Lisa: I like you

But...I don't like you the BEST.

Lisa: Pie Day

My mom had us come up to Spring City to put all of the apples and plums they had left at the end of the season into pies. Nora was such a great sport, stirring bowls and sorting apple peels all through our marathon day of baking. Grandma even made her a tiny pie of her very own.

Lisa: the four food groups

Cute AND a good eater.

Lisa: on the wagon

The night of Nora's birthday, the Smiths took us out to Mimi's for dinner and then gave Nora the awesomest wagon money can buy and a new set of Grandma'am's adorable homemade flannel pajamas.

Nora insisted on putting the pajamas on right then and climbing into the wagon--and really, wouldn't you, too?

Lisa: eating out

Macaroni and cheese at Noodles & Company.

Lisa: Watch it again!

Pretty much everything you need to know about the Powerpuff Girls. A beginner's guide, if you will.

Lisa: chips

I see I have taught her well.

Lisa: A mature palate.

Before we leave for church, Nora likes to go to the spice cabinet for a little refreshment. I think you know where I'm going with this.

Lisa: Alphabet with Pretzels

Does a mouthful of pretzels stop Nora from sharing her music with the world? No. No, it does not.

Lisa: honey crunch

Okay, yes, I am the kind of mother who feeds her child corn dogs from time to time. But look at that face. Could you say no? And corn dogs are really good for dipping.

Lisa: Mommy loves you

Nora's come a long way from answering this question with "Wall-E."

Oh, man. My heart bursts open every time she bites her fist.

Lisa: twist cone

Jason's Deli provided Nora's first officially sanctioned ice cream cone.

By that I obviously mean that Sarah got it for Nora while Blake was in the bathroom.

Lisa: noodles

I just love this little munchkin so much.

Lisa: morning ablutions

I'm hoping that your disgust at the revelation that I allow Nora to suck on the top of the sea salt is tempered by the extreme cuteness of baby curlers.

Lisa: China, day 8

Nora, enjoying a vegetable bun at the best dumpling restaurant in Shanghai.

Lisa: packing

Nora tried her best to eat the snacks as fast as I could pack them.

Lisa: How old are you?

Unfortunately, "done," "Wall-E," and "Woody" are not the answers to my question.

Lisa: Kix

Snacktime with Alex.

Lisa: tomato face

WHAT?

Lisa: paradise

Sometimes, if Nora and I are out running errands during the day, we stop and have a little lunch together--just us grown-up girls, you know?

Anyway, here she is enjoying her favorite dish.

Lisa: Telegenic

Some days, I just take a lot of photos. And videos.

1. Nora uses one of the few signs she knows to request that more photos be taken of her. Do not blame me, people.

2. More of Nora referring to her hair elastics as hats.

3. If your daughter said "Ca-Co" in such a cute way, you'd take a video of it and post it to the internet, too.

Lisa: ice cream

As Angie put it on Facebook:
"Hey, Nora! Cutest hair ever! Also, cutest t-shirt ever! Where'd you get that? Oh, your favorite aunt and uncle, you say?"

Or, alternately, as Nora puts it:
"KEEM! KEEM!"

Lisa: a Christmas miracle

Grandma brought over gingerbread cookies, and Nora was actually allowed to eat them!

Well, "allowed" might be a little strong. I'm sure if Dad had anything to do with it, those cookies would never have seen the light of day. Nora loved them, though.

Lisa: Mom, can't you just let me eat in peace?

No. No, I can't.

Lisa: eggs on toast

Nora thought her fried eggs were really tasty, until they started giving her a rash. Oops.

Lisa: Not so much here, or over here, but all around HERE.

I seem to have gotten a tiny bit of spaghetti on my face.

Nothing a little bath won't take care of.

Good as new!

Lisa: Grossy McSupersick

For my birthday, Dawn promised to take me and Nora to see the Festival of Trees and then to lunch afterward. Nora was pretty tired by lunchtime (and teething) and turned up her nose at the food...until she discovered tartar sauce. Tartar sauce, where had you been all her life?

Lisa: high chair couture

A little Sunday-afternoon snack in the dress Nora got from Dawn for her birthday.

Lisa: juiced

Aw, look at her, so big. Drinking from a juice box.

Yes, it's from McDonald's. Don't you judge me.

Lisa: pitter patter

The obligatory picture of baby feet BECAUSE THEY ARE JUST SO CUTE:

Lisa: so THAT's how that sauce got there...

Spaghetti and peek-a-boo: two great tastes that taste great together.

Lisa: snap for the kids

Breakfast time is a noisy time. What, it's not like that at your house?

Lisa: Grand Sir

When I came home for lunch on my last Thursday at work, I caught Nora and Grand Sir having fun together. Thank you, Bill! I'm so glad you two are friends.

In the background, you can see Miss Petunia's tank, currently decorated with a little Buddha statue and some prayer flags. We respect our turtle's religious beliefs.

Lisa: macaroni

Luckily, Nora's enthusiasm for mac and cheese is matched by her inability to get any of the noodles into her mouth.

Lisa: Blake Smith FTW

Blake makes the cutest dinners for Nora. They are always well-balanced, contain vegetables, offer a veritable rainbow of tastes and textures to please her tiny palate, and are separated into little piles. Now, if only he would eat like that himself...

Lisa: the big one

We had a little birthday party for Nora on Sunday afternoon with chocolate cake (Nora had frosted cornbread on Blake's orders), adorable gifts (thank you, everyone!), and a little clip show of Nora's first year of movies set to one of her favorite songs.

Thank you, family and friends, for being so sweet with our little bean. And thank you, Nora, for being the most adorable and fun person I have ever met.

Lisa: yogurt and waffles

Lisa: we're rolling

Before Nora forgets how to roll her arms and moves on to another trick, I thought I'd better capture it on film.

Lisa: how old are you?

Nothing like mealtime captivity for practicing a little of the old "how old are you" trick. Got to get her ready for her birthday!

Lisa: high chair diaries

Nora likes to check the empty yogurt container to make sure it's really all gone.

Lisa: advice

Errands are more fun when you stop in the middle for grilled cheese at the park.

Lisa: why I didn't get your email

Sometimes you need a little bean to help you work.

Lisa: a tangled web we weave

A normal day for Nora might include eating a snack in her high chair...

or getting herself hopelessly tangled in the TV cords. You never know.

(No babies were left unattended and nearly strangled before or during the taking of these pictures. I was sitting just out of frame, giggling as she turned around and around, making the tangling worse. So...I guess I'm not negligent, just kind of mean.)

Lisa: parking it

If it involves being outside and eating big-people food, Nora is IN.

Lisa: You take the lime and the cucumber, and eat them both together.

As I inadvertently discovered when I was trying to distract Nora from grabbing my salad at the Crown, she loves chewing on slices of cucumber. I was about to cut a piece for her, when I noticed the lime sitting right next to the cucumber on the shelf of the fridge. I got thinking about how similar a slice of lime would look to a cucumber slice, and about how awesome Nora's sour face would be, and I just couldn't help myself.

It might be sour, but she doesn't stop trying it! OK, I know, it was mean. Anyway, it looks like there were no hard feelings.

She does seem a little hesitant to tear into the cucumber now, though...

Lisa: high chair

Lisa: green beans

Lisa: your mileage may vary

When you're pregnant, everyone who's been there before you likes to pass on the "real" story of what pregnancy is like. While I think everybody's experience is different, hearing the first-hand experiences of others did help me get over some of my fears. I think I also kept a lot of worries at bay by sticking to this philosophy:

Assume that everything will go well with your delivery. If you start worrying about things that can go wrong, you WILL be worried about the wrong things. Then you will have spent all that time being scared for no reason.

Thanks to genetics and luck, I had a relatively easy pregnancy and delivery, but there were a few things that surprised me along the way. Here's how a few of the major issues played out in my case.

Morning Sickness: It's way more real than I thought. I always thought pregnant ladies were making a big deal out of nothing, and should just toughen up. Stupid karma.
Delivery: Actually, it was kind of great. It hurt really a lot, especially at first when it was too early for drugs, but it was exciting and the end product makes you forget a lot of the bad parts. The whole thing was over pretty quickly. The actual pushing is the part I was most worried about, in terms of pain, damage to my body, and loss of dignity. The epidural and episiotomy I talk about below, and the loss of dignity was doable. I made them put the mirror away, and Blake and my mom were the only non-medical personnel in the room (and they stayed up by my head). The whole pooping on the delivery table thing isn't worth worrying about. Seriously. As Andrea said, that's how you know you're doing it right.
Epidural: AWESOME. I didn't have any bad side effects, and it was much more effective in terms of pain relief than the narcotics I got through my IV earlier on. I could still feel when the contractions were happening, and I could still push. The epidural mostly meant that I started having fun and getting into the excitement of the birth, rather than being so concerned about the pain.
Episiotomy: No big whoop. I found out later that Blake pushed my epidural button to give me some more drugs as soon as the doctor told me he was going to do it, and I'm sure that helped. Getting in and out of my hospital bed was sketchy, and later the healing was a little itchy, but it's got to be better than a tear, right?
Recovery: Maybe I was overconfident, since I felt like I handled pregnancy so well. I came home from the hospital swollen all over, sore, and bleeding. I feel a lot better now, but it's been four months and I still don't feel back to my normal self. Maybe I never will. Carrying that weight around stuck awkwardly to the front of your body for nine months takes a toll on your bones and muscles. Also, there's no getting around the fact that there's a lot of healing that has to happen.
Postpartum depression: I don't remember feeling depressed, but I did feel very overwhelmed at times. Everything would be fine, and then suddenly it would all be too much and I would burst into tears. I think the thing that really helped me through it was to have Blake by my side, constantly telling me what a great mom I am. (Thank you, sweetheart.)
Breastfeeding: It was really hard to get started, and I had to be really motivated to do it. The pump, nipple shields, and help from a lactation specialist were essential. Now it's easy to do, but I'm always tied to the baby or to a breast pump.

So, there you have it--probably more than you wanted to know. Sometime before I forget too many details, I plan to post the whole story of Nora's delivery.

Lisa: first cereal

Lisa: at least I get to have snacks

You have to be wondering what I do all day while normal people are at work, right? I mean, I would be wondering. I didn't think it would be all bon-bons and Passions or anything, but I don't think I was prepared to be so busy and yet...not do anything. Since I try to anticipate your every need, here is an actual accounting of how I spent last Wednesday at home with the beautiful Nora (who I have a feeling is going to be very good at math).

8:05 am - Fed Nora a bottle and put her back in bed, without much hope she would stay asleep.
8:25 - Took two breaks from breakfast to put Nora's pacifier back in.
8:35 - Pumped.
8:55 - Started the dishwasher, and in the process accidentally stole the hot water Blake was trying to shower with.
9:05 - Read a few blogs while waiting for my email to load.
9:20 - Took a shower and got dressed (actually, it was quite a coup to bathe this early in the day).
10:00 - Ate my assigned snack and started checking my email.
10:30 - Pumped.
10:45 - Fed Nora her two ounces, which she does NOT think is enough.
11:05 - Gave Nora a bath with the yummy-smelling Aveeno soap (hard to tell, but I think she is loving the baths lately).
11:25 - Put away the load of laundry I folded last night, while Nora barely tolerated sitting in her Papasan chair.
11:30 - Consoled a crying Nora and convinced her that lying down in her crib was not the worst idea since two-ounce bottles.
12:05 - Made and ate lunch, and finally finished reading my email and deleting spam. Responding will have to wait for another day. Oh, I also retrieved the errant pacifier four times.
12:30 - Pumped.
12:50 - Fed Nora a bottle.
1:15 - Bundled Nora into her stroller and took a walk--we dropped things off at two houses in the neighborhood and got some prints made at Inkley's to mail to my brother Jeff (I took along my 2:00 snack and ate it on the road).
2:30 - Pumped.
2:50 - Unloaded and ran the dishwasher again.
2:55 - Started a load of laundry and put a clean one away.
3:15 - Fed Nora a bottle and started the last disc of Gilmore Girls season 2.
4:00 - Snuck Nora into the crib while she was asleep, and ate a snack in front of the end of Gilmore Girls.
4:30 - Pumped.
5:10 - Fed Nora yet another bottle.

I only wish my days at work would have gone by so quickly.

For the one person who is still reading, this is the eating/feeding/pumping schedule the lactation specialist put me on last week. Now we're on to the next phase, so the schedule is different but similarly full of nothing.

Lisa: We're expecting her to start changing her own diaper next.