clothing. If we try to put her in a top she doesn’t like, it doesn’t go on. If we try to put her in pants she does not approve of, then the pants do not go on her. And the shoes! Oh my gosh, the shoes! They have to be the ones that Bella wants to wear. They tend to be the shiny red ones she got for Christmas, but just when we get in the habit of putting those on her, she throws a wrench in the plan and changes it up on us. Honestly we are lucky to keep the shoes on her. When we take her out, by the time we get to wherever we are going I would say 95% of the time she has her socks and shoes off. Then you have to try and find them and get them on her. Luckily Norah only does the “monkey see, monkey do” routine about 5% of the time. Aaron’s suggestion was to try staples.
01 Wednesday Dec 2010
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Addisyn, Bella, Christmas, Daddy, Dining Out, Eating, Ellie, Granddaddy, Great-Mammaw, Lindsay, Meredith, Mimi, new word, number of words, Stacey, talking, Thanksgiving, Wes
Norah wants YOU to read this post!
This past week was a lot of fun for everyone in the Hufnagel house. We celebrated Thanksgiving different this year with the Snyder family, the Hufnagel grandparents and Mammaw Smith. Stacey (Snyder) is on bed rest, pregnant with number 3 and with that is a travel restriction. Jon and Paula (aka Mimi and Granddaddy) decided to come up and celebrate with us and the Snyders. I went over to Wes and Stacey’s early to help Stacey out and to attempt to get the girls to take a nap. They fell asleep in the car, but woke up as soon as we got there. After wrestling with the pack-n-plays and getting them set up in Cole and Ellie’s room I finally brought the girls in and put them down. They were not happy and fussed and cried for 45 minutes, but finally fell asleep. Aaron and the rest of the Hufnagels arrived about an hour or so later and Cole was so excited about the company that he ran and through the slightly open the door to the bedroom he woke up the girls. I crossed my fingers and hoped they would settle back down, but it was not meant to be. So I got the girls up after about 15 minutes. Bella was especially crabby and didn’t want to let anyone hold her. Norah was pretty much ok, but I knew neither one would last much past dinner.
Cutie Pie
We had an awesome dinner. Wes and Aaron deep fried a turkey. Stacey had made dumplings, dressing and mashed potatoes. Paula had brought up green bean casserole, corn on the cob, candied yams, along with pumpkin and cherry pies. Everything was so good and the girls ate pretty much everything, but they decided that dressing is fun to moosh between their fingers versus eat. When they decide their food is more fun than yummy, clean up is always fun. After everyone was finished and we cleaned up the kids, all the kids(notice I said “kids”) were playing and even Bella and Norah wanted to get into the rough housing with Aaron, Cole and Wes. We watched some football and then readied to leave around 7:30 that evening. It was a good time with family and friends.
Side by Side
Aaron had the girls all to himself on Friday as I had to work. He said that he had a great day with them as they become more sociable and willing to play not only with daddy, but each other. The hard times are when the jealousy sits in and they fight over who will sit on daddy’s lap. When I got off work we took the girls out to do a little light Christmas shopping. The nice part about having them with us is that we got to gauge their interest in things, but the bad thing is that Bella was interested in touching every single thing within her reach. She was pulling things off shelves and racks. We even managed to hear “Clean up on aisle 6″ while we were at the store…..whoops! We definitely put a good dent in our regular Christmas shopping. We also took the girls out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and they did a great job. They love to dip their chips in the salsa and they were both really good about using their utensils to eat beans and rice.
Bella loving on Daddy
Norah wanting her Mommy
The next evening we had Samantha (our wonderful 2 houses down high school junior babysitter) come over to watch the girls so we could finish up our shopping and enjoy a dinner out without the girls. We had a nice time and managed to hit Best Buy, the mall, Toys R Us, Target, Menard’s and Wal-mart all in one evening. We ended up leaving our cart in Wal-mart because there were only 2 check out lanes open at 11:00 on a Saturday night…on the weekend right after Thanksgiving. Aaron went up to a lane where the cashier was ringing people up and she put the lane closed sign up right in front of him and after that we decided not to wait in the lines. Aaron said some very not-so-nice holiday spirit words such as BAH and Humbug littered with other four lettered variants. But we got 95% of our shopping done which is major plus.
This upcoming weekend we head out to St. Louis to celebrate our Thanksgiving/Christmas/Addisyn’s birthday-all-crammed-into-one-weekend dinner and festivities. It will be fun this year because the youngest grandkids are Bella and Norah and their next oldest cousin, Lindsay is a month older and now that everyone is walking and talking I am sure the kids will play and interact more. The girls are becoming more shy in new situations, but once they begin to open up they both talk quite a bit. I haven’t figured out how many words they are using, but I would guess that Bella uses well over 50 words right now and she can repeat words like there is no tomorrow. She has said, “horrible, ridiculous and some other words that I would rather she forget:) Norah is probably closer to 20 words. However she is more the studious of the two. She is inquisitive and always trying to figure things out and their logical processes.
Calling Mommy
They both are starting to like talking on the phone. They will say “hi” and wave to the phone which is so cute because they associate saying hi with waving. They also love to blow kisses into the phone as well. It still astounds me how quickly they catch onto things.
Enjoy the pics!
