Where did May go?

Wow! It's been a while since we posted anything, so I'll load you up with pictures. May was a fun month for all of us... our neighbor and friend, Little Mama the Robin, welcomed four babies the weekend of mother's day. Nora learned to call the robin (and all robins) "mama" and learned to say "baby" after watching the babies pop their heads up out of the nest for worms. It was great to see them getting bigger all the time, and then Memorial Day weekend we spent a night elsewhere. When we came home, the nest had been vacated. I've been worried, but there were no signs of foul play. Today, Nora and I came home from a dinner out with friends and saw a baby robin waiting for us on our front windowsill! I'd like to think it's one of the four babies from "our" nest and he/ she wanted to let us know they were all ok. Nora got a kick out of seeing the baby robin and even got a book to read to it through the window! Here's the picture... kind of hard to see the baby robin because of the flash, but he/ she's right on the other side of the window. If you're wondering, Nora selected "The Runaway Bunny" for the bird!

Early in May, we got to hang out with my cousins Dan and Evan, first at my mom and dad's and then at our house. Nora had a blast with them and they were so good to her! Here they are eating lunch (big kid style -- Nora's first time not sitting in a high chair) at my parents' house:

Mother's Day was fun... we visited Brett's mom in Portage for the weekend, we even got to go out on a nice long boat ride. Once she got used to being on the pontoon, Nora got a big kick out of walking around and looking over the sides! The ride home was a long one for some reason, so our pics of mother and daughter on mother's day are of a very sleepy girl:

Our friend Ethan turned 1 on May 19th, so we went to his birthday party! It was a ton of fun, he did a great job entertaining all of his guests and sharing his swingset with Nora. She was obsessed with it! It also appears that Nora is over her "I'm scared of other kids" phase because she was fine at the party and has been happy to see Ethan on the occasions we've had to visit with him since then.

My friend Beth came over the following Monday for the finale of Heroes (I just knew Syler would slither away in the end) and I think Nora thought they were going to hang out... she was pretty bummed when I put her to bed!

Memorial Day weekend was a lot of fun too, because we were part of the crew throwing a surprise party for my Dad's 60th birthday! It was a lot of fun to put together, especially with everyone participating. The night of the party, the guests hid in the garage with lit candles with the plan to open the garage door and sing happy birthday as Dad pulled up in the driveway. The garage door, however, did not cooperate. For anyone there, I'm vouching for Genny on two counts right here: 1) she did not keep pushing the button. In spite of everyone yelling "push it again!! push it again!" she was trying to be patient and get the garage to open at the right moment AND 2) while I just started laughing and laughing, Genny kept thinking, and the moment before the garage door finally started going up, she yelled "Everyone out onto the front lawn!" Kudos to her for initiating a plan B!! In spite of the jammed garage door going up and down, up and down, Dad says he was surprised and he had a really nice time. For the surprise within the surprise, my mom informed him (and everyone else) that they'll be taking a trip to the Holy Lands this September!!! I found out last week that they also signed up for the extension trip to Egypt -- so great. I can't wait to hear all about it!

Also over Memorial Day weekend, Brett did a TON of work on our house. He tore out the cummy bushes that were in the front, shoveled in 7 yards of top soil and laid 2 tons of Michigan sandstone to build a little wall in the front. A lot of this work he did in the rain [he just busted out an old rain coat that I've tried to give away a few times already... now we'll never get rid of it ever because we'll always "remember that time I was able to work on the front of the house in the rain!?" It's the first time he's worn it since we were married, and even if it's the last, the raincoat will remain! Let us know if you need to borrow one. :) ] Anyhow, the front is looking good -- several neighbors have told him how nice it's looking. That must mean it looked REALLY bad before, because right now, it's just dirt! Over the previous several weekends, we cut down a small fruit tree in the middle of the back yard and transplanted a bunch of plants. Slowly but surely, it's starting to look more like the yard we envisioned when we bought this house!

ALSO over Memorial Day weekend, Brett and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary! This year, it fell back on Friday, just like the year we were married. I laughed at the difference in our lives from that Friday to this one as I left the house with Nora to go grocery shopping for Dad's party and said good-bye to Brett, who was already covered in topsoil! Later on, though, we were able to go out to dinner and a movie, which was a great treat!

Otherwise, Nora's just learning new things all the time. She learned how to climb onto and sit on a little chair, but still prefers to stand them.

She takes unbelievably good care of her "guys," giving them drinks from her sippy cup and feeding them snacks. We don't even know where she learned this since neither Brett nor I ever suggested she give them a drink... she just started doing it on her own. This week, she started giving them naptime... she puts a pillow or blanket on the ground, lays some of the guys on it and then puts her finger to her mouth and says "shh! shh!" But she thinks the "shh! shh!" is pretty funny so then she just ends up laughing. Her favorites are still all her dogs but her number one guy is Little Fil, her little black cat. He even came with us to the store today.

Aside from her ever-more-amusing behaviors, she just keeps getting bigger. Her baby mullet is long enough now to squeeze out two tiny pigtails (which she sported for the first time last week):

And I think the last of six new teeth is coming in right now:

Thanks for checking in on us! We hope you're doing well... here's to a great June!

PS: Here's one more picture of Nora playing with Brett (for equal representation of both parents on the blog!):