Nora Hansen's Journal

Nora ate bites of whole wheat bagel and ate peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she wouldn't try our pizza (although she's eaten it before); sausage, hamburger, on whole wheat pizza crust with tomato sauce, mushrooms, olives, pineapple, and peppers.  She ate a large serving of pineapple on the side. I'm starting off Nora's Blog with a picture of Hudson waving bye at the window this morning to Daddy Ryan.  He put the plate in front of his face and said, "This will scare him!"  Haha!  Then Atley had to run get a plate and do the same thing of course. Here are some pictures from Nora's morning at Little Treasures.  She was very engaged with the toys all morning and it was super interesting to watch her create and play especially with the little play house and with the dolls.  In the middle picture she is reading a book and singing the entire song of "Twinkle Twinkle."  (It is a book about colors, not Twinkle Twinkle, but hey, at least she's ...

Nora ate whole wheat toast and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork chop, bites of whole grain tortilla, no carrots, no potatoes, no sweet potatoes, and she ate a large serving of fruit salad.  This isn't about Nora, but I think you'll like it.  At the lunch table Hudson scooted over by Atley, put his arm around her, and said to Avi (who sits across the table), "Take a picture." It was so cute and funny.  :) This is a cute outfit Nora is wearing today and as you can see in the picture below she's found the snaps, but wasn't able to master them.  Ha!  Avi looked at what Nora is wearing today and asked her if she was wearing her "pajamas!?"  Haha!  I guess Nora wasn't too offended because later Nora happily called them her "jammies." Shortly before I took these next two pictures Nora was literally screaming mad at Atley for something that had to do with the little play house.  Atley responded so nonchalantly that Nora quic...

Nora ate bites of breakfast: whole wheat english muffin and dried plums.  For lunch she ate bites of chicken, brown rice, stir fry vegetables, and a large serving of oranges.  At the lunch table Hudson looked around at everyone and asked; "Hey Gary! When are these guys gonna go to kindergarten??" Ha!  So I asked him when he was gonna go?  He said, "When I grow up."  :) I hope all of you had a great Memorial Day weekend.  I also want to mention that Lauralea is covering for me today while I get my hearing aids adjusted at 4:15. We had a pretty normal Monday morning - except with an extra day to make it all slightly more interesting.  :)  Nora did just fine, screamed a couple of times like she was dying, but listened to my words quite well.  (All I could see when she was screaming was Atley kind of blocking her path, but Atley was not really aware of it!!  She was parked on the floor playing between the legos table and the play kitchen...

Nora ate most of brown rice and a couple of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a bite of salmon, bite of whole wheat dinner roll, ate green beans, and mangoes.  Lauralea said, "bye kids" at breakfast like she does just about every day.  They (Nora, Atley, Avilene, and Hudson) were all laughing and giggling, waving bye and mimicking her by chanting, "bye kids" as she was leaving.  :) This first picture made me laugh!  (As usual!  Ha!)  Nora had been standing beside Atley and by the time I got the camera she'd jumped, but Atley got distracted looking out the window.  What made me laugh is because of what distracted her!  I doubt if anyone could guess with 10 tries!  I'm sure I couldn't except I'm the one who trains them to be very vigilant and hyper sensitive about spotting the enemy - Dandelions !!  Ha!  Atley was saying, "Dandelion, dandelion, dandelion!!"  Nice work super Scout!!  :) Here are some more p...

Nora ate half of whole wheat english muffin and ate oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, large serving of elbow noodles covered with applesauce and ate her peas. Every day at Story Time we sit in the same (almost - sometimes Atley and Nora switch) order on the couch.  Hudson sits on one end (we call it the "bump") and Avilene sits on the other bump.  Today Nora got on Avi's bump and was screaming at Avi as she was approaching.  I told Nora, "Ok, I'm gonna move you over to your spot."  She immediately said, "Thank You" in the most sweetest voice imaginable!!  It was such an immediate and surprising contrast that I had to laugh! This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when the kids were playing in the two tunnels we have hooked together.  I think there were two or maybe three kids inside the tunnel when I took the picture. They were having fun rolling the big balls along in front of them.  I like how Linnea is just waiti...

Nora ate half of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of paleo stew with chicken and turkey, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, green beans, and cauliflower.  She also ate crackers and tropical fruit. The kids (Atley and Avilene) were at the window waving bye to Daddy Ryan and chanting, "Emily's car, Emily's car."  Nora said, "Momma's car."  :)  I love how much she is talking and trying to say so many words.  Such a fun developmental stage!! I also like how she says "thank you" for everything and sometimes I have to be silly with it!  (I know that's hard to imagine!!)  This morning I said, "Nora, you're coo coo!"  She said, "Thank you."  Haha!  You're welcome! Here are some pictures from this morning's activities.  There are three or four different spots Nora likes to dive off head-first.  So here's a picture of one of them.  She manages to get her arms o...

Nora ate most of waffle and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate baked chicken, bite of whole grain tortilla, ate corn, and baked cinnamon apples.  Nora had a great morning and was a good listener when I had to redirect or help her use her words.  So for the sake of all involved parties I think we need to prohibit Mom from ever leaving again!!  Haha!  Just kidding! We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this past weekend so everything was new and wonderful.  (I'm sure that probably helped Nora this morning as well.)  The first thing Nora played with was the music player, iPod wanna-be, or something like that!  (Picture below.)  She as at the window to wave bye at Daddy, but couldn't take her eyes off the new toy regardless of how many times I said, "Wave at Daddy!"  :) Nora was putting on her bib backwards and saying; "wrong way, wrong way, wrong way" again!  Just like last week.  And I also heard her saying th...

Nora ate oatmeal and two servings of baked cinnamon apples.  For lunch she ate a large serving of hamburger stew with meat, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and hash browns.  She had a bite of whole wheat dinner roll and ate a large serving of apricots.  At breakfast Hudson was quizzing me about why Avilene, Svea, and Atley are gone today.  It was hard to have a conversation with him as Nora's voice was loudly proclaiming; "Nor Nor here!  Nor Nor here!  Nor Nor here!!"  Haha! At breakfast Nora noticed I was blowing on my food and she said, "hot, hot, hot."  Yup, good observation Nora.  Also, I want to mention something Nora said while waving (or looking out the window) at Daddy this morning.  Don't you wonder what the 2 year olds are thinking!?  I do and that's one reason I love it when they start saying words.  They NEVER think what I think they might be thinking - and that's because they don't think like adults!!  (The...

Nora ate french toast and dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pulled pork, bites of whole wheat toast, ate a large serving of peas, and ate watermelon. This is a similar story to what I posted about Nora on Monday.  On Monday I removed two pillows that were causing her and Hudson some grief and Nora responded with "thank you, thank you!"  It sounded like I'd relieved some major stressor for her!  Today it was an armload of blankets she was holding and screaming in fear someone was going to get one.  (A couple of threats were standing nearby - ha!)  I put the blankets on the table for re-entry later.  :)  Nora said, "Thank you, thank you."  That really does seem to help her when I remove something that's causing major grief! Here are a couple pictures from this morning.  I like how everyone is vying for attention from Linnea.  Nora, Hudson, and Atley all crowding around the baby!  This is a mild mannered baby or sh...

Nora ate whole wheat toast and mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce, ate half of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, no squash, and ate fruit salad. Nora lifts her bib off the bib hanger and puts it on by herself for every meal.  And usually puts it on backwards.  At lunch today as she was putting it on she was saying, "wrong way, wrong way, wrong way."  Haha!  Yup, you're right so take it off and put it on the right way.  And she did; perfectly.  :) The kids were waving bye to Daddy Ryan at the window this morning and all 4 kids (including Nora) were chanting; "Emily's car, Emily's car, Emily's car."  Haha!  That made me laugh!  Then later the same 4 kids were playing with the stuffed animals and pretending the animals were their babies.  And everyone was making LOTS of "baby sounds!"  It must have been pretty realistic because I invariably kept looking at the monitor to see...

Nora ate bite of whole wheat bagel and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, brown rice, large serving of stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries.  I don't remember if I included the "flossing teeth" story in Nora's Blog or not; a couple of weeks ago!  Anyhow, Atley says, "Floss Teeth" and it sounds like, "Frost - eeth" and from that it quickly became "Frosty the Snowman."  So at Lunch I flossed my teeth and Avilene said, "Frosty the Snowman."  Nora started chanting it; "Frosty the Snowman, Frosty the Snowman, Frosty the Snowman."  :) Also at breakfast table Nora was done first and playing in the big room and started yelling, "Oh oh! Oh oh! Oh oh!"  Avilene, who was still sitting at the table eating yelled, "What Nor Nor!?"  I just thought it was cute and sweet how Avi the Fixer was ready to help.  Thank you Avilene!! After Lunch Hudson was talking to Nora and he asked her; ...

Nora ate most of bran cereal and most of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, bites of whole wheat pita bread, ate tomatoes, no cucumber, no peppers, ate olives, and ate pears.  Shortly after Nora arrived she came over and hugged my legs while I was standing so we snuggled on the couch for 15 minutes.  So very sweet. I'm enjoying how many words Nora is saying now!!  I had her say "hi Colin" and "bye Colin" to Hudson's Dad and she says his name very plain.  Also, I really like how she puts a STRONG emphasis on the "k" sound in "pink" and "milk."  So cute.  She only had ONE outburst of screaming this morning!  It was right before lunch (when everyone is tired and hungry) and she very quickly stopped when I took her to her highchair. Speaking of using words, we were preparing for Story Time and the kids were waiting on the couch. Hudson had "my" pillows and that was upsetting Nora and she was saying, ...

Nora arrived about 10:00 so just the Lunch meal to report for her.  She ate a couple bites of "baked beef kabobs" with meat, zucchini, peppers, and pineapple.  She ate brown rice and a large serving of pineapple on the side.  Hudson had a story for everyone at Lunch time.  "A woman lived in a house and she took care of an elephant.  Then she ate it.  That's a real story."  Haha!  Thank you Hudson. These first two pictures are from yesterday afternoon.  Kenzie wanted to read to them and lined them all up for a story time.  By looking at the crowded front row, how long do you think this lasted!?  :)  You're right!  Not too long!  Especially after Hudson realized he could reach their hair with his feet!  Ha!  Shortly after this we were ready to go outside and the 2nd picture shows the kids chasing some bubbles.  You can see lots of bubbles in the picture! Hey Momma Emily, I don't know if you notice...

Nora had bites of waffle and ate a large serving of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of shepherd's pie with ground beef, potatoes and sweet potatoes, carrots, and green beans.  She ate half of whole grain tortillas, and ate her cherries. This story is about Hudson and Avilene, but I think you'll like it!  Hudson told a story yesterday and re-told the story several times.  Well this morning Avilene told Lauralea about it!  "Hey Lauralea!  Maddy stepped in a puddle of buffalo poop!"  Hudson was not happy that Avi stole his story!  "Hey!" he said.  "That was MY story!!"  Haha!  We laughed so hard!  (I personally would like to see this story keep going!  It's too good to quit now!)  The part Avi did not tell was how it "wrecked Mom's purple shoes!"  Except Mom said they were polka-dot!  And probably even more-so after the errant step!  :)  Bubba failed to tell everyone that Momma w...