The 'totty'

I don't know why, but I find it totally funny how Beth gets on the potty.

Preschool update!

We decided to switch Nora to the Bluebell nursery program at Pine Hill Waldorf School in Wilton, NH. It's 3 days a week- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) from 8-noon and the kids spend a lot of time outside! I think the 4 hour blocks are still a bit rough for her and she's exhausted by Wednesday afternoon, but she really enjoys going! The first few weeks were tough - I was doing the drive both ways and poor Beth got stuck in the car a lot. Luckily, Nora has a friend who lives nearby and her mother is driving Nora to Bluebell in the morning, so we just have to pick her up. She is a totally different child since starting. I don't know if it's because she's 3 or because she's happy in school, but I'll take it! We still have our challenging days though. I've modified my afternoon plans to accomodate for a tired Nora. She won't nap after Bluebell, but we do a quiet activity together and then play outside or do some cooking for a bit.

I'm really enjoying my mornings with Beth and afternoons (while Beth naps) with Nora. It's been great to have some special time with each child. I do often wish I could have an afternoon respite, but the kids will only be this age once, and I'm going to do my best to enjoy it!

Some photos

While Beth was napping, Nora and I went outside and played in the leaves. We also bagged up a bunch of them!








While Nora was in school, Beth enjoyed some freeze dried strawberries. She enjoyed them!

Walking!

Beth started walking on Nora's 3rd birthday, but over this past weekend really decided that she wanted to be walking. The fun begins...Beth can chase Nora AND have her hands free!

Nora is 3!

Wow! Where did the time go. I can't believe that Nora is 3 years old! She's really turning into quite the little girl. Clever, sweet and very independent, every day is an adventure in this household! Nora has been potty trained for a few months now. She still occasionally has accidents when she's overtired or being stubborn, but overall she's done great! She still wears a pullup at night because sometimes she'll wake up wet, but she's dry many mornings!

She loves preschool, but will tell you that it's not preschool, it's just Bluebell if you ask her about it! Nora loves to do crafts - painting, play dough, cut and paste, you name it! She loves helping in the kitchen. In fact, she often insists on helping in the kitchen and will ask to bake every day! She's pretty good with her kid safe cutter and will help chop carrots, squash, potatoes!

Nora still loves reading. She would let us read to her all day if we let her! Some of her current favorites include Pumpkin Soup, Strega Nona, We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Miss Rumphius. She has most of her favorites memorized and will "read" them to Beth, which is really sweet.

Nora spends as much time as possible outside. She's still a bit nervous on her bike (she's still a bit short for it too), but she loves her trike and loves going for walks and hikes. She's really a workhorse and will help plant bulbs, rake leaves and pick up acorns. She's already asking about winter and building snow people!

Nora's third birthday weekend!

We had a wonderful, but busy weekend to celebrate Nora's 3 year old birthday. We went to Brookdale on Friday, then the Milford Pumpkin Festival and a friends 4 year old birthday party on Saturday and we had Nora's party on Sunday!

We started the weekend off with a fall. Nora took a digger at her friends house, just as we were leaving from a playdate. The photo doesn't do the actual injury justice, but she was no worse for the wear.


On Friday, Nora was having a hard day. She hadn't slept well and was just out of sorts. Andy ended up coming home from work a few hours early and we went to Brookdale Fruit Farm as a family. We had a blast!

Beth had a great time "directing traffic" while sitting in a tractor!

Both kids enjoyed sitting on the antique tractor at Brookdale.







Family photo on Hayman!

Nora was pointing out that Hayman has a green nose.


On Saturday morning, we went to the Milford Pumpkin festival. We didn't stay too long, but Nora painted a pumpkin and we went on the Storybook walk, which is a great friendly trail for preschool ages kids. There was magic in the woods!

Nora waiting for the gnome to come and take us through the woods.



Nora receiving a necklace from Mother Martha.


Nora and Beth outside at a friends birthday celebration. Such a great afternoon to be outside!



I made Nora's birthday cupcakes. It was my first year making her birthday cake, and I think I may have set a mighty high bar for the future! I was quite pleased with how the cupcakes came out.

Andy's mom once again helped us make the window look pretty!

Cupcakes all set up for everyone too see!

Happy Birthday to Nora!

Mmmmm

Camping!

We went camping for my dad's birthday this year. It was the first camping trip of the "summer" and the first time we went with two kids! We had a great time. Nighttime is still a bit of a challenge. Nora was afraid to be in the tent alone, so she stayed up with us. The first night, we went to bed pretty early and she did ok. The second night, she was really tired and just kept moving around. When she finally sat down, on Danielle's chair, she literally fell asleep within minutes sitting up. I'm hoping my dad got a good photo of it that I can post later. I think Andy and I may need to think about investing in a different tent. We like ours, and it may work for another year or two, but as Nora and Beth grow, we may need a bit bigger footprint!

It was a great weekend for camping. Warm and sunny, but cool at night. We could not have asked for a better camping weekend! We brought both kids into the Canoe. Beth was a bit nervous in it unless I was holding her up so she could easily see over the boat. Nora had a good time and ended up going for a short ride with just daddy. As usual, we made breakfast burritos (a camping favorite - although I'm not sure why we don't make them any other time!), ate S'mores and enjoyed being outside!

One of Beth's favorite things while we were camping was climbing from one chair to another. She even caught herself a few times when losing her balance!



Andy went out on the canoe alone and paddled while standing in the middle!


Enjoying time on the beach!




Nora decided that our "toy bin" was a good seat at the campsite!






Some fun while getting ready for the camping trip. We set up our tent to try and figure out how we'd get all four of us in. We also brought the kids tend and tunnel outside. They had a blast crawling through it! Nora also loved the big tent and was very excited to get to have a chance to look around inside!

Preschool!

Nora started preschool on Monday. The first day was a bit tough for everyone. The dropoff didn't go well, and Nora was pretty unhappy. I spoke with the teacher, and after speaking with the school director, we were able to arrange a way to work towards a more peaceful dropoff for Nora on Wednesday. I was amazed at how much better it went. Nora seemed to be much better. I think Nora needed to see me enter the classroom in order for her to know that it was a safe space. Walked in once, said goodbye, and now (a week later) I open the door and she runs in! Back to my independent little girl who waves at mommy while she runs off with her friends.

Of course, on Thursday, I found out that there is a space open at the Pine Hill Waldorf nursery program. This program was my first choice, but due to the lengthy drive and the $$ we had decided not to commit. Especially since Nora wasn't potty trained and seemed so young last March when we needed to make the decision. Now, she seems so much bigger and she is potty trained. It's still a bit more $ than we'd like to spend, but I think in the long run Nora will blossom at Pine Hill. It's such a wonderful program - they play outside nearly every day, even on the colder days, which is perfect for my little naturalist! We have tried asking Nora and get a blend of answers. First, it was Bluebell, then no school, then bluebell. Now, it's Chapel school or no school and I'm sure tomorrow will be bluebell or chapel school as her answers. The next few weeks should be interesting!

Beths 1 year well baby visit

We had Beth's 1 year well baby visit yesterday afternoon. It was a hectic day, to say the least, but the dr visit provided a nice break. The visits have been at Nini Bambini and that makes it fun! Beth is a very active little peanut. During the exam, she was sitting on the big chair and started climbing, flooping and rolling around, all while giggling. Made things interesting!

She's currently 18lbs 8 oz, 27.75 inches long, both in about the 10th percentile. No worries though, she eats lots and is very active! She'll be rear-facing in the car for a bit longer though!

Flowers and smugmug

We have started putting our photos onto smugmug. It's a great location for us to save and share photos and work as backup storage in case something happens. We still need to go back and load in photos from before Beth was born, but I have a lot of more recent photos loaded up now. For those family members who like to print/save photos - it's easy to save high resolution photos straight from Smugmug too.

We've been able to pick flowers each week when we pick up our CSA. Nora loves picking out the flowers and she claims that a few of them "make her calm." Sometimes if Nora needs to calm down, she goes and gets a flower. I posted a few photos on smugmug of the flowers we've been picking (look in the Nature folder).