Norah's 1st Birthday

So I know we are waaaaaaay behind in our blog chronicles, but after successfully moving ourselves to Southern California (more on that to come), we are back up and running. So look for a string of 'catch-up' posts to come.

But 'first' things first. Norah's birthday.

Our baby girl turned 1 last month. We were still in Utah on her birthday, so to celebrate we capitalized on the beautiful summer weather as well as access to my parent's great backyard and an awesome grill (which also included two fabulous grill masters— my dad and my brother Jim), and most importantly, being with many of Norah's 'people.' I'm not sure how aware Norah was of what was going on, but she sure had fun regardless. Here are some of the highlights:

opening her gifts...

(New York in a bag... the first of many not so subtle reminders of where her roots are)

...blowing out her candle



...and diving into her first birthday cake

Happy Birthday little sweetie, we love you!

Fourth of July Celebrations (including Nathan's b-day!)

Happy Fourth of July. Sorry we're a bit behind on our blogging, our 'Month of Fun'* has just been so much fun. As one might expect, these next few posts will inlcude many photos, so sorry to those of you who don't enjoy a lengthy post.

The Fourth of July is double the fun in our family because it is also Nathan's birthday. So first, a Happy Birthday shout out to him. We love you honey/Dad.

Last year our Fourth was pretty low key because I was super pregnant, and it was super hot and muggy in New York City. So this year we really went for it with the celebration activities.

We started the day with an early morning hike with Laura and Bret. It should be noted that this was Norah's first hike.

Then we walked in our first Fourth of July parade, joining in with Norah's cousins (cousin Lily seen below) and dozens of other kids on their decked out bikes, scooters, etc., as well as people in golf carts, on horseback, 4-wheelers, motorcycles, a fire engine, police cars, someone pulling a handcart, a dude on stilts, and a man dressed in colonial garb carrying a musket. Quite the Fourth of July hodge podge. Norah thoroughly enjoyed herself.

The rest of the day was spent partying (and eating) like it was the Fourth of July.

And of course the day was capped off with firework shows both big and small.

*our anniversary is June 28th, Nathan's birthday is July 4th, Norah's is July 18th, and mine is July 28th, so we affectionately call the month between June 28th and July 28th our 'Month of Fun.' And it usually really is.

Goodbye

This past week we said goodbye to a city and a lot of people we love. New York City will always be a special place for us, and we look forward to going back someday. We are excited to begin our adventure in Southern California, but for now it just seems appropriate to play this again.

The Amazing Race!

A couple of weekends ago my mom, and two of my sisters came into town for a visit and so my sister Jen could run the Brooklyn Half Marathon with me. It rained the two days before the race, but we woke up that morning to gorgeous weather, it could not have been more perfect. The race started in Brooklyn's Prospect Park and ended along the boardwalk at Coney Island.



Here we are coming down the homestretch along the boardwalk. We were so happy to see Laura and Mom and then Nathan and Norah a little further down cheering us on. We were pumped!


Here we are at the end. Both Jen and I had a baby last year, so this was our come back race :). It was so fun running this race with my sister. We stayed together the whole time and kept each other going, I couldn't have done it without her. Thanks again Jen for coming all the way to New York to do this with me!




My team! Norah was such a little trooper making the trek out to Coney Island and waiting around for us to finish the race, especially since it meant missing her morning nap (and Nathan was so awesome to bring her and her gear all the way out there solo). It was so awesome to come down the homestretch and see my family at the end.


Our friend Nikki Kelly (who also had a baby last year) also ran the race. Nikki finished before us so she, Cam and John Henry joined in cheering us on at the end. It was great to share this fun day with these great friends as well. Way to go Nikki!


And here we are making the trek back into the city. Thanks again everyone for supporting me in this goal. (And yes, Norah really does ride around in her stroller holding both her legs in the air like that a lot of the time... wonder who she gets that from? :)

(more pictures of Mom, Laura, and Jen's visit to come)

Big News

We're moving.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a pretty glorious Memorial Day weekend. It probably seemed even more amazing because the weather forecast kept calling for rain, but the rain held out until Tuesday, and we had nothing but sun all weekend. While walking back from Central Park on Monday night, Nathan and I counted 8 trips to the park over the 4 day weekend (I took Friday off too). Not bad. We had fun going for morning runs, taking Norah to the swings, and meeting up with friends.

Me and My Gorilla

Norah has a new best friend. It is this little gorilla (that we affectionately call 'Monkey') given to her by her aunt and uncle. She carries this thing everywhere! And now her already unique method of transportation (see previous post) also includes her gorilla in tow. She crawls around with a death grip on that thing. It is actually really sweet.

Their favorite place to 'hang out' is under our kitchen table. When we're in the kitchen cooking, eating dinner, or whatever, this is where you'll find these two.

Oh yeah? Check this out

So as I mentioned in the previous post, Norah is now crawling. Kind of.



She can also wave and clap. She'll wave as a basic thing now, and if we try to prompt her to wave to someone hello or goodbye, it's usually 50/50 whether she'll do it. Mostly she'll wave later after someone leaves. Still, it's pretty awesome. Check out some clapping.

Leg kicks and tricks

Norah has a couple of her own little trademark moves when she gets excited about something. The first is that she starts kicking both legs fast.

But before we move on, let's talk about her amazing attempt to crawl. She is now moving much better (we'll post video of this later), so in retrospect this reminds me more of that moment on Elf when Will Farrell attempts to get on the escalator for the first time. Serious concentration.

Her second trick is to do a 360º spin on her bum. Observe:

What about her face at the end?! Cute kid. So anyway, those leg kicks are not quiet kicks. They are excited kicks. Thankfully we currently don't have anyone living below us, otherwise we could have some angry neighbors. When we were staying with family in Utah Bret and Laura would emerge from downstairs in the morning wondering if there were kids running around the house, or if a heater was broken. Once Norah did her kick pumping action, the culprit was identified. Sorry.