07 Sunday Aug 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Fighting, Miss Wendy, Norah, playing, potty training, talking
This gallery contains 11 photos.
The girls summer of fun with Daddy has officially ended. After enjoying the past month or so off where they …
03 Sunday Apr 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, Daddy, Dale, Granddaddy, Great-Granna, Great-Mammaw, Mimi, Movies, Norah, playing, sleeping, Spring Break, talking
Daddy practicing his "pony" skills
Daddy's "pony" skills
So this was my second Spring Break with the girls and I am fully convinced that this year was much more difficult than the previous. That is not to say that I did not enjoy it, because I did, but this time around Bella and Norah were much, much more taxing on their daddy. Don’t get me wrong for I love to spend time with both of my beautiful babies, but Norah waking up everyday at or before 7 is not what I think of when I think Spring Break. There are four things that make me think Spring Break: I think of being somewhere warm (it was cold here–even snowed one day). A place that I can get out and do things (hard to do when it is cold and have 2 rascals to keep up with). A place where I can sleep in (yeah I miss those days). Enjoy my time off from the daily grind (being at home with the girls all day is more than a grind). So I was 0 for 4 on that venture. Regardless, I still enjoyed it but I already told Stacy that we are going somewhere for Spring Break next year. So Mimi and Granddaddy and/or Grandma Duncan and/or any other people we know (in other words if you are reading this, that means we probably know you well enough)–don’t be surprised if we just show up next year about this time and drop the girls off for you have been warned, eh, rather I gave you notice.
Norah watching Mickey
So each day pretty much started off the same. We got up, fixed breakfast and then began to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. After that was over and spending the next 15 minutes trying to explain to Bella that it was over and it just doesn’t come on when she wants, we watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, again, via On Demand. Bella was very demanding and moody most of the week. She is a horrible teeth-cutting toddler. It makes her snotty, she chews on things non-stop, she is very emotional and dramatic about everything. After we watched all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse videos they had (remember this is everyday–so I can practically recite them to you), we would all play together. This was perhaps my favorite time each day. Both Bella and Norah were in pretty good moods and we laughed while having great fun being silly.
A snotty mess
Many of the other days we watched movies like The Lion King, Robots, Wall-e, and Shrek. The girls both really love Robots and ask for it by name. So now along with Mickey Mouse, and Nemo which we watch in my truck, I can also recite almost word-for-word the entire movie. On Thursday I even made it as dark as I could in the room, turned the surround sound on, and popped some popcorn for us. Norah loved the popcorn! Bella also loved the popcorn but had a difficult time understanding that you do not have to squeeze it so hard. When we were done, I had to vacuum the floor and pull the cushions from the couch and clean it as well. The other pleasure of my week was being the personal snot servant for both the girls. How two little girls can produce so much snot I have not the slightest clue. But it was a non-stop affair. The girls like to actually wipe their noses themselves (see picture below), but they don’t like the idea of giving back the wipe to throw away. Nope, they want to use it to clean (walls, windows, floors, daddy, etc.) or even suck on the wipe, which is gross to the max, not near as gross as what happened the week before (click here to read last week’s post), but still gross.
Here Daddy! I got it!
Unhappy about nap time
Nap time much like nighty-night time has it struggles in the toddler beds. I swear the girls are conspiring against us. They both will lay down fine. Then Norah moves and makes a noise. Bella then will tell Norah “Shhhhh! Quiet!” while putting her finger up to her mouth. Norah then proceeds to tell Bella, “No!” or “Un-uh” which then Bella counters, “Now!” Although it is quite the conversation, it is defeating the purpose of going to sleep, so I have to put a stop to this. After some whining, Bella then likes to accidentally drop things out of her bed. Then she has to get up and get it. Norah, never one to be inattentive, then has to tell Bella, “Seeping” which then causes Bella to tell Norah, “Shhhh! Quiet!” and the cycle starts over. After they are asleep for nap, I sneak out like a ninja praying to the Gods that Norah does not wake up. I swear you cannot even make the slightest sound. Then I get about an hour of time before I hear Norah in the
Norah ready for nap time
sweetest little voice say, “Daddy” to which if I am quick enough I can get her before she wakes up Bella. If I don’t get her quick enough, both girls are up, up to something no good, half-naked to full blown naked usually with Bella in a bad mood.
On Wednesday the girls and I made a trip to Dale to see Mimi, Granddaddy and Mee-maw. They were are so excited to see the girls. They even had some new toys for them to play with! We even went over to see Granna for a while although I think they were more excited to see Smokey the cat. Our cat is very anti-social and Smokey is a very social cat. Although Smokey did not allow the girls to touch or pet, the cat was curious and kept showing itself to the girls. The girls played and played, ate
Mimi wiping that nose
many cookies that Mimi and Granddaddy had, and drank more juice in one day than they have in a week. I almost ran out of diapers because that juice just makes them both pee so much. The girls stayed up as long as they could until they could not tolerate it anymore. Norah fell asleep on Granddaddy then I had to take Bella back to lie down with me as she began crying from being just being tired. Then both girls were up, but Norah was still tired and fell back asleep kneeling on the floor with her head on the couch!
How the hell do you sleep like this?
The drive back was pretty uneventful, however both girls stayed wide awake the whole way back. When we were about 30 minutes from home, Bella told me home. I said no not yet, but almost. Bella then said it again and I said soon and you will be able to see Mommy. I asked, “You want to see Mommy, right?” Bella then said, “No, Grandaddy!” I was just in the stage of beginning to giggle, when Norah said, “No, Mimi!” Bella then did her most fierce, “NO!! Grandaddy!” Norah of course screamed voicing her displeasure and then exclaimed, “Mimi!”. This went on for a bit, but was too funny and quite cute.
Thursday was very, very stressful and a rough day with the girls. I don’t know if it was the trip the day before and being thrown off their schedule, but I was never quite so glad to see Stacy. Friday I took the girls to daycare to give me a break, do some work, and run some errands. And although the week was difficult at times and it pushed me to my limits of patience and tolerance, I would not trade it for anything in the world….except maybe a trip to someplace warm where I can sleep in, go out and do things and escape from the daily grind.
And as usual more pictures from the week below and don’t forget to check out the full collection on Flickr. Also there is the Picture of the Week (hope I made a better selection for you this week Granna).
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.
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
06 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted in Bella and Norah
Tags
Bella, drawing, DVD, Grandma Duncan, ice storm, Mickey Mouse, Nemo, No, Norah, playing, scribbling, talking, TV
Their favorite book
Bella and Norah are now entering the phase of the newly explored world of TV Land. During this great exploration, the girls have officially become Mickey Mouse’s #1 fans. I get them up in the morning, get them dressed and bring them downstairs and the first thing they say to me is, “Mickey Mouse.” One of them will even go over to the television and turn it on, while still repeating, “Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse.” They absolutely love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. If I have time I will usually let them watch a few minutes of it while they eat breakfast. When it is time to leave they will tell Mickey Mouse bye-bye. It is really cute! However, it gets annoying really fast when we get them home in the evening and they start asking to watch it. It is only on in the early morning and again in the early afternoon. They do have it On Demand, but with the whopping choice of four episodes, we have watched each episode at least 5 times over the past couple week, but it feels more like 50 times! I swear that I can recite all four of those episodes verbatim. Even more frustrating (and I am sure that you experienced parents out there can attest to) is that trying to rationalize the concept on not being on, or only on at certain times to young children is close to impossible.
Playing with flashlights
The girls also really love Nemo. It started a few weeks ago when my mom (Grandma Duncan) was up and mom asked about letting them watch the DVD player in the truck on the way over to Ellie’s Birthday party. They now expect for Daddy to put Nemo on every time they get into their carseats. He says the he doesn’t mind it as much because when the girls do watch Nemo, the are less likely to remove their shoes and socks. This way he says, that he does not have to hunt for them as they tend to toss them. So it is like choosing between the lesser of two evils. They even ask me for Nemo when I am taking them to daycare, but of course I don’t have a DVD player. Try explaining that one to them….which I have many times over. They of course think that every car should have a DVD player. Of course when I was young, perhaps I thought every car should have a cassette player instead of an eight-track player or even a CD player over a cassette player.
A quick funny story from daycare:
Wendy (our daycare provider) asked Aaron when he was picking the girls up, “Have the girls had fish sticks to eat before?” To which Aaron replied that they had. Wendy then asked him, “What do you call fish sticks at home?” Aaron was like, “Ummmm…..fish sticks?” He explained to me that during this time he was trying to figure out what the girls could have said, because Bella likes to say “Oh shit” from time to time. So he was thinking maybe something like “fish shits” or a variation of such. He was getting prepared to apologize for the girls. Wendy then explained that during lunch, while she was feeding them fish sticks, Bella held a fish stick up and was just looking at it. Wendy then told Bella, ” Those are fish sticks.” She said that Bella looked at it for a minute and then said, “Nemo!” Then as she ate them, she would take a bite and let everyone know how great the fish sticks were by exclaiming, “Yummy Nemo!”
Smiling Bella
Aaron was just grateful that Bella did not help teach the other children any foul language. However, I think it is very neat that she is able to associate the word “fish” to Nemo. Every fish, from food, to fish on TV, to even the bath toys that are fish are now Nemo–not fish.
Last week I bought each of the girls a magna-doodle. They love them, but once Aaron drew on it for Bella she expects us to draw her pictures of both Mickey Mouse and Nemo. I guess it is a good thing that Aaron has that Art Ed degree and can draw pictures that closely resemble these cartoons. Of course she promptly erases the picture and asks us to draw a new once (usually of the exact same thing). Although the girls accept my drawings as Nemo or Mickey, Aaron the art critic, is more harsh and critiques my work like the art teacher he is. He even has tried to give me lessons. Norah really likes to scribble on hers, but Bella now prefers us to draw for her over and over and over again.
As the folks up in our area know, Aaron has been off school for the past few days due to the icy weather we have had. He actually only went to school on Monday. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off and we stayed snug and warm inside. So we had the opportunity to have the girls with us. Everything went well, but I went to get the girls up on Wednesday morning and Norah had thrown up and slept in it. It stunk to high heaven, but surprisingly I managed to get every thing cleaned up and even got the stains (dinner the previous night was spaghetti) out of the sheet, blankets and teddy bear. Aaron who was MIA during this time decided that know was a good time to shovel the drive. Of course he actually did more “hammering” than shoveling as he attempted to break the 2″ of ice that coated the driveway.
Ice
Ice of Tree
Ice, Ice Baby
Grass with Ice
Don't worry, Stacy killed it way before
t
t
t
t
Another funny thing that we really need to capture on to video is Norah getting upset. When she trips, falls, or bumps into something that hurts her, our little Norah will begin to chastise angrily what caused her mishap. She will babble a very stern tirade mixed with words and baby-babbling. She shows so much expression as she really lays into it voicing her concern and displeasure. Now, 99.9% of the time, the objects of her disaffection are inanimate objects! So for example, if she trips over a toy she will fall and start to cry. Then get up and begin with, “No! Bad (insert inanimate object here)! No! Stop…(unintelligible babbling).” She is very dramatic about it and is definitely going to be a hand-talker because of expressionistic she is with her hands and arms, along with the over the top facial expressions. We will try to capture one of these tirades for it is quite humorous to witness and the words explaining it do not provide adequate justice.
Enjoy the pictures for the week. Don’t forgot to check out the Picture of the Week (accessible at the Top Menu) or by clicking here for the techno-handicapped people of the world.
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
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
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.
