Norah has finally reached a milestone that I never thought I’d see.  When Adlani was a baby I was constantly marking the progress we were making…the last can of formula, moving from the (extremely heavy) infant seat to a regular car seat, and all of the typical milestones…first words, first steps, etc.  When we found out that Norah would be arriving in about 8 months, I had been obsessively counting the months until we’d be done with “double-day care.”  We started focusing much less on the milestones, either because all hell had broken loose and we barely had the time to notice anything, or because we were superstitious that if we started counting the months of double-day care again we’d get another little surprise.  

Well, we finally made it to one kid in day care (actually preschool) a few months ago (don’t worry…we haven’t let our guard down) and Norah recently reached a milestone that I was SO EXCITED about…she can go to swimming lessons without one of us getting into the pool with her.  No more suiting up for 8 a.m. lessons on Saturday morning.  No more walking around with the swim cap imprint on my head.  No more looking at hairy daddies in the pool.  YIPPEE!!!  YAY Norah!
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Norah has been obsessed with “private areas” for a long time.  Now she is also obsessed with “Kiwi Herman” and carries around this 20-year-old Pee-Wee Herman doll that used to say annoying stuff like “I know you are but what am I?” when you pulled the string.

In preschool, Norah likes to play Spanish Bingo, which she calls “Yo Tengo!” (“I’ve got it!”) because that’s what they say when they have a picture on their Bingo card that matches the picture on the “grande card”.  If the teacher pulls out the grande card with the glasses on it, whoever has a picture of glasses on their Bingo card yells, “Yo tengo!”

So today out of the blue Norah says, “When we play Yo Tengo, and Maria takes out a grande card and says ‘Who has a p-nis?’, the boys can say, ‘Yo Tengo!’ ” 

Where is this obsession coming from?  And more importantly, is it going to end before she hits puberty??
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We finally found something that’s been able to drag Adlani away from the TV…other than padlocking the entertainment center doors closed.  LEGOS!!  Ben bought him a couple of kits last week but the age range was 7-14 so I didn’t think he was ready for them.  He needed a little help to keep him on track, but he’s really good at looking at the isometric drawing and applying it to the next piece that needs to go on.  After his trouble with writing last year we worried about his fine motor skills, but he is able to put the tiniest pieces together.  He worked really hard on the dirt-digging, alien-killing contraption below (60+ steps to complete it!) and he was so proud!  Somebody’s going to have to get a second job to support his habit but at least it gets him away from Sponge Bob. 

It’s been a long day and I just got home from a 3-hour Adobe Flash class which was very cool but I’m too fried to post anything meaningful tonight.  Speaking of fried, here’s something to get your heart started.  DO NOT try this at home.  I’ll get back to the adventures of the Greenabderrazak family tomorrow.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sfpjH8LWZI&hl=en&fs=1&]

Woman charged for having child ride in box atop van
By David Brewer
October 05, 2009, 12:35PM

ALBERTVILLE, AL – A Marshall County woman is in the city jail here for having her 13-year-old daughter ride in a cardboard box atop her van.

Smith said police received a call Sunday morning of a minivan traveling on U.S. 431 with a large cardboard box on top with a child inside.

Officers stopped the van on U.S. 431 and asked Knott why the child was riding atop her vehicle.

“The box was too big to go inside the van, and she would be able to hold it down if she was inside the box,” Smith said the woman told police.

When asked about the child’s safety, Smith said Knott told the officers that she had the box secured to the van with a clothes hanger.
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