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!

Happy Half-Birthday, Norah!

Today is Norah's 6-month birthday! To celebrate, we went to see Dr. Lawrence for a check-up and shots. (Hence, the Garfield band-aid decorating her left thigh...there's a matching one on her right) Norah was a trooper, as usual, with the doctor's visit (shots and all!). Turned out, I did more crying than she did this time.

She weighed in at 12 lbs. 4 oz. and is 24 inches long. She'd only gained 10 oz. since her 4 month appointment, which dropped her off the growth charts (less than the 5th percentile--last time she was in the 10th percentile), so Dr. Lawrence hit me with some heavy news. We've got to start Norah on formula...every 3 hours. Now I'm not one to cry in public--in fact, I loathe and abhor it, but no sooner had the words come from his lips than the tears started flowing from my eyes. So many thoughts were racing through my mind. "She's only 6 months old. She's developing great. She looks great. She's happy and healthy. I'm not ready to give up nursing!" He saw my pain and told me it'll be ok to keep nursing her as long as it doesn't interfere with her formula consumption. He wants to see us back on Monday to see if boosting her calorie intake will get her back up on the growth chart. If not, he'll have to run some tests to be sure that her metabolic rate and digestive system are functioning properly. I'm praying that she'll show the kind of growth that she should, and that we wont have to stay on formula for long.

When I brought her home it was time for her to eat, so I nursed her, then fed her 4 oz. of formula (he said to get her to eat between 3-4 oz. each time) then nursed her again until she fell asleep. She's still sleeping now, and I expect with such a full belly, this should be a power nap...which is probably a good thing since I feel emotionally and physically drained and could use one myself. Please keep us in your prayers these next few days as we start Norah's new diet. Also, please continue to pray for Memaw, who is still laid up in the Rehab Center and hasn't been given any news on her release date. That's all for now. I love y'all, and I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with my first Thursday Thirteen!

Please Don't Take My Sunshine Away

Norah tried carrots for the first time tonight. I'm telling ya, this girl likes to eat...everything! Tonight's photo is a picture of the woe-be-gone look on her face after we explained that the carrot jar was empty. Don't worry, she perked right up as soon as she heard us start the bath water (like we could just leave her like that!)

As much as I hate to admit it, Jason and I have gotten into a reality series. We're normally not big tv-watchers...probably has something to do with the fact that we only have 4 channels...but honestly, even if we had cable, there's nothing worth watching there either...but that's another rant for another time. So this new show we're watching is called "Treasure Hunters" and its on NBC on Monday nights at 8pm. (NBC pays me the big bucks to plug their network) Its pretty much a scavenger hunt on steroids, but the clues are tied-in to American history (like the underground railroad, national monuments, past presidents, etc.) so its got a little bit of education thrown in. (Did you catch how I'm trying to justify our new indulgence?) The competing teams are very different. They're composed of everyone from geniuses, to former Miss USAs, to Air Force, and of course they had to throw in a family of three with an insanely spoiled and obnoxious 24-year old daughter (ie--way too old to be acting the way she does toward her parents!) Its proven to be very interesting, and addictive, so if you're looking for something to do for an hour on Monday nights...we highly recommend it!

Just in case you're still feeling depressed about Norah's sad, post-carrot face, here's a happier picture, in the swing, with her red socks and red bow. She did, at some point today wear a shirt...I know some of you (not to single anyone out, GRANDPA GILMORE) are thinking we just let Norah run around Robinson County naked as a jaybird, but today was just a very messy day, and I happened to have the camera out both times when Norah was between outfits. (Hopefully that will lay to rest any rumors circulating that we're starting a nudist colony)

In other news, I hope to add a new feature to the RCP blog starting this Thursday. I've seen several other bloggers posting their weekly "Thursday Thirteen", random lists of 13, whose topics change every Thursday. I always enjoy reading them on other people's sites, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. It's just a fun way to (hopefully) help me to update my blog a little more often, and of course, to give you something to roll your eyes at. If I get too many complaints, I promise I'll pull it! By the way, if you have an idea for a topic, post it as a comment, and if I like it, I'll use it! (Topics I've seen used range from "13 reasons I don't eat bologna" to "13 funny things I've heard around the house this week")

Well, I'd better do something productive while I still have the energy. I hope everyone has an awesome day!