Happy Spring

It was a crazy busy Memorial Day weekend. Nora stayed up late, slept in, ate a lot of ice cream, played with the big kids, and crashed at 7:30 on Monday night. John kayaked in the Ski-to-Sea, broken leg be damned. Nora and I greeted him as he crutched his way to the finish line, after which we hosted the annual seafood boil in our backyard. The kids played on the hammock for so long and so hard that I have to reseed the grass underneath. We are enjoying a much-deserved warm spell here in Bellingham. It has been dry, sunny, and warm. Ahhhh. We made it.

I have been amazed lately at how big Nora is getting, how much she is saying, and how much she is like us. And then again, not like us. For example, since she came home, she has had this habit of pushing her feet against me when we are sleeping together, or reading together. It's like she has to have her feet touching me when we lie together. I think she must have done that as an infant, in her crib. Also, when she's tired, she rubs the corner of her blanket...she is SO in love with her blanket, it's crazy (I have always wanted a kid who loved her blanket). She has been talking about China a lot “when I’m a baby in China, I have those shoes.” She was looking at one of her referral pictures the other day and she said “I don’t see you.” and I said “That was when you were in China, with your nannies. I wasn’t there.” Then she said, “then you and daddy come on the airplane and get me and bring me home!”

And then there are the things she says, which could be straight out of my mouth, most of the time. I don’t mean to bore everyone, but I have to keep track of this stuff somewhere.
I took Nora to the marina last week to ride her bike. An older child rode quickly past Nora and she said "he's going very fast!" I said "Someday you'll be able to go fast, too." She said "I don't like to go fast." I said "You will, someday." And Nora said "Trust me. I won't."

Today, she said “take my word for it.” I don’t even remember why. I was so stunned, I forgot what prompted her to say it.

Other things (just today):

“I promise I won’t move.” [two minutes pass] “see mom, I promise I not move, and I didn’t!”

“One ponce a time there was a naughty little girl name Goldilocks” (hee hee hee).

And some things from last week:

“You lost your voice, mom? Where your voice go? We have find it.”

“Is the sidewalk back to normal?” (we had our sidewalk repaired recently)

Nora: “I still have fever mom?” (while taking her temperature, during the black plague which invaded our house last week…and the week before).
Mom: “No, your fever is down.”
Nora: “Where? In my belly?”

She is using “might” all the time “I don’t want show you my armpit. You might tickle me!” “be careful, you might fall and break your leg.” "If you step on the balloon, it might pop!"

And, some pictures: