Ouch!

This is at the pediatrician's office today after Norah's accident.  My poor baby-we had just gotten back from jogging and I let Norah out to sit on the porch with me while I cooled down.  She was getting pretty excited about being outside and out of the stroller and began getting a bit silly.  She got off the bench we were sitting on and started walking over to the cement step right before the front door.  I think she intended to go sit on it, she likes to sit there, but on her way she tripped on the door mat and landed with her mouth on the cement step. I scooped her up as she began to wail and cradled her as I ran into the house.  Seeing that blood was beginning to ooze out of her mouth and lips I began yelling for my mom to come help me( I didn't know where Ben was, and I figured my mom would know what to do anyway).  We discovered two teeth marks just under her bottom lip and with the amount of blood coming from her mouth we figured we should take her to the Instacare just to be safe. Ben had heard us by then so he and I scrambled to get out the door with Norah. She was such a brave little girl and stopped crying within a few minutes.  We wasted time at the Instacare because it turns out they wouldn't accept our insurance.  So we headed over to her Pediatrician in hopes they could take care of her there. 

The doctor was able to look at her mouth for us(which Norah despised) and we made it out of there with nothing more than a bit of neosporin.  The doctor told us that she did in fact bite all the way through her lip but it was such a minimal bite that the skin still looked pretty good and to put a stitch in it would probably make it scar worse.  He did tell us that she will probably have two little scars once it heals, and I'm hoping that with the neosporin that's not true.  But I guess it's not the end of the world if it does scar.  The scrape on her chin is pretty bad too, so we'll keep neosporin on that as well.  It could have been a lot worse so I am ever so grateful that it wasn't.  I do need to work on keeping calm in stressful situations.  I've witnessed a lot of trauma and high stress situations in my profession, but it's a completely different story when it's my baby girl we are talking about.  Thankfully Ben can usually keep me in check.  I'm sure this is just the beginning of the injuries, but let's hope we keep it to a minimum.

Feel The Rythym

We began teaching Norah to dance to music when she was first able to stand.  She would bend her knees and bob up and down.  She has since learned to tap her foot along to the beat and is starting to get her arms and hands into the groove as well.  Although she still doesn't know how to clap; have you ever heard of a 15 month old child who can't clap?!  We're working on it :)

Her latest dance is not even a dance at all, she likes to sit in front of the speaker and suck her thumb while listening to the music.  She is fascinated with it; it's almost as if she thinks there is actually someone inside of the speaker.  While we have been staying at my parents house we have discovered all the tapes that I loved as a child, it's really taking me back.  And I'm glad Norah loves them as much as I do.

 

 We're working on the thumb sucking issue.  Usually she takes it out of her mouth when we ask her to, sometimes she pretends like she can't hear us though and it takes us asking her 3 or 4 times for her to remove it.  Hoping she's not still sucking her thumb as she enters High School ;)

On The Farm

Our little girl is already an animal lover.  She came to love dogs back in Spokane; we had some friends who watched her a few times for us and they had a puppy; Norah loved him.  Since then we have taught her all about animals.  She is especially fond of farm animals and on command can mimic the sounds many of them make.  We've been wanting to take her to the Zoo for a few months now but since we are too poor for that we took the next best thing, a free trip to "Wheeler Farm".  She was in heaven!  We brought in our stroller but what a waste that turned out to be as she had to be right at the fence of every animal.  Eventually we'll take her to the Zoo, but this turned out to be such a great alternative as we are still trying to help her distinguish between the roar of a lion, tiger, bear, etc.  And what sounds do the Alligator, Giraffe, and Hippos make?  Zoo Animals may look pretty cool, but Farm Animals have much better sounds.  Oh, and we didn't get any pics of the Horses, but she does an awesome impression of a horse :)

Go Cougs!

Norah is quite the cheerleader, we've taught her to say "Go Cougs"!  She actually watches the game for the most part, must have been all that time in daddy's arms as an infant, watching ESPN; she loves football :)  And yes despite what you may think, we did in fact both graduate from the University of Utah, and still bleed BLUE.  Go BYU! :)

Butterfly in the Sky, I can fly twice as high!

We've been singing the Reading Rainbow song around here for weeks now.  My mom has a great blog where she shares her magnificent gardening experiences with the rest of the world.  She has always loved Monarch Butterfly's but has never been lucky enough to spot any in her gardens.  While we have been staying with my parents, Ben has also become intrigued with Monarch Butterfly's and decided to do a little research and locate a caterpillar for my mom.  Eventually he found several for her and we have been watching them all hatch into butterfly's for the last month.  Check out This Grandmother's Garden for the whole story, complete with an amazing video of one of the butterfly's leaving the cacoon.

As a sidenote-one of the caterpillars got lose one day, not sure if it was on the counter or the floor or what, but next thing I know Norah is toddling over to me with something black in her little pinchers.  Poor caterpillar didn't even see it coming!  Sadly it did not live but it was somewhat funny as Norah had no idea what it even was, she just was excited to have discovered it. And then a few weeks later my mom thought Norah would be ok holding one of the butterfly's.  Within seconds Norah clamped down on the butterfly and we scrambled to pry it out of her hands.  Happy to report the butterfly survived.  She know's all about butterfly's now and squeals with delight when she spots one outside.

Britax

oh how we love Britax.  My sister in law Linda let us borrow her infant chaperone when Norah was born.  It was so convenient and Norah slept in it often.  It was very unusual for Norah to cry in the car or out of the car when she was in this amazing carseat.  Actually I guess I don't have anything to compare it to, since Norah was our first baby. But I am hoping to get another infant chaperone for the next babe when that day comes, should it ever.  In the meantime, couldn't pass up this giveaway for a free carseat...Check it out here.

Labor Day Hiking

Does this girl look like her Daddy or what? :)

Mom and Dad

It was a perfect day for a hike, so we took advantage of the Holiday and headed outdoors.  We went with my parents and Emilee up Albion Basin and hiked up to Cecret Lake.  It was pretty neat, many others thought so too.  I had never been hiking with so many others in my life.  Luckily we started pretty early so it wasn't as crowded until we were on our way out. 

 This was Norah's first adventure in a back pack.  We borrowed the pack from Ben's bro's fam, it was perfect for the job and Norah loved it!  We took her hiking a few times in a tummy pack when she was younger, but she was never really alert or awake for those adventures, so this was pretty exciting to her.  She did fall asleep on the way down the mountain though, which was good because we were really pushing it with her nap time.  All in all it was a great day!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

These were just too delicious not to share.  Head on over to Our Sweet Lemons for the recipe.  I found this recipe last week and I'd been dying to make it ever since.  Finally the stars aligned last night and I had all the ingredients and even better, a sleeping baby.  They did take a bit of work, but they were worth it, so yummy.  I am trying to limit myself to just two today...we'll see if I can make it!

Don't Quit

It feels like I've had my share of tough times in the past few years, but I've also experienced blessing after blessing.  After my Grandmother passed away last month my mom and I were at the house cleaning out some of the drawers.  I found this poem on a card in a drawer that belonged to my Grandpa.  I wondered how many times he had read it himself, and what kinds of struggles he had been going through at the time.  I'm sure it was probably much more than I will ever have to experience, nor would I want to.  That's the thing about trials, they say that if we were to put all of our problems and trials into one big pile, most of us would be content to just take our own and be on our way.  I am sure when I look back on my life, I wouldn't want things changed any other way.  This poem helps me to feel hopeful when I just can't see the big picture.

Don't Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.  


Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.


Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.


Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

-Author unknown

Baby Doll

We've added another member to our family!  Every little girl needs her own baby doll, and I thought a year old was the perfect age to bring one home for Norah.  She was in love the moment she laid eyes on "Baby Doll".  It was amazing to see the natural instincts come out when she held it for the first time.  She tucked it right under her arms and smothered the head with kisses.  She also likes to chew on the baby's hand while she is carrying her around, or drag her through the house by one arm, and sometimes she throws the baby to the floor and yells in delight...ok so we are working on the mothering.  Ben and I laugh when she brings the baby over to us to hold.  He teases her that he's not ready to be a Grandpa and that she can't just drop the baby off with Grandma and Grandpa anytime she'd like.  (Have I mentioned lately that I love my husband?  Constantly making me laugh, especially when he is with Norah; he was made to be a daddy :)

I tried to get her to turn the baby so I could get a pic of the face but she had a death grip on it.

This was as close to the face as she'd let me get.

Where Norah goes, baby goes.

Norah is so into books lately that she can't even pause to look at the camera, and there's Baby Doll right beside her.