Tag: Nora

Fashion by Nora: Spring Ballet Forecast

Wondering what this season’s ballet costumes will look like? Behold – Chez Nora has released their newest line of ballet couture.

This season promises adventures in double layer tutus and skirts, emphasizing animal prints and exciting hues of pink and purple.

Rumor has it that ballet companies will also feature a “Down Under” theme in their repertoire …

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To Claus or Not …

Our four-year-old son is very, very inquisitive, just like many kids his age. He likes to know how things work, he’s an observer and experimenter, and he takes things apart so he can mess with them and figure out what’s going on. He’s smart enough to take in information, digest it, and apply it appropriately to other situations. He’ll learn something, chew on it for a while, and then come back to you with follow-up questions that make you wonder what’s really happening in that brain of his.

For example, a few months back, his preschool class was learning about the planets in our solar system. One day he’s sitting at the table and asks, “Mommy, why do we live on Earth?!” From his inflection I could tell he wasn’t just asking how we ended up here, he was asking, “Of all the planetary choices we have in this galaxy, how and why did we end up on this one?”

I tend to answer him in what I hope is an honest and age-appropriate way. I don’t want to dumb down or falsify information for him because I respect his brain too much for that. Sometimes I don’t always think it through fully before my mouth starts, though.

“Mommy, is that magic?”  “No, sweetie, that’s physics.”  “What’s physics?” (Oh dear … um …) “Uh … it’s how different things in our world move together and against each other to make things happen.”

“Mommy, do drive and hide rhyme?” “No, because they don’t sound exactly the same.  When they sound a lot the same but not exactly, that’s assonance.”  “Hmm … assonance.”  (Mother-light dawning … Oh boy, thank goodness he said that word correctly.)

“Mommy, who is Saint Nicholas?”  “He was a very nice man who lived a long, long time ago who loved God so much that he wanted to help other people and be nice to them by giving things to them.”  (Oh crap — I answered for the actual Saint Nicholas, not thinking about Santa Claus. Did I just ruin Santa Claus’s story before we even started it?!)

He’s never brought up Santa Claus, we haven’t pushed it, and I’ve never wanted to force an idea on him. It’s one topic that I’ve felt is sort of awkward to work into conversation. I don’t want to push the idea of being good only so you get presents, I do want the holiday to be fun and for our kids to have great memories. I have no problem with talking about Jesus’s birth being the reason for Christmas and we celebrate by giving gifts because Jesus was God’s gift to us. Working the Santa connection, though, has been weird. The stories don’t flow well.

Tonight, though, I asked Seth (and Nora, our two-year-old), “Seth, do you think that Santa Claus brings presents to boys and girls?”  Wide eyes and nodding. (Nora: “And he say ‘Ho ho ho!'” A week or so ago it was “He say ‘Ha ha ha!'”) “Do you hope that Santa comes to our house to leave presents for you and Nora?”  More nodding. “Would you like to leave a note for Santa?”  “Oh, YES!”

DSC_0044I guess it wasn’t that hard to start the tradition after all …

Nora at 18 months

One of the things I’m trying to be better at (in addition to blogging at all) is writing down the memories and updates about Seth and Nora. I whirl through the every day of parenting and work and marriage thinking, “There’s no way I’ll forget this!” but I forget all the time. When Nora was born, Will kept reminding me of all the things that Seth did at that age, and I really didn’t remember a lot of them. Some of that may have been due to evacuating for a hurricane with a newborn, but the rest is due to mommy memory lapse.

So here’s a Nora update.

Nora is 18 months now, and she is a tiny little spitfire. She is – no kidding – in the 2nd percentile for weight at a whopping 20 pounds. She’s in the 25th for height, though (31 inches). She is incredibly sweet but balances that with a ferocious temper (don’t know where she gets it). When she gets mad, she leads with her teeth and a battle cry.

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I know every mom says this about her child, but Nora is SMART. She has been making phrases for a couple of months, she understands English and French perfectly (except for when she doesn’t want to) and she loves putting on and taking off her socks and shoes. I’m surprised at how well she does it, honestly.

Seth is my musician and singer, and Nora is our dancer (so far). She loves to move with music and rocks out in her car seat a lot. It’s hilarious to see her boogying from side to side with a fast song.

She is a charmer, a flirt, and a clown. She loves kitties and books. She is just perfect. 🙂

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Meeting Miss Nora

My guess date for our second baby – we didn’t know boy or girl –  was July 1, 2010. With our first baby, Seth, I had to be induced at 39 weeks because of severe asthma issues that were also leading to blood pressure issues for me. The Pitocin gave me piggy-backing contractions (one would start before the previous one fully ended) that were incredibly hard to deal with, so I had an epidural at 2 cm. They also gave me a shot of Stadol to help manage the discomfort, and in retrospect I can see just how groggy and “out of it” that made me feel.  I’ll be honest, my goal with Hypnobabies (HB) wasn’t necessarily to be completely medication-free, but rather to manage the process on my own until the point where the baby was born or I decided I’d had enough.

This can be a little TMI for some, so the rest is after the jump … 🙂

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