Hello, Starling

Super Ellie

2012-01-21T23:41:00.002-05:00

And is you've been wondering what the baby looks like these days....

Super Nora

2012-01-21T23:37:00.002-05:00

Just hypothetically, if your child were still wearing her Halloween costume in January, would you gently encourage her to move on to another interest? Or would you take a bunch of pictures?

Hypothetically, of course.

Holiday Haze

2012-01-01T20:03:00.003-05:00

Once again, the holidays have come and gone in a blur. It goes faster every year- and these years with little ones especially. I find myself too exhausted from the early Santa mornings and the late baby nights to write too much these days. Add in the fact that I'm back to work full time and the candle-space between the flames is getting ever shorter. Therefore, in lieu of smart words, I give you sweet photos.

It's all over now.

2011-11-29T21:33:00.002-05:00

For posterity, I want to record this conversation from dinner tonight.

Eric: We have a problem. I can'y find K-A-T-I-E-A-N-D-T-H-E-B-I-G-S-N-O-W.

Nora: Yeah, I don't know where it is either.

Me: Don't know where what is, Nora?

Nora: Ummmm...one of my books.

Me: Which one?

Nora: Ummmmmm....Katie and the Big Snow.

Me and Eric (in unison): Shit.

Nora: [hysterical laughter]

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-21T10:28:00.004-05:00

This may be my favorite piece of art in my house. I love the anatomically correct waddle juxtaposed with the free-form placement of feathers. I think she might have disregarded the assignment and tried to make a chicken.

That's my girl.

Snowy Saturday

2011-11-19T15:25:00.003-05:00

There are sometimes benefits to being stuck inside on the weekend. Today, I used my evil mommy superpowers to get both girls to (briefly) hold still.

Heh heh heh. I feed off the cuteness.

The Story of the Hat

2011-11-16T13:37:00.003-05:00

I would like to tell you about my journey. It is a story filled with pathos. With drama. With fleece.

As you may know, I live in Duluth. Duluth, historically, is cold. Surprisingly, this does not stop people from procreating. Thus, I also have children. I would like to reiterate these points for any retailers in the audience.

1. I live in Duluth.

2. Duluth is cold.

3. I have children.

I feel that it is important to highlight this issue, as said retailers apparently have one shipping schedule for the entire continental United States. For outerwear. For babies. I personally feel this is wrong, wrong, wrong-in so many ways- Wrong.

I believe that my child, while admittedly furry, is not entirely capable of regulating her body temperature and may not enjoy being taken outside in a sleeveless onesie. If we were in Houston, maybe. (Please, refer back to Item #1.)

Thus, when I tragically lost the hand-me-down green fleece hat that had served us so well for Thing One and again for Thing Two in August to September (Item #2), I found myself in the market for another one. You can probably guess the next chapter.

There were no fleece baby hats. Anywhere.

Now, I am nothing if not resourceful and obstinate. I refuse to wrap my child's delicate, squishy head in a diaper. (Again.) Therefore, I made my way to the fabric store where I found a sale on fleece remnants. After much digging in pattern books, I had found a pattern for a cloth owl, many pages of dog coats and one, lonely pattern for infant fleece hats.

Sold! I snatched up that pattern, waved goodbye to the crafty owl and took my kid home. As Ellie had already outgrown a number of her hats, I figured that she would have outgrown the Extra-Small size and I proceeded to cut out and sew a size Small. Girl's got kind of a big head is what I'm saying. (It's like Sputnik- round but quite pointy in parts.)

So I made this wild hat, because if you can't wear insane combinations of colors and prints when you're a baby, when can you?

OK, so it was a little big. It'll keep her head warm, right? I grabbed her and took her to Nora's swim lesson. When I got there, I discovered that the hat had devoured my baby's head and was working its way down her chest. She was delighted by this, but I felt like maybe a whole-head fleece helmet was less than ideal.

When I showed the hat to Nora, though, she wanted one in the worst way, which gave me an idea.

As you can tell by her pajama/zebra hat combination, Nora has her own sense of style. This hat fits snuggly into her aesthetic. So, problem solved. The hat wasn't a waste of time. Hooray!

But, wait. My baby still didn't have a warm noggin. And Nora thought that it would be super-neat if she and her sister had matching hats for Ellie's first day of daycare. But it turned out that infant hat pattern only goes down to 18.5 inches head circumference. For reference, my (totally-not-a-pin)head is 21 inches.

Probably belatedly, I measured Ellie's head. It was 16.5 inches. In other words, not Sputnik. Not an orange on a toothpick. Not a gargantuan cranium. Yes, I was wrong. And patternless.

So, now I had a baby with a normal-sized, cold head, a pre-schooler who desperately wanted to demonstrate her sisterly bond and a pile of fleece. At this point, I was thinking about wrapping the fleece around Ellie's head, diaper-style. (Again.) Only Nora's enthusiasm prevented that end to this story.

So, I made up a pattern. I made it match as much as I could to the one Nora was wearing. It turned out well enough to keep one baby head warm. And now, she's wearing it inside, because she gets crabby if you take it off.

Someday, these pictures are going to come back and bite me. I'm picturing two sets of zebra-hat-related therapy bills. Whatevs. It's totally worth it.

Big (Brother) Weekend

2011-11-07T11:30:00.003-05:00

It was such an eventful weekend, I have to post twice. In addition to the cuteness, we had some pretty sweet awesomeness n the form of Uncle Jim. He flew out from Cazenovia, NY to visit us girls while Eric hunted.

We pizzaed, beered, aquariumed and generally had a pretty kickin' time. I feel like I have to mention that, because all the pictures are from my couch. Cute pictures, though.

Two-Leg!

2011-11-07T11:15:00.005-05:00

Eric believes that Ellie is even more driven than most babies to get upright. She does seem to be focused intensely on pushing up, skipping right past all that rolling over and sitting nonsense.

Which is cute, until she has been bobbling around flail-tastically in your lap for an hour and your arms are ready to fall clean out of their sockets.

To assist Miss Evelyn in her push to become a two-leg, we pulled out the exersaucer this weekend. I admit, it is ridiculously early (11 weeks, really?). But just check out the sheer joy in this face:

And of course, the inevitable "help" from the big sister:

Look how reverentially Ellie checks out Nora's incredible motor skills. She can hold up her own head! And thwack! And stop thwacking! Amazing!

And the best part? All that exercise led to a big one of these:

P.S.- For those of you scratching your heads here, Ellie is actually tall enough to touch the base of the exersaucer. And to bounce herself up and down. I think Nora got that tall at approximately 5 months. You will notice some extra padding to keep her from flopping around too much, though.

Nora's Two Loves

2011-10-18T12:01:00.003-04:00

Nora has decided that there are two things that she loves more than anything. One is her little sister.

Ellie is starting to interact much more, with gummy grins and silly looks. She also is starting to get upset if she's left alone, but she calms right down when Nora comes over to talk and sing to her, which Nora is always happy to do. She has an uncanny sense of what Ellie needs and she truly wants to make her sister happy. It's pretty sweet.

The other thing Nora loves? This guy:

That is Cotton, the Silkie bantam hen that we adopted. Unfortunately, she and the other bantam, Valerie, have had some trouble integrating into the flock. Like, I keep having to pull Valerie out of holes she has dug herself into to get away from the big chickens. So, we starting putting them in the basement in the brooder to give them some time away.

Last night, Nora insisted on crawling into the brooder with them (Thanks for making it strong, Eric!). She was feeding them little pieces of bagel while we talked about her day at school. Then came the best moment of the night.

Nora: I love you.

Me: I love you, too, kiddo.

Nora: I was talking to the chicken, Mommy.

Yeah, you thought I was kidding about that whole "two things Nora loves" thing, didn't you?

Let's end with the more endearing snuggle.

What's that I see, Mom?

2011-10-17T16:44:00.005-04:00

It's not shots, is it?

Unfortunately, yes. Yes, it is. Ellie got her first set of baby shots this morning. It turns out that'll piss off a baby.

We also got to hear that Miss Evelyn is growing nicely. She is 12 pounds, 15 ounces and 23.5 inches long. That's in the 90th percentile for both height and weight (which makes her 50th percentile for height to weight ratio). That translates into her being a perfectly normal 3 and 1/2 month old. Except that she's only 2 months. She's also ahead on her milestones, especially gross motor skills. All of this has been referred to by our friends as "Lauering up." It's like she was restricted by my mere human womb and now has to explode out of it to achieve her true size and potential.

You go for it, kid. I'll try to keep up.

Some cuties I know

2011-10-12T14:12:00.004-04:00

We got some good family time over the weekend, down in the Twin Cities. And I got to take some pictures of some cousin cuteness.

Mary and Larry Lauer, surrounded by their grandkids.

Clockwise from top: Sara, Isabella, Nora Lee and Katelyn (holding Ellie)

Kate's father wants it to be known that that is not her baby.

Bella and Nora Lee trying to not look cute at a pumpkin patch.

They are not succeeding.

Family Picture Time!

2011-10-11T14:13:00.002-04:00

Hey, want to see what we look like?

No? Too bad. Here it is.

In other news, today is the last day of my full time maternity leave. I can't believe that 8 weeks are over already. I started the day by snuggling my baby until I had to leave the bed to palliate my caffeine withdrawal. Then, I paid lots of bills, paid off some credit cards and slogged through finances. Then, I ate the last potatoes from the garden for lunch. Is the phrase "win/fail" a thing? Can I coin it? There have been few days in my life as bittersweet as this one.

Nice to Meet You...Um, Do You Shake Hands?

2011-10-05T09:22:00.003-04:00

Nora woke me up at 7:00 today, fully dressed and raring to go. This left us with two hours before she needed to be at preschool, so we have been playing. First, we learned about mail. I have been writing thank you notes for baby gifts, so she helped me put on return address labels and stamps and to lick envelopes. This lead inevitably to her wanting to write a letter of her own. I swear, I encouraged her to write to someone far away. I did. Instead, she chose to draw an elaborate picture of our neighbors with a chipmunk, peanuts and polka dots. And to mail it to them.

She's tickled and is now planning her future correspondence.

Then, we watered plants. Nora was asking the names of the plants and I told her that this is a jade plant:

Now, we know a young lady named Jade. Which goes quite a long way to explaining how these next two plants ended up named.

I would like to introduce you to....

Cindy the aloe

Aaaaaand Carl the Rubber tree.

This is why we have kids.

Pop Quiz

2011-10-03T10:54:00.004-04:00

What happens when you take a fussy baby into the bathtub at 2AM?

Well, joy and hilarity ensue. But also, Hipster Hair!

That's right. My baby's stylin'. It's like me and Angelina Jolie are on a total wavelength or....oh my god, I need to get some sleep.

More random favorite moments to share

2011-09-22T14:30:00.003-04:00

I like the ernest, confidential look of this one. You just get the feeling that Eric is imparting some crucial fatherly wisdom to his daughter. Or they're talking about pooping. Either way.

My little hippy spawn demonstrates how to snuggle your baby in a kangaroo carry in a sling. And comes frighteningly close to getting it right.

And for your daily dose of awwwww....

Ellie's First Bottle

2011-09-21T09:53:00.002-04:00

I have gone into this baby experience (ugh- that sounds so pretentious, but I can't figure out a better way to say it. Let's blame sleep deprivation.) with the rose-colored Nora glasses. And Nora had no issues with nursing. She took to the bottle like a champ. She never refused either it or the breast and, in fact, never really seemed to show a preference either way. She nursed up until I was ready to give it up at 13 months, then (figuratively) walked away and never looked back.

Any woman who has nursed a baby, but still planned to return to work at some point can relate to this, I think. Giving that kid a bottle is a very mixed bag. The lactation consultants will tell you not to do it too soon or else! You'll confuse the baby and she'll never take the breast again! She'll always want the bottle and every time you nurse will be a struggle from here on out! You won't have as much milk! Pumping is not as efficient!

Maybe not. But I also have a job that expects me to return to it eventually. The reality is that any child of mine is going to have to learn to take a bottle from other caregivers. That doesn't make it easy. The first couple of times someone sticks that bottle in a breastfed baby's mouth, she gets this perplexed look on her little face. It doesn't matter in that moment that there is breast milk in the bottle. I can't help but feel like I'm a giant traitor to this tiny being that depends entirely on me for sustenance.

And I'm not sure if the feeling of betrayal gets better or worse when that look disappears. Whether the baby is resigned to the bottle or excited about it, my hormonal lizard brain is telling me that she should be with me. All the time. No matter what. I'm sure no one will mind when I strap her to my back and start rounding on patients. Right? I could just whip out the boob in the middle of a meeting. That's totally professional. (OK- To give credit where it's due, I don't actually think that any one at my work would mind either of those things. It wouldn't be practical or good for the baby, though.)

So, that's the postpartum-emotional back story. All of which I lay out there to say that we gave Ellie her first bottle . She did not take to it easily, like Nora. We are experimenting with different brands of bottles to see what might work best. I'm not admitting anything, but secretly, that might have made it a little easier on me.

But when Daddy got to be the one to feed the baby, it made it worth it. Nora seemed to enjoy the novelty of the event, but Eric got the familiar old blissed-out-on-baby look. I can definitely understand that. Up until now, his role has been two-fold: holding the baby when she's already heavily sedated by boob or alternately, holding her when boob didn't work, I'm exhausted and she's royally pissed off. It's tough to have a rewarding relationship made up of those things.

So in the end, I'm glad that we've started trying the bottles. It's going to take a while to get it right and Eric is going to have whole days alone with her starting in only (gulp!) three weeks. While it's tough to let go enough to diffuse the love a little, I know that's it's good for all parties involved. I mean, hey- last night, I napped for two hours and awoke to find out that she had gotten a bottle. That's a pretty awesome trade.

Miscellanii

2011-09-03T13:47:00.003-04:00

I just gathered up this batch of cuteness and felt compelled to share.

Ho hum

2011-09-02T20:04:00.002-04:00

There's not a lot to say here. We had an appointment with physical therapy to fit Ellie for a reflux wedge and to get some exercises, positioning tips and whatnot to help her be more comfortable. Suddenly, she is able to sleep for a couple of hours between feedings. I haven't been so thrilled to have two hours of uninterrupted sleep since residency.

I've been walking as much as I can, trying to get my pelvis back in shape, so that I can get the rest of me back in shape. Luckily, Ellie thinks that stroller time is the greatest thing ever. Eric, being the supportive husband that he is, bought a bug net for her. Now, if I could just have one for me! We walked 3.2 miles yesterday, which was awesome. I thought that it would be nice to use the Superior Hiking Trail to cut through Hartley Park from my house to the grocery store, which was less awesome. It was sort of like I would imagine Southeast Asia- hot, insanely buggy and terrible terrain for a stroller. Lesson learned- stay on the roads, or at least the packed trails.

Nora is currently delighted with a new hen who made her way into our lives. Her name is Tulip and she is not friendly. She is a good layer, though, and Nora loves going out to look for her little brown eggs.

Autumn is coming fast and the garden is definitely winding down. Squash marmalade is in jars in the fridge, salsa is made and apple is frozen. Leaves are changing and the air is cooler every day. I'm trying to not focus on the coming winter, return to work and upcoming challenges of integrating Ellie into our lives. For now, I think I'll just worry about today. My family is healthy and happy and all is right with my world. It doesn't stop the presses, but it's enough.

Big Day!

2011-08-25T15:12:00.005-04:00

Today is Ellie's due date. I for one am glad to not still be pregnant and to have been snuggling my baby for nine whole days. I think the rest of the family feels the same. That's not to say that it's been an easy nine days, of course.

Ellie has been a bit, um, tough on me. She's nursing and has been taking For. Ev. Er. to eat. Big deal, right? Well, it kind of is when she eats for an hour, sleeps for fifteen minutes then wants to eat again. She hates her crib and cosleeper, leaving me sleeping in a recliner with her on my chest. She also seemed to like biting many times a feeding, something I was less than entranced with. And I'm talking about clamping down and not letting go until I pried her hard little gums apart. After Nora, who was an efficient eater to say the least, Eric and I were finding ourselves at a loss about it.

Then, last night, I gave up and left her where she was happily sleeping in her swing. I slept next to her- for 4.5 hours without her waking up or grousing. that's how it occurred to me that she hates being laid flat...like a baby with reflux would. When I mentioned this to Eric, he agreed and thought that maybe eating actually hurts for her. So, we made one change- don't lay the girl flat.

I gotta tell you- I haven't been bitten all day. Freakin' awesome.

Also awesome was her first doctor's appointment. Far from allowing a little thing like constant pain get in the way of eating (perseverence! That's my girl!), she has gained 11 ounces since discharge from the hospital. She only had to gain 5 ounces to regain birth weight (the goal), so way to go, Ellie!

We got a referral to PT to fit her for a wedge to prop her up safely in her crib, potentially allowing me to rejoin the adults in the master bedroom again. How novel.

Ellie also suffered the indignation of a bath today. Hence the fuzzy-headed little imp at the top of the page. When she's pre-bath, she has a tendency to get a little greasy. None of us can keep our hands off that hair. During said bath, she lost her umbilical cord. I had no idea that was so enraging.

Nora still seems to be coping well with our divided attention. She is certainly thinking hard about the implications of the new being in her life. But she hasn't complained directly about Ellie. In fact, she likes to read her a bedtime story and give her kisses every night. I'll work on getting a video of that one for ya.

Welcome, Ellie!

2011-08-21T14:57:00.005-04:00

It's been pointed out to me by numerous people that this blog has not been updated in an embarrassingly long time. I've used many excuses for that in the past. This time, I think I'm going to go with the feeling that complaining about the discomfort of pregnancy, the behavioral issues of a four year old dealing with change and anticipation of a new baby makes for pretty poor prose.

Sure, there were good times- a wonderful trip to Grand Marais, a happy, growing belly and a lovely summer in Duluth. None of that can compare to the last week. And now, I find myself with something to write about and the time to do it.

I woke up in the middle of the night Monday night and the contractions that had been increasingly painful, but never more often than 10 minutes apart were lasting longer and were stronger. Thinking I was still in the irritating latent phase of labor, I took a Benadryl and a couple of Tylenol and tried to get back to sleep.

No dice.

Since residency, I've had the idea in my head that there is a lot of labor that just doesn't require medical intervention. Even having had a baby before, I hadn't had much practice with that (Nora was an augmented labor, to say the least). And the doctors tell you that you shouldn't even think about going to the hospital until your contractions are 5 minutes apart, last for 60 seconds each and Have been doing that for an hour.

So, trying to follow that line of thinking, I decided to get in the bathtub, read a book and time my contractions. Then, I would just see what happened. Well, what happened is that my contractions were pretty irregular. When I got in the tub at 3:30, they were averaging 9 minutes apart. An hour later, they were every four minutes. I wasn't sure what to do, but dreaded calling the neighbors, waking Eric and making the uncomfortable trip down Duluth's bumpy roads in the middle of the night- only to be sent home. I thought about trying to wait until daycare opened at 6:30. I thought about calling and talking to the OB on call. I thought about taking a shower and brushing my teeth.

In all, I thought for about 10 minutes before deciding that I needed to call the hospital and let them know I was on my way. I had to be in some kind of active labor, right? Surely, they wouldn't send me home when I was so obviously uncomfortable.

I did manage to brush my teeth and comb my hair before I woke Eric up. I had to get him to make the phone calls, since I couldn't seem to make it through those contractions and still breathe and talk and stuff. Eric didn't know the number for OB, so he called the main operator. They asked for his call-back information, at which point he responded, "REALLY?!?!? You call me all the time." They were less than amused by that.

The much-anticipated bumpy roads did seem to make me contract more. By the time we made it the 5 minutes to the hospital, I was contacting every 2 minutes and continued to do so through registration in the ER, the ride up to the OB floor and getting put in a bed. I must have looked impressive, because there was a resident in the room in minutes.

Even with some experience delivering babies, I was not expecting to be told that my cervix was 9 cm. My first thought was honestly that the resident must have over-estimated. However, we were checked in at 5:35 and I delivered without a hitch at 6:41 on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.

For my FP/OB friends, it was a perfect delivery. No drugs or instrumentation (no time for it!), no trauma, baby on the belly and nursing while still gross, Daddy cut the cord. It was beautiful.

And this was the view out my hospital window:

I want to remember that forever.

And that is how Evelyn Lark Lauer ("Ellie") joined our family. She is lovely at 7 pounds, 5 ounces with lots of dark hair. Of course, Daddy and I are head-over-heels in love with her. This was more of a surprise:

I've never seen a look like that on Nora's face- or any four-year-old's for that matter. I think that when she asked for a sister, she actually meant it! Now, let's see how long that lasts...

The Perfect Easter

2011-04-24T11:44:00.003-04:00

What makes the perfect Easter at the Lauers' house?

This.

That is Nora with a newly hatched ball of adorable fluff. There were thirteen of these, of varying breeds, sizes and colors. They are still a little too young to have declared their personalities or sexes, so they still bear pretty generic names. For instance, the one above is Medium Chick. (There are three yellow chicks and the other two are Tiny Chick and Fat Chick). There are also Chickadee, who is black and white, Fuzzy Feet and a whole range of medium greyish/brownish ones who have yet to earn even that much of a name.

It was amazing to watch the chicks hatch with Nora. She had waited patiently for the last 21 days of incubation, but I'm not sure she understood the true awesomeness of holding a new baby chick. They like to snuggle and eat out of your hands. We have also discovered that they are remarkably tolerant, but can be vocal when they've had enough of being squeezed and loved. We're still working on the gentle thing.

As I've mentioned before, we can only keep the females and only five of them. So keep your fingers crossed that there are five ladies in the mix!

Wish Fulfillment

2011-02-27T13:14:00.003-05:00

Hooray! Nora got her requested birthday present and everything is going well. My due date is somewhere in the third week of August, not nearly soon enough for Nora, who will randomly assault my belly to "check if the baby is big yet."

The best moment of the pregnancy to date is the following conversation:

Nora: Yay! I want it to be a girl.
Me: Yeah, we don't really get to choose that.
Nora: OK. I'm the big sister. I'll choose. It's a girl.
Me: You don't get to choose either.
Nora: Who chooses then?
Me: God chooses.

And then, Nora said something to make me realize that I had not done the leg work to support that statement.

"Why? Does God get to be the big sister?"

Three, going on thirty

2010-12-29T19:50:00.004-05:00

Nora's got the chickens in the bag. She knows that they are happening and is confident that we have invested enough time and energy into this pursuit that she can stop nagging us about it. That's all I can figure, because she has a new obsession.

Don't get me wrong. She still loves her theoretical chickens and is counting the days until they arrive in her life. (Well, she would be if she could count that high. ) But there is something that she keeps coming back to....

For example, here is the picture she brought home from school today. (Sorry it's sideways. Blogger apparently can't recognize fine art enough to hang it on the wall the right way up. She's the next Jackson Pollock, I know it.)

In her words, the tall one with short hair is Daddy. The short one with black hair is Mommy. The short one with the heart shaped face is Nora Lee. Oh, and is that our dog next to you, Nora? No, no. That's my baby sister. You can tell because her feet are off to the side. Babies can't stand up, you know.

She has also informed me that I will have a baby in my tummy by her birthday and that we will name her Ellie. It's okay if there is more than one Ellie at her school, because only one will be hers. Apparently, daddies shine their flashlights into mommies to light the way for babies (I don't even want to know where that one came from.) And if I'm having trouble making a baby for her, Daddy will be happy to help.

After her nap the other day, the conversation went like this:

Nora: Mommy, I dreamed I had a baby sister.

Me: Oh, really. Was it a good dream?

Nora: Yeah. How about this- I'm going to go watch my movie and you work on that.

Seriously. "You work on that." Direct quote.

The many moods of Nora Lee

2010-10-31T18:55:00.002-04:00

Here's Nora Lee's weekend in photo form.

She Trick or Treated as a lovely fairy.

Wait for it.....

Aaaaaaaand she cut insulation for her chicken house.

I love my kid.

Coop Mahal

2010-10-31T18:28:00.004-04:00

The time has come for the unveiling of the coop that will make all the other chickens (and kinda me, too) jealous. Imagine Vanna White standing in front of it in gold lame and a deep, manly voice-over taking over for me from here on out.

Here we see the swankiest chicken coop in Duluth proper. The front is old slate roofing tiles that were picked up and expertly installed by Andrew Knutson of Knutson Custom Construction (these guys fixed our kitchen and kept the roof from falling in on us- hooray!). Some of the windows were salvaged from that kitchen project and others were ripped out of Carl's house when he remodeled.

The ridiculously nice cedar siding was also removed from Carl's house in favor of log siding.

The front door was handmade out of cedar by Andrew Knutson.

In case this isn't quite nice enough for you yet, Eric elected to spend an evening stamping a metal sheet for the front of the nest boxes.

Holy moly! Between the time and materials that many people have put into this project, I owe a lot of folks eggs! Thanks to everyone who got involved!

So far so good...

2010-10-19T15:37:00.003-04:00

Yeah, this is exciting stuff. We have house wrap and lath and a roof and some windows!

I snuck this picture of Grandpa Dan hard at work on the chicken house during his vacation. Pretty generous, considering he strongly dislikes chickens. I suspect he likes Nora, though. And she likes chickens. I also suspect he likes eggs.
Thanks, Grandpa Dan!

Chicken Coop (Part Deux)

2010-10-05T10:42:00.005-04:00

I have officially lost track of what project day we are on. However, I can show you our progress! As Nora said last night, "My chicken house is really cool."

Here we are this past Saturday, putting up the walls. We have walls! That's Cindy and Carl Haensel with Eric in the background. We owe them dozens of eggs. Dozens.

And also, a big shout out to Nora Lee for taking a seven hour nap, thereby allowing us to frame a chicken house. Hooray for what's going around!

Nest boxes framed in:

And now we're up to this morning. It's starting to look like a building, eh?

Well, what do you do when you see a seagull?

2010-10-05T10:37:00.001-04:00

Whatcha doin', Eric?

2010-09-30T21:35:00.003-04:00

Oh, nuthin'... Just building Nora Lee a chicken coop! Day 1: Eric and Suma have demo'd and graded the site. I swung a sledge hammer and wrecked things. It rocked.

Day 2: Eric and Carl have obtained, through a variety of means, a large quantity of lumber. They are placing the last of the stringers. Thanks, Carl!

Day 3: The day dawned bright and beautiful on the platform for our chickens. Unfortunately, Day 3 consisted largely of more materials acquisition, Nora doing the Chicken Dance on the platform and some colorful swearing. I did not get pictures of any of these events. At the end of Day 3, we have a framed south wall! Due to swim lessons, it was not photographed. Sorry.

Wondering about the seemingly excessive size of the coop? I just bet you are. In Duluth, we are allowed to have five (5) hens for laying purposes. One does not strictly need a coop this large for five (5) hens. However, it turns out that it gets a touch chilly here for a couple months of the year. We have to leave room for better insulation than existed in my first 3 apartments.

Also, in a coop that would be perfectly adequate in 90% of America, those five (5) hens are going to get really, really fatalistically bored during that time. Sure, they'll be warm, but they won't be happy. And they have a tendency to take it out on each other in random acts of flock-related violence. But chickens dislike cold feet. I'm not kidding. They won't walk on snow even to prevent poultricide.

So our solution is as follows. The warm, snuggly, "The Shining"-like rage-inducing coop will take up less than a quarter of the volume of the structure. The rest of it is a winter room. It is enclosed, but not insulated. The floor will be covered in sand. It is purely recreational, but very important. (Random aside: Nora's daycare has this indoor playground called a "muscle room." It exists for similar reasons. -30 temperatures aren't good for children and other living things. Who knew?)

So that's it. How I spent my week's vacation. Good times!

Tall Ships, Part 3 (For Old Time's Sake)

2010-08-02T21:48:00.004-04:00

Just for kicks, I thought I would post this little comparison shot.
Oh, how times change.

Before: May, 2008 (Fifteen months)

After: August. 2010 (3 1/2 years)

Tall Ships, Part 2 (Nana Version)

2010-08-02T21:38:00.002-04:00

Yes, yes. I do have a child who occasionally makes it to the foreground of a picture. And I actually took some pictures of her and her cousin, Bella this weekend. I know- shocking.

They had a wonderful time at the Tall Ships Festival. The Tweed Museum of Art had set up a free craft area. Here they are working hard on some beading.

They also both climbed the rock wall.

When did Nora get old enough to do this? Also, please note that she is climbing a rock wall in a helmet, full body harness and sundress.

Here they are riding cement ponies while waiting in a long line to get onto the ships.

They were awesome and had an awesome time. Hooray, Tall Ships!

Tall Ships

2010-08-02T21:22:00.004-04:00

This past weekend began with a frantic call from Eric, informing me that he and his mountain bike had parted ways at 20+ mph and he was headed to the emergency room. Luckily (and it is luck), he and the tree are both fine. The tree is finer, of course, not having ribs to break and elbows to bleed into.

In spite of that, the weekend turned out pretty okay. The Tall Ships came into Duluth and while Daddy was in a Vicodin-induced haze on the couch, Tammy and Bella joined us to tour the ships. Tammy was kind enough to allow me to use her camera, which is like mine only better. That's right. I'm officially coveting the newer model.

I, along with 200 000 other people who visited the event, got this requisite picture:

No, you're a dinghy!

Look closely at this next one. The name of the saltie is "American Integrity." Mmmm...delicious, delicious irony.

And, my personal favorite from the weekend:

And, yes, Mother. As soon as I post this one, there will be one chock-full of tasty children. I promise.

Pinchworm

2010-07-27T15:46:00.002-04:00

Nora made a new friend this weekend. He was hitch-hiking on some greens that I brought in from the garden and narrowly avoided being washed down the sink. She was tickled by him and his mode of locomotion. She also couldn't understand why something called a "pinchworm" wasn't hurting her.

After letting Nora torment the poor guy for about an hour, I made her release him back into the yard. She wanted to get pictures of him first, just like with Karist. I thought that sounded reasonable.

She begged me to print this picture out for her, so that she could show her friends at school. She also has an elaborate plan to put up pictures of various things (pinchworms, moths, seals, pandas) on her walls. I see a bulletin board in our future.

The Edge of the World

2010-07-06T21:22:00.003-04:00

I went to the Boundary Waters recently with a group of women. It was the first time I have ever vacationed without both my husband and child since they came into my life.

It. Was. Awesome.

It was so awesome, in fact, that I had time to take some pictures of things other than [cough] my husband and child. Looking those pictures over made me rethink my previous assertions that we don't in fact live on the verge of the tundra.

Exhibit A: A Plethora of Lichens

Exhibit B: Sunset through the Mossy Trees (at 10:00 pm)

Exhibit C: Moose Skull

Shall I go on?

OK, so maybe it is Canada's distal phalanx. But it's magical. And then, there is always this.

Go ahead. You know you want to click on it. (Thanks, Cindy!)

Northern Summer Begins

2010-06-01T14:48:00.003-04:00

The summer has arrived! The Lauer family just returned from a camping, canoeing and fishing trip into the North woods with friends. It was a whole lot of good times. It was our first camping trip since Nora was born. In fact, it was our first camping trip since medical school. For those of you who are counting, that means it has been six years since I slept in a tent. Sad, but true.

Nora in particular was delighted to sleep in a tent, not take baths and play with leeches. There were also a number of other kids, far more seasoned in camping and fishing to teach her the ways of the woods.

Each girl had a whistle to blow in case they got lost in the woods around camp, saw something dangerous or fell in the lake. The adults tried valiantly to explain this concept to Nora.

Adult: Would you blow your whistle if you are hungry?
Nora: No.
Adult: Would you blow your whistle if you get bitten by a bug?
Nora: No.
Adult: When would you blow your whistle?
Nora: If I see a panda bear!
Adult: Ummm, no.

We tried to educate Nora on the natural history of the panda. No luck.

We tried to tell her about the lack of large bamboo forests in Northern Minnesota. She was skeptical.

We tried to compromise and teach her about black bears, a reasonable alternative that does actually live near there. Nope.

We finally gave up and told her that if she sees any big, scary animal, she should blow her whistle.

The one time that she probably thought she should be blowing the darn thing was right before we left and it was nowhere to be found. This event was captured in the following picture, involved a large amount of shrieking and will henceforth only be referred to as The Great Poop Incident of 2010. (There was another picture of this, but it would get me kicked off of Blogspot.)

They did make up once Nora was in warm, dry, clean clothes and in her car seat. She got nice and sleepy on the way home and right before she dropped off to sleep, I looked back and she was contentedly looking out at the forest and lakes going by outside. It was a gorgeously clear day, I was with my family and we were headed back to a home we love. Suddenly, Nora sat straight up and said...

"I see a panda! Where's my whistle?!?"

Amity Creek

2010-05-08T20:36:00.005-04:00

Today, we decided that we were not going to let the late snow (Three inches! Really?) stop us from getting outside. It's May and even if we aren't getting a tan and playing beach volleyball, we aren't staying inside. So we bundled up and went for a hike at Amity Creek.

It's good that we didn't let the weather stop us. The snow was gone by the time we hit the trail and it magically looked like spring again. We started out in coats, hats and boots, but by the end of the day, even I had shed a few layers.

At the end of the day, Nora turned to me initiated this conversation.

Nora: You know what's awesome?

Me: What?

Nora: You.

Me: Awwwww...I think that just made my day.

Nora: Yeah. You know what else is awesome?

Me: What?

Nora: The counter.

Me: Oh.

Hey, chickie!

2010-05-07T22:18:00.005-04:00

Duluth is a cool city. I know I've mentioned this before, but seriously, how many U.S. towns do you know that have specifically made a point to write legislation allowing up to five chickens on any given residential city lot? So, a lot of my friends have chickens. My friend Tracy does not live within city limits, so doesn't have to abide by the five hen rule. A couple of weeks ago, she accepted delivery of 32 baby chicks. That's right. Thirty two fuzzy adorable balls of peeping fluff. How do you not take your kid to see that?

She did get to hold and pet the chicks. And we had to work hard on being gentle. No, gentle! Gentle!

She also got to collect eggs and bring them home and eat them. We've been eating a lot of eggs since then. I haven't had the heart to tell her that the eggs she collected were gone the first morning.

And then there is this.

Karist

2010-04-25T15:30:00.003-04:00

Last August, Nora and her daddy went to the Minnesota State Fair. For $6, they bought a caterpillar in a plastic house. They were told that it would spin a cocoon and then overwinter before hatching. It did spin its cocoon and Nora talked about the sleeping caterpillar all winter.

When April rolled around, I began to have my doubts as to whether it would ever actually become the luna moth that had been predicted. I brought a lot of cocoons inside as a kid, none of which ever amounted to anything (probably because I had found them on the ground...).

Eric and Nora never lost faith and moved the moth house into our kitchen so that they wouldn't miss seeing their friend emerge. This morning, I heard a shriek from the kitchen and, you guessed it, the moth had hatched. We watched him hang upside down in his house, drying off his wings for about 45 minutes. Then, Eric moved him outside to acclimate.

A few hours later, we released him. But not before checking him out thoroughly. Nora decided that his name is Karist and that he is her new friend.

Here she is getting a closer look.

Guess what she thinks of her dad for orchestrating this whole experience.
Yeah, we'll do that again next winter.

Springtime in Paris

2010-04-13T09:38:00.003-04:00

There's a saying up this way that Duluth is the Paris of the North. If you ask me, it's probably because the weather in both places is worse than you expect it to be. This spring has certainly put the lie to that. It hasn't snowed in months, the weather has hit the sixties a couple of times and my neighbor even has crocuses in his yard. He waxed philosophical over wine this weekend that he hasn't actually gotten to see crocuses for many years. Usually, the deer eat them the first day they bloom. This spring, there's more food, so the crocuses got a call from the governor.

I'm starting to see the provinciality of the area. It has been made clear to me that I'll never be "from here." For example, before the winter, everyone I met would say, "Oh, you like it here? Well, you haven't been through the winter yet." Now, that line has been taken away and replaced with, "Oh, you like it here? Well, you haven't been through a REAL winter yet."

Sigh.

Nora is enjoying the warmer weather. We've been logging a lot of time on her tricycle, walking and playing at parks. This weekend, I asked her what she wanted to do. She thought for a minute and answered "I want to go to the pond and feed the ducks. Then, I want to go to the other pond and feed the ducks. Then, I want to go to the Big Lake and look at boats." So, we did.

It turns out that there are only two ducks that have returned so far this spring. When they got tired of being harassed and flew away from the first pond, we went to the second pond. I'm pretty sure that the two ducks we found there were the same two. And they were really tired of stale hamburger buns.

What has returned are the "salties." That's what they call the massive ocean-going tankers that ship iron ore from our harbor through the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic. We got to see one of these maneuver through the canal, under the aerial lift bridge and into the harbor. This thing was about three stories tall and actually longer than the length of the canal. We were right on the edge of the canal when it came through and a woman from the Visitor Center was on the loud speaker giving information about the ship, cargo, captain, etc. Eric said it was the coolest thing he had seen for a long time. Nora was beside herself.

Here is an incredibly tiny picture of what we saw from the Army Corps of Engineers website. (Sorry. My options were apparently tiny or enormous.) I have to say that I would highly recommend that outing to anyone with, say, pre-school or school-age children interested in fun mechanical things. Not that I'm hinting that people should come visit us in Duluth. Not at all.

But we do have a very nice guest bedroom.

Nora's Big Birthday

2010-02-16T10:55:00.005-05:00

Where did my baby go? The big girl running around our house these days bears little resemblance to the lump of passive baby flesh that she was three years ago. In fact, she now has Opinions.

Recently, we had a birthday party for Nora which in her words was "awesome."
We asked her what she wanted on her cake. I personally expected her to say either Elmo or Cookie Monster. Maybe, if she was feeling kicky, Big Bird. Instead, she thought for a while and then said, "Cows."

Nanna Lauer, being a good sport, managed to find Nora a farm-themed cake. Nanna Lauer, being Nanna Lauer, decided it wasn't bovine enough and managed to really cow it up post-production. None of those generic cow cakes for us! No, sirree.

If you have any doubt whether this made Nora's day, week or potentially year, take a look at her reaction to the thoroughly Holstein-ed confection.

I think we can safely call that a win for Nanna.

Nora thought that opening presents was pretty much the best thing since, well, cow-themed cake. A particular favorite was this little girl, shown here being dressed in clothes made for her Cabbage Patch Kid.

Nana MJ and Nana Tina hit the bull's eye on this, apparently. After the party, I asked Nora about her new doll. She told me that she likes her because she's a big girl, like Nora. The doll also just turned three and her name (I kid you not) is Big Lilly Two. And woe betide you if you don't say the whole name every time. Because then, you might mistake her for her friend, whose name is now Real Lilly in Pennsylvania. It has become very difficult to keep a straight face at our house.

Unless, of course, you are Nora. Then, everything is serious, serious work. Especially her new maracas. Those are serious maracas. You can tell by the pink paint.

This is why we teach them to talk.

2010-01-19T19:25:00.002-05:00

This is the conversation that transpired while we were washing dishes tonight.

Nora: What are those?

Mommy: Those are hemostats. They're Daddy's. Don't touch them.

Nora: Those are Daddy's peni-sacks?

Mommy: Hemostats.

Nora: Peni-sacks.

Mommy: Hemostats.

Nora: Peni-sacks?

Mommy: Hemostats.

Nora: Peni-stacks? Are they scissors?

Mommy: Yes. Yes, they are scissors.

Nora's First (Real) Christmas

2009-12-29T10:39:00.002-05:00

This was the year. The year that Nora finally got what Christmas was all about. We read "Charlie Brown's Christmas" and sang carols and watched "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street." We ate and laughed with friends and family. We endured 24 inches of snow that were incredibly timely. Nora snowshoed through our backyard and the woods of Two Harbors. She made a snow fort with the neighbors. She set up "tea parties" for anyone who would sit still long enough and then offered them beer and hot dogs. Errrrrr...maybe we need to work on the TEA part of the tea party. (I have a video of this that I've been trying to upload for about a week to no avail.)

All in all, it was a wonderful holiday. Being stranded in the snow meant that we were helping shovel our neighbors out of their driveways instead of staying warm by the fire. It also meant that we had unplanned dinner parties and extra people around, just because it felt right to be together.

I'd like to think that Nora learned a little bit about "community" this Christmas. I've felt fairly rudderless since moving here- part of why I haven't been posting much, I'm sure. However, we chose this town and this neighborhood and this house because it felt like we could become a part of it all. The last week has made Duluth feel a little more like home.

Is it Christmas today?

2009-12-14T20:36:00.003-05:00

That is the question that wakes me up every morning these days. Nora is super-excited about this whole Christmas thing, And why not? I'm more in the Christmas spirit than I've been for many years.

The lights! The snow! the tree! Company! Egg nog! Baking cookies!

It is pretty wonderful.

I think what has Nora so excited is the large red box next to the Christmas tree. It contains (shhhh- don't tell her!) a wooden play kitchen made by her Grandpa Dan. I don't think I've ever been so excited about a gift that I was neither giving nor receiving. I just can't wait to see her face when she opens it!

I hope it looks something like this:

Still processing

2009-10-19T22:58:00.004-04:00

On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of helping to field dress, drag and hang a buck that our friend Cindy shot. I was hunting on her land, and I'd been sitting in a stand for a little over 2 hours, basically just freezing my tail off. She got home after an overnight shift, saw the buck grazing in her back yard, grabbed her bow, walked right up to it and shot him from 10 yards away. Then she texted me to come help.

Life is not fair. Doesn't she look happy, though?

In any case, Kat and I thought this would be a good chance to learn how to process deer. So we went over Sunday afternoon and processed it with Carl & Cindy. It was an all night afair (we didn't get home until after 11:00). But we did have fun, and we learned a lot.

We decided to go ahead and bring Nora with. We figured it would be a good chance for her to learn where our food comes from. We don't want to scare her or make her a vegetarian, but we do want her to understand that the meat we eat comes from a living creature and that it should be respected.

Whatever our intentions, this is the picture that will be forever singed into my brain when I think about the whole experience.

We're either really good parents, or really, really, truly awful parents. The jury is still out.

Milestones

2009-10-11T17:56:00.003-04:00

Nora's growing up (she said with a mix of delight and dismay). She has kept me busy and guessing the last week or so. Just when I think that I know what to expect, she goes and poops on the potty. Then, of course, she refuses to even try for the next week. It's toddlerdom at it's finest.

She did an aboutface on the whole water issue, too. I was beginning to think that she had seen "The Wizard of Oz" when I wasn't around and had a phobia of being melted by a sacchriny girl from Kansas. Now, suddenly, we're in for a tantrum if she doesn't get her bath. She likes to dnk her head, put her whole face in the water, splash, blow bubbles....I attribute this to that one page at the end of "Green Eggs and Ham" where Sam-I-Am and the unnamed guy are submerged.

Water and pooping are fine now and then, but Nora's new all-around obsession is letters. She likes picking them out of books, finding them on stop signs and attempting to draw them. "O" is clearly superior- and I'm sure that has nothing to do with how easy it is to draw....She has these Eric Carle cards with letters on one side and animals on the back. She likes to point to each letter and "spell" what the animal is. Most entertaining for me as a mother are "U" (which is known exclusively as "umbrella"- as in "o-c-t-o-p-umbrella-s") and "Q" (known as "O-with-a-tail").

Oops! The toddler in question is home. Back to parenting, while it lasts.

The Little Things

2009-09-29T21:16:00.003-04:00

Eric bought a new monitor for our computer. It was hooked up to our television and set up to use with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Which sounds like a great idea, but my eyes just aren't that good anymore. So we found a desk on Craig's List, plopped it in our front room (now "The Library") and set the computer up on it. And here I am. Writing and reading comfortably, without buying a new laptop. It's amazing how a change of venue can improve the tone.

Nora agrees that simple pleasures are where it's at. Nana MJ sent her a homemade froggie pillowcase for a Big Girl Pillow, a smily face bouncy ball ("My Happy Ball") and a bunch of stickers. Nora then had to Aunt Mimi, Bella, Daddy and Nana to tell them how cool this was.

It takes a little more than a bouncy ball to make me happy these days. But not much more.

Why I prefer to be behind the camera

2009-09-27T20:11:00.006-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Eric and I returned to Pennsylvania for a friend's wedding (Hi, Heidi!). It was a gorgeous, moving ceremony at a beautiful location. Afterwards, Eric and I had another friend (Hi, Carl!) take some pictures of us. I know, it's scandalous to use this venue to remind our friends and family (Hi, Mom!) what we look like. Still, it's good to know that my image does record on film.

Then, Eric decided to take some pictures of me, as there is a distinct lack of those. For good reason, it turns out. Even the birds object to me being photographed. This is me realizing exactly how they objected.

So, you sat through that. I'll throw you a bone. Here's a shot of Nora relaxing in the Duluth sun in July. That's right, July.

Making Amends

2009-09-20T14:20:00.003-04:00

So, I've been called to task by a number of people for not posting anything here. I know, I know....Life has had a way of getting away from me. If you, too, are irritated by my lack of blogging I recmomend one of the following:
1. Call St Mary's/Duluth Clinic Medical System. Ask for Information Services. Tell them to stop firewalling my blog.

2. Fly/drive/walk to my house. Clean it. Cook dinner. Put Nora to bed. Because that's about all I do outside of work. My life isn't really that interesting, but it takes time, right?

3. Remember, I blog only enough to assuage the guilt. Escalating levels of guilt caused by frequent reminders are likely your best bet.

4. Buy me a new laptop. What? It might help...

It isn't true that life isn't all that interesting, actually. Lately, we've had grandparents in town, flown to PA, leaving Nora in Minneapolis with the fam, and yesterday, we went on a 30 mile bike ride. Nora actually tolerated that quite well. For which, we took her for ice cream. Which she enjoyed immensely and hasn't stopped talking about.

Without further ado, here are some of the pictures from the above-referenced grandparental visit. They are Grandpa Dan and Nora on Rock Knob in Hartley Park, (a marginally toddler-appropriate walk from our house), Eric, Kat, Nora and Nana on Boulder Lake (a short drive from our house), Nora at the PortLand Malt Shop (downtown Duluth) and Nora at Bayfront Park ( on, strangely the bayfront in Duluth). Have I mentioned that I love where we live?

The North Shore

2009-08-29T20:25:00.006-04:00

We biked up the shore of Lake Superior ast weekend. It was a beautiful northern Minnesota day- sunny and 60s. It's a little weird for me that this is August weather, but I have to admit, it was great biking weather. Nora had a great time.

Playing near the Split Rock lighthouse:

The view from near the lighthouse:

Hanging out at Iona's Beach:

God, I love those two.

Rainbows

2009-08-16T15:34:00.004-04:00

Daddy took Nora to a toy store on Friday night and told her she could pick something out. We were waiting for our food at the Greek restaurant down the street and Nora was a little more rambunctious than could be reasonably corralled with crayons and a photocopied picture of Artemis, goddess of the moon. So what do Nora return to the restaurant carrying? It is an adorable umbrella. And it fits her personality. This is what I found her playing with later on. Her "pretty jewelry" is actually hair ties that I knotted together. A hair tie makes a convincing ring, if you put a tiny clip on the outside as the jewel. Necklaces...bracelets...the possibilities are endless. Well, actually the possibilities are quite limited, but it kept her happy for a long time.

Busted

2009-08-12T10:12:00.003-04:00

The other morning, I was getting ready for work and Nora was helping me. We brushed our teeth and I had just spit my mouthwash into the sink when Nora very seriously laid her had on my leg.
"Mommy," she said. "You forgot to floss."

A New Favorite Activity

2009-08-10T22:27:00.002-04:00

This is at Bagley Park, about a block away from Nora's school, on the campus of University of Minnesota Duluth. I rode my bike to school this afternoon and picked Nora up, thereby discovering that my cardiovascular health is somewhat subpar. Either that or Nora has been eating cement sandwiches.
This weekend, Nora also caught her first fish (a bass) and immediately asked, "Can I touch it?" I was proud.
This evening, during dinner, she looked over at the dog and said, "Suma lick her butt. Is she hungry, Mommy?" I was less proud of that one.

Goosesteppin' to her own drummer

2009-07-30T22:31:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-25T15:08:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-16T22:07:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-14T11:31:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-01T22:15:00.008-04:00

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!

Daddy Time

2009-06-27T22:55:00.004-04:00

It was a rainy day in Duluth, today. Daddy, god bless him, took Nora shopping for what was planned as a short run to a store called Menard's. It's like Home Depot, but they inexplicibly also have groceries. And apparently, an indoor playground.

Many hours later, they arrived home, shortly before I called the police to start looking for their mangled bodies. They were delighted and tired and had many pictures from Daddy's phone.

We're Back!

2009-06-21T14:35:00.000-04:00

We finally got a phone line and got our internet working this morning. The move to Duluth is officially complete. Nora is coping well with the change and seems very excited about "Nora's new house." Every once in a while she asks for Lilly to come over and play and she does seem to be more attached to Suma than usual, but no meltdowns or tantrums about going home.

She has been to her new school three days now and had no hesitation about jumping right in. She especially likes that it's less than a mile from home and that Daddy has been riding her to school every morning on his bike.

She has a swingset in the backyard, a plastic playcube with a slide in the basement (for those snowy days we know are coming) and a park 100 feet down the street. She doesn't understand why someone broke most of the swings at the park (neither do I), but she insists that Daddy will fix them later. I just smile and nod.

She also seems to like the piano that the old owners left. I thought that her banging on the keys would drive me to drink, but it's actually not nearly as annoying as I thought. It must be because she has a gift for music. Excuse me- fewfic.

Nanna and Papa have been with us for the last week and helped ease the transition greatly. The boxes are all out of the house and have been recycled. I can't say that I can find things the first try or two, but I can say that everything is unpacked. We've started putting pictures on the walls, so it feels more like home every day.

The neighbors have appeared in droves to introduce themselves, bring us goodies, offer babysitting and invite us to parties. This neighborhood is incredibly friendly. The small town vibe definitely exists in that everyone knows everyone else, but it's a very inclusive feel. I feel like they're excited to have us around.

I start work tomorrow at St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic. Our biggest order of business for this afternoon is to figure out how to get there. One of the main thoroughfares in town, Woodland Avenue, is closed for construction. All of the tenuous grasp on the local geography that I thought I had crumbles when I have to detour.

And because I know that there are those of you who want to know, the detour takes you directly past the first house that we put an offer on. It is, in fact, still for sale.

It's that time again!

2009-05-26T14:45:00.002-04:00

The sun is out (in general, not today), the days are warm and getting Nora inside involves bribery and/or violence. But the pictures are great!

The hooligan

2009-05-22T08:04:00.003-04:00

Last night was my birthday and Eric took me out to dinner. Afterward, we picked Nora up at the babysitter's house. All the way home, she was repeating, "Don't pull the firm 'larm. No, Nora. Don't touch it. Nora pulled the fire 'larm..."
Should I be worried about this?

Bad Doctor, Bad Mommy

2009-05-20T15:00:00.002-04:00

We took Nora to see Dr. Dan today, which is apparently more exciting than Christmas. Even getting her second Hepatitis A couldn't keep her down for long.
I did manage to feel completely incompetent when I took down Nora's diaper and she had a raging yeast infection that I didn't even know was there. I had been treating a ringworm on her thigh for the last few days, but no yeast.
Oh, well. Such is life, right? I know you don't care about my Mommyangst.
Here's what we all really want to hear: 30 pounds (75%ile), 34.25 inches (50%ile) which is how she has charted all the way along. She's growing and developing normally. Nay, exquisitely.

Cute, right?

2009-05-13T15:32:00.002-04:00

I know, I can't believe that Eric and I made that one either. I had to say it before someone else did.

New-found Counting skills

2009-05-07T16:40:00.001-04:00

Nora saw her father naked the other night and prolcaimed, "Daddy has one...two...three legs!" Elmo would be proud. Daddy certainly was.

Rainy Day Nora, Again

2009-05-04T11:08:00.002-04:00

I submit to you further proof that Nora prefers to be outside in any weather to being inside. She dragged Nana out to play bubbles in the pouring rain yesterday. And to ride her tricycle. And to stomp around. She saw nothing unusual or wrong with this.

Behold, Spring!

2009-04-28T16:00:00.004-04:00

I made the long trek out to my garden yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful day and I just had to see how the plants were growing. As I pulled up the weeds that were most threatening to my young plants, Nora decided to join me in her naked toddler glory.

Some may say that toddlers and vegetable gardens don't mix. I disagree. Every spring onion that was trampled became a tasty treat- right out of the ground! And some of my spinach may have been beheaded in the name of snackdom as well.

Nora went to bed last night talking about "minich" and "munyuns" and informed me quite seriously that the beans are not delicious yet. They will be, kid. They will be.

How do you keep a toddler happy on an airplane?

2009-04-27T10:17:00.002-04:00

Elmo and juice boxes.
And for some reason, Nora felt that keeping her jacket on was a critical part of this equation.
But it makes for a cute picture, no?

Nora and Bella

2009-04-25T23:26:00.003-04:00

While we were in Minnesota this week, we visited with family, including Nora's cousin Bella. Nora thought this was awesome. Check out the adoration on her face in this picture. She had a two-fisted death grip on Bella's hand and refused to let go, even after falling asleep to the point of snoring.

Nora sit on the Bearplane?

2009-04-17T15:48:00.002-04:00

We're heading out to Duluth tomorrow morning to look for houses. I'm half deliriously excited and half ready to ralph on my shoes from anxiety. Nora, on the other hand, can hardly contain herself. I wanted to warn her about our plans for the weekend, so last night at dinner, I told her all about going on the airplane and seeing family and staying in a hotel with a pool.
Oops.
This morning, she woke me up with "Bearplane?" And we aren't even packed yet. It's a good thing that she's never been anywhere nice.

Who needs a zoo?

2009-04-12T20:31:00.003-04:00

I had to laugh today watching DVR episodes of "Flight of the Conchords." For those of you who have seen the show, that may seem like an exceedingly obvious statement. I am speaking of a particular episode where they refer to a pet shop as "the cheap zoo."

Yes, I have done this. And here are pictures of Nora and Nana at "the cheap aquarium," aka Bass Pro Shop. Before you judge me, look at how happy Nora is!

Mommy's stir crazy!

2009-04-08T21:15:00.002-04:00

And what happens when cabin fever sets in? Sewing!
I made Nora this dress over the weekend. There are three pictures, because there isn't one single good picture, on account of Nora being a two-year-old moving target and all.
Today, I made a hat to match the dress and wrap shirt from the same pattern. Sorry- no pictures of those as yet.
Behold:

Dinnertime conversations

2009-03-31T19:13:00.002-04:00

Nora is feeling better. She is eating and drinking, pestering Nana for inappropriate things (Your blankie? Really? But you're in the bathtub....) and doing her best impersonation of a whirling dervish.

It's definitely nice to have her back. She's back to school and seems really happy to be there. She likes to tell me about the things she did that day. Becky went down the slide? Lilly jumped? Monkey said, "no-no" and Nora said "What?" Sure. Why not? I have no idea if a two year-old actually has an imagination or if these things actually happened in some odd way.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. I just love the way she collapses into peals of laughter everytime she tells me how she yelled at a cow. I'm sure that when I'm a demented shriveled old lady, you'll still be able to make me laugh by saying, "Get DOWN, Monkey!" Particularly if you hold a stuffed primate over your head when you do it. Of course, I'd probably laugh at that anyway.

Sick puppy

2009-03-28T20:01:00.003-04:00

Nora has been as sick as a puppy with parvo the last three days. She's spiking fevers, puking, having diarrhea and complaining of her tummy hurting. Here, I didn't even know she had that vocabulary.

Through it all, she has been a champ. She is a sweet, sweet kid underneath all the toddlerhood and I never love her more than when she is retching on me. Weird, but true. There's something about a cuddly, sweet, sick kid who has no energy for boundry testing or independence fostering that makes that bond grow just a little stronger.

I'm so proud of how cheerful she's been and how easily she's adapted to my limitations. I never would have fathomed that she could possibly carry that over when we both are feeling bad. But she has. And it might just be evolution making sure that she doesn't end up in a dumpster, but I like to think that Nora is just turning out to be a really cool person.

Nuts

2009-03-23T20:27:00.008-04:00

That's pretty much the only way to describe the events of the last 3 days, without swearing. Overall, it's been an amazing, incredibly good weekend for our little family. But I don't think I'd want to go through it again.

The first night after Kat's surgery was a little rocky. Her pressure sucked, her hematocrit sucked, she was wifty, she either itched or was in pain or both, she couldn't get comfortable, and there was someone in the room about twice an hour all night, so sleep was out of the question. For both of us. Saturday was a little better, but still pretty rough. Sunday she turned the corner. She looked like my wife again. She was even busting my balls over the nominally perceptible, so I knew she was feeling like herself.

I had to take call for the weekend, which made the lack of sleep a little more painful, but I was fortunate enough to be on call with a superstar junior resident who busted his tail to make sure that I was able to devote most of my attention to what was going on with Kat. It's sort of been a theme for us lately... friends and family busting their tails to get us through this. We are incredibly blessed.

This morning, when I got to the hospital, I took one look at her and knew we were taking her home today. Which was good, because I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get her out of there. I pulled strings and rattled cages all morning to speed up the process of getting her epidural out, getting her through PT and OT, getting her all the equipment she'll need, getting her lovenox, and getting her out the door. I used just about every trick in the manual they give to irritating, overly-driven surgical residents on the first day of internship. But it worked. We were home by 11:30, which is nothing short of a miracle by HMC standards.

Let me just say, Kat was an absolute champ through all of this. Bear in mind that someone fractured her pelvis 3 days ago. This morning, she dressed herself, learned how to walk with a walker and with crutches, learned how to climb stairs, then hopped in a wheelchair and said, "get me out of here."

God I love that woman.

To add to the drama of the weekend, we had two competing offers come in on the house. Today, an hour after we got home from the hospital, our realtor came to present them to us. We got one very good offer, and one that was everything we could have possibly wished for, plus more money, plus a bunch of other good things we hadn't thought of but will actually make life much better for us over the next 3 months. So we took the second offer.

The house is sold! Yippee!

Meanwhile, back at the homestead this weekend, Nora was having her way with Nanna and T-Dan. They spent a lot of time "O-side." She even convinced them to take her to the public playground in Hershey.

I'm not sure if she even noticed that Kat and I weren't home. Later she showed them around the kitchen.

"This is how we clean up after dinner, ok guys? Now put this in the dishwasher and give me something else to clean"

Although Kat was home this evening, Nora was unaware until she wandered into our bedroom after dinner to find Mommy in a Percocet and MS-contin induced haze. She crawled up on the bed to check out the whole situation and pointed out "Mommy's boo-boo" several times as she inspected the enormous pressure dressing overlying her left side. She was also ready for some cuddle time, and she left that little snugglefest to go take a bath only after a good deal of stalling. My favorite moment of the day came about a half hour later, though, when she emerged after her bath topless, with a green band-aide stuck to her belly, crawled back onto Mommy's bed, and pointed out, very ernestly, "Nora's boo-boo." See Mommy, I have one too. We're relating to each other.

God I love that kid.

No Regrets

2009-03-20T21:59:00.007-04:00

Let me start with a warning that this post is going to be heavier than most. It's been a tough day in the Lauer camp.

Last night, we had a long, painfully involved discussion with Kat's orthopedic surgeon about whether we really ought to go through with the PeriAcetabular Osteotomy, or whether we should try a less invasive procedure first, with the thought in mind that she'd have a shorter recovery, and if it didn't work we could always come back again in a few months to do the PAO.

In the end, after much agony and a lot of tears, we decided to go ahead with it today. For many reasons, we needed to give Kat the best possible chance of getting better now. Though doing the bigger operation today may involve more risk and a more difficult recovery in the short term, we had to accept that. Though it may be medically safer to do so, unfortunately we just couldn't afford to take the "wait and see" approach. Kat expended an enormous amount of energy and rearranged her entire life and career to prepare for this operation. We have also been fortunate enough to have family and friends commit to making big sacrifices to help us through this. Sadly, our lives are now so mired in responsibility that it will be years before the stars realign in such a way that we'll have another opportunity to commit to this operation and its inherent recovery period. We just couldn't accept the possibility of another year or two of living with the pain, or with all of the limitations that it inflicts; no hiking, no biking, no gardening, no running around after Nora, and no chance of conceiving again. All the while, her hip could be getting worse, making the chances of a successful PAO ever more remote.

So, today was the big day. MJ and Dan came to town last night and took over Nora's care, so that Kat and I could turn our attention to her left hip. We hit the hospital doors at 5:15 this morning, she was in the OR by 7:30, and she woke up 9.5 hours later.

I was too anxious to just wait around, of course. I had to do something, so I did what I always do... I went and did some operations of my own. Right across the hall. It was a good distracter, but unfortunately we had some cancellations so I ran out of cases by lunch time. Initially, I resisted any temptation to even peek in the door of her room. Then, at about 2:00, her surgeon called me and said things were going great, and asked me if I wanted to come take a look. My stomach initially turned at the thought of seeing my wife laid open, her pelvis in pieces and her muscles detached. But then it occurred to me... what an incredible opportunity! To be able to see for myself exactly what we're up against.

To be clear, the surgeon was careful to invite me down only for the most controlled portion of the case, when everything was exposed and he could demonstrate for me what the problem was and what he had done to fix it. He wisely chose to make sure I was not in the room to see anything gruesome. I saw no bleeding, and thankfully I do not have to live with the image someone breaking my wife's pelvis.

What I did see was nothing short of amazing. I saw for myself why she was hurting so much. And I saw what he had done to fix it. I stayed for nearly two hours, and when I left I was neither disturbed nor upset. I was relieved. We made the right choice. She's going to get better.

Even as I scrubbed the adhesive from her face and the soap from from her side tonight, as I adjusted her SCD's, held her emesis basin for her and cleaned up afterwards when she missed, I felt not a hint of regret or doubt about this decision. She's comfortable now, resting quietly next to me in her hospital bed, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. Most of all, though, I'm grateful that I can sleep tonight (and for the first night in three days) knowing that her suffering from this surgery, and all the sacrifices our loved ones have made to help us through it, are not in vain.

To everyone who is pitching in, thank you. You're giving Kat a chance to take control of her life again, to reclaim her identity. This next couple of months is going to be tough, and we couldn't do it without you.

We'll try to keep this blog lighter in the future, and turn the attention back to the reason you're really all here in the first place (pictures and videos of Nora being Nora). As she mentioned in her last post, Kat keeps a separate blog for all the fussing, but that one is really just for her... tonight I just had to say my bit.

Kat's surgery

2009-03-19T08:20:00.003-04:00

So, this is it.
It's down to the wire. Yesterday was my last day of work. Today, I go in for my pre-operative physical, x-rays and blood work. Then, tomorrow I show up at the hospital to voluntarily have my pelvis broken.
Seems like a bad idea, right? Be that as it may, it's kinda late to back out now. I've already given them 2 units of my blood.
I anticipate a lot of whining (you know, from me) and I'd really like to keep this blog positive and focused on our family life. So, if you would like to know where things stand with the surgery and recovery, or if you just enjoy my navel-gazing, head on over to mdconfessional.blogspot.com.

My own nepharious purposes

2009-03-18T07:52:00.011-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about the influence we have on our children. Do they come out predetermined to be feminine or masculine? Or do we subtly influence them from the moment that we slap on the pink newborn onesie? My suspicion is that it's something of a combination of the two. But leaning heavily towards the latter.

The following clip is very clearly a case of manipulation of the parental variety. Once upon a time, about 2 months ago, I posted about how Nora could now talk and thus was talking back. After a long lament about the mixed bag that parenting a toddler inherently is, my brother sent me a prophetic email. He said, "Yes, but one day, you will be able to reap endless entertainment by teaching your child to unwittingly repeat your favorite movie quotes."

Jim, this is for you:

That'll do, since she's two and probably not ready for the ones I really want to teach her. Please feel free to recommend your favorites...

Nanna reads this blog...

2009-03-10T21:56:00.003-04:00

Apparently. Because when she came to visit this weekend, she came armed... with play-doh. And scored huge points with Nora.

Here's Nora showing off her "Elephant Ears" trick.

Later she requested that I help her make "frowurrs," and she added the finishing touches.

And finally, her masterpiece, the play-doh monster.

And his dog.

In non-Playdoh related news, the McCords came to visit on Saturday. They were great company, Kat made a really nice meal, Gregg brought the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had, and Lilly was wonderful.

Unfortunately, Nora was a complete twit. She pitched a fit just about every time Lilly tried to play with one of her toys, and was just generally whiney and out of control most of the night. Hence the total lack of pictures. Gregg and Jenni, bless their hearts, were really understanding. I know in my heart that behavior like this is just part of Nora being two, and that it's perfectly normal. But still, I was disappointed. It left me questioning whether we're really doing anything right in our attempts to shape her behavior and help her be a happy, well-adjusted child. Because she was neither happy, nor remotely well adjusted all freakin' night. Then, as if to redeem herself, she was absolutely fantastic the rest of the weekend. It's incredible how she does that. I really do think it's a defense mechanism that children have acquired through the milenia to keep from ending up in a dumpster somewhere.

On a little bit brighter note, our house appraised over the weekend quite a bit higher than we were expecting, and is now officially on the market. We had our first showing tonight. It's strange how vulnerable you feel letting strangers in to "kick the tires" on your home.

On one hand, I'm truly excited about this next move, and what it means for our future as a family. On the other hand, I also can't wait for this phase of the transition to our new lives in Minnesota to be over with. Not only are we really anxious about whether or not it's going to sell, but it's also going to be really exhausting trying to keep the place clean all the time in case anyone shows up wanting to take a look. Ugh.

Soooooo, are you sure you don't want to buy a house? Anyone?

House for sale

2009-03-05T09:43:00.002-05:00

So the house is going on the market in preparation for our move to sunny Duluth, MN. If you know anyone who's looking to buy in the Hershey, PA area, send them to the blog that Eric made for just this purpose.
http://709cedarroad.blogspot.com/

An added bonus for those of you who saw the house in it's original splendor or at various torn-apart phases along the way- it has a ton of great pictures of all the improvements that we've done over the last 5 years.

Pay Dohs Pease?

2009-03-04T21:24:00.010-05:00

Our daughter is obsessed with Play-Doh. We opened up her first pack, which she had received as a present, just after Christmas. She initially took no interest, then all of the sudden last month she semed to finally notice it, and now its an obsession.
I have to say, what an amazing toy for a two year old. Yeah, I know, it's a classic and it's been around forever. But as a father watching his child entertain herself with piles of colored clay for hours at a time, my perspective on the stuff has completely changed. I have got a whole new respect for this magical goop.

It's like you can actually see the synapses forming in her little brain as she works with it. I love teaching her how to use all those little tools to cut out shapes and then put the shapes together to make neat stuff, like flowers or cars. Last night Nora and Kat fashioned big floppy ears and a trunk and pretended to be elephants, which was maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. Tonight they made jewelery. Last Sunday, when Nora and I were alone together, she asked for "pay dohs" after her nap, and she stayed at that table and played with the stuff for over 2 hours! That's like 5 times longer than I've ever seen anything hold her attention, ever. Including Sesame Street.

By the way, that's Nora's new table and chairs from Ikea that she's playing at. We got them for her about a month ago, but I'm pretty sure those are the first pictures we've posted of them. She thinks its pretty neat having furniture that's her size. And we think it's pretty neat not having to either pick her up or get down on the floor with her every time she wants to color... or play with Play-Doh.

In other family news, Nora and her mother are getting along again. And I have proof:
It was a rough few weeks there, and for a while I wasn't sure if they would both come out of it alive, but it's quite a relief to see them re-connect. Of course, the down side of this is that now that Kat's back in the game, I'm apparently not. Last night when I offered to read to her, and when I suggested that I help with her bath so that Mommy could have a break, Nora pushed my legs until I backed out the door and said, "Daddy away," then promply shut the door in my face.

She does know I could totally kick her ass, right?

Big Girl Chair!

2009-03-03T16:15:00.009-05:00

So, we were having a bit of a problem getting Nora to eat. Seems unlike her, I know, but the issue was that she got pissed off every time we put her in her chair, particularly when we tried to strap her in. Also she very clearly wanted to be able to get in and out of her chair on her own terms. How to handle such a situation? Why, just like we handle most other parenting dilemmas... find out what Rachel and Peter do, and then do the exact same thing.

I introduce to you the Tripp Trapp chair.

OH BABY is this thing sweet! First of all, it's incredibly well built. Secondly, she can get in and out of it by herself. This has been a key sticking point. And the design allows us to adjust the seat and foot rest so that the chair grows with the child. She'll be doing her homework in this chair until the day she leaves for college. It cost a mint, but it was worth every penny. There's also a kit that you can use to make the seat appropriate for infants, but we kind of missed out on that window.

So how has Nora's been eating? Well, we've had mixed results. Turns out she's just kind of a pain in the ass sometimes. But it did get her to to give us one of these:

Think she likes it?

Again, worth every penny.

Tutu

2009-02-24T09:45:00.002-05:00

OK, I'm seriously a bad parent.
I have been unable to photographically document any of the cuteness that is Nora lately. I would blame it on the fact that she is a constantly moving object (Eric prefers "hot molecule." Always one for the Brownian motion jokes, that Eric), except that someone managed just fine.
Jenni and her ever-busy camera have recorded for posterity Nora in a tutu.
Nora.
Tutu.
Don't miss this.

Dinner Party (by Eric)

2009-02-22T21:16:00.001-05:00

We had the Osers and the Schlegels over for dinner last night. Sean and Tamara brought their beautiful twin girls Jessica and Courtney, and Dan and Denise brought baby Nora along for the night (my first chance to meet her!). We gorged on Pizza, Thai food, French Fries, and far, far too much chocolate cake and brownies (Sean took too much insulin).

We had a great time. The Oser girls were amazing with our Nora Lee- they drew with her, played with Play-doh and even read to her at bedtime. She was DE-lighted with the entire situation, especially with the part where she got to eat all the chocolate cake she wanted and then get read to by two 6 year old girls before bedtime. Happily, not a single meltdown took place and she finally put herself to bed at 9:15.

It was a really nice night, and I was left feeling incredibly grateful for their company. Like so many things these days, it was a little bit bittersweet though. We’ve met some really amazing people in the last few years here in Pennsylvania, and it’s going to be really painful having to say goodbye and then start all over making new friends in Minnesota. The evening also reminded me of how much we’re going to miss our little house. We’ve poured ridiculous amounts of time and money into making it what it is, and it’s certainly nothing fancy, but it ours and now it’s just right for us. We love inviting people that we care about into our home. It’s really sad leaving a home that we’ve poured your heart and soul into, not to mention one that we’ve raised our daughter in.

Speaking of busting our butts on this house, that’s exactly what we did today. Nora Lee spent the day with Ms. Jessica so that Mommy and Daddy could do some last minute fix-up jobs before the house goes on the market this week. We re-finished the shower in the Master bath (a word to the wise- DON’T EVER DO THIS… unless you enjoy poisoning yourself), fixed the hole in the ceiling where I put my foot through the sheetrock, did a bunch of touch-up painting, rearranged some furniture, cleaned up the yard and made some repairs to the fence, made a MASSIVE goodwill donation (and gave away even more stuff via Freecycle), cleaned up the garage and the shop and painted a long-neglected front door. Phew! We’re pooped.

Remember when you thought this was fun?

2009-02-21T11:39:00.003-05:00

Daddy helping

2009-02-20T08:20:00.003-05:00

Last night, Eric got home early (read:before Nora's bedtime), which unfortunately hasn't happened a lot this week. According to him, he was feeling a bit of Nora withdrawal, so he offered to do bath and bedtime.

So, I sat on the couch and read a book. I could hear the general hilarity from the bathroom quite clearly. Amidst the giggling and splashing, I suddenly heard Nora say, "Bug lamp not up there."
Eric response was, "Nope. Mommy killed the bug. It's dead."

You know what, buddy? Don't help.

Nora spent the day with Lilly and Lilly's Dad (which is what Nora thinks Gregg's actual name is) on Monday. Check out the video here.

I get it!

2009-02-19T08:25:00.003-05:00

You're upset about the bug!

Nora woke up this morning, and sweetly crawled into my lap in the rocker. She cuddled in with her Monkey and blanket and whispered, "Bug baffroom all gone."

On the other hand, she is doing really well in non-bug-related areas. She's sleeping in "Nora's Big Girl Bed," as she refers to it every time. She loves to wash hands, dishes, feet, everything. She would love to wash Suma, but Suma is understandably resistant to that idea.

She has moved up to the two-year-old room at school for good. And is loving it. As long as Lilly is around, the world is OK.

She's trying really, really hard to potty train, instigated by the peer pressure of everyone else doing it at school. Unfortunately, right now she has mastered the part about taking the pants off and sitting on the potty, but then will get off the potty and poop on the floor in front of it. Yes, this has happened multiple times. Don't you judge me.

Pictures will be forthcoming one of these days, I promise. I just have to either bring them to work or get our home computer functioning properly. Hold your breath.

Bug

2009-02-16T16:21:00.003-05:00

I'm clearly having a little trouble booting myself back into my life after our vacation. I don't know, but something about going from picking fruit off the tree to scraping shellac off an apple is a bit, um, disheartening.
I'm sure you understand.
I had completely convinced myself that we were headed for an early spring when the first few days back were unseasonably warm. Then, it snowed this weekend and reality has officially set in.
It's February.
It's cold.
It's going to be that way for some time.
The one thing- the one single thing- that I am glad to be back for is Nora. She has been terrific. She has an ever-expanding vocabulary that, even when it's not as descriptive as she would like it to be, is always entertaining. For instance, the other night in the bath, she got very agitated. She kept pointing behind me and saying...something garbled. Like every good horror movie heroine, I turned slowly around to look.
And I saw this enormous beetle walking across the light fixture. I then realized that what she was saying was, "Bug lamp up there." Despite my own creepy-crawlies at this ugly thing, I figured I would be a good mom and dispatch the bug. I dutifully took off my shoe and thwacked it with all I had.
At which point, Nora began sobbing. I had apparently killed her new pet. After she pulled herself together enough to really make me feel like a heel, she dried her little face on the towel, looked at me with consternation and said, "Where bug? Is bug working?"
Of course, all absent, loved things must be working. I am a terrible, terrible mother.

OK, I relent.

2009-02-10T15:07:00.002-05:00

I admit it. Nora has not been a total pain. She's even had her moments of being adorable. We were just playing hooky here:
It was amazing, and left us looking like this:

And Nora had a wonderful time with the Lauers, who watched our kid so that we could jet off to the Caribbean. I hear they even gave her a birthday Twinkie with toothpick "candles" on it.

You know what Mama says...

2009-01-20T14:37:00.002-05:00

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.
You may not hear from me for a year or two. Nora is officially an obstreperous toddler.

Going O'side

2009-01-14T19:08:00.003-05:00

Eric left the hat boxes in toddler range this morning. Hilarity ensued. For the record, Nora chose those (matching!) gloves of Daddy's and Mommy's hat and put them on all by herself.
Lazlo is impressed.

open? OOOOpen? OPEN!

2009-01-11T18:58:00.008-05:00

Ever since Christmas time, Nora has developed a peculiar obsession with opening things. It can be anything: a box of wipes, a grocery bag, a new pair of tights. The joy is in the opening. I guess that was to be expected. The part that I didn't expect is that she's getting good at it.

Kat had to work this weekend, so Nora and I had some time to hang out. In the last few hours, I've seen her figure out how to open the following two items, which she then ate:

Here she is enjoying the fruits of her labor:

And going back for more:

I know I'm probably being ridiculous, but this is another one of those bittersweet things where it makes me a little sad to see how fast she's growing up, but it also makes me really proud of her too. In any case, it's a fun little phase. Turns out there's a lot of things that need to be opened, so it's really not hard to keep her entertained.

It was a good, quiet weekend, and it left me with plenty of happy little memories to smile about as another crazy week begins.

Dirty Harry

2009-01-06T20:36:00.002-05:00

Check out the squint on this kid...

I like to think of this as a cute affectation, but realistically, I know that it probably means corrective lenses in the near future.

Still, it's pretty adorable.

Adventures in Solitude (by Kat)

2009-01-05T21:29:00.006-05:00

And, ugh, as well.

We just got back from a very nice trip to Minnesota and our prolonged Christmas is finally over. And with that, we have a toddler who is struggling to get back into her routine and is showing all of her two-year old self in the process. "If I can't step on your feet, can I kick your shins? If I can't kick your shins, can I hang on your coat? If I can't hang on your coat, can I whine incessantly? If I can't...."

After much angst (which it would enlighten no one to detail), Nora is asleep and Eric and I are studiously ignoring each other. We both spent the day in clinic and that can wear out your talking brain. I figured this would be as good a time as any to reintroduce myself to the persons who occasionally stop by this blog.

Hi. My name is Kat. I am a terrible blogger.

I have to admit that the holidays didn't inspire a lot of original thought in me this year. Except for the fleeting thought that I should start an offshoot seasonal blog documenting the appalling lack of taste in some of the festive displays around Central Pennsylvania. Specifically, there are some incredible, unintentionally blasphemous nativity scenes. Seriously, who thinks that it honors Jesus to have an inflatable nativity scene comprised entirely of giant teddy bears? Also, who doesn't find that creepy? And why, God, why did I not have a camera?

I also know that a select few people are scouring the blog waiting to hear my test results from last week. And I know that the rest of the world is divided definitively into "Who cares?" and "Wha?" And I don't want to talk about me. I want to talk about Nora, who is cute. So there.

OK, fine, Mom. Nora's not being so cute today, anyway. Here's the short, short, short story: I have had hip pain since I was a teenager. It has been physical therapy-ized, surgerized, explained away and come back. I've been told that it was a muscle strain, dislocation, a couple different kinds of fracture, all in my head, etc. This time, they've decided that I have hip dysplasia (yes, the same thing that they put down German Shepherds for...got it out of your system? Good, let's move on.). The left is worse than the right and the femur necks are apparently oddly shaped as well. Note to self: try to avoid using the word "deformity" when talking to a patient.

That's great (well, no it's not), but it doesn't explain the pain. There's no cartilage tear, which is what the test last week looked for. It's great news, since I don't have to have surgery yet, but I still feel like a jackass for complaining about pain when nothing is turning up. The sports medicine doctor wants me to see an orthopedic surgeon, and I agreed, but I'm left with a fatalistic attitude and an overwhelming desire to drop the whole damn issue.

There. Now you know. If you made it this long into the post, I suppose you deserve some sort of consolation prize. Here is your obligatory cute picture of Nora. She's checking out the fire in the fireplace.

Oh, and the title? It's a song so good that you should be paying me for encouraging you to Google it.

Christmas! (episode 2)

2008-12-25T18:23:00.008-05:00

We were on our own for Christmas day this year. Our work schedules didn't allow for travel to see either side of the family. Unfortunately, we've had a rough couple of days since MJ and Thunder Dan left town. A lost set of keys opened the week for Kat, then a fuelcell failure for the Prius left her and Nora stranded at home Tuesday morning. Thankfully, it's all covered by the warranty, but was still a huge pain to deal with. On my end, one of my attendings made yet another attempt at tormenting me into quiting. Psycholgical torture at the hands of this particular physician has become a way of life over the last 3 years, but it just doesn't get any easier to deal with as time goes by.

Needless to say, Kat and I were ready for some hard-core relaxation on this Christmas holiday. Going nowhere is exactly what we needed.

After breakfast, it was time for presents! And now Nora is now a seasoned pro. We asked her if she wanted to open gifts and she darted down the stairs and was pulling them out from under the tree by the time we got to her. She opened them all. The hits of the day today were her Lilly Book and "The Muppet Show, season 1" DVD from Aunt Kristin,. She also got some hair products, and a new outfit for her "groovy girls" doll, which she has appropriately named "Bella" after absconding with it from... Bella.

After all the presents were opened, we all laid around in front of the tree, next to the fireplace, dazed and happy. It was pretty much just two hours of this.

When Nora started to tire out, we popped in the Muppets video, and she and Mommy had a good long, semi-comatose cuddle on the couch.

And so went our day. Gifts, playtime, TV, napping in front of the fire, more playtime, more TV, more napping. This is what Christmas is all about, no?

In other big news, our friend Heidi needed a dog-sitter while she went away for the holiday, so Acacia stayed with us today. Now, Acacia has had a special place in our hearts since the first time we looked afer her. This is due in no small part to the fact that she looks like what would happen if Suma and Lazlo had been allowed to breed (yikes). More importantly, however, she's an incredibly sweet, patient dog. As evidenced by this:

So, Heidi, if you were waiting to get married and have kids until someone had "field-tested" your dog on their own children, I'd say you're good to go. Also, for the record, there's really only 3 dogs in this world that we would allow our daughter to do this to. Acacia is one of them.

Christmas! (episode I)

2008-12-21T21:16:00.010-05:00

Nonna and Thunder Dan were in town for the weekend, to celebrate Christmas, and my birthday, and to bail us out of another jam. Kat and I both had to work on Sunday (boo!), and it turns out daycare is in short supply over the holidays, so they came to our rescue.

It wasn't all work, though. They came in on Thursday and stayed through Monday morning, which meant that they spent the first two nights witnessing first-hand just what a bunch of old geezers Kat and I are. (Seriously, we each had a half a bottle of wine Thursday night and were out by 8:45. And I struggled through surgery with a hangover on Friday. This is generally considered poor form.) More importantly, Nora got a chance to wrap Thunder Dan around her little finger. On Saturday we did presents. Nora, at age 22 months, continues to amaze me. You'd think a kid that age would wig out after 1 or 2 presents and a full blown melt-down would ensue before we could get to number 3. Instead, she patiently handed out everyone's gifts (at least 60% of them accurately), then helped us open each and every one of them. There were dozens. It was a slow process. She had to run across the room for each piece of paper she tore off so she could hand it to Mom, who was then expected to properly dispose of it in the "Tash." By the time all was said and done, though, the kid made a major haul.

Highlights of the day included a set of wooden blocks in little Nora-sized a wood wagon, all skillfully hand-crafted crafted by Thunder Dan, a quilted play mat from Nonna featuring a construction scene (complete with porto-potty) and a dirt road, and her own little trucks and tractors to drive around the mat, a little play-tent from Aunt Elena and the World's Softest Stuffed Puppy (with matching puppy slippers and an embroidered fuzzy blanket) from great-grandma Tina.

Nora loves her new toys. And she's going to flip when she finds out we get to do it again, next week, in Minnesota.

To cap off an already kickin' day, Kat decided to do one of her patented pan-Mediterranean super-meals, with a carrot-cake chaser. How ridiculous is this?

She may be a sassy little tart, but the woman can COOK like nobody's business. The featured entree is called Makhlubbi, which apparently translates to "upside down." We only make it once a year, but it's worth the wait. Meals like this make me realize just how incredibly fortunate I am.

One more thing... an update on Poppa. He's home from the hospital, starting on new medicines to replace all the hormones he's going to need now that he's sans-pituitary, and feeling pretty good. And his tumor was, in fact, benign. Just one more blessing to celebrate over the holiday season.

Poppa (by Eric)

2008-12-17T18:56:00.008-05:00

We've been worried about Poppa for a while now. It all started a few years ago when he had some trouble with his heart that was never really explained very well. After that we started noticing a lot of little things that just didn't seem right. Like when his body hair all fell out. The man was like the missing link his entire life, and all of the sudden he had no hair on his chest, back or arms. Then he started losing muscle tone, and developed a bit of a slouch, despite the fact that he was working out religiously 5 days a week. It just seemed like he was aging too fast. The puzzle started coming together when his urologist sent a testosterone level a couple months ago, and found that it was zero.

Zero. That just doesn't happen.

A trip to the endocrinologist, some blood test and an MRI, and we had our answer. Poppa has a pituitary tumor.

Now, in a way, this was good news, and we both knew it. If you're going to have a brain tumor, this is the one you want. It's almost never malignant, and it's curable. But we also knew this; Poppa needs surgery, or else he's going to lose his vision. For a man as fiercely independant and important to this family as Poppa, that was a scary proposition. I knew that the surgery he needed was a routine operation, one that his neurosurgeon wasn't going to lose a lot of sleep over. But, as a surgeon, I also know that sometimes even in the most routine operations, terrible, devastating things can and sometimes do happen. And I've lost a lot of sleep thinking about those things this week.

Poppa had his surgery today, and I've been trying to stay busy and not think about it too much. Tonight the call came from Mom that he's out of surgery, and it went well. He's awake, he's alert, he's perfectly stable, he can see, and his pain is under control. Other than a swollen nose, which for him is only a slight exacerbation of a lifelong affliction, he looks perfectly fine.

And I can breathe again.

Poppa, I'm sorry we can't be there with you. You're in our prayers. And we are all just so incredibly relieved that you're alright. We love you.

Pretty hair

2008-12-15T19:58:00.005-05:00

Nora requested "pretty hair" tonight. Alas, she has me for a mother, so this is what she got.

Let's look at that from another angle, shall we?

Once she was beautified, Nora went to work on me. But, alas, she has me for a mother, so there are not, nor ever will be pictures of that moment. Sorry, kid.

Cranky

2008-12-14T19:09:00.002-05:00

I'm actually referring to me with that title. I've had a long, rough weekend of working, then coming home and doing all the work I didn't have time to finish during my shift. So, I'm tired and crotchety and need a hug.
But on the upside, Nora told me the other day, "Mommy pretty. Mommy nice flower." That has to be good, right?

Duck!

2008-12-08T20:11:00.002-05:00

Nora had a lot to say tonight. I often wonder how much of the jabber is her processing her day by way of telling Mom about it. I have a healthy measure of Momguilt (yes, it's all one word) about leaving her at daycare every day, so it helps me to think that she's learning something while she's there.

This has been especially noticeable since she's been spending a little time in the two-year-old room. Suddenly, there is talk about potties and a sometimes-not-so-desirable ability to remove articles of clothing. While nothing like cousin Lydia's nudity phase, she has managed a couple of surprise attacks. Tonight, Eric found a poopy diaper on the floor and a soiled naked bum hot-footing it away from him. I was called in from kitchen duty as reinforcements. I would like it to be widely known that I managed to keep a straight face.

She also has a newly expanded vocabulary since being exposed to the two-year-olds. I can tell you for a fact that those kids really like the word "butt." Some other phrases that have induced shock and awe just this evening:
"That mine. This yours."
"Need more orange. Booool [bowl] is empty."
"Is Nora nice?" This was thrown out immediately after a time out.
"No Mommy. More Daddy. Daddy play with Nora." Please note the period, not question mark, at the end of this one.

We ended the evening with stories, as usual. Tonight, she wanted to read "Corduroy," "Noisy Nora" and a new one, "Where the Wild Things Are." That was the first reading for "Wild Things" and a repeat performance was immediately requested. I'm a touch anxious that there may be nightmares to come from that one. She already has night terrors between once and three times a night. I'm not entirely sure how I would distinguish shrieks induced by the teeth-gnashing and eye-rolling of "Wild Things" from the shrieks induced by whatever it is that induces them now. Besides, Nora looked at the first monster in the book and matter-of-factly declared it, "Lazlo."

So far, so good. She gave her hugs and kisses, settled down in her crib with bum in the air and went to bed without a peep. Then, about ten minutes later, I heard from her room, "Duck!" Then, silence. And much quieter, a minute later, "Kack, kack."