Happy Halloween!!!

Well, the monkey it is....



Norah has been braving some steps lately and we got some on tape. Norah is also very much into socks. We often find her with a sock hanging out of her mouth. I don't think she has them in her mouth in the video, but I used the socks to get her to walk!! :)

(well i tried uploading the video overnight and it did not work....i will try later tonight!)

The video is here!

The videos are in for the Improv Everywhere thing that we did!

There is a video combining all four cities that they did the experiment in and then you can see all of the individual city videos. We are in both!

Look for me pushing the stroller in the Chicago specific one and we are marching in the battle scene and then we are in the combination one too marching in the battle scene!

It's fun to finally see the video. The voice that we could hear through the Mp3 is the one you hear talking in the Chicago specific video. They cut out some parts that I think did not turn out as well. Enjoy!

Chicago Specific video

Combination video

Improv Everywhere!

This weekend was a great weekend of rest and relaxation, which was much needed due to lots of stress from life.

A friend of ours here Annette told us about this group called Improv Everywhere that was coming to Chicago last Sunday. If you click on their name it will take you to their website. Basically, they are an improv group of comedians that want to help people in the world have a little fun. They post what city they are going to be in, when, where you need to show up and any specifics that you need to bring with you. If you look at their website you can see the Chicago post. They will make a video of the day in a few weeks, so I will post that when it comes up, but we just saw today that they put some pictures up.

We met two other friends in Lincoln Park, strapped Norah in the Bjorn and joined the craziness! We had to wear either green, red, blue or a yellow t-shirt, download a track to our Mp3 player, bring a balloon and and umbrella. That's all we knew. You were not supposed to listen to the Mp3 track until everyone starts listening to it at the exact same time and they instruct you on what to do. It was so fun!!! Regardless of the rain, we had a great time. There were probably three hundred people that showed up! We are pretty sure we will make the video because of Norah! People were so excited about seeing her participating and she loved it!!! She was kicking and flailing all over the place. The main guy from Improv Everywhere was in the crowd and we saw him several times. I think he even high-fived Norah at some point. I know this probably does not make a lot of sense, but look at their website. I highly recommend watching the "Frozen Grand Central" video!!!!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. I downloaded some pictures that we were in. Oh, I forgot to mention that they have a camera filming it all from above in an helicopter and then a few crews on the ground.

You can see us in the front line there. We were getting ready for a balloon battle in a huge field. I am holding the orange balloon and have Norah strapped to the front of me! To my right is our friend Annette, Josh and holding the red umbrella is our other friend Lisa.

Here we are marching! I stayed behind and quickly cut to the right to get out of the crowd with Norah! I have never had lots of luck with big crowds and getting trampled so I decided to save Norah from the fate as well!

If you look down to the bottom right corner you can see our fearless leader getting ready for the charge!! ;)

Halloween contest!

Before we moved from Wheeling some friends of ours, Matt and Jenny, gave us a ton of clothes for Norah and 4 Halloween costumes!!! They are very big on costumes, so we were honored to get some outfits for Norah. One of them was a giraffe costume which would not fit her by the time Halloween rolled around, so we quickly utilized that outfit then, but this past weekend we put Norah in the other three outfits and now it's time to vote! On the right as you read I added a poll for all to cast their vote and trust me folks, your vote counts here! No crazy electoral mumbo jumbo!

So without further ado.....I present Norah as a rooster, a monkey and a penguin! Oh and we tried to create a photo shoot set, but Norah is a little too active. The painting is a painting that Josh made while we were in Wheeling, we bought the pumpkin and corn, the pumpkin was specifically for the photo shoot and the corn was for Norah, but we used it in the photos and then made her corn!

Busy, busy, busy!

We have had alot going on so sorry for not posting! Norah has been sick this weekend and today. I stayed home from work to help her get some more needed rest. Her daycare has been great, but I know she would not be able to nap as much there as she can at home. She woke up this morning at 7:30am, I fed her let her play a little and then gave her a bath and I think I put her in her swing at around 8:45am and I had to wake her up at 11:30am so we could go to campus and see Josh for lunch. We came home she ate and then she went back in the swing at 1:50pm. Josh woke her up at 4:50pm and then she just went to bed at 7:30pm!

Norah is definitely a sleeper. She pretty much sleeps for 12 hours every night. Even when she is sick she might wake up once around 3ish and we give her a little Tylenol and back to bed she goes! It's awesome!

Today while she was napping I mopped our entire apartment! Well almost all of it. She was in the swing in our bedroom and I did not do the bathroom because it needs an overhaul! I bought myself a mop yesterday in Madison when I had to get some more formula for Norah at the grocery store.

You see, I have never mopped a floor where I have lived. I have never owned a mop! I usually get on my hands and knees with a bucket, sponge and a toothbrush. The only time I mopped was when I used to clean a dental lab and there was just a lot of floor space to cover.

Our apartment in Chicago is all tile flooring because it is a pet friendly building. I know this is disgusting and I am not proud of it, but I have not mopped or hand scrubbed our tile floors since we moved in 3 months ago. I have had a lot going on and again, I have never owned a mop, so I did not have one. I'm not the same young strapping hottie that I used to be, so the idea of crawling around on the floor cleaning is not what I am interested in these days.

I was busy studying for a test, so I was trying to not worry about the floors. I vacuumed them everyday, but that does not cut it. I noticed that Norah's knees and tops of her feet were turning black since she has been mobile and realized it was time. That test I was studying for I passed two Saturdays ago, so I decided it was time to get a mop and clean my floors!!

So it was great to clean today! When I was younger and did not feel good I would stay home from school and clean my parents house, or organize the pantry, or make sure all the Tupperware had lids. I just got bored at home by myself! My mom never minded if I was sick! One time when I was home and organizing the pantry I decided that everything should be organized by height-from tallest to shortest! Well, that did not last very long and that was one of my first major lessons in organizing! Grouping like items is better and then by size! Thanks mom!

We were in Madison, WI for the weekend visiting Tim and Marisa Elek, Josh's oldest brother and wife. Marisa and I are bridesmaids in the third Elek brother's wedding, Jeremy and his fiance Char, so we got our dresses fitted on Saturday.

Norah started to get really sick on Saturday. She was a champ! Here is a picture of her below. This was her at her worst I think. She was so upset and crying. Her body temperature felt like 150 degrees.



She spent most of the weekend in her pj's. Aunt Marisa bought her some pretty sweet winter shoes that go perfect with her pj's! I put two pictures up because they are kinda hard to see. They are like Crocs and they have wool on the inside and it comes on the outside a little and there is a strap of wool that goes around the ankle. They are so cute!



I just think this little sweat suit is so cute! She spent all of Saturday in this because that's what you do when you are sick!

I thought this little family picture was cute even though Norah is not looking!


I liked this picture alot. Josh and Tim took Baily to a dog park with Norah while Marisa and I were getting our dresses fitted. I know Josh has a certain one of these pictures that he liked the best, so I hope this is not the one. I just picked it because I did not have to rotate it! I'm lazy.


My favorite, favorite , favorite snack is air popped popcorn!!!! We bought this popper on ebay when we were in Wheeling! It has by far been one of my favorite things! I actually just cleared a spot on our bakers rack so that we could have it ready to go at a moments notice because we make it so much. I also put a large cup of my McCowin iced tea in the picture because that is also another favorite of mine. (McCowin is my maiden name in case any readers do not know).


Well I know this was a random post, but I had time to post while Josh was studying. By the way he is a much better student then I ever was. He is so dedicated. You would have to be to learn Hebrew in two and half weeks! Shabach Shalom! Is that Hebrew???

First day of school!

Today was Josh's first day of class and Norah's first day of daycare! We all survived!

I dropped Norah off. I met her teacher who won me over with this simple dialog:

Teacher: How old is she?

Mom: She will be 9 months tomorrow.

Teacher: Great, so then we only feed her what you bring in and no table food?

Mom: Exactly!

That may sound weird, but everyone always wants to give Norah cookies, ice cream, chips....you name it.

Her simple dialog told me she was on my team and wanted me to be the captain! :)

So I left and Norah was fine and I did well too! No tears were had by anyone all day! I called at lunch time to check on her and she was on her second nap! I was afraid she would not nap at all because she would have so much stimulation. I was glad to hear she had slept.

When I picked her up she was excited to see me and seemed to be doing great! I was very glad to receive her daily report about the timing of all diaper changes and whether they were wet/dry/BM! They also report on her eating throughout the day and generally how she did. This piece of paper was great for me as Norah can not really communicate at all about how the day was. Since she was in good spirits that was a good enough report for me, but the paper with the details also helped.

We came home and heard about Josh's first day! I'll let him tell about it, but the part that I thought was really funny was that he made two friends and they are both named Josh! One sat next to him and the other behind him!

So, life in Chicago is looking good for all of the Elek's! You should come visit now that we are stable! ;)

Oh and we had a great weekend with Uncle Tim and Aunt Marisa! Lots of walking and good food!

A tooth, freckles and the DNC

Norah finally got her first tooth. The above picture is not of Norah. If I tried to take that picture she would single handily put me in the hospital. She is not down with anyone putting their finger in her mouth let alone taking a photo shoot. Last night I practically had to pin her down to try to get a quick look. I saw it but it was not a pretty scene afterwards. She was mad. It's funny though because she shoves her whole hand into my mouth because she finds my teeth interesting.

She really has not had too much of the common signs of teething. It's funny how everyone asks if she is teething. I do not know how I am supposed to know. I think maybe twice she was upset and we gave her something cold to suck on and she was fine. She does not really drool and she sleeps through the night with no problems still.

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Norah is also in a phase where she will see a little speck on the floor and she will crawl to it and put it in her mouth. Tonight we were sitting on the couch together and she kept trying to "pick up" my freckles and eat them. She would think she had it and put it up to her mouth and chew and look up at me! It was sweet!

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So tonight is the night that Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Nomination. I have been a supporter of his since the beginning. Now that we live down the street from him, it has been really interesting to observe the secret service around their house. Things have really beefed up since he got back from vacation.

All that aside, I was thinking today on the drive home from work about how significant tonight will be. Whether you like Barack Obama or not, this is history in the making. It really is amazing to think about the state of racism and the United States just 40 or 50 years ago. Now let me make it clear that I do not think that because Barack is the nominee that all race problems and racism is over. I do not agree with that at all. I believe part of what would make his presidency amazing is the fact that the United States would have race issues raised more and things could be discussed on hopefully a more productive basis. Not necessarily because Barack is raising them, but I think, in a good way, people would do some self-reflecting and engage in conversation with others about cultural differences, their own personal views and how things can change for the better.

I look forward to his speech tonight.