Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

January 27, 2010

True enough, this post is late. Way late. But, I didn't post this the first week in January, and we've been busy around the Denney house the past couple of weeks. So while there will be a Lila/Norah update soon, I have to post the holiday entry now or it will never be done.

We had lots of fun in and around late December/Christmas/New Year. Norah took the time to have several adorable pictures taken with some of her favorite people.

Norah and Grandaddy monkeying around.


Norah with Uncle David and Uncle Harold at Twisted Root enjoying some delicious food and great family time.

The week before Christmas, we met David, Tracey and Kaelyn at Northpark for storytime with Santa. The girls very much enjoyed hearing the big jolly man read stories to them, and even though Norah again chose to keep her distance from Santa, I do believe she might have told him a few times that she still wanted a Tricycle for Christmas. Did she get it?!?! The answer is below...

The Sunday before Christmas, we decided to take step 1 in getting Norah logistically ready for Lila (then called Baby Sister) -- moving her from the crib upstairs to her new big girl bed in the downstairs bedroom.

Unfortunately, we hadn't done anything to turn this room into a kid-friendly room in the preceding months because we had expected to sell the house by now. As that didn't happen, Norah has been relegated to a room painted in very dark blue for the time being. No matter, she has loved her big girl bed from the beginning. She hasn't had any problems transitioning at all! If anything, she is going to bed easier now than before. We have been quite blessed in this regard.

On Christmas Eve, Norah enjoyed seeing the snow about as much as every other kid in the metroplex did. Immensely! Upon seeing the first snowflakes, she said: "Snow! My favorite! Thank you God for snow, Amen." This prayer was unsolicited and unbelievably cute.

Norah liked being outside in the snow, but she chose not to kick or crunch it, leaving that to Karen and me. "Mama, crunch the snow!" was a common refrain. It was a very special day indeed.

Christmas Morning!

Norah enjoyed looking through her stocking, and after being asked "what did you get" by Mama and Daddy repeatedly, Norah began saying "What my got?!" with each gift she pulled. "What my got" was probably the most uttered phrase by the monkey girl in December.

A Dora bracelet and necklace from Claire's, plus a super-cute headband!

The last piece of the Advent Calendar puzzle: putting Baby Jesus in his place.

Then on to the real presents, which included a few toys and books and clothes, and one big tricycle (which we didn't let Norah see until later in the day for fear it would prevent us from heading to Sachse for Christmas lunch in a timely manner...).

Lucy enjoyed the presents too.

Bram and Norah enjoyed cuddling with me after both had been bribed sufficiently with presents.

After we finished opening presents, we headed up to Sachse for Christmas lunch and presents with Uncle David, Aunt Tracey, Cousin Kaelyn, Mimi and Papa.

The next five pictures are a somewhat amusing sequence of Norah standing still (first picture) while Kaelyn starts the music on a train, and Norah's dancing instincts kick in (the next four pictures).

Kaelyn and Norah opened presents together on Christmas Day for the first time, but not for the last. Definite shades of the future.

Norah did not have on these Elmo slippers when we arrived in Sachse. Thanks Mimi!

One of my favorite gifts for Norah, from Papa. A baseball mitt and ball that she has shown quite an interest in over the past few weeks. And again, she keeps developing a very impressive overhand throw.

And finally, after naptime, Norah finally saw her big gift from Santa. Norah's feet can just barely reach the pedals of her Kettrike Tricycle, but she has enjoyed her new toy ever since receiving it, and certainly that was the case on Christmas Day.

One of the sweetest moments of Christmas happened that evening, when Kaelyn took Norah back to her room and, on her own, dressed Norah up as a princess (this also included undressing her first, and Norah was wearing clothes to begin with). Norah loved being dressed up about as much as Kaelyn loved dressing her. Just adorable.

Oops! Not so princess-like, Norah...

Two pretty princesses in a mirror. Timelessly adorable.

We traveled to Parker County for Christmas with the Coomers on the 26th, and Norah had a great time playing with her cousins and opening more presents: "What my got?!" Some of her favorite presents included a broom that she can use to help sweep the house when Daddy sweeps (much less destructive than the full-sized version she used to wield) and a cape formerly belonging to Kaylee. Not to mention a great haul of toys and books.

Raisin time with Kaylee!

Later that week we traveled to Brazil via North Dallas, as our friend Whit's Brazilian mother was in town to visit the Whitakers, and she cooked some delicious moqueca for us all. While Norah said the word "moqueca" perfectly, she did so in saying "I don't like moqueca." So, she didn't eat the delicious food, but she did get to dance and play with the Whitakers' new Wii. Her love of the Wii bowling game is a major reason we have yet to hook ours up. If she sees it, it's bye-bye to the outdoors for the next decade or so.

Happy New Year everybody!

We celebrated the new year by getting really really cold at the Gaylord Texan's ice exhibit. The theme was the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Norah knew nothing of this story line, but she did have fun getting in a big blue parka, looking at the ice, and walking through an ice tunnel and sliding down the ice slide. Good times, indeed.

Happy New Year! Here's to more frequent posting in 2010...

Lila Alene

Hi everybody!  To those that haven't heard, Lila Alene Denney arrived at 1:27 p.m. on Thursday, January 7!  She arrived at 7 pounds 6 ounces, 20 inches long, and beautiful.  Lila and Mama are doing well, even if sleep has been a bit hard to come by the past few days.  Norah has been quite happy to have Baby Sister Lila around, and has exceeded our expectations so far in the excited v. jealous ratio.  Sure, this will change soon, but until it does we're riding the happy wave for as long as we can.
 
Thanks to everyone for their kind words and generosity so far, and to those that hadn't heard yet, I'm sorry!  It's been a bit busy around the Denney home.
 
And yes, we will have to change the name of the website and blog, won't we?  It's not just the Monkey Girl anymore.
 
Love,

the Denneys

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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!