still too soon...

I still haven't made it through this without getting bummed out. Even though I'm really happy to be in California, I still just miss New York every day.

Jay-Z - New Music - More Music Videos

(that said, this video is pretty amazing)

Outtakes

Our little wee is in a great stage of development. She's becoming more adventurous with attempts to walk, and she's starting to say stuff. Enjoy the footage (yes, pun intended. I know, it's bad).

(in this first one, the video plays weird and skips the first second. The best part is the very beginning, so you may try moving the slider back manually. Baby steps.)

In this next one, she's showing me her ball. Notice her excellent pronunciation.

Walking and talking. It's fun.

Norah on the move

So this just happened a few minutes ago. Thought you should know.



But really, check this out:




Superstar.

Family Reunion in the Great Northwest

We were lucky to get to go spend a few days at this beautiful spot in Washington with Nathan's family last week. It was the first time we have all been together since last Thanksgiving, so it was a momentous gathering. Below is a picture of the whole gang, Nathan's parents with their entire progenity— three sons, three daughter-in-laws, and three grandchildren all born within 10 months of each other.


Needless to say, much of the time was spent watching (and taking photos of) these three.


Norah was endlessly fascinated with her cousin Sam. Being 6 weeks older than her, he has a few more tricks in his arsenal that left Norah quite in awe. Such things as being able to open doors, go both up AND down stairs (Norah is great at going up, but still has a hard time going down), and walking all over the place. We were hoping Sam's influence would rub off on that last one, but Norah is still building her confidence to venture out on her own, although she is a great little walker as long as she has a finger or furniture to hold on to. Because Sam spends a lot of time at Gram and Papa's house he also knew where all the good toys were :), all the makings of quite the super-cool guy in Norah's eyes. I'm sure he will always continue to remain so throughout their lives.




Little Dalton was an absolute joy to have around. The most pleasant and sweet baby. And he is getting big so fast!

There were also many photos taken of babies and their parents in different combinations:

There was hiking and vista-viewing




Ferry-boating in the Puget Sound



And a lot of general all-around relaxing (which in this family can include such things as playing the Banjo)

An added bonus of visiting Seattle is that these two chuckles live there now. Yay!

It was fun to get to spend time with Laura and Bret, and to see their cute little apartment in the city. We're glad they chose to move somewhere that we already love to visit. Thanks guys.

And the added bonus of Laura and Bret living there now is that members of my family have added incentive to come visit too. We overlapped one day with my mom when she came to visit, so we lucked out in getting a great photo of Norah with BOTH her awesome grandmothers.


Thanks again Gram & Papa for having us, and for being such wonderful hosts/parents/grandparents. We love you!