Chicago 2009

As long as Scott and I have been together we've had an annual tradition of going to Chicago over his spring break. This year that fell over Easter weekend. Which means we got a wicked cheap hotel room and were able to stay in Chicago two nights before heading home to spend Easter with the kids at Scott's parent's house.

Funny thing about Chicago. It's windy. And I left my coat in the car, which was valet parked who knows where. My prize. A new coat.

After seeing the Broadway musical Jersey Boys. The story of Frankie Valli. Not to be confused with Ricky Valens, who died in the plane crash in Iowa. That's what I thought it was going into it. Not so. Instead it's Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons. It was AWESOME!!!

Random right? Grant Woods famous duo MUCH larger than life in the Tribune Plaza on Michigan Avenue. Even wiereder was what was right next to this grumpy pair ...

A moose. It was like Alaska and Iowa symbolized right next to one another.

To the park

Scott had Good Friday off. So he and the kids took a walk to the park a couple blocks from our house. I love our neighborhood for a lot of reasons. But having two parks within walking distance is one of them. One of the things I'm looking more forward to about summer is trips to the park. And now that Norah LOVES to take walks (we go on one before we go to work/daycare each morning), I'm guessing she'll be up for it.

Eye Matey

So we went back to the eye doctor a couple of weeks ago and the glasses are definitely doing their job. She can see a lot better with them. But, her laziness isn't totally corrected by the lenses. Which means it's partially a muscle thing too. And that means we have to patch Norah's good eye for two hours a day so that the weaker one will have to do more work and her brain won't decide to shut it off.

We weren't sure how she'd take to it. So the first night Scott and I patched our eyes too.

She's been great though. Only once or twice has she taken it off before the two hours is up.

Baby animals

Norah is recently infatuated with animals, particularly woofs (dogs) and kitties. So I knew she would love a baby animal petting zoo. We met up with a friend from work and her daughter Kate. The girls loved the animals. Kate was braver than Norah, who wouldn't touch any of the animals. Both girls tried to spring the baby chicks and ducks from their home by lifting up the chicken wire.

Aren't the two sets of pigtails too cute!

Baby chicks and ducks right before these hoodlums tried to stage a jail break.

Brother and sister

People often ask me how Norah and Kaden get along. The answer. They adore each other. I don't know if it's because they don't see each other all the time or in spite of it. But, they can't get enough.

First Spring day

It's finally spring here in Iowa. Back in March though Mother Nature toyed with our emotions and gave us a couple of 70 degree days. Norah wasn't sure what to make of our backyard without all that white stuff.

It took a while to get used to our bumpy lawn. Last summer we had a family (or five) of rabbits or moles or something that turned out lawn into an interstate system of tunnels.

A rock. A precious rock. The first one of the year. It's still sitting on our window sill.

Norah's glasses

In February, we noticed Norah's right eye wandering toward her nose. At first Scott and I thought we were just being paranoid. But then we started noticing it in pictures. So we made an appointment with the eye doctor. The diagnosis? Accommodative esototropia. Which basically means she is farsighted and her eye was going lazy in an attempt to focus and see properly.

So. We got glasses. For the first month or so we thought we would never be able to get her to wear them for more than a few minutes at a time. We tried wearing glasses ourselves. Book about kids with glasses. Dolls with glasses. Nothing. Then one day Norah just decided they were alright. Like everything else in her 15 month life, it has been on her schedule. Not ours.

These pictures are all from her first evening wearing the glasses.

The best part. The pink purse in this picture is what the glasses came in. Problem was she liked to take them off and put them in the purse so she could carry them around.