Conversationalist

She's starting to imitate sounds and intently watch facial movements for clues about how to make certain noises. Pretty intense.

Poster Baby

Just kidding. I'll never allow our little one to be a poster baby. But you have to admit, she is pretty darn adorable. I stayed home with Norah today while Daddy went to work. Some pictures from our day together:






Also, here is a short video I managed to get of Norah really smiling. The video would have been longer if the camera battery hadn't died on me! But still, enjoy.



Ah, I love her.
SLK

Pops

My dad has decided to start his own blog.
I'm pretty excited for it. :o)
For anyone who is interested, his blog can be found here.

Love to you all.
SLK

Finally Old Enough

Nope, I'm not referring to Norah. I'm actually referring to myself. I'm finally old enough to accept (some of) the advice and guidance from my parents. It only took, what, 24 years? Ha!

I had planned to go into Portsmouth today to have my bridesmaid dress for Katie's wedding altered. Unfortunately, the dreaded NH rain has come back again. I got halfway to our car with Norah, before I let out a "shit" and turned around to head back into our apartment. Running errands in the rain with a baby just plain sucks. So, I'm saving that adventure for another day.

Norah is currently down for her second nap today. Yep, you read the sentence correctly..I did use the word "SECOND"! She took a nap this morning for an hour (in her crib) and has been down this time (in her crib) for at least a half hour so far. AH! As some of you may know, THIS IS HUGE! Norah has not been known so far as a great napper. A great nighttime sleeper? Yes. But during the day, she fights sleep like nobody's business. And if she does manage to let go and fall asleep, she wakes up and fusses the minute we try to put her in the crib. One milestone at a time I suppose!

My dad encouraged me to spend some time with God. I've been terrible at this lately, extremely terrible. I've just let my life get so busy and haven't made spending time with God a priority. I haven't been very willing to put in the effort.

Every time I take a moment to really look at Norah, though, I can't believe God would bless me with something so precious. To tell you the truth, I still think I'm in shock. I have a baby. I have a daughter. I am a mom. Whew.

Maybe a month or so after Norah was born, I was sitting on the couch...just holding her. She was quiet and content. She was so beautiful and peaceful. Innocent. I couldn't take my eyes of her. I had never felt that kind of love before. I was so overwhelmed (in a good way). I finally just wept. I mean, really wept. In that moment, I think I understood a little bit better how much God loves us.

SLK

Meltdown

One minute she was smiling and talking, the next minute she turned into this:



Babies are fickle creatures, it seems. Oi.

Freak Out

We think Norah is figuring out that she has legs and that she can move them. She spent about ten minutes the other night just slapping 'em up and down on her changing pad. Here's some of that:



Stay Gold!

MMK

Two Months Old

Norah had her two-month check-up at the doctor's today, even though she's technically well over a week past her two-month birthday. Here's all the vital stats that y'all need to know:

Weight: Norah weighs 12.4 lbs. This puts her in the 80th percentile for her weight.

Height:Norah is 24.5 inches long. This puts her over the 100th percentile (aka off the charts) for her height. This means she's super tall and will, in all likelihood, probably end up being what the kids call a "baller."

Head: Norah's head is 41.5 cm in diameter. She remains in the 95th percentile in this regard and has begun to develop a complex about the massive girth of her infantile gourd.

She also had three shots today in order to vaccinate her from the scourges of polio and other mostly-vanquished diseases. She screamed for a minute or two after she got the shots, but then promptly stopped crying and drank four ounces of milk once she was offered the bottle.

Here's her two-month birthday pictures from last week!





She wasn't having it when we tried to get her to smile for the pictures. So it goes.

Stay Gold, everyone!

MMK

A visit from Grandma and Auntie

This past week Marshall's mom and sister were here visiting. This was the first time either of them had met Norah. Saying goodbye tonight was rather sad after having such a great week together. Here are some pictures from their visit:











Thank you Grandma Kole and Auntie Grace for driving out to New England.
Time with family is such a blessing.

SLK

Patriotism

I call these pictures "Baby on a Flag" and "The Return of Baby on a Flag." They're abstract representations of our celebration of the birth of our nation on this day 233 years ago. More importantly, though, they include everything which makes anything in this world totally awesome. Let's go down the list:

Baby Norah? Check.
Coy baby smiles? Check
A banner representing oppression and avarice? Check.





Happy July 4th, everyone. Hope you enjoyed it.

Stay Gold!

MMK

Summer Tuneage

This will probably only interest a tiny portion of our readership, but I thought I'd offer my summer listening recommendations and let you know what I've been playing lately while driving/working out/hanging out around the house with Norah. If you're looking for something new to put into your ear holes, try any one of these albums.

1. mewithoutYou - "It's all crazy! It's all false! It's all a dream! It's alright" Myspace --- Lyrics



2. Last Lights - "No Past, No Present, No Future"
Myspace --- Lyrics can be found there as well.



3. Paint it Black - "New Lexicon"
Myspace --- Lyrics



4. Regina Spektor - "Far"
Myspace --- Lyrics



5. NOFX - "Coaster"
Myspace --- Lyrics



6. Black SS - "Foreign Object"
Myspace --- Lyrics




You're welcome, everyone.

Stay Gold!

MMK