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.

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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.

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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: