Thanksgiving Celebrations and Holiday Fun

December 21, 2009

I really have to be better about posting every week or two instead of monthly. Considering Norah is quickly becoming a little girl, she is simply moving too fast for a once-a-month post.

I had intended to post right after Thanksgiving to free up room for birthday parties, Christmas tree shopping, and visiting Santa. But, I didn't, so all the cuteness will be crammed into here. Here's to hoping we can have a separate post for Christmas and New Years. I can guarantee a separate post for baby number 2, so no worries there.

So even though it is almost Christmas, rewind waaaaay back to November. For Thanksgiving, we headed up to McKinney to Norah's Aunt Cheryl's house in McKinney for Thanksgiving, giving us the rare chance to have all four young Coomer cousins together.

Norah woke up early Thanksgiving morning in a bit of a milk- and Micky Mouse-induced stupor...



but with fresh whipped cream to devour, she regained her form soon enough.

We had a great Thanksgiving lunch in McKinney, as we enjoyed seeing the kids play with each other before, during, and after the meal. Norah had a particular liking for baby Wyatt's gym, a scene I am sure will be replayed when baby girl #2 arrives in a few weeks.

Grandaddy enjoyed the constant attention from the little ones, and Luke enjoyed receiving more than a few giddyups from him.

And Norah actually slowed down enough to allow us to pose for a rare family picture.

The end of Thanksgiving marked the official dawn of Christmas Time 2009! Order of business number 1: shopping for the Denney Family Christmas Tree at Calloway's.

Piggy helped pick one out.

While Norah kept lobbying for a flocked tree, Karen and I stood our ground. No flocked tree this year.

Order of business number 2 of Christmas Time 2009 was organizing and photographing the Denney Family Holiday Card. Though the pictures on the real thing are cute, some of the best shots didn't make the cut. So here is some behind-the-scenes cuteness. Norah enjoyed having these pictures taken so much she has asked to "sit and say cheese," repeatedly over the past few weeks. Girl likes to put on a show.

The next weekend was the weekend of Kaylee and Kaelyn's birthdays (both were born on December 5), so Norah was excited to celebrate with them. While she had a great time at Kaylee's bowling party, she was a bit under the weather for Kaelyn's. Norah was very sad to miss Kaelyn's, but I went in her stead, and watched Kaelyn be quite the gymnastics expert at her gymnastics party.

The next day, Santa visited Karen's office, so Norah was dressed in her holiday best to see the man. Last year, Norah did not enjoy sitting on Santa's lap, so we wondered if this year would be different. As you can see, it was not. While Norah was quite interested in him, she sat on Mama's lap a safe distance away, and hoped that he heard her say what she wants for Christmas. And as anyone who has seen Norah in the past month knows, Norah would like for Santa to bring her a "tric-byc-micle" for Christmas. Indeed, Norah knows that if she has been a good girl this year, Santa will bring her a brand new tricycle on Christmas morning.

Even seeing numerous other children hop on the fat man's lap didn't make her want to do so. No, she's just fine with her chair, thank you very much.

She did not want to be rude and turn down Santa's giant green cookie, however.

It has been a great month, to be sure. Though Norah was a bit sick for a few days, she has felt good otherwise, and she has loved seeing lots of friends and family that have been around in December. She very much loved welcoming guests to our Holiday Party this past Saturday, as she walked up to the door and said "Welcome to Christmas Party!" every time the door bell rang.

And in another HUGE milestone, Norah spent the night in her new big girl bed last night. She didn't even get up once between falling asleep and waking up (except, as Karen reported to me, when Norah caused a bit of a thump at 3:30 in the morning, muttered "big girl bed," and fall right back to sleep), and she had a great 2 hour nap this afternoon. Here's to hoping this keeps up.

In other random news and pictures:

Norah quite enjoys her some chips and queso. This specific instance is her taking down Freebirds' chips and queso, but there are many pictures like it from other restaurants.

Norah and Kaelyn had a great breakfast with David and I the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and the girls posed for this awesome picture outside of the Original Pancake House. Classic.

If you take a picture of Norah and refuse to give her the camera to view said picture, expect to see this look within seconds.

• One day when Norah woke up from a nap, she was calling me in a higher voice than usual. I got upstairs to see her hands raised up. I said "what are you doing?" Her answer -- "Daddy, I'm calling you with my hands!" Upon request she will call anyone with her hands now, and it's pretty cute.
• Norah has already started composing music. It is not uncomming during the day for her to say "you sing Itsy Bitsy Spider song and I sing Wheels on the Bus." And, in fact, once you start singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, she will harmonize with Wheels on the Bus.
• Norah can now count to 14. Not bad girl!
• If Karen or I do something to upset the little monkey girl, she now resorts (sometimes) to calling us "Karen" and "Paul." Nice.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Pumpkins, Candy, and Mustangs

In the month since the last post, Fall and all of its festivities have taken over our lives.

In October, Norah visited not one, but two pumpkin patches. Norah loves pumpkins (as she seems to love most things), and she embraced her trips to the pumkin patches enthusiastically.

The Denneys made a mid-October trip to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with our friends the Harrisons and their beautiful girl Eva. We had never been to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch, but we'll become regulars after this. It's very wide open with pumpkins everywhere, fair food, lots of bounce houses, and trains and hayrides (we didn't participate in those this year; maybe next year). Norah had a great time running around with Eva, especially when Eva pulled Norah through the pumpkin patch in her pumpkin wagon.

Piggie came to see the pumpkins too.

The Denney Family Pumpkin in all its glory (before being decapitated and emptied, the details of which are discussed below).

The pumpkin patch being a "country affair," there was a tractor, and Norah, being a country girl, she climbed right up.

Norah had such a good time with Eva that she promply named one of her new bath toys (a birthday gift) "Eva." She and bath-toy Eva remain close friends 4 weeks later.

The following Monday, we met Tracey and Kaelyn at the Dallas Arboretum Pumpkin Patch, which provided additional wonderful good times and photo ops. The Arboretum Pumpkin Patch is a little more fancy than the one in Flower Mound, though both are awesome in their own way. Maybe the biggest difference is that while the pumpkins in Flower Mound are spread out for display and purchase, the ones at the Arboretum are stacked for aesthetic purposes. Fortunately for Norah, the stacked pumpkins are much more fun to climb. And throw. The Arboretum also has a giant hay maze that Norah and Kaelyn enjoyed running in and over together.



Pumpkin cuteness.

Ropes and barriers = no fun for Norah.

Airborne!

Yes, I looked on nervously as this happened. Norah enjoyed her makeshift pumpkin playground immensely.

Fast-forward to Halloween week, when it was time to carve the Denney Family Pumpkin. Norah enjoyed watching us cut open her orange friend, and was not freaked out at all when it went from one solid mass to a scary jack-o-lantern with fangs. Interesting.

She did have quite a bit of fun repeatedly taking taking off the jack-o-lantern's hat.

Our church had its Fall Carnival the night before Halloween, so Norah got to try on her Halloween costume a night early. Last year, it was Norah the Shaggy Dog. In 2009, we present to you Norah the Black Cat. With some fancy make-up wizardry by Karen, Norah grew whiskers before our very eyes.

Anytime there are slides and bouncehouses, it's a good party, and this was no different.

In addition to these staple activies, Norah was thrilled to discover the joys of a Balloon Room. She could have stayed in there forever.

Halloween was low-key evening, as we stayed in the neighborhood let Norah the Black Cat knock on a few doors. She felt quite comfortable around the neighbors, letting herself in more than a few entryways when the door was opened for her. She actually enjoyed seeing trick-or-treaters come to our door more than trick-or-treating herself. Every time the doorbell rang she yelled "more people!" and sprinted to the door saying "happy Halloween!"

She enjoyed a sack of M&Ms before getting ready for bed, letting me hold her all the while. I believe this was a purposeful act on her part, as cuddling can be so rare now that she feels I will give her chocolate in exchange for cuddling. She may be on to something.

That weekend, Karen's friend Caryn was in town, so we were able to grab brunch at La Duni and Norah was able to ride Caryn's shoulders across Knox Street to get custard at Wild About Harry's. Norah enjoyed La Duni and custard, but she enjoyed quality time with Caryn even more.


The next weekend was SMU's Homecoming, so Norah finally made her first trip to the Hilltop to see some of Daddy's old friends, and make some new ones of her own. Norah spent some quality time with a couple of awesome and happy little boys born to two of my fraternity brothers right around the time Norah was born (Enzo, September '07, and Finley, November '07). Here is a picture of Norah and Finley sizing each other up before the parade.

The day after Homecoming, Karen's Uncle Leon and Aunt LaJuana visited with Norah. As always, Norah was not shy and, after demanding that Uncle Leon read a book to her, climbed right up on in Uncle Leon's lap to drink her milk.

Norah, however, finished off her milk on top of an accomodating Bram.

In other Norah news:

• Norah is getting quite good at putting together sentences and song lyrics. Since she came across several Halloween-themed finger puppets at Party City during her birthday party preparations, she has learned to imitate a vampire ("I want to suck your blood!") and a witch ("I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too. Ah ha ha!"). She only recently has learned Frankenstein: "Fire bad!"

• Ring Around the Rosy. Norah learned this classic at school, and has been singing it and falling all week. Lots of fun for her. The falling part isn't as much fun for pregnant people or grandparents that Norah beckons to fall with her.
• Every time we drive by Cowboys Stadium and the Ballpark in Arlington, Norah correctly identifies each by saying "Dallas Cowboys," and "Texas Rangers." This wouldn't be as impressive if we hadn't discussed the Rangers with her since early September. Norah also identifies Target each time we drive past one. I'm sure this is only partially because we go there together 2-4 times per week. Girl loves her some Target.
• She has taken full advantage of the 75-degree November days, spending hours outside playing with bubbles, sliding, and throwing and kicking balls. She has an absolute cannon for an arm.

Happy Birthday Monkey Girl!!!!!!!

(Forgive the length and amount of pictures in this post. But, come on, it's her birthday!)

It is hard to believe that this day is here. How can it possibly be true that Norah is TWO?! Well, believe it or not, the day is upon us.

Here is a picture from this morning. I'm sure Norah will enjoy spending her birthday with her friends from Mother's Day Out and a plethora of cupcakes to commemorate the occasion.

While today is the big day, Norah's decided to have her party on Saturday. Norah's Mimi came in town on Friday afternoon, and was there to greet Norah when she woke up from her nap. Much happiness ensued, especially when Norah saw that Mimi brought her presents.

Norah with Mimi and her new Ming Ming Duckling (for an explanation of Ming Ming, see the Wonder Pets discussion below).

"I am a model."

Yes, Norah was quite happy to see Mimi on Friday.

Over the past six months or so, Norah has become quite a fan of the Wonder Pets (not familiar? Check them out at http://www.nickjr.com/wonder-pets. They are all about teamwork and rescuing animals in trouble, and they actually aren't too annoying, which is saying something about a kids' show). The Wonder Pets consist of Linny the Guinea Pig, Tuck the Turtle, and Ming Ming Duckling. Accordingly, Norah enjoyed an elaborate Wonder Pets-themed party on Saturday.

How elaborate? Aside from the usual party-ware such as plates, napkins, and decorations, guests were invited to eat pork from Red Hot and Blue (Linny the Guinea Pig) and homeade turtle and duck cookies.

See, I told you.

Norah liked the Ming Ming masks.

Norah didn't partake in eating Linny, instead opting for Bagel Bites and mini-corn dogs for her birthday party lunch. But she happily consumed a massive turtle cookie at lunch, followed by three more duck cookies.

We got Norah's cake from our old standby bakery, Texas Star Bakery in Euless (http://www.texasstarbakery.com/), and they did a great job of recreating Ming Ming in the form of a delicious cake (mmm...double chocolate with cream cheese icing).

Not being shy, and typically enjoying the attention of other people (attributes that sound oddly familiar to me), Norah absolutely loved having her guests sing Happy Birthday to her.

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, Norah did not consume any cake.

Here she is considering taking a bite.

Cautiously putting the cake to her tongue.

And reiterating her love for cookies and ice cream above all other desserts.

Once the kids were hopped up with sugar, out came the pièce de résistance - the Wonder Pets pinata. The pull-string pinata survived being batted around for a few moments before Norah's cousin Kaelyn took matters into her own hands and opened the pinata, causing already-sugar-filled children to gather up more yummy treats.

Mama look!

Curiously, however, Norah and her good friend Eli decided that the candy belonged in the pinata, so they went about returning the candy to its home.

A few minutes after the Wonder Pets pinata had been opened, Norah climbed up the stairs to where the pinata was hanging, and acted out her own Wonder Pets episode. As I mentioned earlier, the Wonder Pets are all about rescuing animals in trouble. Norah evidently thought that Linny, Tuck and Ming Ming were in trouble (understandable as they were suspended in mid-air), so she climbed to stairs, she said, to rescue the Wonder Pets.

Yes, Norah grabbed the pinata and tried to pull the Wonder Pets upstairs to safety. Thank you, thank you, thank you Norah for these moments of hilarity and awesomeness you bring into our lives.

It is an understatement to say that Norah had a fabulous time with her family and friends. What a day.

And the fun wasn't even done after Norah's party! Saturday evening we drove up to Roanoke with Uncle David, Kaelyn and Mimi to attend the Celebrate Roanoke festival and eat at Twisted Root Burger Co. (http://www.twistedrootburgerco.com/), a client of David's and the home of some of the best burgers you'll find anywhere. Norah was pretty tired from all of the days festivities, but she still found time to get her face painted. And sing along with "Ring of Fire." And dance to "Summertime Blues." Awesome.

And finally, to close, this is what a two-year old looks like the morning after a full day of partying.

Happy Birthday Norah! Thank you for bringing such joy into our lives everyday.