Goosesteppin' to her own drummer

Parents in the audience will recognize this face as "literally saying cheese." It should be a developmental milestone, but apparently the Denver folks thought it was too ethnocentric.
Also, clearly I am a dork. Do not let the rockin' boots on my toddler mislead you.

Summer in Duluth

Things are great. It's hard to talk about being here without sounding like I'm bragging, but seriously- it's awesome. I never thought that I would appreciate a cooler summer, having lived in California (twice), South Carolina and Georgia. Even Pennsylvania requires air conditioning for a couple of months.

We don't even have air conditioning.

It doesn't hurt that I hate shorts with the fire of a thousand suns. I've never really been a sun worshipper like some (lookin' at you, Kristin....) and remember hiding under the beach chairs in San Diego as a child. So maybe I've just found my latitude. Or maybe I just haven't seen winter yet.

Nora loves her school, especially now that they're moving her up to the pre-school this week. We at home are hoping that the peer pressure helps initiate potty training a bit. We're trying not to do it until she's ready, but those stinkbombs of diapers are getting old....

Nora also loves riding her tricycle around the neighborhood. Her favorite destination is the school at the end of the block. They have a playground with four (FOUR!) slides. I admit, it is pretty awesome.

Eric bought a mountain bike and has been riding into Hartley Park a few times a week as a break from studying. We also got a YMCA membership and they have a Kid's Club so great that nora cries when you come to pick her up. It's a good incentive for working out. They also have a warm therapy pool that's open for free swim sometimes. I haven't introduced her to that yet, but it's definitely on the list.

Work is great. I'm on call, it's a bad weekend and I still went out to breakfast with my family, rounded in a leisurely fashion and was done by noon. That being said, it's pretty intense when I'm there, which is why I appreciate being 80% time.

Oops! Nora just woke up from her nap. We're off to ride bikes, go to the beach or do something else awesome....

Crazy Eights

So I got tagged. Here it goes....

Eight things I did yesterday:

1. Ran on a treadmill. Granted it was only for 4 minutes and I was in a sling that off-loaded thirty pounds of my weight, but still...

2. Took lots of clindamycin for the MRSA abscess ON MY FREAKING FACE.

3. Showed up for a 7:00 meeting that didn't exist. For the second week in a row.

4. Was told by a teenager that I "seem pretty cool." (Really?)

5. Got a running shriek from a little girl when I picked her up at daycare and felt like a Beatle.

6. Saw this video in a work-sponsored format:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBepgH00GM

7. Played the piano. Poorly.

8. Worked with dying people and their families and somehow felt peace and joy that has never existed at work for me before.

Eight things I'm looking forward to:

1. A potty trained toddler

2. Not feeling like an intern on July first

3. Being able to ride my bike faster, hike more and run up stairs

4. Having another kid. Someday. When amnesia reagarding certain two-year-olds has set in

5. Making friends

6. Having our yard cleanup done so that we can start with the fun part of reclaiming a yard gone to seed.

7. Oddly, Monday

8. Also oddly, winter.

Eight things I wish I could do:

1. Sleep past 7:00

2. Build a greenhouse today, right now, right here. Or maybe I should change my answer to "learn patience"

3. Walk in the woods every single day. Preferably without limping, but I'm really not picky

4. Write a book

5. Figure out why the dogs just went completely ballistic

6. Raise parrots again

7. Travel outside the hemisphere

8. Ride my bike to work

Eight shows I watch (or watched and still love):

1. The Office

2. 30 Rock

3. Six Feet Under

4. The Boondocks

5. The Daily Show

6. Flight of the Conchords

7. Space Ghost's Cartoon Planet

8. Who needs television? I guess this is why the dogs freaked out:

That would be a freaking bear in our freaking driveway. Seriously, while I was writing this. Eric just ran in with the pictures on his phone. He was out in the front yard pulling a dead tree out of the ground with his truck. (Of course he was- why not?)

The back talk never stops

Nora is growing so fast right now that I swear the way her clothes fit changes while she's at daycare. Unfortunately, all my cute pictures of her are on my dead-as-a-doornail phone. I promise to post some when it is sufficiently charged.

In the meantime, I should relate some of the particularly amusing/appalling/adorable things that have some out of her mouth lately.

1. "Mommy, teeter-totter is a funny word, huh?"

2. "I do not like my new friends. I like Lilly McCord."

3. This one goes in the "proof that she is her father's daughter" file. We've been working on potty training. She gets a mini M&M when she goes on the potty. Nora loves her M's. On the long drive from St. Paul to Duluth yesterday, she said, "Daddy, I need to go potty." Despite his best effort, Daddy did not get her to a bathroom in time and she didn't make it. This made her very upset. Daddy wiped away the tears, told her it was okay, and gave her an M&M for trying. At which point her sorrow turned to blind rage. She shouted "No!" and threw the M&M back at Daddy. A 30 minute tantrum ensued.

Don't placate me, Daddy.

4. "Mommy, don't walk there. I'm cleaning the floors." (She was, in fact, cleaning the floor. Silly Mommy.)

5. Nora has a really annoying habit of banging her fork on her plate at dinnertime. She knows it drives us nuts. So she started into it at dinner last night. We were talking, so we ignored it at first and kept talking. The banging fork got progressively louder. Finally, Kat shot her "the look," and simply said, "Nora?" To which Nora replied, "I go time out now!" then ran to her T.O. chair, set the timer, waited quietly for 2 minutes, turned off the timer, came out and said, "I all better." She was delightful for the rest of the night.

Mimi goes to Duluth

Mimi and Bella came to visit this week. Nora's thrilled. She's played for hours with Bella and her "castle" (the plastic playcube the old owners left in our yard that we relocated to the basement), her swingset, her "fewfic"(the piano they left for us), and her chaulkboard. In general, she's been delighted to show Bella "Nora's new house." Best of all, I think they actually like eachother.

Today the Gimp had to work (to, you know, pay for Nora's new house). So us able-bodied members of the family got to go to the playground, then take a hike down the Chester Creek Trail. This is a 1.6 mile trail a few minutes from our house that starts at Chester Bowl (a neighborhood ski park and playground), then winds alongside a scenic little creek with 7 waterfalls and a couple of neat little pedestrian bridges along its way down the hill. Thrilling stuff if your 2. Or 5. Or 32. Or 38 for that matter. Best of all, the trail ends at Burrito Union, which is far and away the best burrito joint I've ever been to, putting even Tortilla's (the best burrito in the history of Atlanta, may she rest in peace) to shame. It was a really nice way to spend the morning.

Something about the light today made for fantastic pictures of the kiddos. And we know that's what you're all here for anyway, so dig in!