New Pictures

My best buddy, Jenny (aka--Our Family Photographer) took some great photos to commemorate Norah's 6-month mark. I thought I'd share one of my favorites. I love that she has baby slobber on her chin! I'm sorry if you find it offensive, but the way I see it, she'll only be this little once, and this photo truly captures what Norah looks like. I love it. Jenny, you're the greatest!

13 Movies That Take Me Back

Thanks to a recent post by Sheri D. for inspiring this week's 13--"Favorite Movies That I Grew Up With". Feel free to post your favorites! I'm feeling all nostalgic now and you might remind me of a few I missed.

1. The Neverending Story (Whoa-whoa, whoa-whoa, whoa-whoa)
2. Toby Tyler (What kid didn't want to run away and join the circus at some point?)
3. The Sound of Music (I could watch this about a gazillion times!)
4. Summer Magic (Did anyone else grow up with this little-known classic?)
5. The Little Princess (Shirley Temple)
6. Oklahoma! (So many great songs...and yes, I am a BIG-TIME musical geek and I'm not ashamed to admit it)
7. The Princess Bride (Favorite lines: "Stop that rhyming and I mean it!" "Anybody want a peanut?)
8. My Fair Lady (I loved the part where she swallows the marble, and of course the scene where she regally walks down the staircase in her beautiful, white dress and tiara and drops Henry Higgins' jaw)
9. The Indiana Jones Trilogy (ok, so I wasn't wild about the "Temple of Doom" heart-removal scene...but other than that, it was a great series!)
10.The Swiss Family Robinson (the coolest tree house ever!)
11. Old Yeller (Favorite line: "I don't wanna play in 'at ole backyard!")
12.The Man From Snowy River (Still one of my all-time favorite soundtracks!)
13.The Original Star Wars Trilogy (like I could be married to Jason Robinson and leave those off the list!)

Tumbling Blocks

It's been a good day. I took Norah in for her weight-check today. She's up to a whopping 13lbs. 1 oz. Still only in the 5th percentile, but at least she's on back on the chart. (Last week's weigh-in was 12lbs. 9 oz.) Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement.

In celebration of Norah's 6-month birthday last week, we pulled out her first 6mo+ toy. Its a classic...colorful, shaped, plastic blocks that drop into a big, yellow bucket. It has a lid with matching shapes cut out for her to insert the corresponding blocks through the appropriate holes, but right now, we're just doing good if we can get her to put the blocks in the bucket at all! And no, we aren't teaching our beloved daughter obscene hand gestures, she (thankfully) doesn't know any better, so please don't take offense.

Jason and I got a kick out of watching her explore her new toys. At first, she was convinced that these multi-colored blocks were "snacks" because we couldn't keep them out of her mouth. After demonstrating a few times how to drop a block into the bucket, she continued to put the blocks in her mouth, and occassionally would get a lucky shot whereby the block would fall from her mouth into the bucket, followed by a proud grin, as though she meant to do that all along. She's done better as the week has progressed, but every block still has to be taste-tested before it can be dropped into the bucket. (She is at least using her hands to drop them now) By far, her favorite function of the blocks set (besides the aforementioned "taste test") is tumping the bucket upside down, which sends the blocks tumbling out in a cascading array of rainbow-colored chaos. The telephone is still her first love though--she'll happily leave all her blocks behind for a few intimate moments with "Ma Bell".

Finding Our Motivation

Up until this week, Norah's main mode of self-transportation has been "the roll". She has become quite proficient at both the left and right-hand rolls, and often puts on quite an acrobatic display. On Sunday, she started showing some signs of pondering other means of travel...that's right ladies and gentlemen--she was considering moving on to "the crawl". The only trouble was, no object could be found that was "worthy" of the extra effort. (Mommy and Daddy would have been nice "targets", but we're both a couple of suckers--all she had to do was make her "sad baby" face and cry a few tears of neglect, and we'd pick her up faster than an abandoned hundred dollar bill in the middle of an empty street)...UNTIL, Jason remembered a fact that proved crucial in our crawl tutorial. Norah is a girl! (duh) Of course, she'll love the telephone! And so, we come to the title of today's blog...we've found our motivation!

All week long we've baited her, and 100% of the time, Norah is more than willing to crawl as long as we put the phone in front of her. (Granted, her version of "crawl" looks an aweful lot like me trying to swim freestyle, minus the water...but it is definately forward movement and not a roll.) A couple of times she's been so excited to have reached her destination, that's she's hoisted the phone up to her ear and started squealing with glee, which of course, prompted me to dial some numbers for her so she'd have someone to talk to (which she also loves). So friends and family, be warned, if you get an unexpected phone call and are met with a high-pitched, seemingly non-sensical jabber, please be kind and say "Hi, Norah!" We need all the positive reinforcement we can get!

13 Reasons Why "Jason is the Greatest"

I'll give you one guess who suggested this week's topic...but that aside, it was a worthy topic that deserved some play, so here we go!

1. He loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
2. He takes pride in our home, and is happy to cut the lawn, organize the garage, build new furniture, install doors, or do anything else that needs doing (with a smile) to keep it looking great.
3. He is Norah's daddy. He loves her and has a gentle tenderness with her that he isn't embaressed to let others see.
4. He has huge muscles that are great for opening even the toughest jars, as well as for holding me tight.
5. He always saves the last of the milk for me because he knows how devastated I am when we run out. (And he'll usually ungrudgingly go to buy more if I realize that I drank the last of the milk and forgot to restock before the milk monster within me demanded another glass)
6. He'll try anything I cook at least once--no matter how frightening it looks.
7. He says wonderful prayers. (Though he humbly offers to let Grandmother do the honors every week at Sunday dinner, which is usually met with a reply of "Oh, Jason!")
8. He isn't too cool to read out-loud with me before bed.
9. He can remember things that he's only heard once, so as a result he's a wealth of all kinds of interesting facts (we kick tail at Trivial Pursuit--thanks to him!)
10. He is incredibly patient. I can count on one hand the times I've seen him angry--which is pretty impressive when you consider the fact that we've known eachother since we were in cradle roll.
11. He made "the catch" (now legendary) that saved the softball game, which thereby empowered me to shout with pride, "That's MY husband!!" (And he frequently makes other impressive plays, so that I have plenty of opportunities to remind everyone of how we're related.)
12. He loves me---for better or worse.
13. Uh, hello?... He's HOT!!!

Free Rides, Laundry, & Peek-a-Boo

I'll bet 97% of you wouldn't have guessed that Norah's absolute favorite mode of transportation is the "laundry basket express", but it is! I discovered this little known fact when Norah was only a couple of months old. I had to get some laundry done, but didn't want to leave Norah by herself in the house while I went to the garage to get the laundry out of the dryer, so I took her with me, and much to my surprise, the laundry basket became her "happy place". Sometiems, we even add sound effects (think "Choo-choo! Chugga-Chugga, Chugga-Chugga", complete with air breaks when we reach our destination at the "Mommy & Daddy's Bed Depot") Since she always looks so happy when she's taking her "free ride", I decided it was worthy of photo documentation.

After reaching my room, where I typically sort, fold, hang, and put away our laundry, I placed Norah on the bed, next to the clean clothes. Sometimes I like to talk to her while I work on the laundry ("This is Daddy's shirt. See? It's blue"), but today, she had plans of her own. While I started putting the clothes away, Norah set to work, strategically placing articles of laundry on top of herself, until she thought she was completely covered. (Think: Ostrich Syndrome) Her legs and feet were pretty easy to spot, but don't overlook her little hand...I thought that was the cutest part of the picture. When I saw that she was finished concealing herself, I asked one of her favorite questions, "Where's Norah?!" Which was, as usual, met with a string of mischievious giggles, slightly muffled, of course. After a momemt, she threw the sheets off of her face and shrieked, beaming from ear to ear. I was just glad I still had the camera with me from the laundry express photo shoot!

Well, that's about all I have time for. In a little while, we'll be off to Dr. Lawrence's office to see if he's happy with Norah's weight gain since her appointment last Wednesday. Say a little prayer! And in much happier news: Memaw's going home from the rehab center today! She's pleased as punch. Please continue to keep her in your prayers as she makes this transition. Have a great day!

Thursday 13: Things I Look Forward to

1. The joyful look on Norah's face first thing in the morning.
2. Finding new comments on our blog.
3. Christmas! (every year, starting in about August)
4. Two Words: Daddy's Home!
5. The day I can post the blog entry titled "Potty Training Success!" (And no, we haven't even thought about starting yet, she's only 6 months old!)
6. Our 50th Wedding Anniversary.
7. Fall/Winter (perfect cuddling weather...and because it "feels like Christmas"!).
8. Reaching that part of a good book where it gets too good to put down, and you have to push through and keep reading, even if it means staying up til 4am.
9. Seeing our children be baptised and watching their faith grow
10. Two words: Date Night!
11. The day that Jason doesn't have to work.
12. Hearing Norah sing (in real words, although the current version is precious)
13. When we all get to heaven!