Halloween

Does anyone remember when I hated holidays? Okay, "hate" is a strong word. Maybe "apathetic" is more fitting. But then I had this little girl, who, surprise! makes holidays kind of amazing. And the best part is that each time we celebrate something, it gets more and more awesome because Norah gets more and more excited about doing it. Which is why Halloween (yes, I'm WAY behind) was so. much. fun.

We got Halloween books and made Halloween decorations. We talked about her costume and wore it all month long. We made Halloween cookies and carved Halloween pumpkins. We painted even more pumpkins and had a special Halloween movie night with Norah's little friends.

Oh, and Norah was Super Norah! and the dogs were supers too and we all went trick-or-treating for the first time. How much does her costume make you want gobble her up and swallow her whole? I somehow managed to contain myself.

Side note: Norah waited patiently for her costume to come in the mail. On the day it came, she of course wanted to wear it right away. The first thing she said when she got it on was, "I not fly!" She had been thinking all along that her super hero cape would make her fly. You know, like a super hero. I tried to explain and console her by telling her that Daddy could help her when he got home. She then waited on the couch for Nic to get home. Which looked like this:

So Nic pretty much flew Norah around in that cape for the entire month of October.

That time we left Norah with Grandma Wendy

Back in September we took our first real vacation without the toddler. And I'm not going to lie, it was amazing. At one point Nic and I were on stand up paddle boards in La Jolla Cove with sea lions swimming all around us and I looked over and declared, "We could never have done this with Norah!" Love her, but we were able to do SO much without her there to run the show.

And you guys, we did so much.

We went to a live taping of So You Think You Can Dance? with Jon and Alissa. Cat Deeley is just as adorable in person, although a couple of hamburgers wouldn't hurt her. And the dancing! I'm glad I had Alissa there so I wasn't the only 30 year old feeling like a teenage super fan.

We spent a day chasing car parts and visiting hot rod shops, which took us from Anaheim to Riverside to L.A. and back. We also squeezed in a movie and a Dodger's game in the same day. That's what happens when you don't have to work around nap times.

This is Nic's version of sightseeing. It was only fair since we did spend the previous day obsessing about dancing and shopping at The Grove.

La Jolla was fantastically filled with seals, sea lions, and yummy food. We shopped, bummed around the beach, learned how to use a stand up paddle board, hiked, and went deep sea fishing. We basically did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.

 
Norah had just as much fun without us as we did. She gardened, had play dates, went on bike rides, and on and on. And the best part? Squeezing her whole body after an entire week of missing it.

Haircut

As a highschooler in Alpine, I came across a little white kitten living in the bushes near the side of our house. To claim her as my own, I spent days coaxing her into a sense of security. I set food out every morning and sat down to watch her eat. Each time I would sit a little bit closer to the food bowl until she finally let me hold her.

This is not unlike how I tricked Norah into letting me do her hair.

At first I was not allowed to touch. Then I could sometimes sneak in a clip. One day I managed to get a ponytail holder in there. And slowly but surely, we got to the point where she usually lets me do her hair.

A haircut, however, seemed like it would be asking too much. Until recently, which is why the pictures of her first haircut are coming when she's well over two years old. We finally said goodbye to the baby mullet, and she did awesome! It helped that Cookie Cutters had special seats, a TV, balloons, candy, and sparkle hair spray.

Summery things

Now that it's getting all chilly, I'm realizing that I still haven't posted much about our summer. So per usual, our summer was really great, here are some pictures:

We packed up the boat, the trailer, the toddler, and the dogs and headed to Flaming Gorge. The high point: Norah was a great little camping buddy. The low point: Moxie jumping out of the boat in a panicked attempt to get back to Nic on shore while I was in the middle of my own panicked attempt to dock the boat. I'm sure we were heartily judged by all onlookers because, seriously, how dumb is my dog?

Norah did wear pants at some point. I guess I just don't have any pictures to prove it.

I ran the Runner X 5K with my sister-in-law Marla. Here we are clean when we started and proceeding to get very wet and very muddy.
  

Don't we look tough though?

 Us going down the giant slide.

 That's me directly under the stream of water. Thanks, Nic, for turning the hose guy's attention to me.

Nic and Norah took pictures of the whole thing and Norah still talks about "Momma running in mud!" at least once a week. The end.

Nic turned 30 (A love post set to the tune of Bruno Mars)

It was months ago now, but one day Nic was singing a song that was so ridiculously dumb that I naturally assumed he was making it up on the spot: 

"...I'd catch a grenade for ya, 

Throw my hand on a blade for ya, 

I'd jump in front of a train for ya, 

You know I'd do anything for ya,
I would go through all this pain, 

Take a bullet straight through my brain, 

Yes, I would die for ya, baby,

But you won't do the same..."

I was sure he improvising the lyrics solely for my amusement. We often joke about how "I WILL GO TO THE MOON AND BACK FOR YOU!!!, but no, I don't really want to help you with the dishes right now and you're actually kind of bothering me..."

So seriously? Throw my hand on a blade for ya? It took a lot of explaining on Nic's end to convince me that he was singing an actual song. 

But come on, people. What good is anyone going to be after he dies for me by jumping in front of a stupid train for no apparent reason other than to profess his boundless love? We are 30 years old with jobs, a mortgage, a kid, and a bunch or overweight animals. I don't need anyone with a bullet in his brain, I need someone to pick up a gallon of milk. No, for realsies Nic, we're out of milk. Will you grab some on your way home?

My version of a real love song would be more like this:

 

"I'd turn a giant cardboard box into a 'tunnel house' and color all over it with Norah for ya" 

"I'd take your daughter to the park and stand on one leg like a goose for ya"

"I'd take you on exciting adventures and swim in Deer Creek with Norah and then wrap her up in my shirt because you forgot a towel for ya"

 

And that's just from this weekend. Add to that, like, a million more verses with stuff like "I'd work ridiculously hard each and every day for ya," "I'd go to the grocery store while you nap on a Sunday for ya," "I'd drive to the gas station to get a pint of Ben & Jerry's at ungodly hours for ya," "I'd make a table from the overly simplistic plans you found on Pinterest for ya," and on and on and on. No going to the moon, no grenade catching, just a lot of love and support from my bestest friend. And did I mention that he's 30 now? He totally is and he's totally not happy about it. But I couldn't be happier with this old man.

And now I have a 2 year old

It didn't seem so worth it when Nic and I were blowing them up at 10 p.m., but filling Norah's room with balloons to wake up to on her birthday was a huge success.

After getting her dressed for our Build-A-Bear adventure, I was able to get one picture of her behaving.

And then she remembered that she just turned 2, so she doesn't have time for things like picture taking or obedience.

Have you ever been to Build-A-Bear? It's a magical money pit where one Hello Kitty will cost you $50. Norah loved it.

We let her have her pick and we ended up with what she calls Purple Kitty, complete with a tutu and sparkly sneakers.

She proudly paraded around Fashion Place mall, where we ended with her favorite: Ice Cream! Actually, frozen yogurt with strawberries, but I also call carrot muffins "cake" to get her to eat them. Don't tell her that I'm a liar sometimes.

Her birthday celebration actually lasted a week. We celebrated at Dennis and Debbie's, where some of the most adorable present opening I've ever seen happened.

And we celebrated on the boat when the Wilcoxes were home from Virginia. Which really was fun, although you wouldn't know it from our faces right here. Norah got pulled on the tube for the first time!

Thanks again for all the love. The last two years have been full of more help and support than I could have ever hoped for. We're a lucky bunch!