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!"