A Thaw

Sorry for my silence so far this week, my friends. It has been a crazy busy one in my work life, so I was spending evenings putting extra hours, unfortunately. But at the end of the day today I was able to heave a big sigh of relief and hopefully life will return to some semblance of normal now—at least for a little while!

This past weekend, I did manage to take some time off of work to refresh and recharge. Which was wonderful, considering the weather was great. For March, anyway. We had what we call a “thaw,” which really just means that it was warm enough so that it wasn’t unbearable to go outside. :) I instagrammed a photo of Nora playing outside and my friend, Niki, commented—”I love that we New Yorkers were out in full effect today because the temps broke 45!”

So true.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a playdate with our neighbors in our driveway, and we all looked forward to the upcoming days when we’ll run into each other and get chances to talk on a far more regular basis than we do right now.

Nora is so awesome right now, you guys. I wish I could bottle it—her personality, the funny things she says, her demeanor and the way she views the world—because it is literally impossible to record it, photograph it, or write it all down. Does she have moments (days?) when she absolutely makes me want to rip my hair out? Yes. But overall, what an amazing age. Seriously.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we have been potty training (it’s going really well—maybe I will blog about that soon). We have been giving her a small reward for every time she has success on the potty. The prize? A single fruit snack. She is so motivated by these freaking fruit snacks that she will start requesting “Snack? SNACK?!” before she is even done peeing. A few nights ago, I was giving her a bath when I had to pee myself so, of course, I went. No big deal, because hi, moms never get any privacy anyway. :) After I peed, Nora looked up at me from the bath with a huge smile and excitedly exclaimed, “Mommy!! SNACK!!” She was psyched for me that I earned myself a fruit snack. Hilarious.

Last Friday, my mom and brother brought take-out dinner over to our house. As they were leaving, I was looking at Nora and the under part of her eye looked a little purple. I said, “Aww, Nora, do you have a black eye?” And she said, “No, Mommy! White and blue!” (For the whites of her eyes, and the color of her irises, obviously. Duh, Mommy.)

She has also been “faking sick” lately. She’ll dramatically put her hand to her forehead and say, “SICK, Mommy. SICK.” I don’t know what that’s all about or where she picked that gem up from. But I can already tell I’m going to be the “suck it up and get your butt to school” type of mom, just like mine was. :)

This morning, she had one of her every-six-months check-ups for her ear tubes. I couldn’t go because I had an important work meeting, so Michael took her. As I was putting Nora in his car this morning, I told her, “You’re going to go the doctor!” And she said, “Tessa’s doctor? Mommy’s doctor?” (We’ve taken her with us to both fairly recently, and she loved these visits.) I said, “No, YOUR doctor!” And she pointed to her chest and said, “MY doctor?!” as if I just told her we were taking her to somewhere really fun. At the appointment, Michael said she was fantastic, letting the doctor look in her ears and mouth without issue. I guess her only problem was that she wanted him to look into her eyes, too. :)

Oh, and don’t even think about using any adjective to describe her except “BIG.” We cannot call her “sweetie,” “tootsie,” or any cute nickname. We can’t say “you’re such a smart girl,” or “Mommy’s little girl,” or “you’re so cute!” or anything of the like. She will correct us nearly every time, saying, “Noooo… BIG girl!” Alriiiighty, then. She is obsessed.

It’s a fun time to be a parent to this little girl. And it’s nice to know that spring is drawing near. I can’t wait for more warm temperatures, sunshine, and fresh air. It makes me feel alive.