Nora is 2

It was a good day. We celebrated Nora's second birthday.

Up until yesterday, we weren't sure what our plans were for today. Last year, Nora's birthday was on a Sunday, so there wasn't any question that we'd be with her, but with it being a Tuesday this year, we didn't know exactly what to do. Send her to daycare as usual and go to work? Take the day off to spend with her? Half and half?

Ultimately, we made the decision to stay home with her and I am SO GLAD we did. Once we got her out of bed this morning, I knew in my heart that if I had to drop her off at daycare today, I would've felt terrible about it. In retrospect, I don't know why I even considered going to work!

So we made the day special.

We started by going out to breakfast together, and ordered Nora her own gigantic pancake. We brought a couple of candles with us.

Although Nora can be a champion eater--especially when it comes to yummy things like pancakes!--she only ate about 1/3 of this thing. :) The rest came home with us for leftovers... she can eat it for two more breakfasts!

Nora has learned to blow on food to cool it down (or at least attempt to), so she was also a natural at trying to blow out her candles. She doesn't quite have the wind capacity to get the job done, but it's sure cute to watch her try. :)

After breakfast, I marveled at how big she looks in her car seat these days. It just kind of hit me in that moment, like holy crap--she is not a baby anymore.

She has had congestion and a runny nose this week, so here she is holding her tissue. Half the time, when we try to wipe her nose, she says her equivalent of "I do it" and makes us give her the tissue to wipe herself. Craziness.

We bought Nora a playhouse for our backyard back in June--which was our early birthday present to her--but yesterday, we realized that because her party isn't until Saturday, she wouldn't have anything to open on her birthday. To fix that, we made a quick run through the toy aisle at Walmart and got her a couple of little things. Hey, we couldn't resist. :)

So when we got home from breakfast we let her open one of her presents.

Yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper. One of these days, I will remember to keep birthday paper on hand.

She actually did a really great job of ripping it open herself, which made me happy--I can't wait to see her with her gifts at her party!

It's just a little cash register by Little Tykes. She was pleased. :)

We played with it for quite a while today. It's been a really long time since she's had new toys--Christmas, really--so it's fun for all of us!

We moved into her playroom to play and she made a complete mess of it. She pulled all of her books off the shelves, and "read" by herself quietly. I tried to get her to sit with me to read a few books and she FREAKED OUT. Miss Independent strikes again. She just wants to do everything herself.

After a nap, we got her up and ready to make her first-ever trip to the zoo. We figured that since she enjoyed the aquarium in Boston so much, she would likely get a kick out of the animals at the zoo.

We were right. First stop was with the monkeys, and she was LOVING it.

She made a lot of her animal sounds, and as you can see in some of these pics, she even brought along one of her Little People ZooTalker animals with her. In fact, she brought four with her into the car, but we pared it down to one for the actual trip through the zoo so we wouldn't lose anyone. :) Before we left the house, we were talking up our visit to the zoo and she ran to her ZooTalker zoo and started grabbing animals.

In other words, although challenging at times, there are so many reasons why this age is awesome. :)

Here she is, waving at the crocodiles. She kept saying "Hiii!" randomly to all of the animals.

When we first got to the tiger exhibit, this guy was pacing back and forth. It was actually a little disconcerting (but duh, he's behind a fence for a reason). Next thing we know, he goes and climbs into the bath to relax. Ha!

All in all, we were probably only at the zoo for an hour or so, but Nora was eventually DONE. She seemed tired, actually, which wasn't shocking since she didn't nap for as long as she typically does.

On our way home, we stopped into the grocery store for Nora to pick out a special treat for dessert. I am making a cake for her for Saturday, so I didn't make one for today. She picked out a very patriotic cookie. You'll see. :)

Back at the house, Michael played and colored with Nora while I made her birthday dinner--quinoa and cheese!

Excuse the mess of an open closet behind her. We are still working on getting things back in order around here after the floor installation. I still have to give an update on that!

Nora also chowed down on some corn on the cob, and then it was the moment she had been waiting for... cookie time.

How cool is it that she picked (all by herself) a decidedly "God Bless America"-esque cookie for her birthday on 9/11? :)

Nora made a huge mess of herself with that blue frosting, so it was time for a bath. But first we let her open her other gift from us.

Foam bath letters that stick to the side when wet. They were immediately put to good use. Again, she loves them.

At bedtime, we will typically read her a few books with her in our laps, then turn her around to snuggle with us. Tonight, as I read, she suddenly turned around in my lap to snuggle in and rest her head on my shoulder. She was tired; this was her way of telling me to stop reading, she just wanted to go to bed. :) I took that as a sign that she had a good day.

Despite my best efforts to be strong, I got choked up as I put her into her crib. I held her against me and felt the weight and size of her body, remembering how much lighter and smaller it was last year, and imagining how much bigger and heavier it will be a year from now.

It is so bittersweet that they have to grow up.

On another note... I wrote a post last year about what it is like to have a child born on 9/11. I point you back in that direction now, in case you've never read it. It's a post that I'm particularly proud of because it is so important to me.

People want to reflect and be sad and remember those America lost on 9/11/01. I get that, and I know how important that is. The events of that day were undeniably horrible and tragic. I understand that people don't ever want to forget. I don't ever want to forget. But now that I have the perspective that I do, I just try to urge people to remember that there are things on 9/11 that are worth celebrating. The stigma that some attach to the date is unfair.

Since last year, we've had a few experiences during which someone has found out Nora's birth date and made awful comments to us about it. And every time, I just think to myself--that is my daughter's birthday you're talking about. Would you want someone to say something like that to you about your birthday? I wish people would instead think before they speak. Truly, my wish for everyone is to have a reason to celebrate on 9/11. It doesn't make what happened go away--it doesn't make us forget--but to have something positive to focus on is a blessing.

And now I shall digress for another year. :)

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet girl. I love you more than ever.

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I Think I'll Go to Boston

My 30th Birthday.

It started with an early morning wake-up call in the form of our alarm clock. We got up, showered, put the finishing touches on packing, got everything in the car, and woke Nora. She was in pretty good spirits--I think she knew we were going on an adventure. :)

Nora enjoyed breakfast--dry cereal and a banana--on the way to the airport.

We checked in, got ourselves through security smoothly (despite carrying on EVERYTHING, no checked bags!), and arrived at the gate comfortably, but with fairly minimal time to waste. This was the first time that Nora was old enough to be aware of where we were and what was happening. We talked about the planes out the window, and she mimicked the word, "Pane!"

Soon enough, it was time for us to board and find out that traveling with a toddler is A LOT harder than traveling with a still-pretty-squishy baby. HOLY COW. It wasn't long before I knew that we had made the right decision to take a SHORT trip for Nora's last "infant in lap" flight, because girlfriend would not sit still. And needed to touch EVERYTHING. She put the tray table up and down about 45 times before we even took off.

And through trying to distract her with movies on the iPad, we discovered that they didn't hold her attention nearly as well as they usually do since she couldn't hear it very well. Awesome. (I'm now on the hunt for some kind of toddler headphones.)

We pretty much let her be a monkey (without disrupting any passengers around us) and play with any and all of our electronics, until we had to prepare for landing. At that point, we did what any parent desperate to keep their child in one place would do. We brought out the SNACKS. The NEW snacks. Kix was not working anymore, so Nora had her first-ever granola bar.

As expected, she thoroughly enjoyed it. So, the lesson here is to bring not only snacks, but TREATS. Things that you never let them eat otherwise. Take note, my fellow toddler parents.

Soon, we were in Boston, collecting our bags from gate check, and making our way through the airport to find the T. Got ourselves multi-day passes, got on the train, transferred trains, and then very easily found our hotel (Doubletree Boston Downtown, right across the street from Tufts Medical Center on Washington Street). Go us. It was about 11-11:30 at this point, so it was a bit early--but we were lucky in that we were able to check in. Got a little settled, then wanted to go find lunch.

By this point, Nora was overdue for a nap, so I reclined her in the stroller--shout-out for the fully-reclining Chicco Liteway--and we walked. Ten minutes in, and she was out like a light.

We walked for a bit longer down Stuart Street to check out some restaurants, but ultimately decided to do something easy and VERY casual. Slices of pizza at a small place called Boston Kitchen Pizza, right by the hospital. Nora slept through the whole thing.

We tried to make a quick pit-stop back at the hotel to change my shoes (my flip-flops were already hurting me), and Nora woke up at that point. Not a long nap, but oh well, it's vacation. With sexy sneakers now on my feet, we made our way back out with no real destination or purpose in mind. Just good ol' fashioned exploring.

Nora had already spent a good part of the day restrained in some form or fashion, so we wanted to check out Boston Common and let her run a bit (if she so desired). We were making our way over there and were very close when all of a sudden I noticed this woman--who was walking toward us--start slowing her pace and pointing at me. I looked at her and she said to me, "Wait. I know you." If I'm being completely honest, I was thinking, "Nope, you don't. Mistaken identity!" And I almost told her as much. But then she said, "I read your blog!"

Stop the presses. This is the first time that anyone has actually stopped me on the street because of my blog, y'all. Some of you have confessed to spotting me (or us) out and about--close to home, and on our travels--but you've always told me after the fact. No one has ever actually said hi!

So, Kelly, thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you. Maybe others will be encouraged to say hi in the future, if you can attest to the fact that I'm nice and very approachable. We appreciate you saying hi and welcoming us to Boston. And, of course, thanks for reading.

After a short stop-and-chat, we were at Boston Common.

We did let Nora run a little.

We even took her to a playground, but it was SUPER crowded and our girl was mostly frozen in place, overwhelmed by everyone there was to look at.

We stopped by Cheers to take a few pics.

Then we went back toward the green space and checked out the Boston Public Garden. :)

It was a beautiful day, and a very pretty spot. What a great time of year to visit Boston.

More snacks. I swear, they are key for traveling with a toddler. KEY. (In this case, goldfish crackers. Another thing we don't give her at home.)

We walked around more and got our bearings a bit. Found a CVS to stock up on a few things. And then, honestly, by this point, we were just tired. It was mid-afternoon but it had been an early morning for us. We decided to go back to rest up a bit and relax in the hotel room. Michael ran out and bought us some beer.

We had a mini 30th birthday happy hour (complete with sippy cup in the background, woot woot!) while I got to read a million--OK, not a million--Facebook birthday messages and text messages.

Once we were sufficiently hungry again, we left in search of dinner, and ended up at this pub called M.J. O'Connor's.

I got to eat outside on my birthday--something that I love to do, weather permitting--and we enjoyed some time together as a family. We ordered Nora her own meal for the very first time (homemade mac and cheese, which she DEVOURED), had another beer, and some good sandwiches for ourselves.

Happy 30th Birthday to me.

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Thirty Eve

Today is the last day of my 20s.

I'm not really one to freak out over such things, but I have to admit that it's kind of surreal. My age has begun with a "twenty" for quite some time now. Twenty-one... Twenty-five... Twenty-nine. And tomorrow, it'll just be... thirty.

30.

How different.

I think I've accomplished everything I always dreamed of accomplishing in the decade of my 20s. I graduated college. I've been gainfully employed--in three different jobs--within a career that I really enjoy most of the time. I met and married a good man. I bought and sold a condo. I had a beautiful baby, thus becoming a mother. I bought a house. I've taken many vacations and spent many hours laughing with good friends and family.

It's been a good decade, y'all.

I know that thirty is not old. To an 8-year-old--or even an 18-year-old--yes. But in the grand scheme of life, thirty is still very much young. In my eyes, I have nothing to complain about. Still, it is odd to remember so well things that happened in high school and realize that it was 12-15 years ago. Or reminisce with a friend how our friendship first began in 7th grade social studies class and realize that was 18 years ago. Or how first grade was 24 years ago. I mean, how is that even possible?

I had a coworker tell me today that thirty is when you really figure it all out. "Thirty is when true confidence comes," she told me. In that way, thirty feels empowering.

I don't know what the next decade will bring. All I know is that when I think back on the transition from my teens into my twenties, and compare it to now... life has changed. A lot. So I can't even begin to imagine what "Forty Eve" will look like, ten years from this moment. I have much to look forward to. In that way, my thirties sound exciting.

I've tried to bid a fond farewell to 29. I kept trying to think of an excuse to say, "I'm 29" today--for one last time--but it wasn't easy to work it naturally into conversation. So you know what?

I'm 29.

And tomorrow, I'll be 30.

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And so it begins

God, I love this time of year. It is amazing how far sunny, warm weather goes toward improving my mood on a daily basis.

It's not as difficult to get out of bed most mornings.

We sleep with the windows open and wake up to the sounds of birds chirping.

I kick off the covers and stretch in the cool, crisp air, inhaling it deeply through my nose.

It's glorious. And don't even get me started on how nice it has been to spend so much time outdoors. The finishing touches on our kitchen renovation have been pushed aside day after day as we find excuses to do things in the sun outside. Lawn mowing and garden planting, and trips to the farmer's market and gardening center.

Not to mention the summer clothes for toddler girls that I get to break out of the closet.

Love. it.

Last weekend, we had Hunter's birthday party, which was just a portion of a Saturday that was perfection. The weather, the agenda, the company we kept... perfection.

 

Hunter is THREE! (Well, not officially until tomorrow.) Check out the big guy blowing out his candle. Cuteness.

Nora was on the cupcakes like white on rice. Girlfriend has built-in radar that lets her know if dessert is within a 50 ft. radius. She's her mama's daughter, that's for sure. She ate this entire thing by herself.

At one point, Nora found the coloring table and crayons, and proceeded to spend a half an hour sitting there, testing out each of the colors with a little squiggly line on the paper. I really had no idea that she even enjoys coloring at this age (except for how she plays with sidewalk chalk). Whoops. Sorry for stifling your creativity, kid.

 

One of Hunter's gifts was a bubble machine...

 

...which led to several minutes of bubble chasing.

 

It was such a good day.

 

I'm hoping for much more of the same for this Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy the long weekend with your families and friends. Here's hoping for time outdoors, colorful photos, lots of sunshine and laughs, and maybe a few beers.

 

It's the unofficial kickoff of summer, y'all. And I'm totally in my element.

 

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