Merry Christmas and all that comes with it!

We have had a great couple of weeks (not to slight the weeks preceding when I was STILL not updating our blog!) Christmas preparations were fun and interesting... I thought I had one more "free" year of shopping with Nora and her not really noticing what I was buying. Her expanding vocabulary, though, quickly showed how good her memory is, so I had to steal out in the night to get a few critical gifts while she was asleep! She was with me, though, when we bought other gifts for other people and does not understand the idea of keeping a secret! She kept talking about the mixing bowls we bought for her Aunt Amanda ("bowls! 'Manda!") and even tried to tell Brett about some running socks we bought for him ("yock! Daddy! Shh! Shh!Daddy, yock!"). My brother Andy's girlfriend Tristan threw him a surprise party for his birthday and Nora knew about it... she kept saying "Party! Andy!" but fortunately not when he was around.

So, with my little not-such-a-good secret keeper, we hit many stores all over town and got a lot of errands done. The weekend of December 15th, we packed up and headed to Kalamazoo for my sister Clare's graduation! She got her Bachelor's Degree from Western Michigan, though she's continuing straight on for her Master's Degree. It was fun to celebrate this big milestone with her, and my in-laws were kind enough to take care of Nora during the graduation ceremony, get her dressed up when she woke from her nap, and to deliver her to the restaurant where we celebrated afterward. Brett and I went out to the car to get Nora, and she seemed fairly excited to see us... until Clare came out of the restaurant too. Nora yelled "CARE!" and elbowed me in the throat in her hurry to scramble over to her aunt! We also had a side celebration to acknowledge Genevieve's Master's Degree too... she finished her Master's in Education during the week leading up to Clare's graduation ceremony. All in all, Nora was very happy all weekend to see Yavellos at dinner and to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa Longton's. We were even lucky enough that Great-Grandpa Riggs came over for a visit on Sunday. Lots of love for this little girl.

The next weekend, we packed up again, this time for Christmas visits. In an effort to keep from being up all night on Christmas Eve, we were up way past our bedtime on Friday night trying to pre-prepare as much as we could. I was a little tired the next morning, so we just HAD to stop at the Loony Baker for a coffee and a cinnamon roll on our way to the west side (I would live off of cinnamon rolls if it were even minimally nutritionally acceptable!) That was just the ticket, and we were in high spirits when we got to Brett's Dad's house for a Christmas celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Huffman and Diane's daughters Kelly (and her friend Jeff) and Kim (and her husband Steve and daughter Daphke) {what a poorly constructed sentence... I just wanted to get everyone in there!} We all had a great time, and Daphke was wonderful with Nora... Nora so loved being around a "big kid" and I spotted her copying off of Daphke the whole afternoon and evening. Though when Nora went down for a little nap, Daphke decided that was a good idea and took a little snooze too. Both girls got new baby dolls from Grandma Di, complete with bottles... the bottles were initially the bigger hit with Nora, but now she's playing with the baby as well.

We spent the night back at Brett's mom's house, and awoke very early the next morning to an unexpected sound. I thought it was torrential pouring rain, but Brett said "no, that's wind." Wind! It was relentless!! Sure enough, a short while later it woke Nora up and we then realized there was no power in the house. We rallied and got ready for Mass (I mistakenly washed my hair in the shower with no power to dry it... brrr!), and on our way to the church we saw the culprit... a huge tree had fallen and was pulling the power lines almost down to the ground. The power company's initial estimation was that power would be back by noon the NEXT day (Monday), so we were starting to think we might have to cut the visit short and go home... the house was getting chilly. After mass, we stopped for a warm brunch/lunch and on our way back to the house -- HALLELUJAH! -- we saw the power guys working on the problem spot we'd seen earlier! We bundled Nora up for her nap (onesie, long-sleeve t-shirt, tights, full footed fleece pjs, and a sweat suit [thank you Kelly!]) and just as she was going down, the power came on. It still took a while to heat the house up, but the visit was saved!

Monday we had a nice day of hanging out and then Brett's Grand-pa (Great Grand-pa Riggs to Nora) came over for a great dinner and some present opening. When it came to opening presents, Nora turned out to have the attention span of a gnat. We almost had to tackle her to the ground to get her to focus on opening her last few gifts. But she was thrilled with all of the wonderful gifts, particularly the little grey cat that came with her new Duplo building blocks. As a surprise, Casey showed up after we had dinner (he'd come straight from work) so we got to have some time with him as well! Too soon, though, we had to pack up the car and head home so Santa could find Nora asleep in her own bed on Christmas Eve.

[wow, this is becoming quite the long narrative! If you're tired of all this, feel free to duck out at any time... no hard feelings! If not, we'll plow on...]

Christmas morning was great! Nora slept in a little and woke up very cheerful if not confused about why this day was more special than any other day of the week. We got her a fresh diaper and brought her out into the living room, where she IMMEDIATELY said "Bike! Bike! Bike!" She went straight to the big chair behind which, it turned out, Santa had hidden a brand new Red Ryder Tricycle! We still don't know how she found it so fast... maybe Santa snuck in her room and told her where to look while we were sleeping. :) Taking a cue from the previous present openings, we wrapped gifts in groups so there were fewer packages to open, and things went pretty smoothly. If you were friends with us (the Yavellos) when we were kids, you might remember that we had this little house that slipped over a card table. I made one for Nora this year and it was, thankfully, a big hit! Not as big a hit, though, as the jar of fake pickles that Santa left in her stocking (it's been five days now since she got that, and she still has it with her all the time).

"Towel puppy." She loved this so much that we almost didn't want to unwrap and use the towel puppy as an actual towel.

After a breakfast of cheese strata (mine needs work... not as good as the traditional fare at Mama Yavello's) and warm peaches, we spiffied ourselves up and headed to Divine Child to meet the family for Mass at 11. It turned out that we were the ONLY people who "knew" mass was at 11... everyone else decided it should be 11:30. Luckily, the family was just a few blocks away, so we spent a half an hour with them before returning with the rest of the parishoners for Mass. Read on to the bottom, and I'll tell you something funny about that half hour. Back at Grandma and Grandpa Yavello's, we dug into the presents! It was a little chaotic, scratch off lottery tickets were being scratched off left and right (the Huffmans didn't win this year... but Gen and Clare both won a few bucks), wrapping paper everywhere, and a whole lot of fun. Our Aunt Judy and Andy's girlfriend Tristan joined us for an early dinner (and Nora took a nap, which was nice timing), and a good time was had by all. After Nora got up, and dinner was over, we packed up AGAIN and went over to my Uncle Harold's house to throw out a Merry Christmas to my mom's side of the family. After a very long day (traumatic too-- when Nora saw us packing up her toys she started crying, not understanding that we were going to take them to our house), we got home to spend 2 hours trying to get our wound-up girl to sleep.

The next day we tried to find new homes for all the new toys, and were excited to see Lon, Diane, and Diane's Uncle Bob stop by for a little visit... they brought MORE presents, this time Birthday, for Nora. She loves her new little sled, now we just wait for the snow. That evening, my friend Beth came over to babysit Nora for the first time. Nora thinks they're best friends so she was thrilled to see Beth come in, though she tried to play it cool. After a quick tutorial on diaper changing and a run down of the bedtime routine, Brett and I left the girls with all the new toys and went to Andy's party. It was a fun time, he was surprised, and we got to meet a lot of the friends of his we always hear so much about! We got home to find out things went pretty well with Beth's first babysitting adventure here... a little bit of crying for mama, but Nora talked Beth through it. Haha, so hilarious (it's late at night when I'm writing this first draft, so please cut my bad jokes some slack!) Obviously, it was Nora who cried, but my favorite part came after Beth settled her down and got her all snuggly for bed. In my review of the bedtime routine rundown, I had forgotten to add that Nora sleeps in the dark, so Beth initially left a little dim light on for Nora. As she laid Nora in her crib, Nora started to cry/ whine a little, and then put her head up and said in an indignant sort of voice "Lights Out! Lights Out!!!" I laughed so hard when we heard that... if we've talked to you in the last few days, you've already heard this because Brett and I both thought it was so funny!

The 27th was a recovery day for us and our house... and then the big Birthday was upon us! Nora turned 2 on the 28th. Again, she didn't understand why this day was a big deal, but as soon as Brett played the Beatles' birthday song ("You say it's your Birthday!") she went nuts! She listened to that song ALL day and danced like a maniac every time. I have a video of her dancing in the highchair the first few times she heard it at breakfast... if I can, I'll post it on here. The rest of the day was pretty normal (with breaks for more birthday song dancing), and then a bunch of people came over for dinner to help celebrate: Grandma and Grandpa Yavello, Grandma and Grandpa Longton, Great Grand-pa Riggs, Brett's Aunt Pam, Uncle Warren, and cousin Josh, Great-Aunt Judy, Aunt Genevieve, Aunt Clare, Uncle Andy, and our friends Angie & Tom and their boys Ethan & Cameron (little newbie! He arrived Dec 6th!). Nora had an absolute blast, and played hostess for a little while serving pretzels to our guests (but not before taste testing each one by taking one bite out of it first). She got even MORE presents, each of them so thoughtful and generous. A standout for entertainment value was one of the last she opened (so she was pretty wound up)... it was a Tickle-Me Elmo. Once she recognized his laugh and realized who was in the box, she was a little worried and wanted to get him out right away ("Help! Help!"). Once she saw him do his thing, she laughed almost as hard as he does! It was fun for the adults to see her have so much fun with this laughing toy! Amazingly, at the end of that big night of birthday fun, she went straight to bed without complaint, and slept right through the night.

losing focus...

Nora has embraced all the big-girl-ness that comes with being two. A few weeks ago she started counting up to nine with pretty decent regularity. Today, she spelled Nora for me once I got her started with the "N." She is talking more and more and will recount stories for us one to three words at a time, much to her own amusement!

I think the remainder of Brett's vacation (through New Year's Day) will be pretty low key and relaxing. Brett finally had a chance to get us down to the Wayne County Festival of Lights on Hines Drive, and was right... Nora loved it. We're having a great time just hanging out with each other and with our extended family while people have been in town. With the hustle of the days before Christmas, we never did get Christmas cards out, so here are our wishes to you... Merry Christmas, and a very, very happy new year!

Love,

Sarah, Brett and Nora

You're still here? Wow, a gold star to you... this was a very long post. Since you've been so loyal and persistant, here's a surprise for you. It turns out 2008 will be a year of adding on for the Huffmans:

The funny story I mentioned above about the half hour before we got to Christmas Mass was that it turns out my mom, Genny and Clare have all suspected that someone new was on the way for a little while now. They were comparing notes ("did Sarah drink at Thanksgiving?" "I saw pre-natal vitamins at her house!") and yet, there was still no announcement. When I left Nora upstairs at my parents' house with Genny and Clare, they pounced, and asked her "is Mommy going to have a baby?" (way to pump the 2 year old for information, figuring she was the weakest link!) For once, Nora did NOT spill the beans... she said "No." So later, when all the present opening was almost over, we gave my parents a card signed "Sarah, Brett, Nora, and Someone New." My mom didn't notice it right away, so I asked "did you see who signed the card?" As she lifted the card to look at it again, Genny and Clare jumped up out of their seats and each yelled "I KNEW IT!!!!!"

So the info we have so far: this little person should be here sometime in mid-July. So far, everything has gone very well. I've been feeling queasy and very tired (pretty typical) and we've taken that to be (hopefully) a good sign since I felt the same way when I was pregnant with Nora. She is starting to learn that we have a new baby coming to our house, but I seriously doubt she understands exactly what that means! We were already planning to move Nora to a "big girl" room this year... this pretty much confirms it. We would certainly appreciate any and all prayers for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby!

Long time, no post

We have a technical problem here at the Huffman house that has contributed to my hiatus from blogging... our computer is in the basement, and it is freezing down here in the winter! But tonight I'm armed with a fabulous fringed fleece blanket of Nora's and will try to get at least a mini-update posted.

The first weekend in November, Brett's Aunt Pam and Uncle Warren brought his Grand-pa Riggs over for a visit on their way back to Kalamazoo from Brett's cousin's football game in Ohio. We had a really nice visit and Nora really warmed up to Grand-pa Riggs!

With the colder weather here we're still trying to get outside, but haven't been very consistent. Nora was initially highly resistant to bundling up, but is getting into it more now. She learned how to say "mitten," which somehow translates into her being more willing to wear them. And she has this fabulous snowman hat. She gets compliments on it all the time and in a pinch, I can use it as a puppet to keep her entertained, so she's willing to wear the hat, too.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. The weekend before we had visits from Lon and Diane (Grandma and Grandpa Huffman), Beth and Chris (Grandma and Grandpa Longton), Aunt Marilyn and Di, and Nora's Uncle Casey! In there we had a birthday dinner for Brett so that his birthday wouldn't get lost in the turkey-day shuffle. That week Ethan came over to play a few times, and did great with us until Brett showed up! He must have just been surprised to see Brett come into the house and was very nervous about it, until we all sat down to eat something. Brett won Ethan over by pretending to noisily gobble up dried cherries while Nora panicked that her treats were being eaten by her dad! Thanksgiving morning Brett and Genny braved the chill and went downtown to run the turkey trot. That night we had dinner with the Yavello crew, where Genny and Clare tried to teach Nora how to hang a spoon on her nose. She did a pretty good job of getting it to dangle from her lips instead.

The day after Thanksgiving we took Nora to see her doctor because she had a little rattle in her chest, and she got a prescription for Amoxicillin (sp?) You remember it... it's the pink stuff. My friend Amy came over for a great visit that weekend and asked for a sniff of it, just for the memories... I did the same thing! Happily, Nora thought it was "yummy" and took her dosages all ten days with great gusto. She also keeps reminding me of Amy's visit, because Amy brought a butterfly magnet ("Pretty!") and a cupcake ("Cake? Yummy!")

We put up our Christmas tree last weekend... yes, it's the fakie. We've already gotten the cold shoulder from our real-tree-enthusiast friends and family, but man, was that easy! Nora was thrilled about the whole event before she could even tell we were going to have a tree in our living room. As Brett unloaded the box she kept saying "Wooo! Wooo! Wooo!" Once the tree was assembled and the lights turned on, it was almost too much for her! We waited a day to put up the decorations so that she wouldn't blow a circuit. They are, of course, a giant hit with her, and we've instituted the "one finger" rule. She's allowed to touch the ornaments, but with one finger only... when it works, it keeps her from grabbing the ornaments.

Otherwise, we've been filling our time with Christmas preparations and general silliness around the house. Nora has one of those Hallmark singing penguin things from last year, and calls it her radio. I already replaced the batteries once... we hear the song A LOT. But it's great because she makes up new dances to go along with it all the time! She also has been practicing "sneaking," which just involves walking with her knees half bent so she's sort of crouched down, and is trying out more new words all the time. We color with her crayons all the time, you should see her artwork in a gallery near you soon. Her output is tremendous.

Yellow seems to be her favorite color, or at least her favorite color to say. She's getting better with a few other colors. On the color note, she knows that red means "stop" and green means "Go Go GO!!!"

At dinner, we never know if she's going to eat or refuse ("No... table" is her new answer when dinner just doesn't look like anything she wants on her tray). But she's also working on perfecting the art of the dinner mustache. She's tried it with anything from a fork to a noodle, but has had the most success with the humble green bean:

Thanks for checking in. I'll try to get a video of her dancing with her radio (she can be camera-shy, so it's tough), and one of her practicing the sign of the cross... it's getting pretty good! For some reason, though, when we get to the shoulder touches for "Holy" and "Spirit," she wants to reach around to touch her shoulder blades or the back of her neck! Still, I give her points for trying.

"Thanks for checking out my website... YEEEOWWWW!"

Introducing Marissa

Here she is... little Marissa! My Aunt and Uncle are in Guatemala right now and were able to get her yesterday. They posted some pictures of Marissa on their own blog... she's a smiley little lady! Nora is already fascinated with Marissa, giving the computer screen kisses. When I asked her this morning if she wanted to see more pictures of Baby Marissa, Nora reminded me that she was sleeping (as she was in the first picture we saw of her).

GREAT NEWS!!!

I just checked my e-mail and saw a message from my Uncle John... they got the call they've been waiting for! He and his wife Ellen are going to Guatemala this weekend to pick up their little girl, Marissa! Say it with me, now -- HALLELUJAH!!! We've been praying for the adoption paperwork to be processed quickly, and now ask you to join us in praying that everything goes as quickly and smoothly as possible finishing the last of the arrangements so they can bring her home by the end of the week. She has two brothers at home who, I'm sure, will be anxiously waiting to meet her. Thanks to all who have prayed for this family so far.

Halloweenie

Happy Halloween! Finally, weeks of pumpkin and ghost excitement culminate in the big day... and Nora cried. She liked being a cat. She was fascinated with the cat nose I drew on her, as well as the whiskers. She loved eating pizza for dinner (which she calls "baht-ass" for some reason). She was pumped about going outside for a walk after we ate. But when it came to walking up to people's houses, no matter that these were all friendly neighbors she sees fairly regularly -- WITH TREATS -- she wanted no part of it! We only went to four houses total... the fourth only after a long break on our own porch. Once the trauma of trick-or-treating was over, she got a huge kick out of hanging out on our porch and handing out candy to the other trick-or-treaters. She also practiced her halloween laugh -- a pretty respectable "HOO HA Ha Ha Haaaaah." We ended the night on a high note, with a halloween tattoo of a pumpkin, a bat and stars on her forearm, Popeye-style. She promptly learned the word "tattoo," fell in love with her ink, and cried when her pjs covered it up. We had to give the tattoo a kiss good night, then tell her it was going to sleep and would see her in the morning to get her to go to bed. Here are the pictures:

I also have some catching-up to do... here are pictures of Nora and Ethan with the dads at the Pumpkin Carving Party (a huge success and overall good time!), Nora at the Marathon with her peeps (and their medals), at the Detroit Zoo with me and my Aunt Judy in the butterfly house, enjoying tea and jammies after a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa Y's, doing a shake-shake-shake kind of dance on my birthday, and sporting a hot new look for fall -- the purse/hat. It's all the rage. The zipper must be worn in the front, otherwise, don't bother. :)

Marathon Madness

Two finishers! Brett finished his very first marathon yesterday, and in fine form! He ran the entire way (with stops only at water/ gatorade stations) and finished in 4hrs 22min. We got to see him around mile 12, right before mile 20, and coming into the finish -- looking strong at each point. Genny also ran a great race, and got her best time in 3hrs 44 min. I saw her at first two spots I saw Brett but missed her finish (my mom saw it). The day turned out to be gorgeous... a little warm for the runners toward the end of the race, but really nice for everyone out to cheer! :) Nora was a champ the whole time she was downtown, and she did some running of her own up and down the sidewalk on Woodward with our friend Beth while we watched the finishers come in. I left my camera in the car (of course) so I'll try to track down some pictures in the next couple of days. Thanks for thinking of the runners and for all the well-wishes.

Bumpy Pumpkins

I hope you're getting pumped for Halloween... we certainly are. Nora learned the word "pumpkin" a few weeks ago, but now that they're everywhere we turn, we hear it a LOT. She loves the pumpkins and, of course, the black cats that have popped up with all the seasonal decor. She's even taken to wearing a Halloween dishtowel as a cape (very Rossing-esque):

To feed the pumpkin frenzy, we went to Livonia's Wilson Barn to get ourselves some jack o'lanterns on Saturday. They also had a small collection of farm animals to check out -- including a Grey Goose named "Vodka." Nora was happy to see the animals and so excited to see all those pumpkins! She spent a long time touching one after another and pronouncing them "bumpy--" another new word.

We finally settled on three, including a nice warty bumpy pumpkin for dad. We plan to go to a pumpkin carving party the weekend before Halloween, so if I have pics of the finished goods, I'll post them after that.

This weekend we popped Nora on our scale to see where she was... a whopping 27.5 pounds! She's definitely getting big. Here's a comparison -- this is a picture of Nora at a different pumpkin patch this time last year:

This week I ask you to say a special prayer for Brett, and particularly his knee. The Detroit Marathon is next Sunday, October 21 (start is at 7:15am). One of his knees has been giving him some trouble, so he cut way back on the training he'd wanted to do to give the knee a chance to recover. He's still in great shape to run, but is concerned about the change in his training schedule and about the knee injury in general. He has new shoes (already being broken in!), a new and better knee brace, and a new-found appreciation for the inflammation-fighting properties of ibuprofen.

As it turns out, we'll also be cheering for my sister Genny running her first Detroit marathon. Wait, you say, didn't she just run a marathon? Yep... but since the Chicago marathon turned out to be so crazy with the hot weather, she didn't run as hard as she'd trained to run. She felt better with her training this year than the last few years and instead of "wasting" it, decided to jump into another race!

Also, I have another prayer request... for several months we have asked for prayers for my aunt and uncle's adoption of their daughter Marissa (bottom of this page). Things are finally clicking into place! Please turn up the juice on your prayers that the next few weeks go smoothly and they are able to bring their little girl home to the family that already loves her so very, very much.

I'm sorry that this post is lacking a lot of energy... I don't have much myself! I think Nora passed off a cold virus to me this weekend and I spent a few hours each day moving little landscaping rocks (more tedious work than I would have guessed). So, I'm off to bed... good night!

PS: I ALMOST FORGOT! A few posts ago I'd joked about how it would be later rather than sooner when Nora attempted to say "Genevieve." I was wrong! Yesterday she was looking at pictures and telling me who everyone was (as long as they were named Granpda/ Grandma [one word for both at this point], Beth, Tucker, Mama or Daddy) when she pointed at the picture of her Aunt Genevieve holding her and said -- to the best of my phoenitical abilities -- "Fayfayvf." It doesn't look like much, I know, but we're getting pretty familiar with her code-talk and recognize new words pretty quickly when she throws one out. I tried not to overreact (she gets self-conscious if you make too big a deal of things), and calmly asked, "Did you say 'Genevieve?'" She nodded, and said "Fayfayvf" again! Aunt Chino, your name is next. :)

Goodbye, Grandma Riggs

Last week, on October 3, Brett's Grandma Riggs passed away. Though she had been in poor health for some time, her passing came as a surprise. We were in Kalamazoo for the visitation Friday night and Three Rivers and Kalamazoo for the funeral services Saturday. Even though we certainly would rather have met under happier conditions, it was nice to see each of Brett's cousins, aunts and uncles -- his sister Alison was even able to get in from Colorado, which was really great.
Grandma and Grandpa Riggs have been members of Oakwood Bible Church for 40 years, and taught the toddlers' class for many of those years. A good number of those toddlers, now grown, came to both the visitation and the funeral. It was nice to see the faces of so many people we'd heard so much about... as was mentioned repeatedly over the last few days, Grandma Riggs was a talker, and she liked to tell you about all the people in her life. Brett and I heard multiple times from people who were strangers to us how they'd heard all about Nora. I don't have a copy of the obituary with me, but if I get one, I'll edit this post to include it here. In the meantime, please keep Brett's Grandpa and the rest of their family in your prayers as they mourn a woman who was such an important part of their lives.

______________________

Unfortunately, I received additional sad news on Sunday. The little girl in our prayer requests who has been battling a brain tumor lost the fight this weekend. Sophie Quayle passed away in her mother's arms at 11:55 pm on Saturday. Our family has never met Sophie's family, but I have read her parents' blog for several months. Their faith and love is exemplary and an amazing example for all. Please keep this family in your prayers as they prepare to bury their little girl on Friday, October 12.

______________________

Lastly, just wanted to include a quick note about my sister Genevieve's marathon run since a few people have asked if she's ok. As you may have heard, Chicago experienced record highs this weekend and the race was shut down after 3 1/2 hours. Genny was past the shut down point, finished the race, and is doing fine. I haven't spoken to her yet, but I understand it was a very, very rough day. Thanks to all of you who kept her in your thoughts and prayers on Sunday.

Small Talk

Nora is adding new words to her vocabulary left and right... I can't keep the word watch list updated anymore! I'll leave it there for a little while if you're wondering what her first batch of words contained, but I can't keep up with adding new words. Some of what she says is so funny... maybe only to us because, of course, every parent is so in love with their own child! Here are some examples, though, of what/ when she's said (she's working one word at a time at this point):

• Two weeks ago I was pulled over and got a speeding ticket on Southfield Fwy (still 55 mph, folks... a friendly reminder). The officer took all my information, then came back and presented me with a ticket for 5 mph over. As he walked away, Nora said "Uh oh..." You can say that again, sister.
• Nora says her name, but just whispers it. She seems to do that with words that are important to her when she first starts saying them. Back in the day when "Daddy" was a new word, she'd whisper it. I'd encourage her to say it again, "but this time you can say it loud." She'd promptly say "LOUD!"
• Her first joke? Almost every weekday, Nora will ask me where her dad is ("Daddy?") I tell her he went to work, and for a few days she would respond to this by saying "Potty!" and laughing. I don't even know what that joke means, but I had to laugh too because she thought it was soo funny.

Our friend Beth came over yesterday and Nora was excited... first because she loves Beth and second because "Beth" is one of the names she can say. I heard her say it several times, especially when Beth walked out of the room and Nora 'needed' to know where she'd gone. "Beth! Beth!" and she'd run in the direction Beth had last been headed. I talked to Genny yesterday and told her that Nora's name list includes Beth, Bob, Anna, Lola, and Elmo... and that "Genevieve" is probably right around the corner!

We also took Nora to the apple orchard on Saturday. They had a tiny petting farm (not interested) and a little cat wandering around (greatest thing ever). We checked out the pumpkins (not interested) and got some donuts and cider (second greatest thing ever). So next weekend, we're just going to get a box of donuts, invite a stray cat into the yard and skip the trip to the orchard.

Here is another batch of recent pictures. Enjoy, and thanks for checking in!
Love,
Sarah, Brett and Nora

Naptime... I found her sleeping sideways a couple of weeks ago:

Sleepy girl:

"Reading" Dad's book in Mom and Dad's bed:

With Little Fil in the snuggly couch nest she made:

In the Pumpkin Patch at the Apple Orchard:

Eating donuts with Daddy:

With Mom at the Apple Orchard:

This is what she does if you ask her to make a silly or a crazy face:

Just about on her way to bed: