Nora P - 9 months old!

Nora has officially been an outside baby as long as she was an inside baby, which seems insane to me, I still think of her as brand new & tiny.  But this past month in particular has really made it hit home that she ISN'T a newborn, or really an infant anymore.  She is growing up!

Starting to enjoy some more "grown up" toys!

We go for her 9 month doctor visit in 2 weeks so I will have official stats then, but unofficially we were at the doctor a few days ago and she weighed in right around 19 pounds. 

Um, WHAT? She *just* learned to crawl. No stairs yet, please!

We have seen a LOT of developmental leaps this month, most notably learning to crawl. But she has also started enjoying standing up at a toy or low table to play, trying to pull-up (only recently has been successful about half the time), and saying "Mama".  <---- that one is particularly exciting because EJ said Dada first.  =)

Holding her own bottle!

She has also gotten 4 teeth, is predictably taking 2 good naps a day (each usually 90-120 minutes), sleeps around 12 straight hours a night, and in general is just a super-sweet natured baby who is willing to offer a smile to anyone who walks in the room.  

Using her 4 teeth to enjoy some corn on the cob

She has just recently started to show the slightest hint of "stranger danger" and separation anxiety from me, but she always quickly bounces back and is back to her happy, smiley self within just a few moments.

Enjoying EJ's End-Of-Year party

Hosting her first "baby playdate" and meeting Baby Charlie!

She saves her best giggles for her sister.

My favorite lunch date!

Sweet, silly girl

EJisms

Where did my little girl go?

Every day EJ gets more verbal and better at pronouncing things. And it breaks my heart. I don't want her to have perfect diction. I desperately want her to always call fish "pish" and school busses "coos busses". But unfortunately she worked those out months ago. So before all of her adorable mis-sayings are gone, I am going to write down as many as I can think of.

sprinkle ----> sprinkler

hooker -----> hanger (this lead to a particularly hysterical conversation that went something like this:

"EJ, what happened to your leg?"

"I scraped it on daddy's hooker"

<awkward pause>

"HANGER! She means hanger")

mines ------> mine

nickles ------> nipples

lello -------> yellow

locker ------> the door knob covers

amimal ------> animal, aka her stuffed animals
mishmatics camp ------> gymnastics camp
drinky -----> thirsty

She has also started using a lot of abstract phrases and sayings that seem very grown up, and yet she uses them totally correctly.  Things like "Well, actually..."  and making declarations about what she will be able to do when she "grows bigger" (this involves important items like being able to ride in the passenger seat of the car rather than her carseat and being able to eat as much bread as she wants with dinner), and "Now, listen Mommy..." (which is typically followed by the opening bid of some negotiation), and one of my favorites, when I ask her to do something for me like throw away a diaper or bring me a toy for Nora and she replies with "I can't, I am very busy."  (which, to be fair, she is)

We just adore this little person. I really hope that the days & years ahead are even more awesome because I am desperately sad for this stage to ever end. This is such a fantastic age: her wonder and joy with the world, her complete innocence and unselfconscienceness in her actions, as well as the fabulous hilarity that both comes out of her mouth and is in her facial expressions and reactions to everything.  

Where is the pause button???

Please never grow up, sweet girl!!!!

Our little Supergirl

Another truth about going from 2 to 1....

I can't believe I forgot this in my first post! One immediate, detrimental item: the new baby makes your old baby not a baby anymore. I mean physically. From the minute we brought Nora home, EJ seemed like a giant. Her previously adorable tiny feet were now neither tiny nor quite as adorable. Changing her diaper was like changing a grown man's diaper (I am only guesstimating here... I hope to never actually know what it is like to change a grown man's diaper). Omar actually said something along the lines of "Nora ruined our baby," for which I totally understood what he meant -----> we had been desperately holding onto EJ's "baby girl" status, and while she will ALWAYS be our baby, she was legitimately a little girl. But it wasn't until we brought Nora home that we truly realized it.

I'm not going to lie.....that was a tiny bit heart breaking. And it took some getting used to. But we did get used to it, and I think we are now more able to really appreciate the amazing stage that EJ is in, with how independent and verbal and truly funny she is. She is definitely a little girl now, a true little person. And I love her even more every single day for it.

New 2nd-parents-to-be: you have been warned. Be prepared. The new baby will "ruin" your old baby. But don't worry, they aren't ruined for long.  =)

The Adventures of Sally and Bum-Bum

It goes without saying that I have the greatest sister of all time.  This has been apparent to me for many years, but as the final proof of the pudding, she volunteered to come live with us after Nora was born to help with the transition.  I mean, what???? How did I luck into that? My own personal live-in nanny during the newborn stage? YES PLEASE.

Having Merrill live with us for the first

few months of Nora's life gave me the chance

to do this, for which I am forever grateful

For those of you who know her, it goes without saying that she is amazing with kids (likely because she is basically just a big kid herself in many ways) and Everett has always adored her. But when she came to live with us, a special new relationship developed between them, and thus I get to the crux of my post ----->  The Adventures of Sally and Bum-Bum

This is Sally

And here's Bum-Bum

People often ask, "Where did the names come from?" to which I answer "The depths of my amazingly crazy, & weird child's mind."  The truth is that we were driving home from the zoo one day shortly after Nora was born and out of the blue EJ declared that her name was Sally and Merrill was Bum-Bum. I have no idea where that came from. I still don't know. All I do know is that from that day forward, EJ would ONLY respond to Sally and she insisted that everyone call Merrill Bum-Bum.  Her teachers even pulled me aside at carpool one day to express their concern about the fact that my 3 year old had officially changed her name. 

This was the blossoming of one of the most heartwarming, adorable, and endearing relationships I have seen my child make. There is very little that makes EJ more excited - outside of perhaps cake - than hearing that Bum-Bum is coming to visit.  Every morning we drive past Merrill's house on the way to school and every morning EJ gets excited about it, waves, and exclaims with glee "I saw Bum-Bum's car!"  She still insists on being called Sally about 75% of the time (although recently that has decreased as she has increasingly insisted that she is Princess Elsa) and god forbid we try to call Merrill anything other than Bum-Bum. 

The hugest thanks possible to my sister for making such amazing memories with my daughter; for loving her as if she were her own; for acting a fool with her; for showing her such amazing love, support, and compassion; for sharing in her joy and fears and wonder of the world.  Thank you, Bum-Bum, for being the wonderful crazy aunt that we all need in our lives. I love you and the love you have shown my children is perhaps the greatest gift you could have ever given me. 

Long live Sally and Bum-Bum!

Trouble on the move!

It's official! Despite all my best attempts to thwart her, Nora is finally mobile. 

Lord help us all!