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Nora Caroline

Little Joe seeing a space shuttle for the first time
This week we found out that we will be having a little girl and we decided to name her Nora Caroline.  Nora was a name we had picked out before we knew Joe would be a boy, so there wasn't much work to be done on that end.  We chose Nora because it derives from 'light' in Arabic and Hebrew, but it also means 'honor' in the Anglo-Saxon origination.  Caroline is Rachael's step-mother and we decided to name Nora after her.

We've been talking to Joe about Nora and we're pretty sure he understands that a sibling is in mommy's tummy, but he keeps talking about a door for the baby to come out.  He's also been talking up a storm and has been very much into space shuttles, rockets, and trains the last few weeks.    We took him to the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian museum last weekend and took the photo above when he saw the space shuttle for the first time.

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