Still More Running

Maybe we should change this to a blog about running. The big news: Brett is officially registered for the Detroit Marathon! The race is October 21. I'll be working to figure out how to get down to cheer and also keep Nora happy, fed, and napped, but if you're interested in coming along, let me know. Check out the website for race information and a map of the course.

More Running!

On October 7th my sister, Genevieve, will be running the Chicago Marathon for the SIXTH time. You may know that last year she ran to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This year, she is running to raise money for Autism Research. Please consider supporting this excellent cause. You can visit Genny's Organization for Autism Research (OAR) page for more information and to donate. This past week, Oprah did a show on Autism that was very good -- Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete talked about how austism has impacted their families and particularly their sons. One point both mothers made that I was very glad to hear -- please don't refer to their kids as "Autistic." Instead, they are children with Autism. The child comes first, the disorder second. Definitely something I'll be more sensitive to in the future! In the meantime, here's the link if you wanted more on that Oprah show. It's great to see Oprah using her influence to raise awareness... this is the second time I've seen her focus a show on Autism and the need for research.

Run Run Run

Whoa, nelly... it's been a really long time since we posted anything new. It feels like we've been busy since early August, but I think it's just summertime stuff.

Everything has been going well for all three of us. Brett did run his race over Labor Day weekend, along with our friends Tom and Beth. All three did great, and Brett felt so good that he decided to join Tom's Dances With Dirt team for their race the next weekend. DWD is a 100K relay race (not a typo... that's 62 miles). Each person on the five member team runs 3 separate legs, usually for a total of 12 to 17 miles. The kicker is that the terrain is like the worst cross country race you ever saw! At one point, Brett was in mud up to his armpits (literally), using a rope to pull himself through the muck. He said it was hard, but fun, and the only soreness he had the next day were his calves (he hasn't been running on any hills, so the hilly course was tough on those muscles). He is still considering either the half or the whole marathon in Detroit, but wants to get the really long (20 mile) training run behind him before he registers.

We had a chance to visit with some out-of-town cousins this past month too. Sadly, my cousin Maria was in town for her grandfather's funeral, but it was still so nice to see her and her little guy Jake (or should I say, not so little. Jake is ~6 months younger than Nora and outweighs her by about 5 lbs!). My Aunt Marguerite and Uncle Rick were also in town from Seattle, and we even got a chance to hang out with Michelle and "baby" Lucas (he's no shrimp either!) We have a picture of the cousins and the babies together, but it's on my mom's camera... when we'll manage to download that onto a computer and share it has yet to be determined!

Speaking of my mom, she and my dad are in Egypt right now! They left for their trip to the Holy Lands and Egypt a week and a half ago. We've been able to follow along on a blog that their guide posts online each evening, and it's been great to see where they've gone and what they've seen (and eaten... a lot of footage of the lunches and dinners makes it into the video clips!) Nora and I expect to pick them up on Thursday afternoon and can't wait to hear about everything.

Nora has been working on her spoon skillz and they're coming along really well. She can eat applesauce and yogurt on her own with a spoon and thinks it's the greatest. A lot lands on her bib, but not to worry... she thinks throwing dirty clothes into her laundry hamper is the second greatest thing ever. Soon, she'll be running this house on her own (awesome). Or else just running all over this house... running is her current choice of locomotion. So funny to watch since she doesn't yet pump her arms at all!

Last weekend we were in Portage and Mendon to visit with Brett's family. Beth and Chris are getting ready for a fun trip of their own with their friend Judy, and Lon and Diane were just getting back from a weekend of camping. The weather was a little cool so we didn't get into the lake for a swim, too bad. We did, though, get over to see Brett's Grandparents (Nora's Great-Grandparents) and Nora behaved herself pretty well!

Not too much else to say. Thanks for checking the blog... here are a bunch of random pictures (of you-know-who). Enjoy, and keep in touch!
Love,
Sarah, Brett and Nora G
___________________

Should anyone look like this much trouble first thing in the morning??? Seriously, it's a little scary


This is much better:

This is Nora's response when you ask her to smile. Her Grandpa H thinks she looks like Popeye... I can't say that I disagree!


More smiling...


... and this is what she does when you ask to see a frown (check out the fish tattoo on her thigh!):


We've had a LOT of self-accessorizing this summer. Anything she finds can generally become a bracelet, a hat, or a purse. Here she is wearing some packaging as a hat:


... and a teething ring as a bracelet (along with this little scarf that came with her dress... she loved it):


... and totally overdoing the whole look, but loving it anyhow! Anytime she added something new to her ensemble, she'd say "pretty!"


But sometimes just one accessory was enough to make a girl feel glamorous:


We read all the time... and when we're not reading to her, she likes to look at books by herself. Right now, we've had a hot streak with "Are You My Mother," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "Hug" (by Jez Alborough... she calls it "Bobo" after the little Gorilla in the book). She has also borrowed her dad's paperback copy of "Everything is Illuminated" several times and "read" it for up to ten minutes at a time.


Hurricane force winds:


Okay, I know this is a fluke, but check it out anyhow! Nora chose the letters of her own name and spelled it out (100% backwards) in the tub the other night. I'll admit, she did not have the whole alphabet in the tub with her [though more than just her name], but she was so deliberate in sticking up the letters and turning them around until they were upright, it made it look like she really knew what she was doing! (note the ankle bracelet/ activity gym link, even in the tub)

Caped Crusader

Here are some updated pics, including Nora running around with a blanket tied on as a cape today:


And guess who learned how to climb right up into her high chair at mealtimes. Just like a little monkey, she scrambled right up there as soon as I took the tray off.



Here are some more pics from Portage... we were there the last weekend in July to catch a very quick visit with Amanda and a few days with Alison while they were in town:

"Walking" Tucker...


And walking Woody back at home:

Not much more to report, I'm afraid. We've just been getting back to our regular routines this week, and I've been cleaning the house. Between visiting the hospital, the wake and funeral last week, and my three week sprint through all seven Harry Potter books, Casa Huffman has been sorely neglected. I heard some spiders planning a rave and decided it was time to claim the house back as our own.

Brett has been running like a fool. Labor Day weekend he'll be running a race down in Hines Park. As long as I can get little Lazy Bones up in time to go cheer for her dad, we'll be there to cheer, and maybe to have a picnic. Let us know if you'd like to spend a morning at the park. Also, he is eyeing the half marathon this October (21st), so keep your calendar clear if you'd like to be on the cheer team for that one!

Nora continues to be great. She's getting more and more funny all the time, and she knows it. Sometimes she cracks herself up, but more often, makes us laugh. She still has the sweetest disposition, loves hugging and kissing, and doles out "The Big Squeeze" more and more regularly.


Thanks for checking in... let us know what's new with you whenever you have a chance. :)

Love,
Sarah, Brett and Nora

Goodbye, you Bum

Sarah's Grandpa Yavello passed away on Saturday, July 28, after three and a half weeks in the hospital. He eventually started having trouble with the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in his blood, but had an order against being intubated. All of the family that was in town was able to get up to the hospital Saturday morning, and after a very short period, his breathing became more and more shallow until he slipped away. He told us last week that if it was his time, he was ready to go, and the nurses said he was calm and happy in the morning before he started losing consciousness. We miss him already, but know he's in a much better place, reunited with his wife, his brother, his parents, his son-in-law and countless other loved ones.

The visitation and funeral information:

Peter Yavello, January 24th, 1920 - July 28th, 2007

Obituary: Peter Yavello, age 87, a 55 year resident of Ferndale, died Saturday, July 28, 2007 in Royal Oak. He was born January 24, 1920 in Painesdale, MI to Antonio and Genevieve. Peter was a supervisor for the U.S Postal Service for 32 years. He married Rita Marie (Haffey) on October 24, 1942 at St. James Catholic Church in Ferndale. Peter was predeceased by his wife, Marie; brother, Michael and son in law, Harvey Rossing. He is survived by his children; Michael (Marioara) of Scottsdale, AZ, Patricia Rossing of Tampa, FL, Laurence (Patricia) of Dearborn Heights, James (Lori) of Carlsbad, CA, Marilyn of Glendale, AZ, Judith of Ferndale and Robert (Sandra) of Ferndale; 12 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.
Memorials: The Capuchins, 1820 Mt. Elliott St., Detroit 48207
Visitations:
• 2:00PM to 5:00PM on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at Spaulding & Curtin Funeral Directors, Ferndale, MI
• 7:00PM to 9:00PM on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at Spaulding & Curtin Funeral Directors (Prayer at 7:00PM)
Services: In-state at 9:30AM, Service at 10:00AM at St. James Catholic Church on Friday, August 3rd, 2007

(If you didn't know him, he always called his grandchildren and great-grandchildren "Bums," usually followed by a big fat chuckle.)

Aqua Tot

June is turning out to be a great month, full of fun stuff! Two weekends ago we celebrated Brett's second Father's Day. We spent the weekend in Mendon and Portage visiting Brett's parents. We spent a lot of Saturday with Grandpa Lon and Grandma Di in Mendon, where Nora had a blast feeding the baby dolls bottles... pretty good for a kid who never really took a bottle herself! Saturday we also had a chance to visit and eat pizza with Brett's grandparents/ Nora's Great-Grandparents. Sunday we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Longton and even got to play in the lake! When Chris and Brett took Nora out into the lake, she was a little nervous until everyone else got in the water too and showed her how much fun it was! We have tons of photos, thanks to the Longtons (we left our camera in the house). As a bonus, Nora's Uncle Casey came over and tried to convince us to let her take her first ride on the jet ski! Though that didn't happen, we had a great visit and Casey cooked up a feast. If you didn't know yet, Casey is one class shy of having his culinary degree (he'll be done August 9th, hooray!), and it shows! The dinner was excellent. Here are some pictures from the lake:

This rock 'n roll look was achieved with sunblock


Uncle Casey and Grandpa L show Nora the waverunner... she looks like she'll be a natural, as soon as she can see up over the front.

Nora and Grandma L

Last week Brett took a day trip to Chicago for work, so Nora and I had dinner at my mom and dad's. Andy came too -- a huge treat for Nora. She loves her uncles! As with Casey, she spent a lot of time trying to get his attention/ making silly faces. Next time I'll try to remember my camera so I can get some more pictures with our local family members.

This past weekend, we all travelled to Chicago for a visit with Genevieve and a friend's wedding. Everything was great, in spite of the fact that Nora does not sleep in the car... at A L L. Saturday we took Nora to the Lincoln Park Zoo, even though it was rainy early on. $4 for two rain ponchos solved the problem for Nora and Brett and we were on our way. It was great weather for the animals... they were all out and active since it wasn't oppressively hot. We saw lions, monkeys, gorillas (including a baby gorilla!), zebras, flamingos, penguins and assorted sea birds, warthogs, wild dogs, ostriches, giraffes and two storks! Nora seemed to like them all, and said "meow meow!" when we saw the lions. I was hoping the other animals would be making noise so we'd know how to represent them correctly when we read "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?," but no luck. I really needed the zebra braying and the flamingo fluting, but all I got was some sort of buzzing noise from the flamingos. Oh well! To top off all of the awesomeness of the zoo, we ate lunch there, and were surprised to find that they had pretty decent food for a zoo!

One of the gorillas is to the left of Nora and Brett in this picture.

One of the puffins swam right up to the window to say hi! So did a penguin in the exhibit next to this one, but we couldn't get a picture to turn out.

Genny, Nora and Brett check out the zebras.

Getting in touch with her inner monkey.

Saturday night we headed off to Gretchen and Justin's wedding, which was just beautiful. We haven't been to a wedding in two years, so it was extra fun to go! I didn't take my camera, so we have no pictures. Nora stayed home with Genny for ladies night, and had a blast at the park. I'll have to get pictures from Gen, but apparently Nora's little dog accompanied her everywhere at the park. There she is on the swing, with the dog... on the slide, with the dog... running through a field, with the dog... helping to push the stroller, with the dog... ... you get the picture! Meanwhile, at the wedding, Brett and I got to meet Nora's future pen pal, Baby Eve Parker -- what a peanut! She's two weeks old and was a champion at the wedding, as were her parents. :)

Sunday we headed home after church, brunch and a short nap, and Nora definitely missed her aunt right away. We had a "scenic" drive right through the heart of the city due to a miscalculation/ foggy memory on my part and that distracted her some. It'd been a while since I drove right straight down Michigan Avenue so I should have enjoyed it more instead of being ticked that I missed getting onto Lake Shore Drive. If you're in Chicago, you CANNOT get onto LSD from North Avenue... just a friendly tip.

And finally to today -- Aqua Tot. Today was our first baby swim class. Nora LOVED it. As soon as we came out of the locker room and into the pool area, she was totally over the moon... and we hadn't even gotten into the water yet! She had a blast playing in the water and was only slightly put off when she accidentally plunged her face into the water while trying to pick a ring up off the bottom of the very, very shallow part of the pool. The only downside is she HATES the locker room. Hopefully over the next 2 weeks she'll come to realize that the locker room is just something to get through to get into and out of her adored pool.

As always, thanks for checking in with us. We hope you are well and would love to hear from you!

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!):