CAUTION: Baby Bathing!

Never a dull moment with my little puddle duck!!









Mom, you may be done bathing me, but I'm not done looking cute!!

My life, IRL...

For those of you "hip" to the internet "lingo", that means "in real life".

One of the things that I have discovered about having a baby is just how different your interests and daily life change from that of your non-children-having friends. It's not a BAD thing, it's just, well, different.

As a mom who works full time, volunteers part time and is go-go-go ALL THE TIME, I have precious little time for a social life. Enter BabyCenter. A world of wired women who, on the surface, are nothing more than a screen name and a picture (or an avatar of fictitious feet...or a 40 year-old-man with a fetish for pregnant women) But delving further into this mass of virtual mommies wields an entire new group of friends. My imaginary friends, as Brad calls them.

I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this resource early in my pregnancy and have relied on these anonymous women for support, advice and input. From this mass of mothers has emerged a handful of women whom I have formed very strong bonds with. We've been through a lot- pregnancy pains, hard and easy labors, disappointment that mommyhood isn't quite what we expected and excitement at all of the great things about mommyhood we didn't even know existed (like the first smile of the morning....priceless).

While I LOVE LOVE LOVE my friends "IRL", words can't begin to express how much my "imaginary friends" have done for me as a support system.

So to the "Cheesers" and "SSMs" (and middle age men with a penchant for preggos), you rock. Thanks for being there for me.

PS- Here is proof they are, in fact, real people..

Me and Norah with Kelli and Blake


Norah & Kierstyn


Norah and Blake playing (and being admired by shoppers at Plaza Frontenac)

C'mon boots....

Is it so bad that I REALLY wanted to go to work on Friday so I could wear my new wellies (or as my old man husband calls them- galoshes)?

I finally talked myself into a pair in the fall during monsoon season and have worn them exactly once since I purchased them. So when snow was forcast for Friday, my mind immediately wandered to what sort of ensemble I could pull together to compliment these finely cobbled pieces of rubber.

The solution- jean skirt, leggings, a turtleneck, scarf and ski jacket. Not too bad, I must say...



When it gets extra cold out, Norah gets bundled into her pink bear suit. She doesn't hate it, but it's not her favorite piece of clothing. For some reason, she stiffens up and you have to physically bend her at the waist to get her to sit in her seat. Brad likes to tuck her under his arm, which is HILARIOUS..



She's just so darn cute!

Adventures in baby feeding...

When I was pregnant with Norah, I decided that I was going to do the best that I could to give her the most wholesome food possible. Good eating habits begin early on, so I really wanted to get her used to healthy food. We went straight from milk to veggies and fruits, bypassing the white, refined rice cereal. I am not one of the those people that gets all anal about organic, but when choosing between pre-packaged food, or making my own baby food from fresh fruits and veggies, it seemed like a no-brainer. Plus, it is so much cheaper (which means more money to spend on etsy.com or at Gymboree, my two weaknesses)

I highly recommend www.wholesomebabyfood.com for anyone interested in making food for their baby. This site has lots of great recipes and tips on introducing solids, menus and how to do BLW (baby led weaning). Making baby food is super simple- steam, puree and freeze (sounds like an infomercial, right?) Here we are in action:



Norah's stash: bananas (top, kinda brown-ish), pears (light yellow), winter squash (dark yellow), green beans (green in the bag) and peas (green in the ice cube trays).


As of now, she uses most food as a facial treatment rather than nourishment, but we are getting there...slowly.





Trying BLW...she can get food into hands, and hands to mouth. We are still working on food INTO mouth...



And finally, I have to show off the new stylin' seat cover from Sewplicity:

Where has the time gone? (part 2)

Norah's 6 month stats at her appointment on December 16th:

Weight= 17 lbs
Length= 26 in.

She is hitting her milestones beautifully. She can sit unassisted, has two little bottom teeth, enjoys carrots and green beans. During the week of her appointment, we discovered that she can stand holding on to a table. Such a big girl!

Christmas was spent in the usual form- splitting time between the Hallemeiers in St. Louis and the McIntyres (Brad's mom's family) in Paducah, Ky.

The journey began on Tues. We left Atlanta around lunch time and drove to Paducah. We met our friends Janine and Josh for a quick dinner so they could see Miss Norah. Little did we know they had some exciting news of their own- they are expecting a baby in July! We are so excited for them!

The journey continued to St. Louis, where we stayed thorough Christmas night. If you remember in my entry from last year at this time, I was so excited to experience Christmas with a renewed sense of joy. While she is still too young to know what is going on, she had a blast with the tissue and wrapping papers.

We were pleasantly surprised by the SNOW we received in Christmas morning- I could not have asked for a more fitting way to spend the day- cozy by the tree with my family.



Arriving in Paducah late Friday night, we enjoyed a night of sleep, followed by McIntyre family Christmas on Saturday. Norah was able to meed many great aunts, uncles and cousins, some of whom for the first time.



We left to return to Atlanta on Sunday. All in all, it was a great, albeit short, trip. Norah was happy to be back in her own bed, as were mom and dad.

Where has the time gone?

Forgive me, followers. I have sinned.

It has been 17 weeks and one day since my last entry.

In the past four months, we have been through a lot- returning to work, starting daycare (which we affectionately call "school"), smiling, giggling, first teeth, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas and an entirely new decade. If you would have told me a few months ago that time would pass this quickly, I would have laughed. But as I look back at all of the pictures (er, the hundreds of pictures) residing in my "Norah Caroline 6/13/09" folder, it becomes blatantly obvious- my baby is growing up quickly.

So I will attempt to catch you up in, Readers Digest-style. Bear with me. Selecting pictures to accurately sum up the last few months will be hard. Especially when you have hundreds of pictures to choose from.

Sharing smiles with Daddy in September


Beach baby!






Learning to sit in my Bebe Pod chair


First day of school- October 5th


Pumpkin Patch and Halloween









Looking adorabe, as usual! November 12th


Thanksgiving




Giving solids a try...mmmmm, carrots! November 28th


Trying carrots AGAIN. November 29th



Looking cute at bath time...after eating carrots!


Meeting HoHo for the first time...I did really well. No crying!!

Norah's Newborn Pictures

A huge thanks to my friend Renee at Soloflight Design for putting all of Norah's newborn pictures into a video for our viewing pleasure ;0)


Photos by Blue Dawn Photography ;0)