Skip to main content

Nora's first birthday

Joe helping Nora open birthday presents
Again with the late posting.  With the two kids being as active as they are and my work schedule I barely have enough time to take my shoes off when I walk in the door before I'm engaging with both kids.  I love the attention from them when I get in but my personal time, including time for this, is at a premium these days.

Last month we went to Gainesville, Florida, to stay with Rachael's sister Holly and celebrate Nora's first birthday.  It was wonderful to have a chance to do it with extended family and everyone had a great time.  Joe's really starting to become affectionate with his cousin Marissa and they were inseparable until she got sick a few days into our trip.

Nora's just about at the point now where she could start walking on her own and we wouldn't be surprised.  She's taking a very cautious approach to it all but can stand unsupported for minutes while she examines whatever happens to have her eye at the moment and has taken a few small steps on her own before crouching down or reaching up to us for support.  She has also started scooting around pretty quickly and we had to install our baby gate at the foot of the stairs last weekend because she also really enjoys the stairs as well.

Nora popped her molars last week and they're all starting to come in pretty quickly now.  She's been pretty miserable the last few days because of it, though, and has been a drooling mess at night and mostly doesn't want to eat because of it.  She does smile through all of it, though, and has developed a pretty decent vocabulary for her age - "mama", "dada", "uh-oh", "up", "that", "hi", "bye", and a host of animal sounds as well.  She's taken up an interest in books already and gets excited to open and go through the motions of reading whenver she gets a chance.

Joe's been absorbing all sorts of science and sports stuff lately.  He's very interested in planes, fire trucks, planetary motion, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tornadoes and can't get enough YouTube videos explaining them.  I do regret that we don't have as much time at the moment to get to the museums to learn more about them, but I also don't think the Smithsonian does a good job with many of these topics.  I'm thinking a trip to the Franklin Institute in Philly might be more appropriate for these interests and have fond memories of them from when I was kid myself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Shannons

Out at lunch with my wonderful family As always, I feel I need to add a disclaimer here about how busy I've been and apologize to myself - and whoever ends up reading this - about not keeping up with this blog.  It was easier with just Joe because my time home meant mostly quiet during his frequent naps and plenty of time to gather thoughts to put down, where now I feel I can barely keep up with sleep and other basic functions of life. Hectic life aside, I couldn't be happier with where I am right now as father.  Joe is at a wonderful age where he always wants to help us and be affectionate with Nora and we have started playing sports together rather than just hanging around the house.  He's really started taking an interest in baseball and soccer, and whenever I have the chance I try to at least kick the ball around the house a bit if I can't take him outside.  I'm hoping that once things settle down we can really spend some time together and work on some soc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vacation: Success

Our family took went on our cruise last month and we got just about everything out of it we'd hoped.  Rachael and I got to relax some, Joe got to meet new friends and played all day every day, and we had an opportunity to just spend time together as a family before everything got crazy again. Joe and Nora at the fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico We moved into a new apartment again, which is our 4th residence in a year.  We plan to stay here for 18 months, but it still feels like a bit much, even for someone used to moving frequently.  Fortunately I'm now close to work and I'm hoping I'll have more time to spend with the family once things settle down with school.  Unfortunately, though, school is 3 nights a week and right now I'm spending those 3 days studying right after work and leaving me missing both kids tremendously.  It's been hard with both of them-Joe says he misses me and Nora won't let me put her down when I do get to spend time with her.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

German Kindergarten

Mom and the kids at the Alhambra, Granada, Spain Both kids have started German Kindergarten (Kindi) in the past few weeks.  We're still going through a compulsory transition period with Nora but Joe's been in full-time for a good while and he's loving it.  It's rare that he doesn't come home covered head-to-toe in sand and he still has a hard time leaving every day because he's having such a good time.  His German is improving quite rapidly and he's already saying things I don't understand, which couldn't make me happier.  I'm so happy for both of my kids that they get this privilege of growing up in another country and having two primary languages, which I hope will give them opportunities later in life that I can't even think of.  Even without new opportunities, though, I'm happy that they can grow up in another culture and have the perspective of the world you can only gain through travel that I sorely wish I'd had as a young k...
Post a Comment
Read more