Bryce

It's really been a whole week since I last posted? I guess it makes sense; it's been a busy one.

It all started on Friday of last week when my brother called to tell me that he and his 9-months-pregnant wife were heading to the hospital to be "monitored" again for potential pre-eclampsia. As it turned out, Marie DID have pre-eclampsia (severe pre-eclampsia, actually) and she was admitted to be induced.

I was on call to be there to take photos, but things moved very slowly from Friday night through the whole day Saturday. Tyler finally called me around 7:00 p.m. on Saturday to say that things were picking up, so I decided to head down to the hospital. Unfortunately for them, things continued to move pretty slow... and long story short, the baby wasn't born until nearly 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. It was a looooong night for everyone, but especially Marie! I got about an hour of sleep on Saturday night, so I was pretty dead to the world on Sunday (as was everyone else in our family).

Without further ado, here's a little peek at our newest nephew. His name is Bryce.

My dad drove up on Saturday morning to get here for the birth (needless to say, he made it with plenty of time to spare!), so he stayed with us all week. He just left this morning. So this week, we've just been busy with family--hanging out with my dad, going to the hospital, working, etc.

It's always sad to see my dad leave at the end of a visit, since he loves seeing Nora (and Hunter, and now Bryce) so much. But we've been doing a lot of eating out and running around and generally being out of sorts, so it'll be nice to get back into our normal daily routine. Too bad we're heading into a super busy weekend! We have a wedding and then a family party for my cousin who is visiting from Shanghai.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the blogging groove!

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Summer Lovin'

At dinnertime on Sunday, I realized that it had been one of those weekends when I hadn't taken any real photos of our happy little girl. To make matters worse, I hadn't taken any photos of her during the week, either--with the exception of iPhone pics, of course. Thankfully, there was still plenty of time (and daylight, yay summer!) to fix that.

After dinner, we head outside to find a backyard set for exploring, toys to be played with, and... beautiful light. I even busted out my favorite lens (the "nifty fifty" 50mm f/1.8) for the occasion.

While I'm sharing, I figured I should probably do a little update on Miss Nora, since I haven't posted many stories or updates on her recently. I certainly haven't been great at chronicling her second year of life in written format (I did monthly posts her first year), but hopefully I've at least hit the highlights. Now... first, I want to address language, since we've seemingly been picking up words left and right lately (nevermind that most of them still seem to start with "B" and "M"). :)

Nora currently says:
- Dada, Mama, Tessa
- No, Yeah
- Uh oh
- "Sssssss" = Shhhh (hush)
- "Muh" = More (with the sign language, too)
- "Boon" = Balloon
- "Buh-buh" = Bubbles
- "Moo" = Cow (She will point to random pictures of cows--like in the dairy section at the store--and say "Moo")
- Bye-bye
- Ball
- "Bloooo" = Blue
- Bobo (the long dog toys from the PetSmart commercials. Nora loves giving it to Tessa)
- "Peez" = Please
- "Too Too" = Peek-a-boo
- Diaper (I'm not even sure how to phonetically spell what she says for this, haha)
- "Dat" = That. She uses it as an answer AND a question (like "what's that?")

She also makes animal noises: Rahhh (bear), Moo, Baa, Meow, Ruff (dog), Ssssss (snake)

It's hard to remember them all, really. I know I'm forgetting at least a handful--I guess I'll have to keep coming back and updating over the next day or two for my own sake!

We're currently going through a pretty good period as far as tantrums are concerned. Last month, we had a week or two when tantrums were CONSTANTLY occurring, over pretty much everything. Try to get her to sit down for a meal? Tantrum. Declare a meal over? Tantrum. Get dressed? Tantrum. Time to leave the house? Tantrum. Get in car seat? Tantrum. Going inside from playing outside? Tantrum. Bathtime? Tantrum. Bedtime? Tantrum.

All of this, accompanied by biting, hitting, and thrashing about.

IT WAS FUN.

Of course, she's nearly two (OMG, sniff sniff), so those things still happen (including the hitting, and sometimes biting), but I would describe the incidents as occasional instead of constant now. MAYBE once a day? Even her daycare provider mentioned to me this week that she has been a lot better with tantrums lately. I'm sure we'll be due for another round of fun soon, but until then, we're enjoying our (usually) happy girl.

In Nora's eyes, Daddy is the bee's knees right now, you guys. I would say that up until this point in her life, she always preferred me--just slightly, but still, it was there--but I've seen the "Daddy's Girl" side of her begin to play first fiddle. It's actually been sad for me and a little tough for me to deal with at times, if I'm being honest. Last night, I was planning to put her to bed but she just wanted Michael, so she started crying and hitting me. She even bit me on the shoulder (which resulted in her going to bed with NO bedtime routine with EITHER of us, by the way). My feelings were hurt and I even said something to Michael like, "That always happens when she wants you, she never does that with me."

And then sure enough, this morning, she wanted me. She cried when I gave her to Michael to take downstairs for breakfast. Huh. Guess I was wrong about that.

So I guess she just has moments where she prefers one of us over the other. I don't know whether it's best to just "go with it" (when possible) or if it's best not to cater to those preferences. There is so much to think about when raising little ones, isn't there?

At this age, Nora knows SO MUCH. She can point to probably hundreds of different things when asked to do so. Body parts. Animals. Objects. People. Characters. We're working on colors; for right now, she thinks every color is "bloooo!" :)

She follows commands and is actually a pretty good listener most of the time. She uses our names (Mama/Dada) to get our attention.

She continues to looooove Tessa. She brings Tessa toys and "hands" them to her. She giggles at Tessa's antics. She pets Tessa. She tries to pick her up.

Nora loves all things outdoors. She likes to systematically bring everything (toys) out of the garage, one by one. She's not so much a fan of bringing them back in. She likes to scribble with sidewalk chalk, and loves to color with crayons as well.

In her playroom, Nora will set up a tea party all by herself. She takes stuffed animals and dolls and places them in the chairs at her table, and pulls out plates, cupcakes and sprinkles from her cupcake kitchen. She "pours" tea from her tea pot, and pretends to drink it. She also loves taking care of her baby doll--holding, feeding, kissing her. She brings her to us whenever her little hat pops off, because baby NEEDS her hat, don't you know?

Nora is OBSESSED with the alphabet. She loves to "sing" it--every letter is "dah" but she does carry the tune! She'll get the song started on her activity table and then dance. Or, she'll go to the book shelf and pull out her alphabet book, turning it to the last page where the entire alphabet is displayed, pointing to letters as the song plays. She's not pointing to the correct ones, yet, but the fact that she knows that letters go hand-in-hand with the song is adorable to me. She'll also point to the alphabet up on her playroom wall. One morning, she even pointed to the letters on Michael's shirt. She's a smart little cookie.

She will "fill in the blanks" to her "Moo, Baa, La La La" book by Sandra Boynton.

At 22 months, she is still shy. She still gives the cold shoulder to people--even our families--at first. She does warm up pretty well, though (usually). I was "painfully shy" (so said my kindergarten teacher) as a child so I am not surprised or concerned about this at all.

She is stubborn and determined. There is a strong will inside of her, despite the shy exterior.

She laughs. And giggles. And subsequently gets the hiccups.

Nora is a pretty darn good eater. She goes through phases, just like most toddlers, but for every night when she won't eat anything, there will be a night when she will eat EVERYTHING. We have followed our pediatrician's advice from the beginning--to always offer her what we're eating, and to not allow ourselves to become short-order cooks. If she refuses what she is being served, she goes without anything until the next meal or snack. It seems to be working really well for us, and it's not like she's going to starve. She still has some control over her meals--whether or not to eat them--but we will not let her control what that is, if that makes sense.

There is so much more I could say. And so much I'm sure I've forgotten that I *would* say. But this would go on forever.

Overall, our little Nora Grace is just a healthy, happy kid. Who is dangerously close to turning two years old already. I can't quite believe it's getting to be time to plan another party.

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Kitchen Floor Debate: Part II

It's actually ridiculous, how hard this floor decision has been on us. I feel like I am being slowly tortured!

I asked, and you answered. (Thank you.) I remained neutral in my last post so as not to influence anybody one way or another. And we received lots and lots of comments about our three options: (non-matching) hardwoods, tile, and cork.

Let me back up for a second and tell you quickly how we got here. We knew when we first walked through this house last year that we hated the parquet and would be replacing it. We assumed right off the bat that we would be doing that with tile. It wasn't until the start of our kitchen remodel that we started to consider hardwoods--especially those that don't match our existing hardwoods in the dining and living rooms. Then we got hung up on that for a while, thinking that was the way to go... but with a DARK hardwood.

There was just always a nagging voice in the back of my head that just didn't like the look of it. Hence the reason we've been dragging our feet on this.

So we got back on the horse again this past weekend and visited another flooring shop. The guy there swayed us to the opposite side of the color spectrum--to lighter flooring to bring more light into our fairly dark kitchen. BUT perhaps he swayed us a little too far to the light. We came home with natural-colored oak hardwood samples, but we also came home with cork. They look nice and bright, BUT... they eliminate a lot of the contrast we were hoping for with our newly painted white cabinets. Also to consider? We plan on getting a white kitchen table and chairs. It would certainly be a lot of white, my friends.

Some of you pointed out that you thought the tiles and cork that we picked out and showed you yesterday were too light with our cabinets. And as much as I love looking at the bright light reflecting off of those light floors... I do think you may be right.

As for the non-matching hardwoods: We are thoroughly convinced that this is not the way to go. We were already pretty convinced prior to putting that out there for you all, but now that we see that you all UNANIMOUSLY voted down the hardwoods, it is settled.

That leaves us with tile and cork. And here's the thing: I love the look of tile. But I absolutely hate everything else about it.

I like the look of cork. But I love everything else about it. For those who are unfamiliar with cork or asked about it, it's very similar to hardwoods, actually. It "behaves" similarly. You can scratch it, you can dent it--but really no more easily than you can oak floors. It is sealed like hardwoods are. And it's fine in high traffic and areas with potential moisture like kitchens or bathrooms. Because cork is actually naturally moisture-resistant. And antibacterial.

SO. After our shopping this weekend, and the narrowing down we did yesterday, I was leaning toward the cork but couldn't get behind the color. The one I posted yesterday--I was just really bothered by the pink undertones. Today, I began thinking that I do like cork... just maybe not THIS cork. And so I went shopping again. I picked up lots and lots of cork samples. I brought them all home, then laid out ALL of the tiles we picked up yesterday, too. We started from scratch (well, at least with the samples we have at home). We looked at everything again with new eyes.

And I'm back with two new favorites. One cork. One tile. Both a bit darker than what I showed you yesterday.

I am naturally leaning toward the cork since I kind of hate tile. Except it's pretty. But I still really hate it. And a lot of you served to reinforce all of the things I hate about tile. Especially the "hard to keep clean" part, because lord knows I am not a good housekeeper.

Here's the darker tile. And no, the tile isn't blurry--that's the way it really looks. Which I kind of find a bit irritating, so if we DO decide to go this route, I might pick a similar color palette but a different tile, because this sort of gives me a migraine to look at.

{Next to our hardwoods}

{Up against cabinets--although the actual cabinets aren't this stark white, we still have to paint this beadboard--and also showing our countertops}

And here is the cork:

{Next to our hardwoods}

{Next to our carpet}

{With cabinets/countertops}

I feel like I am never going to feel 100% certain with this decision, regardless of what we choose. And that's a difficult position to be in. But we are trying to remind ourselves that in the grand scheme of things, I don't think we can really choose wrong--whatever we do will be a gigantic improvement over the ugly parquet.

Now that I've confessed my stance on the whole thing--that we're heavily leaning toward cork--I'm interested to hear what you all think about the darker shades compared to the ones I showed you yesterday. And has anyone else been swayed toward the cork like I have been?

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Kitchen Floor Debate

We've kind of been dragging our feet on this whole kitchen renovation project. In case you hadn't noticed--it has been FIVE MONTHS since we began this thing. There are only a few things coming between us and a finished kitchen. Most of these things are small--trim, closet doors, some minor painting. But there is one BIG thing that has been holding us up for a while now: THE FLOORS.

At first, we were waiting until we had a decent amount of money in the floor fund. But then that happened, and we still didn't move forward. Why? Well, because we can't decide what to do.

Hardwoods. Tile. Cork. There are too many options, and pros and cons with each.

But I'm getting tired of staring at the ugly parquet, so it's time to make some decisions and get things moving. My new goal? To have a new floor in by Nora's birthday (September 11).

Before we pull the trigger on anything, though, I wanted to put our choices out there and give some complete strangers the chance to weigh in. But before I get to the current "finalists" for the floor, I want to give you lay of the land so you can see what we're working with here. Allow me to give you a mini tour.

View from our front entryway. See that parquet? That is what we're getting rid of. The kitchen is at the end of the hallway there.

This is the view to the right of the door, going into the formal living room (currently a playroom for our family). The playroom (and the dining room beyond that) have nice, recently refinished hardwoods that we like and are keeping.

The view with the front door closed, so you can see the relative size of the doorway into the playroom.

View to the left of the door. A little bit of parquet, then our stairs (which are hardwood with a carpet runner, if that matters).

View looking left from standing in the doorway into the kitchen from the entry hallway. The doorway with the baby gate leads into the family room (carpeted).

See?

View of the family room. Pardon the mess.

View from the opposite side of the family room. You can see in the back left there--we have some more parquet to get rid of. To the left there is the entry from our garage, and the open door is our (tiny) powder room. We're considering two things: 1) connecting the kitchen and the garage entry/bathroom with the new flooring. In other words, we'd have sort of a walkway along the back of the room here with the new flooring (we'd tear up a strip of the carpet there). 2) We might leave the separation with the carpet, but expand the garage entryway flooring a little bit out into the family room--maybe a semi-circle type shape over there on the far end of the fireplace. Make sense?

Closer up of the area where we'd want to expand the entry floor (one way or another).

Back into the kitchen (view from the doorway from the family room). HEYY! Look, white cabinets. I don't think I've even shown you guys this yet. Hellooooo, informal kitchen update. :) Straight ahead is the dining room.

Dining room/kitchen doorway, where the traditional hardwood meets the parquet.

Alright, so hopefully that gives you at least an idea of what we're replacing, and where? Let's move on to the flooring choices we've been considering.

At first, we were considering going dark with the new flooring (nice contrast against the white cabinets!) but because we don't get a ton of natural light in this area of the house--thanks to having a lot of trees--we have decided recently that we think we want to go lighter. Really brighten up the space more, and open it up. With that said, let's take a look at some of the top contenders. With each of them, I'll show them to you up against the carpet, up against the hardwood, and up against the white of the cabinets.

TILE #1 - a square 20" tile

(This one above shows the most tile detail.)

(That's a shadow from the doorway on the lower left.)

(Tile on left, cork on right. More about the cork below.)

TILE #2 - a rectangular, but still large tile (I think it's 18" long, don't know the width off hand)

It's actually very similar to the first tile, but the real difference here is the shape. Square vs. rectangular.

With either tile option, we'd be using a darker grout so that it's easier to keep clean (or it'll at least look cleaner, ha).

CORK

This particular cork comes in "planks" instead of squares.

(Cork on right.)

HARDWOODS - A natural colored oak. No stain, just clear poly. I think these are 3.25" planks.

OK, opinions? Here are some of the pros and cons of each we've been discussing.

Tile: Pros
- It's a completely different kind of flooring than what we have in the other rooms.
- Nice for both kitchens and bathrooms
- Neutral. For resale value, most people like tile
- Durable
- If we change the configuration of the kitchen down the line, it will be easier to "patch" areas that were not originally tiled (like under the peninsula or something)

Tile: Cons
- Cold
- Hard--can be uncomfortable to stand on for long periods of time. Small children can hit their heads or teeth on it (ouch ouch), and uncomfy to crawl or sit on.
- If you drop dishes or glass containers, they are most likely goners

-----------------------------------

Hardwood: Pros
- Can be refinished in any color down the line. For us, for future owners, whatever.
- Longevity. Hardwoods can (will?) stay pretty much forever.
- "Softer" - for feet and small children
- We have other hardwoods throughout the house
- If you drop something, it stands a chance

Hardwood: Cons
- They wouldn't match our existing hardwoods. We wonder if that will look weird to us (and others)
- Because they don't match, does it look like a bad remodel?
- Hardwoods scratch, dent, etc.
- Would be difficult to "patch" down the line if we change configuration of the kitchen

-----------------------------------

Cork: Pros
- Eco-friendly
- Very soft underfoot
- It is "self-healing" if there is a scratch or dent
- Could also be "patched" pretty easily if we do a big kitchen remodel and change layout of the room
- Easier install (floating floor)

Cork: Cons
- Not as common--will others hate it/think it's weird? Is it good/bad for resale?
- I've heard mixed reviews about how it holds up to dogs. Tessa is light, though, so I'm not that worried?

-----------------------------------

What are we not thinking of? What are your experiences? What is your opinion based on the pics?

I'm not going to tell you how we're leaning, because I don't want to persuade anyone one way or another. Oh, and we're about 99.9% sure we are hiring someone to do this, regardless of which option we choose, which is why ease of install didn't factor into the pros/cons.

Let the debate start... now. :)

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Discouraged

Lately, it seems as though as soon as I blog about something, it turns to shit.

Take, for instance, my valiant effort at taking up some good exercise--and attempting to learn to love running in the process--with my foray into a C25K program. I posted this after running Week 2, Day 2, and I was doing well. I was getting through the workouts fairly easily. I was *gasp* actually enjoying myself a bit. I felt good.

But in the days after, I noticed that my knees were doing a little bit of screaming as I tried to do simple things. You know, like run up the stairs, squat, or... walk. I dismissed it as a bit of soreness since I've never been a runner. I decided to soldier on, but during that Week 2, Day 3 run, I was hurting pretty badly. I questioned whether I could make it through, but I did. Then I waited a few days (with still sore knees), and completed Week 3, Day 1.

My knees were not happy with me.

I reached out to some friends who are runners and asked if this was normal, if it was a sign of my poor knees being out of shape. They all pointed to my sneakers, asking if I had good ones (I don't). They also advised that I NOT run through the pain, as I would likely just make it worse.

So, I stopped. My (old, unsupportive) sneakers have been neglected for the past few weeks as I try to let my knees heal before starting back up again. I've been shopping--visited a Fleet Feet to get fitted for good sneakers, even--and found out that like a lot of people, my arch collapses under the pressure of my body weight, so I need a more supportive sneaker to help absorb the shock of running. I haven't made the commitment and bought a pair yet--I'm still gawking a little over the $100 price tags (I'm more the "find-$40-sneakers-on-clearance" type of girl).

Before I give up on running completely, I do want to give it another try--so it sounds like I'll have to bite the bullet for some good sneakers. Otherwise, I guess it'll be strictly walking for me, and we'll eventually get an elliptical machine for our basement. I have a hard time believing it is my knees, even though they have given me a few issues throughout my life. I used to do kickboxing and step aerobics (hard on your knees!) classes twice a week and my instructor was the master of jumping lunges, so it's not like my knees have never taken any abuse.

Let's hope new sneakers do the trick.

On a completely separate but equally suck-tastic note, I posted last week about my adventures in square foot gardening. I had been working hard for over a month on this venture, watering, watching, waiting, anticipating. I was so proud and happy to show off my bountiful plants, and all of my baby tomatoes and peppers.

Yeah, well, apparently rabbits and/or squirrels read my blog, because they found my bounty and they STOLE IT ALL. I'm serious, I do not have a single baby ANYTHING on my plants any longer. These rodents PICKED.IT.CLEAN.

I very nearly cried, I'm not going to lie.

So, I don't know what to do. I think the tomato plants will keep producing--they have a number of flower buds left on them at this point--and my zucchini and cucumbers have yet to produce anything yet anyway. My zucchini plants seem to have grown so tall that they are keeling over under their own weight (two of them are now lying on their sides), but I'm hoping that this is normal?

Whoever the culprit is has also been munching on my broccoli leaves, but I guess we'll see what happens there because I'm still not seeing anything resembling actual broccoli coming from them. But my red pepper plant? There is basically nothing left on that guy. He was only producing one pepper anyway, and now he has nothing. Not even any flower buds or shoots that look like they will result in buds. Nothing.

I wonder: what can be done at this point? I am contemplating replanting a few things, but it's mid-July, will they have time to produce before it's too late into the fall? Also, it's clear that I need to build some sort of fence around this thing, but I'm struggling with what exactly to use that will keep both rabbits AND squirrels out--AND give me access to the beds if I need. Until I figure that out, I've been sprinkling everything with cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and/or cayenne pepper to try to deter the little f-ers.

I also put out a pie plate full of water, which sounds ludicrous, but I read that during particularly dry weather--which we've been experiencing, we haven't even mowed our lawn in 2+ weeks!--the rabbits and squirrels will actually steal veggies not because they are hungry, but because they are thirsty. On one of the gardening forums I came across, they suggested that if you provide water, they might be so inclined to leave the veggies alone. Here's hoping. It seems to make sense, since I went so long without them bothering anything, and now they raid the garden like its their job.

So these are my two latest failures in life. I'm trying not to let them get me down! Hopefully I will emerge victorious--with both a completed 5K and a boatload of homegrown vegetables--by fall.

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Crash

I witnessed a horrific motorcycle-SUV accident on my way home tonight.

All I could think about was how lives had been changed in that instant. Both of the men involved--that wasn't how they were planning on spending their evenings. They were supposed to arrive home in their driveways safely, but--because of a fraction of a second in which they suddenly collided--that was not to be.

It's a sobering reminder of how precious life is, no matter how trite that sounds.

Thankfully, I had never seen anything like that before in my life. But there I was, sitting at an intersection. I was two cars back from the intersection, waiting in the left turn lane at a red light. I happened to be looking straight ahead, and all of a sudden I hear the unmistakable sound of metal on metal--a high impact crashing sound. I saw a few small parts of metal fly through the air, and then, horrifyingly, a body. It was then that I realized this was undoubtedly a motorcycle accident, which immediately made it far worse in my head.

I happened to have my phone out of my purse and next to me, so I picked it up and immediately dialed 911, as fast as my shaking hands could manage. Like others around me, I got out of my car, but I didn't run into the intersection, since I had Nora in the backseat. I reported the accident's location to the 911 operator, telling him that an SUV had hit a motorcyclist and that the SUV was now on top of him. In the meantime, people on the scene were screaming--some yelling at the SUV driver to "back up, back up, back up!" off of the victim.

The operator began asking me questions. Ones that I couldn't answer given my distance from the situation. I turned to a nice man next to me and said that I was running up to the intersection, please make sure no one steals my daughter. (Kind of funny, now that the situation is over.) I ran to the accident scene and got my first look at the guy. He had visibly broken bones in his arms, but I could see him moving his arms and legs, and his chest moving up and down. People were trying to keep him from trying to move his neck/head. I told the 911 operator he was breathing, and asked the crowd around how old they thought he was. They said they thought he was mid-40s.

Moments later, the ambulance was on scene, and the 911 operator let me hang up. I noticed the poor SUV driver, sitting on the curb bleeding from his own head. He was older--looked like maybe he was in his late 60s, early 70s. Then he kind of keeled over and someone said they thought he was having a heart attack. I think he was just in shock.

I went back to my car to find Nora playing happily with her toy laptop in the backseat. I was glad that she was so oblivious. I sat in my car, shaking, and called Michael and immediately started crying. Traffic was at a complete stand-still, so I was stuck where I was, just watching as more and more first responders arrived on scene to help.

I have been playing the scene over and over again in my head. The noises, the sights, the people around me. It was just terrifying. I thought the guy was going to die. My first impression was that the SUV had turned into the motorcycle, but as I analyzed it all in my head, I think the motorcyclist actually turned in front of the SUV, not giving himself enough time.

Since then, I've seen one news report about the accident, which says that the motorcyclist has non-life-threatening injuries. Shocking based on what I saw, but I'm obviously hoping it's true. I keep checking for updates. I guess it's probably good news if one never comes.

I saw strangers come together to help a stranger today, which is always a nice reminder of the good in the world. And I obviously hugged my baby a little tighter at bedtime tonight, knowing how lucky we are for every day that we come home together as planned. For every day that we wake up to live another day.

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Happy 4th

Today was a strange day. It's weird to have a Wednesday off, right smack in the middle of the work week. All day, we were confused as to what day it actually was. It felt like a Saturday. It felt like a Sunday.

It was just weird.

We didn't actually do much to celebrate the 4th of July today--just took advantage of the day off by running a few extra errands, spending time with our girl, and being productive around the house during her nap. We did go to my in-laws' for dinner--hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, mac and cheese, and corn on the cob--so that was decidedly a very "American" dinner. :)

Because the holiday fell during the week, some of the surrounding towns scheduled their official celebrations--parades and fireworks--for last weekend. On Saturday morning, my brother was marching with the fire department in one of the parades, so we met my mom (who had Hunter) and my grandma there to watch it.

The parade started pretty early in the day (10 a.m.), but it was definitely warm out, even then. And the parade was no joke--it lasted an hour and a half!

The kids were so, so good. Hunter actually stayed in his stroller THE ENTIRE TIME, which was amazing considering he is 3 years old and tends to be a bit wild (he is a boy, after all). Nora was good in her stroller for about an hour but then she wanted nothing more to do with it so we let her out.

There's Ty! He's the one right there in front, with his hand outstretched toward us.

Nora's first temp tattoo! :) We were given SO.MUCH.CANDY at the parade--all of which we confiscated from Nora before she even had a chance to really see it--so it was refreshing when a local swim club came by with the tats instead! Nora is obsessed with stickers so I figured she would love this, and I was right. She proudly showed it off on her arm for the rest of the weekend (I removed it with rubbing alcohol on Sunday night without issue).

Michael smartly thought to bring chalk in case we had to occupy little ones and keep them in one place for a little bit. It was perfect!

Nora still took in plenty of the parade.

And did some marching of her own.

So cute! And so fun.

It was nice timing, because we were still able to get Nora home in time for her nap--which she REALLY needed, poor kid was worn out after so much activity in the morning!

Sadly, we went another year without any fireworks. It's just too hard for us with a child as young as Nora. The fireworks around here don't start until 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. and it's just WAY too far past Nora's bedtime. Do any of you brave fireworks with small children? I just can't see it working out well. And to get a babysitter (one of the grandmas!) would be possible, but we would feel too badly because they'd have to deal with Tessa, who barks and trembles like crazy the entire time (she hates fireworks!).

I hope you all had a happy 4th of July. Don't forget to send thoughts--or a little prayer--up for my brother and all of the other men and women currently serving our country so that we (and others) can continue enjoying the freedom that we do.

And just for fun, check out my little Nora, one year ago today. How is this possible?

Now, back to work tomorrow. Whaaa? :)

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