Every Time a Bell Rings

I keep having to remind myself that Christmas is every year.

Two years

"Nora \n(o)-ra\, pronounced NOR-ah. It is of English origin. Short for Eleanora (Greek), meaning 'light'."

"...but light is more elusive than we like to remember. When the ancients observed the winter solstice, it was with thousands of years of fear that, once gone, the light might not come back. It might not, this time, return to warm the earth or grow the seeds or prod the harvests upon which they depended for life. The great ancient monuments—Stonehenge in England, or New Grange, even older, in Ireland—were built to function in the midst of wet, cold, black winter, when darkness was its deepest, its longest, its cruelest. Then the light was tenuous. Then even the days were gray. The monuments were built to catch the first gleam of light after the longest night in the year. When the days were darkest, then the light came. But you couldn’t be sure it would. You had to be patient, be hopeful, be strong. It was the return of light that you were celebrating. It was the return of the light that gave reason for hope in another year." - Joan Chittister

Happy birthday to our Solstice kid. Our light and our joy. We are so grateful for you and can't wait to see you illuminate the world.

22 Months Today (the 22nd); Two More Months Until TWO YEARS

Nora. We like her. She's all good stuff with a dash of sea salt in the form of yelped frustration when she can't quite do something she wants (like get her zipper zipped or have the iPod). This morning, nearly every sentence spoken ended with "I think." She's a fiend for dancing. She's mastering the somersault. She melted us into proud puddles with her care of a pulltoy when we were at the thrift store: "Come here, you sweet bean."

There is so much more. But right now I'm just taking this moment in the middle of it all (and there is so much "all" right now, because someone's mother believes that the way to go about things is to open a show, move into a new apartment and knit a Halloween costume all in the same two weeks) to reflect on one clear reason Fall is my favorite season:

The boss called. She's not happy.

Life's gotta be tough for a baby in middle management.
In 1986.

Sometimes a girl just needs to lie in the grass

Today, we made an accidental trip to the park. This is what happened:


















And then this:


















And then finally this:


















Other things happened that were similarly adorable and then we went home.

The end.

In case you were wondering if there were any recent photos of Nora we forgot to pull off our camera

Yes.

[Public link to a Facebook photo album. You should be able to view it without being a FB member, but let me know if you can't]

Hair. Teeth.