No time for naps

Ahhh, finally, a little shut eye.  After the dust of a great week settled, Nora was able to relax with Grandma and get  a little shut eye.

No she's not a vampire baby....it's juice from a delicious bing cherry from aunt Casey's parent's orchard.  She loves them!!  The mosquito (notice on Nora's cheek) must have been lured in from the sight of what he thought would be an easy drink.  

It's been a great week.  One of my best friends, Kate, and her brother, Matt, drove out from Minnesota.  Nora basically boycotted all naps for the week, not wanting to miss a thing.  




Lester diving for rocks up at green lakes.

It's official, she's mobile

Not only is she mobile, she's fast, and she's busy!!  In the time it took for me to call a local shop for their store hours she had her entire bottle drawer scattered across the kitchen and then had moved on to the cook books.  Even when I'm watching her she's managed to take a  bite out of a gift certificate, poke herself in the nose with a pine needle and eat an ant.  She's knocked over a coffee table and sent picture frames flying.  

She started pulling up on everything around the first of the month and now she's a complete pro.  She does multiple speed laps around things, while letting go with one hand and looking back over her shoulder to make sure someone is watching her skills.  She's brave and very tough, Ralph and I are always discovering new bruises and scratches and find ourselves saying "ohhhh" and "ewhhhh" alot like we're watching a sporting event in which you feel the athletes' pain.  While she is a tough cookie, she has developed a new and very real fear of the vacuum cleaner - not sure what this is about.  Perhaps Ralph has reminded her one too many times that this will be a future chore of hers.   

Nora participated in the 4th or July procession of the species with Bean, Ben, Lester and her girlfriend, Georgia.  

Ralph brought Nora a pine cone home from California bigger than her head.  She was only mildly impressed

NORWAY

So I was going to post about a third of the pictures, but after talking to Jill, I decided to show a little more.  Thanks Jill, it's nice to know you like looking at the pictures.   

Norway is definitely one of the most beautiful countries I've ever visited.  It was hard to choose pictures, there is so much I'd love to share and show.  

We flew into Stavanger (the beautiful city where Jamie and Jeannie live) spent several days then got on a coastal ferry for 4 days and traveled North, past the Artic circle to the Lafoten Islands where we met up with Jeff and Casey and spent the remained of our trip.  The best part of the trip was learning that Jeff proposed to Casey!!!!!!!!!!  Yea, I have another awesome sister!!!!

The pictures are in no particular order, and although, it's supposed to be Nora's blog, there are some shots that she's missing from (like the one below, a climb we did after she went to bed one night).   

We did alot of what Ralph termed "extreme baby hiking"  Nora had the pleasure of seeing alot of the country.  She was a willing passenger, riding on someone's back to several places off the beaten path.  She got her named signed in 3 summit log books, not bad for 9 months.    

I love this shot.  I got this of Ralph while he was showing Nora where he would take her.  We did an amazing ridge hike a few days later up where he's pointing

The water is the same blues and greens of the tropics.  On a warm day you might make the mistake of thinking it looked nice to swim in.  Dipping your big toe in would very quickly bring you back to the reality that you are in the Artic.  Ralph however, did swim.  It was so cold he almost couldn't climb the ladder back up to the dock to get out.  He said his muscles seized up instantly.  

The water is so clean that the Norweigns call all fresh water "drinking water"  If you ask if a lake is fresh water or salt water they'll look at you funny and say "yes, thats a drinking lake."  Jamie told us that alot of Norweigns just carry a wooden ladle- like thing when they hike so they can scoop water to drink.  They thought is was funny that he carried his water, "why would you carry water?"  Good question, I suppose.  

We found whale bones (vertebrae) on a beach hike

This is at about 1 am, we're about two thirds of the way up a multi pitch route.  It had a sweet little space in the rock that made a great seat that you could belay from

I love this picture, Nora looks like a little nome.Nora sporting her new shades Grandma Lynnda gave her

The fjords are so breathtaking, un-real really.  You can see our ferry below us.  You can see how big the boat is and how close it is to the shore, this gives you an idea of how deep this fjords are. 

  

Being as far north as we were, it was light 24 hours a day.  We took advantage of this.   Ralph and I left to do a 7 pitch climb after Nora went to bed at 9:30.  

Summer!f

Ahh Summer---don't worry, she's fully lubed up with SPF 150.  Dear God, don't let me burn her perfect fair skin.  

While the helmet will certainly be a mandatory accessory as our biking excursions expand, right now, in the neighborhood, I have let the rule slip a few times.  She's a little too little for the bike seat, she needs a few inches of upward growing before she fits the seat right. With the helmet on her views are limited to her own feet and the pavement.  With the helmet on she babbles and squeaks, and digs her toes into my butt (her legs not only are too short to reach the foot rests, they're so short they don't even bend- they stick straight out so the soles of her feet brush my seat.) However with the helmet off and her little whispy hairs blowing, she looks around with her chin tilted up like she's taking it all in through her nose.  Shes quiet and seems extremely pleased and content to ride in endless circles in our neighborhood culdesac.    

8 months, just around the corner

Going on 8 months....holy moly, time does fly!! Nora continues to grow and change right before our eyes.  She is in constant battle with her hair.  While new little hairs are giving her a run for her money, persistantly trying to grow on her bald spot, Nora must enjoy the enhanced sensation to her occiput as she is determined to keep her head hair free (partially anyways).   So far, her wiggling and head shaking while on her back has kept her ahead (no pun intended) in this battle.

I swear I try to dress her causually and somewhat gender neutral.  I'm worried, however, that she may be brainwashing me

 or somehow controlling me without me knowing, as I notice pink always finds its way onto her and even her toys match her shoes. 

Time spent in the kitchen may be leading towards a career in cooking as measuring cups and spatulas are by far her favorite toys.  She treats the spatula like a conductors wand waving it enthusastically all over the place, sometimes swatting herself in the nose.     

Ralph was worried about her reputation with the above video posting of her farting.  I assured him that she wouldn't be judged.   

Nora, Mom and I headed back to the heartland last weekend for a girls weekend.  We had a blast.  I got to hang with my friends, mom got to hang with hers, and Nora got to meet hers for the first time. 

Nora learned a lot from Jill's little girls, Emma, 4, and Abby 18 months. She spent the majority of the weekend watching in silent

 wonderment the energy it takes to be toddlers.  She was impressed with all there is to eat once you get teeth and was especially captivated by the actual transfer of food from the bowl to mouth.  

While the boot scoot and lurch aren't exactly new for Nora, she has started some new things; copying.  She learned to shake her head back and forth and will now do it whenever anyone else does.  We're trying to get the nod down so she doesn't come across as pessimistic.  She's copied Tony Loughton's puckered lips and added her own flair; spit and bubbles.  I think she may know the sign for milk and will sometimes copy it when I do it to her (this is amazing cause I rarely do sign language with her, I just forget).  Grandma and Grandpa started copying her singing, its halirous, as soon as they match her tone she switches it up, making for a nice melodic chorus-line.  She's been impressing them with with difficult two-syllable phrases like "bla-la","La- rah" and "ahhh-na."  Occasionally, she communicates with Bean and her stuff animal collection, talking in low, gutteral growls.  She has two bottom teeth now, which for obvious reasons make me very nervous and skittish.   

She's starting going to story time at the library, she sits quietly with her mouth agape and is mesmerized.

Nora is shaping up to be a fairly quiet, VERY observant little lady.  Yesterday she saw that I dropped a rice kernel on the couch and picked it up and examined it.    

Resurrected from a rocky grave

It's a miracle!!  7 days, a snowstorm and several rain showers later, Jeff found the camera!!  Even more amazing than that is that it works!!  Below is a picture of Muddy and Tilly where the camera was last seen and Jeff and unknown belayer in the background.  

Nora is definitely becoming more spontaneous and unpredictable.  While this is certainly cool and fun, it can be scary.  It keeps you on your toes.  Although she's not scooting or crawling or creeping yet, she is lurching.  With most of her mass in her head she's dangerously top heavy.  You can imagine that this lurching business has landed her on her head more than once.  She very well may have a future in Yoga as her nose has found it's way past her toes while she's still in a seated position. Very impressive; if only we could all be that flexible.

While contemplating the logistics of land and sea travel of her up-coming trip to Norway, she discovered that the globe spins. This was a big hit!  

She went from acting shocked and terrified at her first swim lesson to embracing the water by splashing, kicking and drinking it.....Ick

Hangin' with Georgia