Celebrations

I wanted Nora's birthday to be pretty awesome this year. Last year we had just gotten back from our Texas trip the day before, and went pretty much straight from the airport to the ER because I couldn't stop throwing up. After spending the whole night in the worst ER I've ever been to, you can imagine that we weren't up for too much celebrating that day. Nora didn't mind too much, she was happy to open her few presents and go to Chick-fil-a with her dad, but I felt so badly that she didn't get much fanfare for turning two.

SO we had big plans for turning three. Both girls have really wanted to go ice skating since seeing Frozen, so we were going to take them to a cute outdoor skating rink up here. Marc took the day off work and everything. Then, the night before Nora's birthday we got a huge snowstorm. It worked out pretty well, since she kept saying that Elsa (the queen from Frozen) had made it snow just for her.

When Marc was putting the girls to bed the night before he told Nora that the sooner she went to sleep the sooner it would be her birthday. Then T piped up "And Nora, there will be a big surprise downstairs for your birthday! There will be balloons and decorations and it will look so beautiful, just like it did for my birthday!". So, I was glad Marc told me that, because I actually didn't have too much planned in the decorations department, so we stepped it up at the last minute to meet those expectations.

                         

She was quite grumpy about the idea of turning three the morning of, before we went downstairs. She eventually admitted to not wanting to be three because of the deadline she had given herself to give up her pacis. We assured her that she could keep them for her actual birthday, so she finally agreed to be three.

She was so cute and excited to open presents. Teresa was so great the whole time, too, she kept saying "oh Nora, this is your best birthday ever!" and with each present Nora opened T would say "oh, I'm so happy for you!".

Yes, we already regret giving her that microphone. It doesn't amplify their voices too loudly, but it does play really loud, really horrendous music.

After presents and waffles and the birthday interview we got bundled up to go play in all that birthday snow. Nora was singularly focused on building a snowman. She was really hoping he would come to life like the Frozen snowman, and all day she would go check on him to see if he was alive yet. No luck there, poor thing.

Finn was a good sport about being in the cold. Luckily for him my coat zipped up over both of us. He even got to go sledding for the first time! He was indifferent for the first go, and very much not a fan of the second time we went. 

Nora had been asking for an Elsa cake - are you seeing the theme here? She is in love with Elsa and all things Frozen. My poor cake, I had big plans for it, but things just were not going my way. The motor on my hand mixer burned out half way through mixing up the frosting. You'd think paying eight bucks for something would mean it would last more than a year, right? Luckily our neighbors were able to loan us their Kitchenaid so we could get the job done. Then my icing bags kept clogging while I was trying to make the snowflakes, so I had to change all my plans half way through. Anyway, she wanted chocolate and lemon, so that's what she got. Both girls kept opening the fridge to peek at it all day, they were pretty excited.

Getting sung to:

Here's her first official birthday interview:

She definitely surprised me with some of her answers. I didn't know she had such strong feelings about watermelon, and I can't remember the last time we watched Yo Gabba Gabba. She usually only lists blue as her favorite color. Oh, and snowflakes = cornflakes. After her interview we took many, many pictures of our three-year-old. She was not interested in posing or smiling for the camera at first. I don't remember what we bribed her with in order for her to cooperate, but it definitely worked. Just fyi, there are A LOT of pictures below. 

  

  

Nora Borealis

This girl. We've had her for three whole years now. I originally had written that I couldn't believe she is already three, but really, I can. It feels like we've always had her, and in just the past few weeks she has really started to act a lot more like a big three-year-old and less like a little two-year-old.

Here's a little picture history of our Nora Bora.

Brand New:

Six Months Old:

One Year:

Two Years:

And Today:

                                                   

It's kinda funny, but three years ago when I was pregnant with her I was sooooo super anxious that there would be a big snowstorm that would keep us from getting to the hospital in time. It was definitely one of my main pregnancy worries with her! So we had to laugh when for her birthday today we had a big huge snowstorm that dropped 12 inches of snow on us. 

Nora is such a little firecracker. She has definite opinions about life and has no problem telling you about them. She is pretty hilarious. One of my favourite things is listening to Nora when she is playing with her toys. When Teresa is at school she spends a lot of time playing quietly by herself, and I love listening in on the little scenarios she comes up with for her dolls and animals. She is a wonderful little sister, and admires Teresa so, so much. Any time Teresa is hurt or crying Nora will usually cry as well. A few weeks ago T was having a particularly bad hair combing and poor Nora was just in tears begging me to stop combing T's hair. She is also a fabulous big sister to Finn. She will generously offer him the paci right out of her mouth when he is headed up for a nap. She just loves to hold him and show him toys, I can't wait until he is big enough to really play with her. She is so sweet and complimentary and is always telling the rest of us that we look beautiful. She can still shriek at pitches that would burst your ear drums and is stubborn as can be some days. She has been insisting for weeks that when she turns three she is giving up her pacifiers and is going to start using the potty. She came up with that deadline on her own, so we'll see how it plays out. She is still such a friendly little lass. She must wave at and say hi to and make friends with pretty much everyone she meets. I hope that she is always like that. 

And I have to give Finn a little shout out - he turned 5 months old today! Stay tuned for some video of him scooching himself around!