Hitting the Road and Learning to Pee

Norah and I headed back (without Jamie) for the week before Christmas since Melanie and her family were coming back as well.  I knew we would have a lot of fun, but I was a little worried about how things would go without Jamie's help.

Norah is a trooper and the driving portion, both there and back, was great.  Normally we don't let her watch DVD's the whole trip, but since I was flying solo I bent the rules.  Jamie gave Norah a pair of new pink headphones to wear while watching her movies, and man, what a blessing.  It spared me from 9 hours of The Wiggles, Dora, and Barbie movies!!!

The other big experiment while we were gone was potty training.  Norah's friend Hannah (who is potty trained) came over two days before we left and got Norah excited to start using the restroom.  FINALLY!  The problem, we threw a loooong car ride in a couple days later, so all progress made in those 2 days went out the window.  But when we got to Indiana we tried again.  By the last day we were at my dad's she was going by herself, without even telling me.  I think auntie Melanie had a lot to do with that because she kept promising Norah all kinds of rewards and treats if she kept her underwear dry.  We did have a few accidents here and there, but I think we are finally to the point where we won't have to buy any more diapers!  So I left with an untrained child and returned with a potty trained child... I'd say my wife owes me huge!

Norah in her Christmas dress

Lydia is really enjoying the Barbie movie, so much so she can't even smile

Ripping into the presents

Hamming it up before bed

Norah and Daddy Bonding Time

Now that Jamie has her own blog, this should really be re-titled "Ruminations from a Greatful Dad" or something.  Well, I've been motivated again to start blogging more often about what's going on in our daily lives so that we don't forget! 

I suppose I should start this post out by mentioning I've spent 4 of the last 5 days with Norah while Jamie either worked or had other commitments.  So we've had some really good father-daughter bonding time.  Its actually be amazing.  Norah has a "witching hour" around 4:30-6:00pm every night where she is a monster.  Unfortunately for me, that means nearly every day I miss the best hours of her day and I come home from work to chaos.  But these past 4 days have been different.  I get to be with her during her best hours, and its just night and day different from what I'm used to experiencing.

Over this five day stretch she has battled some sort of a bug, starting out vomiting and ended with diarrhea, but she's been a champ through it all.  For the first two days (vomiting stage) we spent all day set up in the kitchen watching movies on the laptop.  Lots of Curious George and lots of Dora, but I survived.  Once she got to stage 2 of the sickness and we weren't constrained to the kitchen anymore, we just played and played and played.  It was great.  Her imagination is amazing.  And I've also enjoyed showing her how to do different things.  Yesterday she helped me make mac 'n cheese.  Today she helped put toast in the toaster (when he popped up she nearly had a heart attack) and make ramen noodles. 

She is without a doubt a tough, stubborn, and strong-willed child.  But over these past few days I've really been able to see a lot of good inside her heart as well.  When you walk into a room and hear her singing "I've got peace like a river, I've got peace like a river in my soul!", or as she says, "peace like a whiva" you start to think maybe you are getting through after all.

Here's a video from our lunch today after we made ramen, it was her first attempt eating it... and she loved it.

New Blog

Hi all.  Its been almost forever since I last blogged.  Sorry.  But I wanted to let everyone know that Jamie is now starting a blog as well.  Hopefully she will be better about blogging that I have been.  You can visit that blog here:

http://auntiemimimn.blogspot.com/

Fun Pictures with Photo Booth

Back to Indiana

Its been awhile since I've posted so let me provide a quick recap from my last post.  Norah is doing much better lately.  She has her moments like any 2 year old, but I have definitely noticed a difference in her overall demeanor and spirit.  So thank you all who were praying for her (and us).

The reason its been so long since I last posted was because I wanted to include pictures and we lost our battery charger for the camera.  Well, Jamie just found it, so that means pictures could be downloaded from the camera for your viewing pleasure.

Most of these are from our trip back to Indiana the week before Easter.  Norah absolutely loves grandma and grandpa Miller and hates when we have to leave.  We had a very relaxing week, but as always, it was nice to come home too.

at the Wana Cup

silly grandpa!

mmmmm, this sucker is delicious

riding the carousel at the Mercantile Exchange

Easter Sunday, on the deck

Fixing a Broken Spirit

I figured I better post since I've been lax in doing so for over 2 months. However, that is explainable. Jamie and I have gotten a nice taste of the terrible two's. As you all know Norah has been a great kid, she's always happy, her countenance bright, and when she walks in she lights up a room. But all that changed in early February. She started spending the majority of her days being sad. She also decided that she had to use the word "no" atleast 5 times every minute.

Then Jamie decided to devise a sadistic plan to compound our pain, taking away Norah's pacifier :-) At the time I thought it was a BAD idea because I didn't want to fight two battles at once. I quickly got on board though because I knew we were doomed to fail if we were not on the same page. So we stuck to the sadistic plan for 2 weeks.... no pacifier for naps or at night. All I can say is that what ensued was a living hell. Norah rarely took naps in those two weeks and would just scream at the top of her lungs when we tried to put her down. There were times I was afraid the neighbors would call cops as loud as Norah was screaming. I have it on video, maybe I'll try and get it uploaded at some point. Anyway, with no nap we then had an over-tired kid who was miserable the rest of the evening.

We were about 10 days into this experiment when both Jamie and I were barely hanging by thread. To my own shame I have been lax over the last year in regularly praying for Norah and us as her parents. So Jamie and I started getting up before Norah and taking some time to pray for Norah, that God would graciously remove the sadness and stubborness from her heart; and for us, that we would be patient and have the grace to break Norah's strong-willed attitude without breaking her spirit. I have also been going into Norah's room after she falls asleep and laying hands on her and praying for her.

I have to say I'm amazed how easily I backslide on prayer when you see God answer it time after time after time. He did again, and in a much shorter time frame than I could have ever hoped or expected. By day 14 Jamie had spent the better part of the last four days in tears. We were both physically and emotionally exhausted. So Jamie called up a friend who dealt with something similar in her daughter. I would like to thank her tremendously for the advice she gave... to give Norah back her pacifier. She may not realize it, but she was a direct answer to prayer because Norah has been a different child over the last 4 days since she's had her pacifier back. Our Norah is back!!!

She certainly has her moments, but she is 2 and we expect that. But she is back to being happy and sleeping again. I can't speak for Jamie, but I feel a hundred times better myself. So the lesson here for me is twofold: (1) never stop praying for your children and spouse, and (2) never take a pacifier away before the kid is ready :-)

Don't Smile!!!

Jamie caught some fun videos of Norah the other day, so I thought I'd post them.

Terrible Two's? Not Yet.

So I was just commenting to Jamie this morning that I really feel like, atleast for the last week, we've hit a sweet spot with Norah. She still doesn't want to stay in bed at night. I have to put her back about 8-10 times each night. However, this whole process is down to 15-20 mins, where it used to take 60-90. So it feels, atleast to me, like major progress. Plus, she has just been so happy lately. I realize I'm jinxing it by saying that, but Jamie and I have both mentioned that she is doing so much better.

Her vocabulary continues to explode. One reason we know this is that she never stops talking... ever. We love hearing her sing songs to herself and even read herself books when she's playing. She just has such a happy content heart right now (most of the time). The other thing that possibly is jading my opinion is that I just love coming home from work right now. As soon as I walk in the door Norah stops what she is doing, runs to the steps, and screams in joy. Intermittently injecting a "Hi Daddy!" I'm going to borrow a phrase from the latest session of Robert Lewis' Men's Fraternity, "it doesn't get much better than this."

Norah is going to be two next week, so Jamie went and had some pictures taken. Here is just a sampling of them. My apologies on the pictures turned the wrong way. I loaded them straight from the CD and couldn't find a way in the editor here to let me flip the picture. So, you'll just have to cock your head a bit. Enjoy.