Nora Hansen's Journal

Nora ate most of brown rice and half of her raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of salmon, no whole wheat dinner roll, ate a large serving of green beans, and a large serving of mangoes. This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  We didn't go outside because of all the rain and there were times when it was pouring!  We have a metal roof and it's fun to listen to the rain when it's pounding hard.  The kids were at the window several times watching it come down and watching the water run down the road. Nora was doing puzzles when Momma Emily drove by, but Hudson was at the window waving!  (At least that's what he said! Ha!)  I was helping Nora and Atley set up their puzzle area and Hudson came out and said, "Hey Gary! I wave at Emily! Nobody else got to wave at her."  Thank you for remembering to wave Bubba! Here are some pictures from the morning activities: They chose to use the sketching tablets to draw with at Art ...

Nora ate bites of whole wheat english muffin and ate oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of ground beef, ate whole wheat elbow noodles with applesauce, and ate her peas.  (Also covered with applesauce - makes everything so much yummier!) First thing this morning Hudson said, "Hey Gary!  There's a birdie on top of that car!!"  And there was a little birdie hopping around on the top of the neighbor's car.  Nora heard that and ran to the window saying, "birdie, birdie, birdie."  HaHa!  I wonder if she was expecting to see HER birdie!  :) Here are some pictures from this morning: Nora and Linnea were playing their own version of peek-a-boo and I should have recorded the belly laughs.  They were both laughing so hard.  Then much later in the morning, right before nap, these two were doing it again!  Nora was laying on the mattress and Linnea was ducking down beside the mattress and then poking her head up.  Nora was ...

Nora ate french toast and strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of paleo stew with beef, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and green beans.  She ate crackers and tropical fruit. This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when everyone was examining a small roly poly bug that Hudson had in his dump truck.  They've been finding lots of roly poly bugs this year outside and everyone loves it.  Well the three oldest kids at least.  This is about the extent of interest that Nora shows!  :)  (She's in the bottom right of picture.  Like Momma Emily said, her head and Avi's head look very similar!)  Nora will occasionally look, but not touch. I've mentioned this several times (especially to Emily and not just in the Blog), but Nora saying, "Thank you" is so cute and sweet!  But recently she's been doing it when "you're welcome" would be the "correct" phrase!  Haha!  At this age just hearing some of those "t...

Nora ate bites of waffle and three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, bites of whole grain tortilla, ate corn, and two servings of baked cinnamon apples. Nora still finds a "semi-secluded" spot to lay on her belly and poop.  The other kids know what she's doing and will occasionally verbalize it, but today Atley was hovering very close and pestering her by saying, "poopy, poopy, poopy..."  Atley totally knew Nora did not want her there and was wanting her to leave!  Little turkey!  So I had Atley move away so Nora could poop in peace.  :) I've mentioned before that the kids have "designated" spots where they always sit during Story Time. (They were the ones who chose their spots and then they've always kept them!)  Today Nora was sitting on the bump of the couch (sitting on Avi's Spot) and immediately moved when Avi came for Story Time.  Then Nora said, "Thank you Avi!"  LOL!  Why are you thanking h...

Nora ate half of kix cereal and ate mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of ground turkey, a bite of whole wheat hamburger bun, ate tomatoes, bites of avocado, and ate cherries. Atley was offering Nora some doll blankets, but Nora had already chosen the pink one and was standing there holding it.  She told Atley, "No; pink."  (I only want pink!)  But Atley tried every one of them; green, yellow, blue, but only pink would do.  :)  I do think Nora was playing with the other blanket colors later.  (If I'm wrong on these colors you can all blame Avi; I got my color information from her!!)   :) We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Nora stayed busy all morning playing with everything and enjoying the new puzzles.  She said, "puzzle please, puzzle please."  It didn't sound much like puzzle, but at least I figured it out!!  :)  In the first picture you can see the spinning toy that Nora played with...

Nora ate half of oatmeal and three servings of baked cinnamon apples for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger stew with meat, carrots, potatoes, green beans, and tomatoes.  She also ate bites of whole wheat dinner roll, and ate apricots.  The kids were maybe a bit wilder than usual and I said, "You guys are kind of crazy today."  Hudson said, "Yes  they  are crazy today!"  Haha! At the end of lunch Nora was messing around with her milk and it was going down the front of her bib and it got her pants wet front and back.  I said, "Nora, you're dumping milk down the front of your bib!"  She (in her sweet high-pitched innocent voice) said, "Thank you Gary."  Haha!  Then a little later I was going back-n-forth to the kitchen while cleaning up lunch and she was standing right in front of the gate.  "Nora, please move away from the gate so I can open it."  Again (same voice as above - ha), "Thank you Gary."  :)  And...

Nora came during breakfast time and that didn't work today.  :)  So she was hungry by lunch and ate a big plate of pulled pork, whole wheat toast, peas, and cantaloupe.  The Monitor for the Food Program was here to observe our lunch time procedure.  She also checks lots of paperwork including sign-in sheets, temp in fridge and freezer, and makes sure I'm serving what's listed on the Menu.  All the kids were amazing while she was here.  I was (and am) so proud of them!!  Hudson was just chattering at her all the time!  Ha!  I said, "Hey Hudson, tell Claudette what Gary says about your talking all the time!"  He said, "jabber, jabber, jabber."  Perfect!  You nailed it!  :) During breakfast when Nora wouldn't eat Avilene looked at Hudson and asked, "Why is Nora so mad?"  He said, "I don't know.  I have no idea why Nora is so mad."  Haha!  But she soon regulated (with some strong encouragement from Gary!...

Nora ate three servings of whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she had bites of ground beef with marinara sauce on whole wheat spaghetti noodles.  She ate bites of fruit salad and no squash. Here's a picture from yesterday afternoon outside.  The kids (except Nora - she preferred to watch) were inside the geo-climber using the balls as their pillows.  This is a good picture/example how Nora approaches a lot of play - she watches and then decides if it's something she wants to join or try to do.  I can think of lots of kids we've had who would approach a situation in the same manner. Hudson and Nora arrived at basically the same time today and both Dads drove by the window and waved.  After waving at their dads (or in Nora's case just standing there looking - Ha!) Nora and Hudson just looked at each other and started yelling, "My Daddy! My Daddy! My Daddy!" The next picture is Nora, Avi, and Hudson surrounding Svea!  It's...

Nora ate bites of whole wheat bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, half of brown rice, ate a large serving of stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries. I'm adding this first picture so Daddy Ryan will know that Nora didn't stay "distraught" for very long! She came in howling with tears flowing and 5 minutes after Daddy left this is what it all looked like! Dang kids!  :)  Their cognitive abilities are far from fully developed and yet they know how to "yank our chains."  (That's what Lauralea and I've always called it!)  This morning Atley was doing the same thing for Momma Megan.  After Momma walked out the door Atley and I were playing on the rocking chair and she was giggling and laughing.  "Atley! Here comes Mom - let's wave at her!"  Atley flipped a switch immediately puts on this super sad pouty face and stands looking so pitiful at the window.  Ha! We read lots of books and then built t...

Nora ate half of her breakfast: bran cereal and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, bites of whole grain pita bread, bites of olives, tomatoes, peppers, ate cucumbers, and pears.  At breakfast I ask the kids where they want their raisins; in your cereal or in here - pointing to a plate.  Three said in their cereal and Nora was last; "here" points to her plate.  That's significant to me because kids are frequently influenced by what the other kids are doing.  Not Nora.  :)  Love that! Last week during Story Time Atley saw a picture of Dr. Suess on the inside cover of a book and said, "My Daddy! My Daddy!"  (In the picture he is getting older with a gray beard!  haha!)  Atley did it again today; "My Daddy!  My Daddy!"   Nora said, "My Daddy! My Daddy!"  Avi said, "My Daddy!  My Daddy!"  Hudson said, "NO! That's the author that wrote this book!"  (That's an exact quote! Wow!)  They kept it...

Nora ate cream of wheat cereal and half of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate no "baked beef kabobs" with meat, zucchini, peppers, and pineapple.  She ate half of brown rice, and ate a large serving of pineapple on the side. This first picture was taken yesterday afternoon.  There are 5 kids inside the geo-climber, plus Kenzie dumping the balls, and Linnea watching from the edge.  Just as a FYI for you, yesterday was the last day at Little Treasures for Kenzie and Riley as they will be going to Summer Camps now that school is officially over as of this morning at 11:00.  Their Grandparents are moving to Missoula as well so it may have been the last day for good.  I'll miss them for sure!  They've been a part of the Daycare Family for more than 8 years!  (Nora is in the bottom right of the picture.  You can see her hat and sunglasses!) I always love to meet the children's Grandparents!  And it was so very special to meet ...

Nora ate most of waffle and three servings of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate no shepherd's pie with hamburger, green beans, carrots, and potatoes.  She ate her cherries and bites of whole grain tortilla. Ok Daddy Ryan, we talked about Nora (and others) "waving" at the window to the parents.  So here's what was happening this morning.  Did you happen to see Nora pat her chest?  She was saying, "Nora Dad."  That was primarily for Atley's benefit.  Atley couldn't have cared less!  She was focused on a bug on the outside of the window and kept saying, "butterfly, butterfly, butterfly."  Of course it was just a very small house fly.  :)  Next she said, "spider, spider, spider."  No, that's a mosquito!  :) The first thing Nora and Atley did this morning was jump on the mattress!  (See the first picture.)  And Linnea likes to get in the middle of it all!  Many kids that are just starting to crawl...

Nora ate french toast and strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of "Whole 30" Chili with ground beef, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers.  She ate tropical fruit and no whole wheat dinner roll. Nora hasn't yet met a baby that wasn't created to be her personal pillow!!  Ha!  It's a good thing we have a couple of pretty mellow babies or they'd have to be protected continually behind the fencing!! Nora is sweet to the babies - she just likes to lay her head on them.  Do you think Nora would have allowed someone to do this to her when she was a baby?  :)   Hudson is back at Little Treasures today after spending some time with his Tu Tu.  (Grandma)  Avi, Atley, and Nora were all pretending to sleep and Hudson was covering them with blankets.  Nora actually enjoyed this a lot and continued to lay there sucking her thumb long after everyone else was done with this game and on to something else!  :) He...

Nora ate most of toasted whole wheat english muffin and ate three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork chop meat, whole wheat toast, no roasted vegetables (carrots, potatoes, beets), ate her applesauce. After Nora waved bye to Momma this morning we snuggled in the chair for several minutes watching cars and kids go bye.  When a car would drive by I'd say, "Hey!!  Get back here!!"  Nora started laughing hysterically.  She'd say, "back here."  Or, "get back."  But she wouldn't put all three words together.  It's funny when she laughs that hard because she kinda shakes all over.  :) Then Atley arrived and she and Atley played together constantly until almost breakfast time.  Here are some pictures from that "before breakfast time."  When they are in a giggly mode (like this morning) they'll laugh at anything!  So they played in the chair a lot; spinning it, taking turns pushing it around and around, and l...

Nora ate bites of whole grain chex cereal and ate peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, bites of whole wheat hamburger, ate tomatoes, avocados, and oranges.   We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Linnea is back after a week on the Oregon coast.  So lots of good things happening this morning.  (Except Hudson is not here to enjoy Linnea and he adores her!! Last week I showed him a picture of Linnea on the beach and he said, "That's my favorite baby!")  This first picture pretty much sums up how Nora feels about Linnea too!  This is what I think Nora was saying,  "You play with your toys Linnea and I'll just lay here using your leg for a pillow!!"  :) With the toy exchange comes different puzzles and they were all doing puzzles.  I like this puzzle Nora is doing in the picture.  It combines shapes and colors!  We also read lots of books during Story Time and the kids read lots more books on...