A crazy few weeks!

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic for us! We celebrated New Years at 7pm with Nora, where she got her very first taste of something bubbly - sparkling apple cider. She really enjoyed having a (plastic, Mickey Mouse) wine glass to drink from, and was very excited to do "cheers again" over and over until her drink was gone. We stayed up later and played games with my sister and her husband, and decided that we need to have more game nights! When Andy and I finally went to bed, we heard Nora say "more cheers again" in her sleep!

Nora is still an amazing child! We have been potty training lately, which is a challenge with an infant around - and I was hoping to wait until summer, but Nora had her own agenda. She does really well at home -and usually stays dry all day! However, if we go out or she gets excited, she won't use the potty (or forgets to ask). We do sit her on the potty every 45 minutes when we are out, but that doesn't always work. Unfortunately, she still hasn't mastered the poop yet, so we decided to get pull-ups until she's ready for that.

Nora still loves her books. Her current favorites include Olivia and The Deep Blue Sea at bedtime and The USBorne Book of Farmyard Tales during the day. We read a lot of stories - it's something easy for me to do while Beth is nursing. She's also become quite fond of singing. She suddenly started singing a few songs- I didn't even realize she knew the words. She'll sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, Rock a Bye Baby, The Alphabet Song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Ring around the Rosie and Oats and Beans and Barley Grow! She can count to 11, but sometimes skips six or seven, which is pretty funny. Some of Nora's other favorites are her new drum, play-doh, and helping us in the kitchen (or mimicking us in her own kitchen). She loves sledding and shoveling snow too! We are taking two parent/child classes right now -Winter Walks at Beaver Brook and Children's Garden at Pine Hill. Both classes are tons of fun! Winter Walks, which is over in about two weeks, has a story about winter, a related craft, and a hike out in the snow. We are in a class with mostly 4-5 year olds (it's for 2-5), so Nora has a hard time keeping up with the big kids in the snow, but we just take our time and enjoy being outside! Beth usually nurses during the story, and then watches the craft, and falls asleep within minutes of going outside. Children's Garden is great for both kids - it's for children from birth until preschool, and we have an open playtime, circle time and a snack. Children's Garden will continue on until May, so it'll be fun to watch Beth transform from floppy baby to mobile baby during the class (she was only 5 weeks old when we first started in September!).

Andy had his ACL reconstruction surgery last week. Everything went really well! He's already walking without crutches and has gone back to work. His mom came up to help, and I think we really tired her out (or, more accurately, Nora really tired her out). It was great to have Grandma here to take some attention away from Daddy for a few days so he could recover.