Life Among The Crazies

This picture, imperfect as it is, struck my funny bone yesterday.

I was looking through pictures to blog, and realizing that a GOOD picture of Nora looking at the camera is tough to get these days, since she's in CONSTANT motion... but getting both of us at the same time is, well, virtually impossible.

We're constantly doing something around here. My school, Brian's work, our house stuff, our trips to the zoo with Nora. Teaching her all the things that she wants to learn -- she's talking a little more each day -- it all just makes each day blaze by.

This past Friday we went to the zoo and spent some time down by the elephants, but Nora spent an incredible amount of time just running around, not looking at anything to speak of. But in the kids play area where a number of statues of smaller animals exist, a couple of Dads were standing in the middle, wrangling their four kids, when Nora walked up to the elephant and I said "Nora, give the elephant some LOVE", and Nora went up to the elephant, nuzzled it and said "Ohhh."

The Dads melted.

School's busy, but I'm getting all A's. Nora's growing, learning colors, shapes, letters and loving music, singing and dancing. She's 20 months old today, and definitely a strong-willed toddler careening towards her two's as fast as time will let her.

Here's a few things from this week:

From my friend Gerry's comment the other day that Nora should be on "What Not To Wear -- Toddler Edition", we find ourselves having to agree. This makes me remember days of Hannah's stripes/spots/plaid get-ups from her toddlerhood, and Miriam's various shades of pink/purple/red concoctions and we realize our daughter didn't fall far from the P/M family tree in the bad fashion decisions at an early age.

The good news is, Hannah and Miriam are now gorgeous teenagers with much better taste, so we maintain hope...

The difference in her clothing is that when Brian dresses her, she ends up in a dress with pants and a hat because "that's what she wanted to wear". When I dress her, I say "Nora, come here." HA. And the results are staggering. Here, we have her dressed in an outfit that makes parents at the zoo say "Oh, what a cute little girl," instead of "Someone should call this in..." Don'tcha think?


That's it from here!