september already?

holy smokes. i swear it just turned august last week.
anyways, we have not done very much as a family this last month, because mister christopher has been working 6 day weeks, thus decreasing the amount of "weekends" we had at our disposal.

it was also a hundred degrees out most of the month, so the only family outing we had (besides costco and such) was a brief weekend at the beach.

it was very nice though. that's the beauty of san diego- when things get a little too toasty inland we can always count on perfect weather at the beach. almost makes up for the cost of living, doesn't it? ;)

happy 5 month birthday!!!

like, last week. but better late than never.

she's getting so big!

i kind of lose track of nora's achievements as they happen. just because they happen so quickly and then she's onto the next thing.

for instance. nora started sitting up on her own- as in for real and not toppling over 5 seconds after we sat her up- and then suddenly it was the only thing she wanted to do. and then she started scooting around on her bum a few days later. i'd set her up on her blanket, leave her for a minute and come back, and she'd sitting up in the middle of the living room, a few feet from where she started. it totally surprised me the first time she did that.

she will pick up EVERYTHING. and she WILL gnaw on it. and when she's not mouthing it, she's passing it from hand to hand and waving it around.  we gotta be careful, because when we eat dinner with her the first thing she tries for is a handful of food. and we don't let her have that yet.

she rolls over both ways. but she doesn't really like rolling from her stomach to her back. it scares her. so she prefers to cry to be picked up instead, when she gets stuck on her tummy.

she recognizes her name. it's so cute.

she's started babbling and mimicking us when we talk to her. her favorite is "dada" which i can't quite understand- i've been promoting "mama", but she doesn't seem to like it quite as much.

she makes the chewbacca noise. i believe she got that from her father.

she's started reaching for mama when she's tired of being held by daddy. ;)

first time in the pool with uncle brad-o. she liked it.

and the most celebrated achievement of all: we have successfully established a consistent bedtime for nora. cheers all around for sanity!

joo-lye

right now it's august. which means that i should probably post about all the stuff we did last month.

july seemed pretty busy, but really, we only did a few things. maybe having a kid just makes us feel like busy all the time. :)

the #1 cool thing of the month: chris is no longer on the night shift. thank. heavens.

chris had the 4th off so we could celebrate together. we went to my grandparents for a BBQ, and nora was a monster the entire day. hence, no pictures, and no fireworks. when we got home and she fell asleep, and we were so grateful for the reprieve, we did too.

we also took a trip over to maine this month from the 6th to the 12th for chris's sister's wedding. it's nice in maine this time of year. we stayed with chris's parents in a cabin on the shore in lamoine. flying with an infant is probably the most stressful thing ever- i will never judge the parents of a screaming infant on a flight ever again. you can hop on over to my other blog for more stories and pictures about the trip. there are a lot. seriously.

at chris's sister's wedding:

picture courtesy of Michael Gerardi

that's it for this month! cheers.

happy 4 month birthday!

well, maybe not so happy. we got shots today. we didn't like em too much. at least tylonel tastes good.



featuring the tazmanian devil this time. so befitting of her personality!


on a less traumatizing note, nora also got weighed and measured today. she's 2'1" (or 25 inches, or the height of my knees), and weighs 14lbs 12oz... not a feather-weight anymore. i would tell you that chris has started to complain of back pain when he carries her around in the "princess hold" for any extensive amount of time, but i won't because that makes him sound like a sissy. ;)

stuff that little nora can do now:

•  laugh (and promptly get the hiccups afterwards, like her father)
• grab toys, which instantly go straight to her mouth
• grab her feet (and copious amounts of her mother's hair)
• roll over.
• vocalize a tremendous amount of non-screaming, non-crying noises (although she does a lot of the other stuff too)
• make wet-raspberry noises with her mouth
• drool (a LOT)

while we were at the doctor's office today the nurse made a comment about the strength and level of physical activity this girl exudes, preceded by the word "wow" (we had a hard time measuring her. when nora's on her back, she'll either a} pull up into a perpetual stomach crunch and stare you down grunting until she's picked up, or b} roll over. flattening her out was a fun undertaking. you'd have better luck pinning down a fish out of water). then she prophesied that little nora is going to be a mover as soon as she finds out how to get around. i think i can safely say that i have the most opposite of a chill baby that anyone could ever get. apparently her dad was just like that as a kid. we just came back from visiting his parents, and the stories- oh the stories! if nora's anything like chris we are going to have an exciting time raising her, to say the least. :-)

june

this month we:

hit up some more parks. lake jennings and lindo-lake to be specific.
lake jennings: beautiful. but it'll cost you $1 to walk around. i'm not kidding.

lindo lake: nice to take a stroll around. but don't let the name fool you- it's less of a lake and more of a pond. but a pretty pond, nonetheless. and people fish in it, from what we saw. oh yeah, and there is this... faux-gym equipment chillin' around there also (kiiiiinda ridiculous. but whatever). we had a few laughs on those contraptions.

and then my sister got married. as beautiful as she was, i got zero pictures of her, because i was very busy holding little nora who was not-a-happy-camper that day. BUT i did happen to convince my big-little-bro take a few pictures of our tiny little fambily in front of the temple while we were waiting.

we will be going inside there someday soon, i think. :)

then we went to this bonfire with mr.&mrs.B and other friends/coworkers of chris. it was a good time.

the end.

happy 3 month birthday!

little nora bora is 3 months old... hooray! this is the benchmark that chris and i have been looking forward to with great anticipation- the conclusion of the "missing trimester", the age when babies supposedly figure out how to quit screaming all the time, and so forth. in celebration of this miraculous "coming of age", i drank a little bit of milk for the first time since i found out it gave her awful, demonic gas (about 11 weeks ago). verdict: it still gives her gas, but she can handle it MUCH better than she used to. awesome possum.

anyways, nora's 3 month birthday landed on father's day. and unfortunately, her daddy-o had to work that day, but we had a grand ol' time anyways.

see? grand ol' time. she is trying to eat her dress here.

nora is also a growing fiend. we're not exactly sure how big she is now (her next doctor's appointment is still a month away), but just this past week i had to retire some of her cute 3 month old clothes because she's already too big for them. awwww. but that's ok, because there ain't nothin' wrong with a sturdy, chubby baby. :)

see the chub.



some of the fascinating things she's learned to do this past month: drool profusely, nom-nom on her hands, and make a variety of different, happy noises. she's a regular little cutie pie. we love her.

may's show-and-tell.

well, we've wrapped up the month of may, and summer is well under way (yessssss!). essentially, this month has pretty much been an assemblage of doctor's appointments for all of us, but we did find time to squeeze in an outing here and there. here's where we went:

my two kids & the jungle gym

el monte park: a GIGANTIC park located in the bowels of lakeside. it's actually pretty nice. we went there on one of the hottest days in may. there was nobody else there... unless you count a skittish wild turkey. with the entire park at our disposal, chris decided to have fun on one of the many jungle gyms (like the big kid he is). oh, and although this isn't in any way related to the park, i just want to mention that on the way home, a bird hit our windshield (such a memorable experience).

shhhh... no one can tell we're trespassing, right?

el capitan reservior: not because we have a boat, or even have friends who have a boat. we went there because we wanted to see the lake, and then ended up hiking our way up a "restricted road", which, we believe, would have eventually led us straight back up to alpine. we would have found out for sure, had there not been a giant, locked gate a few miles in. so we turned around and walked back the way we came. it was nice- very pretty country back there.

chillin at the bistro

del mar: mcdonald's bistro and then the beach afterwards. what is a mcdonald's bistro? essentially the fanciest mcdonald's in the existence of all mcdonald's, with an expanded menu. we hung out with the chef there for a while and then took a twilight stroll on the beach. nice area, del mar. you know it's a nice area when you follow a ferrari out of a fast food restaurant that has a chandelier in the bathroom. {side note: ever driven directly behind a ferrari? nervewracking. that's one car you really want to avoid rear-ending if you can help it}

lake laguna. nilly nora is chris's joey for the day.

the lagunas: with our fantastic neighbors, mr.&mrs. B! it was initially their outing to begin with, but they were kind enough to invite us along with them. they happen to have a baby daughter as well, so her and nora got to ride around with us in matching front carriers all day. mr. B also had a serious looking camera, with which he took this photo (so nice of him- thanks mr. B!).