Lovin' Fall Weather

We have had absolutely gorgeous weather here for the past week. The temperatures have been in the low-mid 70's during the day (cooler at night) and best of all, no humidity!! This means two things--1) everyone's hair is looking better than it has in ages, and 2) being outside is very pleasant!

Norah and I met our friends Braden & Kambrie for a spontaneous picnic / play date at the park yesterday. It was a beautiful day, and we had a ball.




Up until yesterday, Norah's favorite has always been the slide, and this park had 2--I big one with lots of curves, and a smaller, straight slide. Norah had fun on both, but her new love, was most definitely the swings. I don't remember how long we actually spent on that swing, but I'm confident it stayed warm for quite a while after she vacated it, because she was parked there for a good, long time.

Leaving the park was harder than I anticipated. Norah just wasn't ready to go, but it was nap time, and there was no way were gonna skip it, beautiful day or not. (Norah + no nap= Super cranky, miserable evening in Robinson County) She cried almost the whole way home, asking for the swings and slides alternately, but we did eventually lie down for a nap. (and yes, I said "we")



Today, we tried story time at the public library again. I could kick myself for not bringing the camera (alas, it was at home charging, in preparation for more Halloween photo ops tonight). All the kids were dressed as their favorite book characters, and there were some costumes that made my little peacock look like the work of an unimaginative amateur. (Norah didn't wear peacock to the library...it is a little cumbersome, so we settled for a pair of kitty cat ears that she left on all of 5 seconds before seemingly deciding she was "too cool") My favorite costume was a child who dressed as one of the monsters from "Where the Wild Things Are". It was a homemade costume (my favorite kind) and it was covered in multi-colored strips of felt--every color imaginable. It didn't look too difficult to make, but the visual impact was awesome. She needed no explanation--her costume was so dead-on, you couldn't help but recognize it immediately. It definitely got me thinking about future years...children's books are a great place to go for costume inspiration! (I've already got a great one in mind for Norah & Baby Brother in a couple more years)

Norah and I also picked up some new library books, including one of my childhood favorites, "The Story of Ping", and one called "Noisy Nora" (I thought she'd get a kick out of a story with her name in it)...but I'm going to have to censure that one, I'm afraid, because it's written in poem form, with a chorus (which is repeated over and over) that always ends in, "Nora, why do you have to be so dumb?" and I'm pretty sure we don't need that kind of negative talk at 21 months. I am loving our library routine, especially having a fresh stack of books each time we go...but Norah has a little trouble understanding that once we take them back, the old books are gone...she keeps asking for the "Kittens" book we had last time. At least I guess I'll know of a few good books I could get her for Christmas!