Doing their duty as two year olds.

It was hard-fought, but Lauren has the touch to get Quinny
to sleep in a crazy cosmic bowling alley.

This weekend we celebrated Aunt Jeanine’s birthday. And Aunt Amy’s, too!

This one’s for all the Twitterers out there…Tweeters….for everyone who is on Twitter.
Want FSI updates in 140 characters or less? Then you will want to add @noraquotes to your Twitter Feed.

If you’re not on Twitter, we (and by “we” I, of course, mean Josh) are planning to have Nora’s quotes show up on the blog as well.

There are so many moments during the day that I think, “This! I want to remember that Nora/Quinn said/did this!” (Maybe not so much the “Quinn said” combo just yet, but you get the idea.) Here’s an attempt to mash a bunch of that together.

First, a totally random story that I meant to tell… wow, a year ago, now that I think about it. Better late than never?
So back when I was in my first trimester with Quinn, I was still in the “Oh, that scent is way more overwhelming than it has a right to be” phase. One thing in particular that I had a really hard time with was Josh’s deodorant. Let me be absolutely clear: no, he did not smell. It was simply his deodorant. He could have just showered and put it on and smell fresh as a daisy to everyone else, but it made my stomach absolutely churn. Add in the fact that he started sleeping with his arms behind his head at night and there was simply no safe haven for me. I would be half asleep and suddenly suppress a gag.
I finally told him about it and asked him to make a switch. Good man that he is, he agreed to. I kept meaning to thank him for it and tell him that the new one was easier for my overactive nose to handle, but it always slipped my mind. Baby Brain. Finally, it occurred to me as we were getting in the car after church one Sunday morning. Wanting to make up for lost time, with way too much excitement I exclaimed, “Hey, I keep meaning to tell you- your new deodorant is working much better!” Josh turned absolutely red.
“What?” I knew he knew what I meant. What was he embarrassed about?
“Ssh…” he indictated to our right. Where a couple was getting into the car next to us and obviously suppressing a laugh.
It’s all about timing. And volume.

Now onto the current time period.

Nora prefers to walk in stores these days. She’s been pretty good about keeping up with me and it’s easier than trying to fit both of them into a cart. The two of us have perfected a brief script. She’ll pick up a random item (such as a pair of workout shorts) and say, “Oooh, look at these, Mommy!”
To which I respond, “Oh, those are cute, Nora!”
“Thank you, Mommy!” and puts the item back where she got it. We do this every five minutes or so throughout the trip.

Quinn has a little ritual at bed and nap time. She grabs her paci, wraps her whole body around it, and turns onto her side. Like she’s wrangling it to sleep.

Speaking of naptime, who knew it could be the subject matter for one of Nora’s favorite games? She spends 20 minutes laying various dolls down on different sleeping surfaces. Her bed, the doll bed, our bed, her rocking chair. She will periodically say, “I hear my baby crying. Coming, Baby!” After holding said baby for a minute, she’ll say, “Okay, Baby, time for your nap, okay? Okay.” And she starts the whole process over. It’s completely routine to walk into a room and find a doll facedown. This morning I walked into Quinn’s room to change her diaper. Nora was less than thrilled as she warned me, “Ssh, doggie sleeping.” Sure enough, there was Poppy Dog in the crib.

So I think we all know about how Josh and I do a voice for Remy, right? It’s deep and speaks in a way that is enthusiastic, naive, trying to be dignified and just a little too eager.
Here’s another story from the past- this one goes back two years or so. Back in our apartment in Kirkland I was about to take Remy for a walk. While waiting for the elevator, some of the maintenance guys arrived. One extended a hand to Remy, which he sniffed and then backed away. Feeling bad that my dog rejected him and without considering the ramifications, I said in Remy’s voice, “Not so fast.”
Then it was the maintenance guy’s turn to back away slowly. I realized in a wave of horror that he wasn’t in on our joke and what was I going to do? Explain that sometimes I talk on behalf of my dog?
It was a super awkward elevator ride.

Anyway, so we still do this all the time. Now Nora has picked up on it and will answer for Remy. “How are you doing, boy?” “Good!” She’ll say in a deep voice. The other day while we were driving, we saw a man walking his dog. Nora went into Remy voice and said, “Hi. I going on walk.” I was so proud. Talking for random dogs! There’s even more fun to be had! Dog park, here we come!

We also have a voice for Quinn. It’s very high pitched and ladylike. Nora’s in on this one, too. I’ll ask, “How are my girls?” “Good,” Nora answers in her normal voice. “Good!” She’ll answer in a really high voice. Sometimes she laughs at herself and adds, “Quinny say that.”

This is gross. Sorry. But I’m telling it anyway. I had just cleaned out Quinn’s nose and Nora was staring at it. Teasing her, I asked, “Nora, would you like a boogie?” In all seriousness: “No thank you, I have some in my nose.”

Nora still wants to include Quinn most of the time. Last night when we were out on a walk, Nora saw a plane overhead. “Quinny! Ook! A airplane!” with an attempt to force Quinn’s head to face the appropriate direction. Sweet, but yikes.

Nora’s obsessed with Caillou. If you don’t know about it, it’s actually a great show. It follows a four year old boy dealing with everyday things like going down the big slide or figuring out what to bring to show and tell. I think the network only shows episodes from the current season because we’ve seen the same thirteen episodes over and over. So Nora’s had a chance to memorize some phrases.

We were talking about the exterminator coming over and Nora turned around at the word “bugs.”
“Bugs are icky. Have eight legs.” Along with wiggling her fingers like little legs. We both stopped and stared. We have never told her that. Was our child a genius!? (Yes, hush, bugs have six legs and spiders have eight. I mean a genius for a toddler.) But when we asked her where she heard that, she said, “Caillou say that.” Oh. Well, he’s four (and written by adults), so that’s not as impressive. Too bad.

Another time we were driving in the car and she kept saying, “My tummy feels funny.” She’d been to Sunday School recently so I kept trying to deduce exactly what she meant. “Are you hungry? Full?” (About to throw up….) A few days later I discovered that episode-as it turns out, his tummy felt funny when he went up in an elevator. We’ve hadn’t had an occasion for that, so she improvised during a car ride.

Some of the random stuff she’s picked up from shows is actually helpful. She knew exactly how to sleep in a big girl bed- head on pillow, covers pulled up to chin- because that’s how Little Bear sleeps in his bed. Nevermind that it took us a few weeks to convince her to stay in bed- she at least knew how to assume the position.

Also, being the picky eater that she is, I was floored when she loved broccoli soup that my mom made. She calls it Birthday Soup from an episode about LB’s birthday. So now everyone call it that, okay? Seriously, it’s the only green vegetable she eats. Just call it birthday soup, I beg of you.

And I’ll end with a Quinn story. Yesterday morning I heard her start talking/fussing to herself but thought she might go back to sleep if she could find her paci. Her cries escalated until I ran up there and found her on her tummy. Rolling is still a relatively new skill for her so when she’s half awake, she forgets how to roll back onto her side. But this time she was seriously stuck with her little legs through the bars. Poor thing. Read this in your head as a high pitch voice; “Why? Why won’t my legs do what I want? Rolling is so hard!” (See, isn’t it amusing to talk in dog and baby voices?)

Turns out Nora’s purple dancing dress has more uses than we thought.

Nora loves a few key performances from the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance”.
And we’ve saved them on our TiVo. The other day Nora was watching one when she asked Lauren if
she could “go upstairs and put on [her] purple dress” (to match the dancer on TV, duh!).

The milestones are truly never-ending.