Here are some backdated tweets for everyone who isn’t on Twitter. A few clarifications included. =)

Sorry, Remy, I can’t play with you. I’m working real hard. I will go outside with you later.
(She was very busy gluing buttons onto a piece of paper.)

Quinny, stop crying! (in her high pitched “Quinny voice”) Say please, Nora!

Sometimes I make babies laugh.

Aunt @ampetrella: “Nora, how long was Jonah in the whale?”
Silence.
Aunt @ampetrella: “Was it three days?”
Nora: “No… Twenty minutes.”

My flowers growing pretty well.

Daddy: I want some ice cream. Who’s with me?
Nora: Jesus with you, Daddy.

I can do it all my byself.
(Not a typo. This was a common phrase around here for awhile.)

This boy’s name is Scary Guy. http://yfrog.com/ke575vsj

Nora: Mommy, what’s this?
Mommy: That’s a tie.
Nora: Daddy wore tie to wedding when he was a broom? (We don’t see a lot of ties around here.)
(She discovered his hidden cache of ties behind our closet door. I’m not sure she has ever seen him wear one outside of a wedding. Child of a Googler, am I right?)

Mommy: Wow. 97 degrees. It’s really hot today. Nora: Yes, it is, Mommy.
(I’ve decided this one isn’t interesting if you can’t hear her little, totally serious voice.)

Nora: My baby in my big girl bed.
Mommy: Your baby’s in your big girl bed?
Nora: Just ONE baby.
(She was confusing my contraction of “baby is” with the plural: “babies.”)

If Daddy comes home, he’ll see me put my shoes on all by myself!

Daddy, the (garage) door hit your car? You having a bad day, Daddy?

Mommy: Why are you crying?
Nora: I not crying. I singing “Loooou Loooou, skip to my Looouuuu!”
(In my defense, it totally sounded like she was wailing in her bed during nap time.

(after tripping and falling) I’m a tough girl. I didn’t even cry.

No, Remy, you can’t color. You have legs. I have hands — see?

It’s fall! It’s fall! I forgot how much fun fall is. Last year at this time, I was so preoccupied with packing and getting us ready to move back across the country that I feel like fall passed us by. And it’s such a great season. The leaves are so pretty and the weather is cooler and I start seriously craving cinnamon. Our little munchkins are growing into slightly bigger munchkins.

Nora Praise:

~ She still pronounces her name “Nah Nah” and since she is the person with whom I spend the most hours conversing, guess what? I sometimes call her Nah Nah now too. I’m not sure I can stop. So if you hear that one slip out, whoops. (She pronounces her full name as Nah Nah Pays Teague.)

~ She leaves out the preposition ‘for.’ “Here go, Mommy, this you.” “Wait me, Daddy!”

~ Oh, Little Bear. I could probably write a whole post on ways Little Bear has influenced Nora’s vernacular. Whenever we go for a walk, she will pause every few steps to ask “Are we still going the right way?” It’s something Little Bear asked Cat when they were on a walk and she loved it. How ironic that she’s inadvertently asking a very valid question, given my Superhero Power?

~Another LB: One character on LB uses a walking stick. So now, in any natural setting, Nora selects a walking stick which she proudly holds in her hand and generally prizes as a beloved, precious object for the entire walk. However, there are two problems with her walking sticks: one- she generally chooses very small sticks which are incredibly fragile. The other- she brings the walking sticks home, forgets about them, casts them aside for other playthings, only to remember her highly regarded twig after finding it in decimated pieces on the floor. Then she sobs and wails, “Oh, REMY! That was my WALKING STICK!” This has happened twice now and almost a third time before I remembered to hide her latest stick from our oh-so-eager-to-chew dog.

~ Anytime we are driving and point something or a place out to her, her immediate question is, “Can I go see it?” Every. Single. Time. On our drive to Savannah, she must have requested to see 50 different objects/places.

~ Anytime we are see an interesting place on tv or in a book, she asks, “Can I go there?” It can be Cinderella’s castle, San Francisco, the moon. Doesn’t matter if it’s near, far, real or imaginary. She wants to go there.

~ She’s started writing scribbles. When asked, “What does that say?” she almost always answers “I love you, Quinny.”

~ Read carefully, people, this one is important. All of us are now divided into two groups. There are “Very Nice” People and “Not Very Nice” people. You do not, I repeat, do NOT want to find yourself on the wrong side of that line. It is hard going to find your way back. “Mommy, is she very nice?” “Daddy, those guys not very nice.”

~ The bonus is, if you are deemed “Very Nice,” then you are decidedly not a Scary Monster. “Mommy, is that girl nice?” “Yes, she’s very nice.” “She’s very nice? She’s not a Scary Monster.”

~Nora is not one to think long and hard about a name. All of her small stuff animals/dolls are Baby ____. Baby Panda Bear, Baby Polar Bear, Baby, Other Baby (She has two baby dolls.) We recently got her two tiny frogs that she absolutely insisted on calling Baby Frogs. Collectively. Trying to explain to her that there are two frogs and we can name one frog Baby and the other one a n y t h i n g else did not work. “Their name Baby Frogs.”

~ She has this filler word that I can’t quite pronounce. It’s like, zeh zeh zeh or stha stha stha or something. It’s the equivalent of “um.” If you go back and listen to her singing Old MacDonald on the Sing Along with Nora video (you know, in all your free time) you can hear it.

~ She is going through a serious nature phase here. She LOVES collecting anything from outside. She brings in twigs, leaves- both green and shriveled brown, flower petals, pinestraw- if it’s in our yard, it’s been in the house. It’s also her way of showing she likes you. So if she brings you a dead, crumpled leaf, you’ve been accepted.

Quinn Abigail

~ Quinn is most likely the most pleasant person I have ever woken up. She will be in a deep sleep that we will have to interrupt to take her somewhere and all she does is squint, cover her eyes, and break out into a grin.

~ If she’s already awake and ready in her crib, she starts kicking with excitement as soon as she discovers you are headed her way. “THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME, EVER!”

~ She is super interested in anything that is playing on the television. She pays equal attention to Barney, Toy Story, and CNN. Should your head be in the way, she leans way over to the side to get a better view.

~ Quinny’s really into touching faces.If you are within arm’s length of her, she holds up her little padded hand and starts stroking your cheek. It makes you feel cherished.

~ Along with a better grasp using those tiny hands has come the Klepto phase. This morning I opened a sock drawer and she somehow swiped a pair of socks out before I could. She’s getting very fast, that one. It’s a little stressful when she gets a good hold of anything containing liquid. I have to figure out how to get it out of her little Kung Fu grip without spilling everywhere.

~ She just figured out how to go from a sprawling position to a sitting position. But late at night, she can’t remember how to lay back down. Last night I went to check on her after hearing her whimpering for a few minutes. I found her sitting in bed, sniffling, half asleep and slightly swaying in exhaustion.

~ Quinn’s a Remy fan, just like her sister was. She giggles uncontrollably whenever she gets to pet him.

~ She’s also a huge Nora fan. I don’t know if anyone can make her laugh like Nora can.

~ She’s been working on this latest skill for awhile…

I love the casual, happy, friendly faces in this picture.

“Are you kidding me?”

Josh’s college roommate, the Famous Physicist Will Mather, got married this weekend in Savannah, Ga! To borrow one of Nora’s favorite phrases- Wa HOO!
Josh was honored to be a groomsman. Will and his lovely Princess Bride Vanessa offered to let all us Teague girls tag along as well. We were super excited to take a mini vacation. Add to the excitement that there was going to be a wedding! We really love weddings.

We hit the road Friday just after lunch and arrived in Savannah around 5. Josh had time to check us into our room and help us get settled before he had to jet off to a groomsman get together. So it was up to me to get dinner for Nora and myself while Quinn was along for the ride. No problem. We had seen a Five Guys just down the street on our way in. I remembered because Nora pointed right at it and said, “Five Guys!” I like to think this is a result of strong branding on their part and not that my two year old eats there enough to recognize every franchise she comes across.

Off we went. One problem- while we do have a double jogging stroller Uncle Beau and Aunt Jeanine were so awesome as to lend us, we didn’t bring it with us. All we had was the one that Quinn’s carseat clicks into. In other words, Nora had to walk. But like I said, I remembered it being close by. And she loves Five Guys. (Clearly.) And there was so much to look at in Savannah that I figured it would be easy enough to do a short walk with a little sight seeing at the same time.

So we walked and saw trolleys, horses pulling carriages, and tall buildings. We kept walking and saw flags and dogs and babies. And kept walking and saw a big courthouse like building with a gold roof. (Just trying to remember all the things I pointed out to Nora to distract her and keep her moving.) And kept walking. Past the gold roof building. Past lots of tall trees. Good grief, where WAS this place? I kept looking ahead and not seeing their sign. Oh, boy. Have a I mentioned that getting lost is my Superhero Power? Josh’s is falling asleep immediately whenever he wants, Nora has her Steel Bladder (as we discovered during a failed attempt to potty train a few months ago) and so far, Quinn’s seems to be smiling wider than should be possible. But mine is definitely getting lost. I was totally sure that the Five Guys was on this street. It was the main street and I had made a point to remember where it was so we could do precisely what we seemed to be failing to do. But I can, no joke, get lost anywhere.

Just before I started to seriously question my sanity, ah HA! There it was! Nora had walked almost the whole way, with only a few brief breaks where I carried her. We weren’t lost! Hurray! Hurray! I’m a totally competent Mommy Traveler! Look at me, with all my brood in tow! I can accomplish ANY DINING CHALLENGE YOU THROW AT ME!

I’m not sure I actually thought all those things, but I was definitely enthused. Alas, it was to be short-lived. I ordered for myself and for Nora (Forgetting to get her food when we’re out is another thing I do a lot, but not enough to qualify as a Superhero Power) and got our drinks. Then it was time to find a seat. It was a very cramped Five Guys. They crammed as many tables as they could, leaving little spaces between the aisles. Big enough for the average human, to be sure, but not a huge carseat stroller traveling system that I was swinging about like a battering ram. After taking up as much space as I could getting our drinks, and having at least two Five Guys workers duck out of our way, we went to go sit down. Almost all the smaller tables were taken so I had Nora sit at one of the large tables smack in the center of the place. I rolled Quinn into the space behind us and settled back to wait for our number to be called.

Then it started happening. I started to convince myself that we were being super inconsiderate. Who did we think we were, Nora and I, taking up one of the last remaining huge tables. During peak dinner hours. And what about Quinn, stuck between us and the table behind us. No party of four could sit there- she was dominating one whole side of the table. No no. This wasn’t working. We could easily move to the last available small table. There were only two of us eating, after all. “Nora, let’s go to that little table.” So I gathered all the drinks and the diaper bag. Nora sat and I started to make my way over with Quinn. I had noticed one of the workers who had already moved out of our way once watching us. I think he was thinking what any normal person would have thought. “That stroller is not going to make it.” Sure enough, as I started to push it through the tables, the wheels kept getting stuck. On one side of us was an older lady who seemed unaware and I really didn’t want to make her have to get up or move. She was elderly, after all. So I entered what Josh and I call the Neanderthal Mode. Which means I abandoned all logic and used brute force to try to make something happen that wasn’t happening, getting more and more frantic the whole time. The worker rushed over as I bombarded the other table and chairs trying to force my way in. As he helped me move the other table over, plus all four chairs, I could feel my face get super red. I was trying to make us be less of an inconvenience…

There was no turning back now. We finally got through to the smaller table when I realized there wasn’t a big enough space for the stroller here either. So now the stroller’s handle dangled over the table for four that we had just abandoned. We were taking up our table and rendering the other table useless as well, unless you don’t mind eating with a stroller handle in your face.

Thankfully, they called our number then and I ate as fast as I could. Nora worked up quite an appetite during that long walk and wolfed down her sandwich. Meanwhile, the older couple left their table, leaving an opening just the right size for our stroller to get through sans Neanderthal Mode. As long as no one sat at either table, we’d be in the clear. But if either table was occupied, we’d have to ask some people to get up.

I really, really need to pray for common sense. I think newcomers saw what was going on and didn’t want to box us in. At this point, we were essentially taking up three tables.

We downed our food and said goodbye to the same guy who was probably super relieved to see us go without having to rearrange the entire restaurant’s seating. Outside it was starting to get dusky and I wanted to hurry and get Nora and Quinn to bed. We did have a big weekend ahead. I decided to “motivate” her with M&M’s that I had seen in a vending machine. That did help get her home almost the whole way, with a few carried breaks. We finally got back to the hotel, took the elevator, walked down two hallways to the vending machines, only for me to realize I didn’t have enough change on me. Newman!

At this point, I was concerned about Nora’s feet. She was wearing little canvas espadrilles, so she was basically walking on fabric and straw all this time. (And yes, I was also bribing her with candy. I’ll be accepting my Mother of the Year award next week.) I had been asking her off and on if her feet hurt, to which she kept saying, “No.” Well, once I explained that we had to back to the car to get more money, she crumpled to her knees and proclaimed, “My toes hurt!”

But M&M’s won out in the end and we went back to the car and all the way back to the vending machine. Where she changed her mind and wanted the cookies. Whatever you want, Munchkin, whatever you want. How are those feet doing?

The rest of the weekend went fairly smoothly. We really loved all the wedding festivities. Nora was completely enthralled with the idea of a real life Princess Bride. When it was time for her to wake up from her nap on the day of the wedding, she sat up immediately. “I go see Princess Bride?”

We sat up in the balcony just in case Quinn or Nora got too restless, and it gave Nora a great view. She happily sketched on the prayer request cards (I hope that’s okay) and waited for the Bride and Broom to kiss.

There’s no better excuse to travel than a wedding. Congratulations, Will and Vanessa! Thanks for letting us be there for your Big Day!

Oh, and that walk from the hotel to Five Guys? Josh just looked it up and it was half a mile each way. So while I didn’t technically get us lost, I sure underestimated the distance. Oops.