Easy Contest--Great Prize

The Wooden Porch is hosting a contest with a $25 gift card to JoAnn's as the grand prize...and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment! Drop by and drop her a line before June 18th if you're interested!

One Toddler's Opinion

This morning, I had a conversation with a couple other moms of toddlers, and our topic turned to our kids' increasing tendencies to have their opinions known.

It didn't hit me until later how true that topic rang around this house. This afternoon, Norah emerged from her room with a sippy cup she'd stashed after breakfast, thereby containing warm, congealing milk. I grabbed it from her as soon as I saw it headed to her lips (come on, that's just gross!) and she immediately cried "More! More, please!" I went into the kitchen to get her a fresh cup and began filling it with cold water from the fridge. Norah, at my heels, immediately began protesting, "No! Mahk! Mahk!" (Translation: No, Milk, Milk!) Apparently, when she asked for more, she really did mean more, not just a consolation beverage. So I poured out the water and topped her off with some fresh milk.
With said milk in tow, she climbed into Jason's recliner and announced with enthusiasm, "Bob....please!" This is her way of telling me that she'd like to watch Veggie Tales. She has been on a major veggie kick lately. I put on a Backyardigans dvd a few days ago and she put both hands palm up, as if to say, "What?" and then said, "Bob?" (you could hear the question mark in her voice) While part of me finds it a little early to be catering to the opinions of my little girl, I guess the majority of me is just thankful that she has enough grasp of the English language to make her wishes known, so at least I'm not completely clueless as to why she's disgruntled.

Gak-ees

The first thing Norah noticed this morning when Jason got her up, was her beloved "Gak-ees" (glasses, for those of you not fluent in toddler-speak). After Norah requested her "gak-ees" a couple of times, Daddy lovingly obliged. She didn't take them off until she had finished her breakfast.

A Discovery in (Poor) Pictures

Norah had a marvelous discovery this evening, but sadly, due to Mommy's lack of photo taking skill, you'll have to use your imagination a little bit. Just after dinner, Norah went into the dark kitchen and found her shadow waiting for her on the dishwasher door. While the shadow is not visible (due to my aforementioned lack of photography prowess), I still thought the pictures were worth sharing.




Hey...who's that? I don't recall seeing that dark figure on the dishwasher door before now.















Aaaaaaaaa! It moves when I move! Creepy!


















When I touch it, it touches me back. That's funny...I don't feel anything....

















Check it out! She knows "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", too! This girl might not be too bad. She's about my size too. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.












Hey!? Where'd she go? Maybe if I wait here I can jump up and surprise her when she gets back.....Still waiting...






By the way, did you happen to notice that for the duration of this post I've been walking on the tile floors with NO SHOES? Yeah, I figured if that shadow kid could hack it, so can I.

High Heel Training

Norah loves shoes. Not just since the tile incident. She's a big-time girly-girl when it comes to accessories...so when I saw her new use for her rings, my first thought was, "High Heel Training?" She pranced all around the living room with her green and yellow pumps with surprising grace. (Not too sure where she got that gene--it surely wasn't me and I really don't think Jason would want credit for this particular skill)

Give the Girl an Inch...

Norah has always been intrigued by our fireplace. From the time she was big enough to pull up, she's been trying to climb up there, perhaps in an effort to unearth the contents of the mysterious trunk, thereon. (Which I'm sure she'd be disappointed to know, only contains throw blankets). So, it was no surprise that she posed proudly for me when she managed to climb up and take a seat there. Now, Jason and I don't normally let Norah play around the fire place (brick is just so hard to fall and hit your head on), but since she was sitting so quietly, I decided to give her an inch. I'm sure you can imagine what ensued, but for my own pleasure, I'll bore you with the details.

First, there was a lively game of "Up/Down". I'd say that lasted for about 5 minutes, and no, I'm not exaggerating. Up until now, Norah's really had a hard time getting up and down onto the fireplace (probably because we haven't given her much time to practice). But yesterday, she figured out the finesse of turning herself around and slowly lowering her legs until her feet can almost hit the floor, then letting go. That opened her eyes to a whole new world! She was extremely proud of this accomplishment.

Next, came a celebratory round of "Weeee!", which though at first glance may look like a frightened attempt at choreographing "Surfin' Safari", was actually just Norah performing squats on the fireplace ledge, while shouting, "Weee!" This particular game was short-lived, because it was just a little too stressful to watch and mean Mommy pulled the plug.



So, finally, before making her get down, I gave her instructions to "Smile Pretty" and this is the picture we came up with. Cutie pie. Of course, she wasn't smiling like this later last night when she attempted to summit Mt. Fireplace again, without permission, and she got into big trouble with Daddy. Uh-oh. It was truly all my fault for letting her bend the rules during the day. Guess I'd better stick to more consistent parenting, or the poor girl wont know what she's allowed to do!

Play Date H20

This morning I took Norah to a play date with our good friends Bonnie & Kellen, Cal & Patti, and Shelby. It was our first play date of the summer, so of course, there had to be some good, old-fashioned water-play!

Erin opened her backyard to let the kids come play in the sand and water. When we arrived, all of the other kids were in the pool, but Norah didn't want anything to do with the water. She cried when I tried to put her in, so instead, she checked out the sandbox.



After a while, the other kids joined her, and everyone did really well sharing toys and playing together.






Here's a shot of Norah and her Bible Class buddy, Bonnie. Bonnie and Norah are only a week apart in age--it's so nice to have sweet church friends to play with!



As soon as she thought it was "her" idea, Norah loved the pool. I think it was probably her favorite part of the play date, because every time I'd pull her out to play with the other kids, she'd go up to one of the other moms and raise her arms, as if to say, "Pool, please". Here she is "swimming" with Shelby.





I thought this was a fun picture of Bonnie and Norah. At the time they were saying "Splaaasssssh!" (yet another Bible class song lyric that we often sing at bath time, so it probably seemed very appropriate)









I loved her expression in this picture. It just seems to say, "What are you looking at?"









Here she is playing with brother and sister team, Bonnie & Kellen. It looks like she's asking him, "So, what do you like to do in this pool, for fun?"





Jenny brought out a big, inflated ball that squirted water from several spouts. It was definitely a crowd pleaser!








More water fun with Bonnie & Kellen...












Of course, the two boys had to engage in a little friendly water warfare. (Norah narrowly escaped the ambush, but was well-armed with a Louisville Slugger, just in case)











And of course, Norah (like most of the kids) couldn't leave until she had sampled her fair shar of the pool water mmmmm.....

It was a fun morning. Thanks, Erin for having us over! I have to admit, I was a little jealous. I wouldn't have minded going for a dip, myself! Maybe next time we can schedule a mommy play date?