Little Rach!

So I have not updated in forever!!! So much going on and to be honest facebook makes things a little easier.

I thought I would post this picture. That is me on the left if you can't tell and this is a very classic picture of me from when I was little. Josh had never seen this picture before and a few weeks ago took a ton of face pictures of Norah and this one I came across tonight and thought it was too funny!

Josh did his picture editing magic and put them side by side for me.

We have a lot going on. Too much to write about now, maybe another day. We are doing great though and Norah has quite the personality and we love her so much!

Potty Training and general update

Norah is in the thick of potty training. We have been attempting it for awhile but not intensely by any means. The week after Christmas she went and stayed with my parents for a week and spent alot of time with her cousins Cora and Ellie. After she came home all she wanted to do is strip naked and sit on the potty.

My sister-in-law said that every time Ellie went to the potty Norah would sit on the floor next to her to keep her company. Ellie is about 6 months older, so her and Norah are close buddies and everything Ellie does is cool!

We have not had alot of accidents though, which is good. Norah can't just sit on the potty though, she finds things to do and she likes to straighten up the bathroom while she is in there.

Once she stood up to organize something, stepped back to sit down, but kicked the potty with her heal, the lid flapped down, she sat down on the lid and began to pee!! I have now removed the lid.

Here are some images to help bring this all to perspective.

Here is "the potty"!!! The top removes and can be put on the actual toilet and the bottom white part flips to become a stool to get on the toilet, but for now she does better with it on the floor. You can also see how very small our bathroom is. This is probably the one thing I would like to change, but we adjust and it is fine. Lots of singing takes place here!

This is "Norah's Potty Progress" chart that daddy made! The columns read from top to bottom: Practice, Passed Water, Dropped a Deuce and Double Duty! Very creative!

And this is the "Box" that mommy and daddy are to sit on across from Norah, but out in the hallway to keep Norah company! I think this may have been established because Norah kept Ellie company. Norah is actually on the potty right now as I type, but neither myself or Josh is on the box so I think we are making progress to get her to go to the bathroom by herself. Oh and she is singing Twinkle, twinkle little star as we speak!

This is Norah with her cousins in Beaver Falls.
From left to right: Andie (not technically a cousin, but she is!), Cora, Norah, Ellie.

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Norah is also becoming bilingual and we are so glad! Her daycare provider is bilingual and teaches the kids Spanish during the day. We have noticed that Norah is saying more and more Spanish words at home. It's really cute!

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We got to spend a week in Beaver Falls for Thanksgiving and a week in Cleveland for Christmas. It was great to be able to get away for both holidays, but I am not sure that will be realistic in the future with the job that I have.

I have never had a job that I really had to worry about coverage when I took off and definitely never worked with a population that has as many needs that need to be addressed immediately, and understandably, so it makes taking time off very different. Doable but alot of preparation.

Our time in Beaver Falls was fun because all of my siblings were home with our kids! Norah definitely became more interactive than she already was before the visit. She loved spending time with all of her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Norah got some clothes, toys and best of all a play vacuum cleaner that sings cleaning songs!!!

Cleveland also brought more fun time with aunts, uncles and grandparents! Norah also has a new first cousin Truman who she got to share the lime light with! They did a great job together, mostly because Truman is 3 months old and very agreeable! I look forward to more interactive time between them. Norah also received more clothes and toys in Cleveland and got her first bike! Its a radio flyer with training wheels!

Here are some pictures that i swiped off of FB from Christmas:

Here is Norah opening presents, sometimes she would rip a small piece of paper and then yell, "Oh my gosh!!"

Here is Norah's new bike helmet and knee pads.

Here is Norah taking a spin around the kitchen! Later Josh took blue painters tape and made a track around the island in the kitchen, it was really cute!

Here's Truman in is Uncle Josh hat that we got for him! So cute!!!

Josh had his brother Jeremy for the gift exchange and bought him the video game Call of Duty. Jeremy is pretty good at guessing what he gets so Josh made an AK47 out of cardboard and the video game was the magazine. This is the gun in process...

Here is Jeremy after opening the gun. Josh had spray painted the gun and the game was wrapped. The whole gun was wrapped and you could tell it was the shape of a gun. It was really funny!

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After arriving back to Chicago for a week without Norah I felt overwhelmed with the amount of kid stuff we had. I pretty much said to Josh we need to go through these toys and donate or put away or we will end up on one of those tv shows where they will bring people in to confront us, our bedroom will have laundry everywhere and kid toys and then they will start finding dead cats under our belongings!! I tend to over exaggerate, but it gets the job done!

Now I recognize that I would never end up on one of those shows, but I was definitely feeling the emotions of how people end up on those shows. As a parent you look at your childs toys and think about the way your newborn cuddled with a certain stuffed animal, or how your sister gave your child a thoughtful gift and you think "how can I get rid of this?" and then the next thing you know your keep pile is huge and your donate pile is nothing. I actually went through most of Norah's stuff first and then asked Josh to go through everything that I decided to keep to see what he thought and he got rid of more because there were definitely things I thought he would want to keep and he really did not care.

Josh also made me put a box together of things for "the next baby." I said people would buy more toys for a new baby especially whens it comes so much further after the first! So needless to say we put a box together and labeled "baby #2".

(DISCLAIMER: This is definitely not any kind of hint or indication as to plans or even talk of baby #2, I would just like to honestly be able to discuss the things that happen in my life without people assuming that we are making an announcement.) I know people love how straight forward I can be and expect nothing less! ;)

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Josh has completed his PhD applications! Yeah!!! It was stressful for him so I am glad it is over. Now the waiting game begins. We will know nothing until March, and we do not even know when in March we will know anything.

He applied to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD and Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.

So it looks like we will definitely be moving this summer. I am actually looking forward to packing and trying to decided when it would be appropriate to start!

I know I have written about this before...I think I have, but anyways, I have always liked to pack. It used to hurt my college roommates feelings when I would start packing for a break or the end of the year way in advance because they felt like I was glad to be away from them. Not the case at all. I like to pack and be as efficient as possible.

So, tonight we are ordering Indian food to celebrate that the applications are done! Then we are having friends over to play Settlers of Catan!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!

We will be going to Madison, WI for Halloween weekend, so we decided to carve a pumpkin with Norah last weekend.

Here are Norah and Daddy trying to draw up some ideas for the pumpkin faces.

Here is Daddy hard at work...

Mommy got bored and was being silly...

Norah got bored too!

Here is the final product!!!

You can see the pumpkin better in this one.

This was Norah after she got a little booklet of stickers she ripped up every possible piece of the booklet and put it all over her face.

We will post pictures of her costume after the weekend!

What Not To Wear!!!

I officially applied to be on the TLC show 'What Not To Wear' and I'm so excited!!

I have never felt like a stylish person. I have always thought I was doing ok as far as my style, but secretly felt like it was not going so well. I have definitely had people along the way try to help out or bold face confront me.

My friend Angela in high school definitely tried to help out and I probably "shopped" with her the most. She plucked my eyebrows for me for the first time and she would put highlights in my hair every once in awhile. She would also tell me new make up tips she read about in magazines too. I would half listen and then later try to remember what she said and then repeat it everyday until...well today I guess! ;)

In college my roommates worked with me too. It was more natural in college because we all lived in a small space and could borrow clothes.

After college my friend Allie straight up confronted me about my wardrobe and we went shopping. I was pretty sure she was not going to be my friend though after we shopped. I usually get a headache as soon as I get to a mall or any kind of overwhelming store that has a million things to look through. I also get in a bad mood and want to leave as soon as possible.

My husband tries to encourage me to buy outside of my comfort zone and add a little color. That I have tried to do, but usually do not do so great.

In the application you have to put down 5 personal contacts. Here are the lucky chosen:

1. Josh - my husband
2. Amanda - my sister
3. Angela - my close friend from high school
4. Allie - my close friend/the one who confronted me! ;)
5. Marisa - my sister-in-law (She is going to freak out when she reads this!!! I did have one of my college roommates down, but switched to Marisa at the last minute because she is completely freaked out by the show and it is her worst nightmare to be contacted by them, so I thought it would be fun to put her on the list. Also, her husband wants to nominate her for the show too!)

Here are some questions from the application that I thought Josh's responses were so funny!

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How would you describe the nominee's style?

Boring. She wears clothes from the mid 90s to work everyday, because she thinks that the 90s are still in fashion. As soon as she gets home, she changes into pajamas. She refuses to show off her figure, because she is embarrasses by her extra baby weight. When she buys her clothes, she buys things that match the clothes she bought in the 90s. I tell her that she can show off her figure without showing her baby weight, but she thinks I'm crazy.

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Describe the nominee's worst fashion blunders.

umbros.

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Has the nominee always been a bad dresser? If not, what changed?

Yes, her friend Allie confronted her on her fashion and they went shopping. This was probably 5-6 years ago. Her coworkers tell her that they'll go shopping with her for new clothes as well.

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Why are you choosing to change the nominee’s style now?

Because it’s not 1993 anymore. She doesn’t agree that she can wear flattering clothes because of her shape. Instead, all she wears is bulky sweatshirts and pajamas.

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If you could give the nominee’s style a unique name, what would it be?

Casual Shleep.

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I answered this last question on my own!!

How would you describe the nominee’s make-up?

Plain…I always get asked if I wear makeup even though I apply the exact same makeup every single day!

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So there are some of the highlights! I'll definitely keep you posted if I hear anything from the show!

Norah's toddler bed and toddle outfit!

So we went to see my parents a few weekends ago and were randomly talking about how we needed to figure out what to do for a toddler bed for Norah soon and my dad said, "We have three toddler beds in the attic if you want one." Duh! I did not even think about the fact that my parents would have three toddler beds! So we jumped at the opportunity to have Norah use my toddler bed and my dad made it! Even better! We fit it in our car and brought it back to Chicago.

It turned out to be perfect timing because the next week Norah got her leg wedged in the crib slates and started screaming one night. We were not able to get her leg out without breaking the slates unfortunately. Josh had to punch out one of the slates to free her leg. It was a little scary but Norah was fine so that's all the mattered. I ended up finding out that our crib was recalled. Unfortunately the date was a month off but Josh contacted the crib company and they are actually going to investigate the situation.

So we decided that we were going to just transition Norah to her toddler bed.

We just set it up today so tonight will be the first trial! Here are some pictures of it.

I saw this outfit in Target the other day and it instantly reminded me of outfits my sister and I wore all the time when we were little and I could not pass it up for Norah. It's funny because everytime she wears it people say the same thing!

I thought the photo shoot was funny so I just included all of the pictures. (by the way our camera is still not working so I took all of these pictures with our laptop!)

Enjoy!

dropping rocks

So today I had to run to the post office to mail something. What I needed to mail was small, but I needed to bring my phone, the address, a pen and my debit card. Then I got to thinking...we have some rocks that we need to get rid of. No big deal, right? Well in the city it's a little more complicated then that, well probably not but I seem to find easy tasks more difficult I guess! In my mind the rocks needed to be "distributed to and fro," so as to not look as if they were "dumped."

Well, I got an old "CCO messenger" back out that I have and loaded my few small items and then the rocks that I needed to get rid of. There were three larger rocks and then about 20 smaller rocks. I put on my "peddle pushers" and headed to the bike room.

I got on my bike and headed down the street. I turned down a side street knowing of an alley that was coming up, reached into my bag and grabbed one of the large rocks. As I approached the alley I checked to make sure there was no one standing, sleeping or digging through the dumpsters. The coast was clear and I chucked the rock down the alley. Unfortunately it hit the corner of the building and rolled onto the sidewalk. I kept going! I was nervous!

So my adrenaline was pumping at this point so I rode for awhile before I attempted another drop since the first drop was not so successful. As I was headed down another side street I thought I would try a handful of the smaller rocks to see how I did with those. I reached in my bag grabbed as many as I could hold and then placed my hand on my handle bar as if I was holding on a one by one every few feet I dropped a small rock. It was a smashing success! I felt like the guy in Shawshank Redemption when he shook the rocks out of his pants pockets in the courtyard and no one knew!

So with my new found success I grabbed another handful of small rocks placed my hand on the handle bar and was about to begin dropping again when I realized a car was coming up next to me and I was approaching a stop sign. No problem...I reached with my opposite hand for the hand brake and DANG IT that's the brake that doesn't work and my other hand is full of rocks so I can't grab the brake!!!! I quickly head full speed for the curb, luckily I had enough momentum that I cleared the curb and then continued to fly out of control across the corner of the adjoining streets through the grass and just let myself come to a halting stop with the use of my foot!!! Whew!!! And I was still holding all of the rocks!!! I'm awesome!

I caught my breathe, thanked the good Lord that I made it through the drama and then grabbed one of the big rocks with my other hand and just dropped it since I was standing still and there was no one around. I then continued on my bike ride and dropped the rest of my rocks successfully and made sure the hand was free for the brake that worked!

I just thought it was a funny adventure and I thought it would be fun to share!

Doe a deer...