8 Whole Months!

That month went really quickly! So here we are at 8 months - that sounds so old to me. A lot is the same and a lot is different. Kyle and I were just talking the other day about how she's become a completely different little person just in the last month. For starters - she's mobile and nosey. Oye! She is a Go Pod driving pro (nut), furniture walking novice and completely convinced that she's entitled to your fingers - you know, so she can drive you around the house "heh"ing the whole way. The girl has walking on the brain despite not being able to pull herself up on anything yet and a major (albeit healthy) fear of falling. Hit your head on our floors enough and you'll have that - whoops! She doesn't have a ton of interest in crawling so - she doesn't...she does an army mud crawl scoot thing, but it gets her from point A to B and into everything in between so she's content! We've transitioned to 3 meals a day and added asparagus, cantaloupe, nectarines, pineapple, yellow squash, cinnamon, peas, mangos, plums and apple puffs to her list of foods - I think peas, sweet potatoes and mangos might be the front runners. We've also kicked the pacifier and are working on our transition to sippy cups. Favorite toys are stacking cups, the silicone basting brush, her rubber ducky, her car keys and anything she can drum on. She chats more than ever with funny little quirks (thespian arm) to go with her noises and phrases and loves to hear herself laugh and babble. And she laughs all the time - especially at Cort. She's understanding a lot more now too, even learned to give "kisses". She's constantly on the move but occasionally slips up and will snuggle a bit when she's tired and LOVES being read to...and, shocking, likes to help turn the pages. She's also becoming a very active participant in her bedtime/naptime routines. Speaking of, we've pretty much tapered off the dream feed and she's sleeping from about 7:30 to 7:30 on a regular basis, with an occasional snack wake up thrown in in the early evening hours (8 or 9). Kyle and I still don't think she really looks like either of us but there's no denying she's ours! She's become a little slow to warm in social situations and likes to size everyone/everything up (with a killer look) before jumping in (similar to her dad) but once she's warmed up, look out! She loves a good hangout. And, she gets pretty easily frustrated when something isn't working how she wants it to, but once she has a meltdown and gets past her hot-head she can accomplish pretty much whatever she wants to (I have no clue where that came from!?) (Oh, for all of our sake I hope math comes easy to her!) Anyway, the fun continues, I feel like she's going to have us even more on our toes (or hunched over and by the fingers) these next couple of months. Ready, set, go!

P.S. pardon these long monthly updates they serve as a good journaling opportunity/reference for us to look back on.

If You Believe It...

Nora's getting pretty confident in her furniture and finger guided walking, and her puff eating. Rounding the corners still cause a little panic but after a bit of contemplation and some spirited fear fussing she did a full lap of the ottoman and transferred over to the love seat and back.  Now she just needs to get the whole balance and crawling/pulling herself up thing figured out.  Don't tell her that though - she gets really upset when someone suggests she can't actually walk yet.

Cutting Back & Loading Up

Kyle brought home one of the Finfrock pick-ups for the weekend. Once we were sure the Buckeyes had things under control (pretty much the first quarter) we got to work out in the yard. Nora supervised while we thinned some spanish moss on the big tree, trimmed the crepe myrtles, I took some low branches off the yellow flower tree in the side yard and then I went to work on my bush trees that Kyle and I disagree on how to manage. I got there first therefore they're trees instead of bushes. We also got rid of the dead trees from the back yard. Phew! All that and we made it to the transfer station in time to drop all that yard stuff off AND take in all the big cardboard and "hazardous household waste"! Feels good to get rid of all that stuff!

Friday Free For All

I try to make Fridays pretty fun for Nora - no particular reason, just that it's Friday! Why not have a naked lunch followed by some clothes free, no worries finger painting and top it all off with some clean-up playtime in the tub? From the looks of it, I think it was a pretty successful Friday afternoon! It tired her out, that's for sure, she was one crabby 34 week old before bed tonight!!

Great! A Crate!

Special delivery today!!! Cort has a crate again! His own space, a place to go when he's in trouble, and a new place for Nora to shimmy over to. Rules are rules though, she isn't allowed in Cort's room!

Walk and Roll

I chose to spare you the gross picture I texted to Kyle earlier today and share this happy moment instead. Today was a taxing and extremely frustrating one. Nora was really good but in case you haven't noticed, Cort and I have been a little at odds lately. We got up this morning and thanks to some lingering drizzles and clouds the three of us made it out for a morning run - awesome start to the day! Continuing on, Nora went down for a nap, I steam mopped the floors, got a shower - awesome day continues! Then I come back into the living room and find that Cort has eaten 1.5 bags of candy corn that I accidentally left on the counter (my bad). ARGH! I decide that we're going back to square one, he gets leashed around my waist for the day. Things are fine for an hour or so, he's hanging out next to me then stands up and with no warning, throws up A LOT of candy corn on the rug and the floor that I just steamed. I unclip him, send him outside while I clean up, re-steam the floor, get Nora up, go to get Cort - OH, he jumped in the POND! I dry him off, re-leash and re-start. Since I was still a little frustrated, Nora and Cort were antsy and it stayed fairly nice today (by nice I mean 89 degrees instead of 95) I decided we'd walk it off - which is what this picture is from. Nora loved it, Cort was pretty OK, we found a little lost dog friend, found his owner, came home and we were hanging out, Cort asks to go out, I let him out, he asks to come back in - he had jumped in the pond again...that's my day so far and I have a hunch Cort isn't done with me yet...

Down Pour!

So you can't really tell in this picture but after Nora and I dropped Kyle and Andy off at the airport today we needed to race to the gas station before we ended up stranded on the side of the airport road. As it turns out we arrived at the gas station at the exact same time as the TORRENTIAL downpour. I was under the awning so figured, no problem! I got out only to be immediately doused with water. Apparently I parked on the "front" side of the awning and the strong winds were blowing the rain right at me. I hid in the trunk for a couple minutes then braved the water, started the pump and sought soggy shelter in the drivers' seat. Of course by the time we had a full tank and were back on the road the sun was out again. Typical! We're on our own until Thursday night - Kyle's in Columbus recruiting.