Week One

Brad and I are far too old to "party like it's 1999" anymore, so this new year has been rung in quietly but happily. We actually started the year out with Christmas Part Deux for Nora, which was a lot of fun for all of us!

Playing with her princesses and songs palace.

Checking out her princess wardrobe.

Opening her doctor kit.

Dr. Nora has given me a clean bill of health.

Taking baby for a walk.

She struggles with jigsaw puzzles, but she had fun working on this princess one for a little while.

The next day, it was back to work for Brad and back to Ms. Tracy for Nora so Momma could have a day to get some things together. Funny thing was that we got a small sprinkling of snow overnight, and when Nora saw it, she proclaimed, "Look at all that snow!" Now remember where she just was last week, right?  Ok, so here is the big snow she was referring to.

Yep, my kid is a southerner for sure. I hang my Canadian head in shame at her reaction to winter weather.

Unfortunately, Brad's first day back to work also included him having to work at a basketball game that night, so Nora and I were on our own. She was so excited when it came to bath time and she realized she had all of her bath toys that she had acquired at Nanny and Grampy's house!

She had the most adorable "conversation" with her Ariel doll. It went something like this: "Oh no! Ariel misses her Daddy... UH OH! MY Daddy is at work! It's ok, Ariel, they be back. I promise." So sweet to see her empathizing with her mermaid friend.

Since Brad was back to work, I was going to take Nora to see her first movie at a theater, "Frozen", but we decided we'd wait until Saturday so all 3 of us could go. Kids under 3 were free, and Brad and I had free movie passes gifted to us by my principal, so the only expense was the popcorn. I was a little worried about how Nora would do, but I also knew that there would be many young children there, so I figured if she had a meltdown, we'd be in good company. My fears were all for nothing, though. She had a moment at the end of the previews when she whispered to me, "Let's go home", but once the movie started, she was hooked. Mesmerized, even. I dare say she loved it. So many times I looked over to see her wide-eyed and saying, "Woooow!" with wonder in her voice. As a matter of fact, all day today, she's been asking to watch the movie again: "Watch the princess and the abominable snowman go skating?" Um, something like that. She doesn't grasp plot yet, but I knew what she meant. It's tough to explain to a kid who lives in the "On Demand" age that no, we can not watch the movie again at home.

After the movie, we went to look at a couple of houses because soon (not soon enough!) we'll be putting our own house on the market, and we're starting to get a feel for what type of house and which neighborhoods we are interested in. We also celebrated "Christmas" with Jessica, Jason, Kaitlyn, and Nhyle. We went the non-traditional route and ordered sushi while the kids ate chicken nuggets and bagel bites. They had a blast dragging each other around on a blanket which they were pretending was a horse, and we watched football.

Today, we headed back to church for the first time in a few weeks, and Nora was so excited to see her friends who she talks about all week long. It was nice to be back into our Sunday routine of church and lunch at Dede and Grandpa's house.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my first day back to school, but with winter weather expected, the first day back has already been called off. Hopefully, Nora and I can find something fun to occupy our time tomorrow.