The longest I've gone without blogging

It's been so long since I last posted, I don't know where to begin. Well, Nora went to her high school prom last weekend. Yeah, she borrowed the car (well, according to us, she borrowed it, according to her, it's hers)...

Ha... It hasn't been that long, but our girl sure is growing up. And she really thinks the car is hers. Already. Of course, she only wants the new Prius. Forget the old Subaru. The other day we walked into the garage to get in the car to go somewhere and she broke down in tears asking where her new car was. I told her that Murphey had to take it to work, and that it wasn't HER car. That went over well. Then another day, she told me that the Prius is fun, and the Subaru is not fun. Hmm... I agree...

Ok, all several hundred pictures I've taken over the last few months are FINALLY uploaded from my memory cards. I also have some videos I need to upload, but that will have to wait.

Murphey's parents are currently on a 3 week vacation to the east coast. Here are some pictures from long before they left. This was just before Nora began ballet classes (which are going very well!!) She was wearing her new leotard and playing in Grandmama and Grandpapa's back yard.

Chef Nora, 'helping' me with dinner

but not before taking some time for a little ditty
In early August we had a day of rain. Mid afternoon, the rain suddenly stopped, and the drainage canal behind our house was flowing like a small river. We quickly made some paper boats and went out back to float them. Nora had on her wellies (rain boots) and made a few splashes. Murphey had tucked her pants into her boots, so as her pants got more and more wet, her boots sounded more and more sploshy, because all of the water from her pants was draining into them. Hmmm.... maybe we'll do it a bit differently next time.




Turning two and a half has brought on sleeping issues. First there was the "blood curdling screaming for a hug" phase, then the "I'm only interested in potty training at bedtime" phase, the "I am going to take 3 hours to fall asleep for my nap" phase, and the "I don't need to sleep in my bed" phase. During this last phase she fell asleep in several positions that week. Half-in/half-out of bed, legs standing on the floor, chest laying on the bed. On the floor blocking her bedroom door (her door opens into her room, so I couldn't open her door). And in the glider chair in her room. See below.


Now tell me, does that really look more comfortable than this little, cozy, inviting bed? Actually, I think falling asleep like this in the chair was the end of this particular phase.


Now we're on to the "reading in bed" phase. Which really has me freaked out. My eyesight is so poor, my eyeballs are so 'stretched' out that the retina's are thinned out and susceptible to tearing/detaching. At my most recent visit, the eye doctor noticed Nora looking through a book and told me not to let Nora read in low light because it could worsen her eyesight, especially with how bad my eyes are. Great... So what does Nora start doing? We've caught her several times using this toy (notice it beside her in the picture above) this glowing little seahorse, so she can look at her books. She holds the freaking thing up to the book and sits there reading. If we catch her doing it again, I'm sorry, but the seahorse is going to have to go.

Last weekend was a busy one for us. On Saturday we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park because all of the news stations (liars) said it was peak weekend. Well, we made it up there and I saw more green leaves than yellow leaves. That and it was a "free" weekend to get into the park, so it was super crowded. We spent our picnic lunch in the car because of thunder and lightning, and the few pictures I did get didn't turn out well because it was cloudy, so the pictures all look kind of hazy. I wanted to go up again this weekend, but we didn't make it, so if I'm going to get pretty fall pictures, looks like I'll have to do it around town. We're at lower altitude so our leaves peak later.

Here's a picture of an Elk crossing the street in Estes ParkAnd another inside the park



On Sunday we went to "Day Out With Thomas" at the Golden Railroad Museum. Nora had fun looking at all the trains and, of course, riding in a train being pulled by Thomas.





I thought this was the coolest part. Pushing the turntable!!

Oh, and the fire truck was there
I am currently treating a Chinese baby. Her parents don't really speak English, so there's an interpreter there most of the time when I'm there. They are a very sweet family, and the little girl is adorable. We are working on feeding, so during my last session, we were modeling eating for her. Her mom got these things out and handed me one to eat. It looked like a green ice cream cone tamale. (It wasn't any of those things) It was a cone shaped rice ball(?) with peanuts inside, wrapped in bamboo leaves! They gave me one to bring home to Nora (they offered me one for Murphey, but I declined, I knew he wouldn't eat it!). She wasn't too keen on it, so I ended up eating it, but here's a picture of it. I'm not eating that....
We've also had our share of eating issues out of Nora. Don't get me wrong, she is an excellent eater, but her behavior at mealtime has recently declined, BIG TIME. It took me getting a big brick to the head (not really, it just felt like that) to realize what part of the problem was. We have her in a Stokke Trip Trap chair, and we eat most meals at our kitchen island, which is counter height, not table height. So to boost her up in this chair, I had her sitting on a yoga brick. Which worked about as well as balancing a 2 liter of soda on a marble. I got her this life-changing "Kaboost" (attaches to the bottom of her highchair and boosts her up 6 inches or so) and mealtimes have completely turned around. She is also now using her utensils more and more! Wow! Imagine that! In school, they drilled "Position, Position, Position" into us. Jeez, I guess it really does make a difference. The other lesson I learned during this was a good one. If I could let this slip by and get worse and worse, as I did, I need to have more understanding of the situations my client's parents are in when dealing with their children!!!
I've also been doing some oral motor therapy with Nora, which is helping things also. She's very oral, and has always put things in her mouth (moreso than typical children). I finally ordered her some chewy tubes, and am now encouraging her to seek these out whenever she wants to put stuff in her mouth. Hopefully her future coworkers and friends will thank me for all of the pens I am saving her from destroying (LIKE HER PAPA!).
Here she is playing with one of my work toysAnd her face...
And finally... I just had to show my support for Obama... I can't wait until this election is over... I drew the campaign logo on our driveway in chalk. Yeah, it rained all night right after I did it, and now it's half washed away, but chalk is cheap, and it didn't take me long to do, so I do forsee some touch ups happening in the future...


And last, but not least.... The shirt says it all. Peace.