Oh goodness, how do I even begin to describe this 3-year-old girl? She’s a FORCE! Her strength, her conviction, her intelligence, her strength, her ninja-slips-away-from-mommy-without-a-sound-skills, her incredible biting ability – I love this girl so. My Gooser, I love being a part of your life.
Nora is 32 pounds of personality. She knows no stranger, and will happily grab whatever looks yummy on your plate and fully expect you to want to share with her. It doesn’t matter how long she’s known you. She loves to dance, she loves to talk, her favorite activities range from wrestling with me, Jeremy and her big brother, to running naked through the house escaping the confines of her 3-year-old wardrobe (usually leggings and a t-shirt) to painting. Her fine-motor skills are remarkable, and just this week she’s started drawing very clear, precise little human-figures, something Elliott didn’t do until about a year ago. She mimics EVERYTHING big brother does, good and bad. It’s so cute to see these two little mirrors march around our house. Elliott will say something wacky “Mom, dad should eat old stinky socks for breakfast!” and then without a doubt, two seconds later you will hear a tiny voice repeat “yeah, dad should eat old stinky socks! haha, that’s so silly.” She still loves to swing in the baby swing at the park, insisting that she’s not to big for it (even though her feet get stuck every dang time) and she makes new friends wherever she goes. She continues to use her pacifier at night, and I dread cutting her off but know the day needs to come soon. She also still loves to be picked up, only by mama (don’t even TRY, daddy!) and she still stands by my feet, not saying a word even though she definitely has the vocab, but holding her arms in the air and waiting for me to grab her. She thinks it’s funny to call me “papa” and loves to give hugs and kisses. She surprises me all the time, and I’m so proud to be her mama.
We’ve had an intensely busy couple of months, with family weddings, visitors, trips, big things at work, various illnesses, our 10th wedding anniversary, and more. I had hoped to blog with pictures of our visitors and trips, but I have to focus in on Nora’s birthday or this post will never happen! Thankfully, the last 2 Fridays I have had completely off from work. Earlier this fall I adjusted my schedule, so I no longer work on Fridays. It’s only been 2 weeks and I’m sure the work will only continue to pile up, but wow – what a difference for our family. The weekends aren’t nearly as breathless with crazed preparations for the workweek, the kids are beyond excited to have mama home for an extra day, and I get to be more present in our family life. It’s been absolutely wonderful, and I’m so thankful to have this time with the kids, especially with Nora still so little and Elliott in his last year before going to school fulltime.
Birthday girl picture time! We celebrated on Sunday Oct 30 because last year it felt so busy to throw a birthday party AND do Halloween activities. It was a juggle to fit it all in. Friday Oct 28 was our 10th wedding anniversary, and Jeremy and I had our first overnight away in ages. We went to Salish lodge for 18 wonderful hours, which truly felt like so much longer in the best, rejuvenating kids of way. We came home to happy kids and a birthday to prepare for! On Sunday we had many of our friends over for an ice cream social with bacon candy – our bacon baby doesn’t demand bacon in exactly the same way as she did when she was little, but we all still love it and had to serve it on her day! This year, I candied bacon and Nora insisted on serving the group.
Everyone was so thrilled to celebrate our girl’s special day.
I love this picture of Nora and Leslie. Leslie has been a part of our family for over 4 years now. She started watching Elliott with his friend Abbey when they were 10 months old. She saw me when I was in labor with Nora, so she’s has really known this girl from her beginning. She started watching both kids when I went back to work, when Goose was 5 months old, and it warms my heart so to see how much love they share.
Checking out her new dress-up clothes in the mirror! She also walks to the mirror to watch herself sing and dance.
Daddy’s girl.
Birthday cupcakes and presents!
And then, the actual day -Halloween and Nora’s 3rd birthday! We started off with trick-or-treating at Elliott’s school. Thankfully siblings were welcome to join, or Nora would have had to have pushed her way into that Halloween parade. She would have done it, too, and led the line by the end of it 🙂
We dressed up as the Lego Movie. Jeremy was Lord Business, I was Wyldstyle, Elliott was Emmet, and Nora was the Unikitty. We sure love a good family costume!
Abbey, Mark and Liz came trick-or-treating with us, and we had a ball! Abbey was the ultimate Halloween schemer. One house happened to offer candy for the parents, which we refused but the kids wound up getting. From then on out, she proceeded to ask the other houses for candy “for my daddy,” connecting the dots that she would get extra candy if she asked! Then she heard me mention that Halloween was Nora’s birthday, and one house gave everyone extra candy to celebrate. From there on out, Abbey changed her line, telling anyone who would listen that it was Nora’s birthday! Hahahahahahaha! It worked – they got extra candy whenever she mentioned it!
The face of 3. Don’t you just want to smother her in smoochies?
Happy birthday to the spunkiest girl I have ever met! I have no doubt that you will only continue to take the world by storm. I am so proud of you, my darling Nora, and I love you more than you can ever know.
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