Last night I gave Jon a haircut.  Livi saw me getting out the trimmer, and said,

"Daddy take your shirt off so Mommy can iron you!"

then...

"You not iron me, Mommy!"

And after the haircut, to Jon...

"You get this off your hair and get some new hair!"

***

I was talking to my friend Elaine this morning and remembered something really funny that Livi said a few months ago.  We were in Wal-Mart, and she was sitting in the cart looking at the ceiling.  All of the sudden she pointed and said,

"Like Mommy's cooking!"

I said, "What???"

She pointed again and I looked up to see a round, red fire detector/alarm, and she said again,

"Like Mommy's cooking!"

I about died laughing, and explained her comment to the nearby associate.  I then heard from Jon later that half the store had heard what she said.  :-p

I looked up from my book today to see Olivia hanging from the freezer door going for a swing.  I asked her to get down, and she ran to me saying,

"But I want to be like a monkey!  You put your hands up and hold on to the sky!"

***

Yesterday I heard Livi say, "No Norah, we not......on the table."  Wondering what it was she was doing, I came out into the dining room to look.

And there was Norah.  Sitting on top of my counter-height dining room table.  Proud as punch.

***

I'm having a Pampered Chef party tomorrow!  Let me know if you want anything!

www.pamperedchef.com

Check out our latest session!!

 https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S205357161l8VM7EUH4RE

We will be getting prints done shortly, so if you have any requests, let me know. 

What a fabulous night!  I can't even begin to explain how much fun I have had in the last few hours, but I'm gonna try!!  Please excuse my use of exclamation points. 

So it all began a couple weeks ago when Jon and the girls and I were walking through the Mall of America.  I saw a poster for the movie Dirty Dancing.  I though, "Hmm, that's strange, seeing as that is a really old movie..."  Then I read more and discovered that in celebration of it's 20th anniversary, they were going to be showing it on the BIG SCREEN!!!  I immediately called Jenny, who was just as excited as I.  Plans circled the flip-flops (minus Jana, who could not possibly have gotten a letter, nor scheduled a flight in time ), but only Jenny and I were able to go.

Now I should preface the story by saying that I can recite probably 95% of the script of the movie, sing all the songs, and basically know every little move of every single character, since I've been watching this movie since I was at least eleven years old.  (Disclaimer:  I did not understand the full scope of the movie at that time--aka the illegal and controversial activity--and didn't fully "get it" until possibly college, so please no commentary on my parents letting me watch it at that age.  :-p )

So I met Jenny at the theater, where she had been watching people buy their tickets.  She noticed that while most of the Dirty Dancing attendees were women, there was a small handful of boyfriends who approached the ticket counter saying (in a small, pathetic voice), "Two for Dirty Dancing please."  We can only assume they were boyfriends, because seriously, who would want to watch that movie with a guy?  As I told Jenny, she was the perfect companion, and I could never imagine taking Jon.

We joined the 3/4 full theater full of estrogen carrying our large popcorn, huge pops, and chocolate.  Hey, I haven't been to a movie in over two years, and I was determined to enjoy it!!  Boy did I!!!!  As we sat in our seats, I said to Jenny, "I promise to try really hard not to quote all the words and talk through the whole movie.  But before it starts, I just want to say, that...

"I don't think...that you EVAH had any intention of tellin' him!"

That said, we settled in to watch the pre-movie, which instead of previews was a fabulous series of interviews of the actors, set designers, and writers of the movie, as well as all of those people for the Broadway show.  It was great!  Then came the real thing.

It. Was. So. Good.

I know, I know.  I've seen it before, I know how it ends, and it didn't change.  But when was the last time you have sat in a movie theater with a hundred other people, and NOT ONE OF THEM got up to go to the bathroom.  NOT ONE OF THEM went to get popcorn.  EVERY ONE OF THEM turned off their cell phones and NOT ONE OF THE phones rang.  Every couple minutes you could hear a little voice reciting a line from somewhere in the crowd, and groups sang along to the music.  I tried to initiate a group join-in of the "final but not the last" dance to the Kellerman's song.  You know, "Join hands and hearts and voices, voices, hearts, and hands!  At Kellerman's the friendships last long as the mountain stands."  A few people giggled at me, Jenny included, but you know they all wanted to do it!  In fact, I think it was Jenny's idea. 

You could feel the tension in the room during the important parts of the movie, and everyone laughed in all the right spots.  There were even people who laughed at little things that you thought you were the only one to ever laugh at!  Sometimes the laughing seemed to start almost at the same time as the funny thing, just because we were all anticipating it so much!  For example,

"I carried a watermelon?!"

I think the best part was the most famous line.  We all sat there waiting for Johnny to walk back in that door and take over the stage.  We each elbowed our movie-watching partner as he strode up to the table.  We held our collective breath as he looked at Dr. Houseman and said,

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Then the entire audience exploded in applause and shouting.  Same thing at the end.  Seriously, when is the last time you've been to a movie where people applauded and shouted at the end?  It was that good.  I am so glad I went, and so glad Jenny came.  We had the best time!!!!!!

If you haven't ever seen the movie, or don't know it by heart, or if you're a guy, you may think I am crazy and have spent too much time surrounded by babies.  But if you are none of those things, you might possibly be able to imagine how great it really was. 

The weather is gorgeous--enough for a trip to the beach this weekend!  The girls got soaked, but don't be fooled, as the water was FREEZING COLD.  Again, please bear with my amateur-photographer obsession. 

Norah absolutely had a blast, as evidenced here.

Here is an action series, which pretty much describes the entire trip for her:

Jon had to save her from complete dunking several times. 

Now for my psuedo-art shots. 

And my three favorites:

And of course, the last shot of the day...missed her by a split second, but caught the best on camera...

Norah, at the exact moment of her birth, now officially one year old:

The birthday party:

Born at 10:53am, Tuesday, April 25th, 2006.  Weighing in at 9 lbs 9 oz, 21 inches long.  Eight hours of labor, eighteen minutes of pushing.

I was going to post these a week ago, but I forgot!  Ooops.  My blog title was going to be

"You know it's spring when...your baby falls asleep in the swing."

And of course, more cute spring pictures:

Today we spent the day at the zoo with Karly and Mary visiting the Farm Babies!  We had lots of fun and it was GORGEOUS weather.  Mama even got sunburned.  Of course. 

Livi and Mary walking to the farm.  Liv was very careful to make sure that Mary stayed on the path, after having been warned by mama several times herself.  It's nice to be bigger than someone, huh? 

Looking at the chickens:

And the baby chicks, who were Norah's all-time favorite!

Of course we are always on the lookout for animals that are having nanas!

The obligatory playing on the pigs pictures:

And now for my foray into amateur photography, with my new camera and one photography class under my belt.  I remembered to put the girls in the shade instead of the harsh direct sunlight, but forgot other things...

Lesson #1:  The first few shots are when the children are the happiest and most naturally smiley.  If you remember everything, great!  If not, you get an okay photo, but not a great one.

Lesson #2:  Remove hats for pictures

Lesson #3: If not held, children will run away.

Lesson #4: Remember to check your background.  This one is fabulously better than the previous shots, but by this time the girls were DONE.  So not quite as smilely.  But it's the best shot, I think!

Anyway, I'll do better next time.