They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here and have never heard of Pumpkin pie, but we managed to re-create it perfectly. It was such a good night!
Wayne and I canNOT get over how big she looks here. I don't want her to be 14!! Or move away! Ahh! It's happening!
Norah's best friend Lilia - just 2 last month. Lilia calls Norah, "Nori" and it is so sweet!
Why is the hostess, who just prepared 14 dishes and got them all onto the table, cutting OUR child's food you ask? Because she's super woman.
Kirsten and Goran had to move all of their furniture out of the living room but they pulled it off! We had a huge beautiful table, and a kids' table for the two little ladies.
Our two sweeties. (This looks like an old Irish painting to me)
Peat Briquettes
Kirsten made two beautiful pumpkin pies and this was the first time trying the dish for Goran, his mom, his dad and little Lilia. We have successfully transplanted this American favorite to Ireland!
Last weekend we took Norah into Temple Bar to a place called The Ark. It's essentially a children's museum type place, focused mainly on the arts. Here's a blurb:
The Ark introduces children to the joy, wonder and creativity of the arts, and plays a vital role in raising the standard of culture for children. Here, in a unique building designed specifically for them, children aged two to 12 explore everything from theatre, music and literature to painting, film, dance and more. They discover what it means to be an artist, from respected professional artists. There’s no better way to nurture hungry young imaginations, or to inspire a lifelong journey through culture. (www.theark.ie)
And if this wasn't one of the most beautiful things you ever heard:
This is one of my favorite pictures of all I've ever taken - of parenting and being with Norah. And maybe because it's old Dublin outside the window and I know we'll remember this phase of Norah's life, forever.
How cool would it be to have a reading room like THIS for your kids??
magnetic storyboard
Not sure why exactly, but I loved these two!
"Letters + Letters = Words"
"Words + Words = Sentences"
"Sentences + Sentences = Stories"
Norah made her rendition of the "Alice and Wonderland" Book Cover and got to put it up on the wall with all the others. She's waving at the camera.
And this is random but every night, if he doesn't stay at the school until late - this is where you can find Wayne. Papers sprawled on our 'dining room' table, grading students' work, earbuds in, until sometimes 12:30 am. No rest for Ph.D. students - (or at least not those who also get up at 6:30 with a 2 year old). What's so great is that he loves it. He loves teaching, he loves grading papers, and he's right where he's supposed to be. I sneak pictures of him and he grins when he catches me - but I can't help it - I feel like I want to capture this phase when he's first teaching and working so hard on the Ph.D. (embarrassingly, just like a mom taking pictures of their child on the 1st day of school).
And perhaps just as random - this is a picture I took from our living room today. The water was pure glass and I need to capture the beautiful days of Winter before the rain starts and I can't remember this. :)
Lately, Wayne and I have both been feeling like our love for Norah has evolved and intensified (if that's possible). I've felt this many times over the couple years - that something will shift at a certain point and I literally feel my love for her change and grow. It's only happened a few times but it's palpable and on those days I can't stop touching her face or kissing her or playing with her hair. It's like I'm intensely smitten with her for a few days and then it becomes the new normal. (Has this happened to anyone else?) =) She's nearly 2 1/2 and feels more like a genuine companion, every day.
When I'm out running errands with Norah, often we have full conversations and I find myself bursting into laughter at things she has said. And this is one thing we've noticed - she has come to the realization that she's very funny and seems to have mastered comical delivery. She'll say things, with a completely straight face, knowing how funny they are and there's something even more hilarious about it coming from a 2 year old.
And in the evenings, I love finding the things she's left in random places. Two days ago, after she was in bed, I go in our room and find a tiny plate with a plastic beef patty on it, sitting on my bedside table. Behind our bedroom curtains: her tiny knitted purse filled with a plastic hotdog bun, a Kroner coin from Denmark, 2 legos and a small ketchup bottle. And one tiny rain boot on our bedroom floor with an alarm clock in it. (clearly I let her play alone a lot as I have no idea when/why these things happened) You just can't help but giggle and feel so thankful to have a little person around when this is how your evening ends. And I need these moments, after the days of hardcore potty training like today, when - standing in the toy aisle of Tesco (grocery store), Norah gave me that look and I knew she was...peeing. (this is despite taking her to the restroom 15 minutes prior and she swore she couldn't go) So here I am with a buggy (stroller), a huge bag of groceries and I'm half a store away from the restrooms. So I awkwardly parked the buggy, asked a clerk to watch our groceries and carried a sopping wet 2 year old (in jeans) to the bathroom. Every person I passed gave me knowing looks that said "Oh ya... been there. You're doin' just fine". Thankfully I had the extra clothes packed and we survived what I thought was my worst nightmare, completely unscathed.
Nana mailed this painting book to Norah - something I hadn't seen since I was a kid and it brought back so many sweet memories. It's one of those books with the color already on the page, and all you do is 'paint' with water on your brush. They're genius! (and I don't know why they're not in every store.)
Here you can tell why I always want to touch her hair and kiss her cheeks.
"Bringin' in mah tools"
Some nights, when Daddy reads bedtime stories, this is how I find them.
Another example of being blown away by her and feeling so smitten:
Last night, I was home with Norah and Wayne was working really late at UCD. So I made dinner, gave her a bath, etc. did the whole evening routine. Well, bathtime didn't go so well and Norah became a furious monster. She cried through the entire 'washing' portion (very uncharacteristic) and then splashed water/threw toys everywhere as I tried to drag her out of the tiny bathtub situated in our even tinier shower. Pulling a wet, soapy, limp-bodied 26-pound turkey out of a tub (in a shower) is....hard. I was just frustrated and had very little patience with her. Anyway, when we were reading stories I said, "Norah, I'm sorry I got frustrated during your bath" and she says to me.....my TWO year old......with the most genuine, adult look on her face: "It's ok Mommy, it was my fault too".
We just continued reading before she went to bed and in mind, she was a perfect angel (no memory of the soapy, writhing monster-child from 7 pm). And then, to seal the deal, every night she says "Goodnight mommy. I love you. Sweet Dreams. See you at breakfast. Leave the door open". So that helps too.
Mark Pollock is well-known in Ireland and when I heard his story I was absolutely blown away. He is a remarkable human being. Our friend Graham, who was college buddies with Mark, told us about the "Run in the Dark" and there was no question we would participate. And so, on Wednesday night, Wayne and I ran our first 10K race side by side, along with 10 group members from the Dun Laoghaire Pier Runners. (Sidenote: I was delighted today when I saw one of our group members refer to us as "the DPRs"....I started a group that now has an acronym! Yes!)
Back to Mark. Here's an excerpt from the Mark Pollock Trust website:
"As part of regaining his identity after losing his sight [at age 22] he chose to take on spectacular challenges. He has survived the sub-zero temperatures of Antarctica as he raced to the South Pole over 43 days. He suffered the scorching heat of the Gobi Desert, completing six marathons in one week in “The Race of No Return”. He has competed in races on the frozen Arctic Ocean at the North Pole, through the desert lowlands of the Syrian African Rift Valley to the Dead Sea and at altitude at Everest base camp. He also has two Commonwealth Games medals for rowing under his belt. In mid-2010, Mark’s business was thriving with a full calendar of motivational speaking events ahead. He was in the process of writing his second book and he was due to be married.
On the night of the 2nd of July 2010 everything changed. He fell from a second story window fracturing his skull, some ribs and breaking his back in a number of places. Mark was taken to intensive care where injuries such as bleeds on his brain and a suspected torn aorta one by one healed becoming less and less significant beside the fact that Mark could not feel or move anything below his belly button. Mark’s bones eventually healed but medicine can do nothing to repair a damaged spinal cord..."(from http://markpollocktrust.org/marks-story)
Keep in mind, ALL of those accomplishments, were achieved after he lost his sight. Those are feats that would leave any human being proud for a lifetime, and he did each one of them without sight.
And to read about the incredible technology that has allowed Mark to walk with robotic legs, here is his blog post:
There's an amazing video of him trying them out for the first time, in a lab in Berkeley, California, January 2012.
You can imagine, then, how honored we were to join 5,000 (thousand!) other people at 7:30 pm, in Dublin, to run in honor of this man. This is the 2nd year of the run and not only did the entry numbers increase by more than 4,000 people (just in Dublin), it also simultaneously happened in Belfast, London, New York City and Cork. And last year, they even had people run "pop up" 'Run in the Dark' races in Paris, Brussels, San Francisco, Neuchatel, Toronto, Dallas, Puerto Rico, Quebec, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Sydney. (from Runinthedark.org)
I was so honored to meet Mark after the race and so impressed with his spirit. You immediately feel how outgoing and seriously funny this man is. He is a force. To encounter a person this strong, with this type of drive, to not just "keep going", but to absolutely push the limits of human capacity, is shocking, foreign and so beautiful.
This last week we've had some experiences that have been 1) very inconvenient but 2) mostly reminded us how incredibly fortunate we are to have the 1st-World luxuries we seriously take for granted - clean water, electricity and refrigeration. I don't mean this in some false-gratitude type of way, I mean it.
Many times here in Dun Laoghaire, over the last year, they've shut off our water from 8 am to 6 pm, for a week at a time. This is just due to city-works, replacing water mains and pipes. Anyway, not awesome... but we can deal with it. And if I were working full time, this wouldn't even register on the radar - it's just that I'm home most days and need to do things like flush the toilet between 8 am and 6 pm. This happens every so often and we're pretty used to it.
The best part being (sarcasm), when the water comes back on each night, it runs like this for an hour or two (or sometimes 12):
No, that's not beef broth, it's our tap water.
Unfortunately, this last week we also had issues with our electricity - like, I turned on the kitchen light once, it exploded, and then all our lights went out. Hm....that's weird. And for a few days, when we woke up, our clocks had been off and the fridge lights were out. Anyway, just odd-happenings, and in needing to open the breaker box to fix these, we realized the main fuse (and 2 others) in the breaker box were completely melted and charred. Scary.
This is the main fuse that he pulled out of the breaker.
Basically wires were loose causing the near fire, melting the fuses and he also found a faulty circuit in our kitchen. Not comforting when you live on the 3rd floor and have a 2 year old. I nearly went out immediately and bought an escape ladder.
Unfortunately, then, our fridge died. You wouldn't think this is that big 'o deal but, it is. On Saturday we noticed the ice was melting and by Sunday morning we had to throw out every single item in both the fridge and freezer. So hard to do. It just makes you cringe - pouring a full gallon of milk down the drain.
Wayne really didn't like throwing out his Grey Poupon which seemed to have spoiled. I told him it always smells like that. =)
If you saw the post a couple months back about mackerel fishing, well, this is the same family we met that day. As you'll see, it was just about the cutest toddler birthday party, ever - complete with Photo-Shoot and Homemade Sushi.
Lucy's Mom is super-creative and made this backdrop and each of these props for this "photo booth".
One of the sweetest things I've ever seen
Arrrrggggh!
Not only did she make all the decorations, the photo booth props, a cake and SUSHI, she made carrot-hummus (never even crossed my mind), and nut-based, non-dairy pesto. Pinterest has nothing on this woman.
Lucy's looking a little chocolate-drunk here.
It appears as if the carrot hummus isn't going over too well with Norah...
These pictures are pretty self-explanatory (plus, most of you have seen them on Facebook) =) I will say though, Norah had the best day. I think I can safely say, this was one of the best days I've had as a parent, yet. Happiness-wise at Norah's happiness, I mean. I've always understood why parents take their kids to Disneyland, etc. but to see her pure joy made me FEEL why parents go to such lengths to see that in their kids. She loved every part of the day and I can't wait to do it again next year.
She was so sweet too - after a couple houses (with about 5 pieces of candy in her bag), she said: "Let's go home Mommy, I don't need anymore candy". (and then said that after every single house) The people just adored seeing someone so small, so dressed up and it was infectious. It was such a fun evening and, for both Wayne and I, it re-kindled that childish excitement for Halloween that you have, and then lose somewhere along the way. We got it back! Look out next year!
