Phone Pix

This first picture of Nora is still in my phone...I posted it on my Mommy's board and Suzi said something about the "Frankenstein walking" she was doing, and I've never been able to forget it or erase this picture from my phone. It's just so proto-Nora to her walking skills today...

As you can see by the second picture, her face has matured so much in just 4 short months, it's amazing, isn't it?

Nothing like the saying "They grow so fast" has been truer as it is when you watch your own children grow. I was telling Oma (Brian's Mom) how Nora's so tall, she's not going to be able to sleep stretched out in her pack & play much longer...These things are supposed to last a couple of years?! Not in this family...not with these genes...

Speaking of which, Moppet Miriam has grown up so much, it's amazing to me...I was scanning a few baby/cute kid pictures of her and her sister Hannah, and their cousins Erik and Miriam, and in 9 short years, Miriam's gone from pre-Kindy moppet with a head of hair to young adult (I will not dare to venture to call her a lady, she'd probably kill me with her Peterson laser stare).

My apologies in advance to my friend Shannon, who I was dying to see in Everett on the way home from Vernon...We had barely gotten on the road when we realized that we'd hit Seattle in time for my Favorite Restaurant On The Planet, Thai Heaven (52 Roy Street, Seattle, WA 98109, order Paradise Chicken, you'll thank me later).

So we did. I love this picture of Brian with Nora. They're happy. I'm in my happy place. When I die, I'm going to Thai Heaven, and that's that.

I've mentioned before the drive around Western Washington and Oregon was crazy...but the craziest part seemed to be Oma and Opa's driveway.

Sister-in-law Judy got my Mom and Hannah and Miriam there in one piece, but dang if she didn't get hung up in the driveway.

I believe she was quoted as saying "I got it this far. Someone else can dig it out and get it the last 20 feet." And they abandoned ship. I called Brian and Trevor who were out in the Subaru and told them not to come ripping into the driveway too fast...because their shovels were needed and they'd need to move the car.

There was the drive home to contend with too...This car was along the freeway in Everett, and pretty much sums up the depth of snowness that we got.

I can't call it "the white stuff" or if my former editor John DeLeon from The Seattle Times ever reads this, he'll drive down here and shoot me himself.

My Mom took this sweet picture of Nora and me on Christmas Day when she was in a rare snuggly mood with Mommy. Those fleeting post-nap moments before the lights come on and she's back to Full Tilt are wonderful.

And there's got to be one last bath of '08 picture...Last night taken well before New Year's came. Our Nora was in bed by 7, and we weren't far behind her.

Happy New Year Everyone!