We got into Atlanta yesterday to kick off our Christmas vacation back home. Nora did great on the plane!
Left to right: Uncle Royal, Panzy, Poppy, Nora, Mary Ellen, & Gran.

Check out the video below to enjoy the full show…

Our local library reopened on Saturday with great fanfare. Here we are entering…
Meanwhile, Nora remained unfazed.

Also, remember yesterday’s photo? Well here’s the sequel.
Hanging on for dear life.

This is Nora’s favorite and least-favorite toy at the moment. She loves standing up
to play the piano, but then after 10-15 minutes have past she gets frustrated and
doesn’t know how to get down without falling. Crying, with her body sprawled across
the whole top of the toy, typically ensues.

A Christmas tree small enough to sit on a table. Craziness.

Yesterday morning Lauren found Nora sitting up in her crib for the first time, after sleeping through the night. By the afternoon nap, she
was up on her knees and in a very upset and frustrated state. I’m proud Lauren’s first thought was to grab the camera. :)

With the holidays and our trip to Atlanta only weeks away, Nora has been working very hard. She’s trying to get her newest tricks ready to go so she can show them to her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and all the cousins.

Just when you finally got the “I’m a Soldier in the Army of the Lord” song out of your head, here it is again. I was playing the video on my laptop for Nora. She was very entertained, so I started filming her reaction. In the middle of it, she started CLAPPING. For the first time EVER. I had a huge smile on my face. You can tell the moment she notices that something she did made Mommy smile.

We had a great Thanksgiving! We got to watch the parade and have dinner with our friends who are also neighbors. It was a great first Thanksgiving for Nora. For breakfast, I was making Monkey Bread and asked Nora if she could help me mix the dough with cinnamon sugar. That’s my girl—she likes to bake.

Nora is definitely a dog person. She can spot a dog a block away. She flaps her arms, makes excited grunts, and stares until the dog is out of sight. Of course, there’s plenty of dogs up here for her to stare at and the dog owners love her for it. Often they bring the dogs over so she can say hi. Here’s the sound she makes that we are pretty sure is meant to be for “doggy.” It’s a bit of a stretch, but we like to think she knows what she is saying. =)

And as you might remember from a previous post, Nora’s been working on “dada.” Now she’s practicing “mama,” too! She’s getting pretty good at that one. The “Ba” sound on the other hand . . .

Zoka is the hip new coffee roaster in town. We used to frequent the one across the lake closer to downtown,
but now we’ve got one just down the street!

It’s December 1st!