Nora at 19 (almost 20) months

Here's my big girl at 19 months. She seems so grown-up these days. She's becoming independent, opinionated (especially about which shoes she wears) and so much fun. She's a very sweet girl who absolutely loves helping. She gets a big kick out of us letting her try to do "big people" things. She regularly helps unload the dishwasher and bring the trash in from the curb. She also recently started "helping" make chocolate milk by getting a sippy cup out of her cabinet, the chocolate syrup out of the refrigerator and a spoon from the drawer. This girl could live on chocolate milk!

helping Daddy bring in the trash can

helping Uncle Dan make chocolate milk

Besides helping, she is still very much into imitating us. For example, an old iPhone she plays with in her back pocket like Mommy:

The above picture also shows her new mode of transportation up and down the stairs: her feet! She loves to hold our hand or the stair rails and walk up and down like a big kid. 

More imitating: "working" on the computer with Daddy (above) and "cupping coffee" (below)

The mid-November snow storm brought out the fur coat Aunt Becca & Uncle Jake got her before she was born.

Some days the only "lunch" this picky eater will eat is a bowl of dry cheerios on the kitchen floor. Look at those long legs! Also, you'll note Nora is rarely away from one of her baby dolls. She can't get enough!

At Nora's 18-month appointment, she was 21 lbs and 32 inches long - 20th percentile in weight, 50th percentile in length. I guess she'll be long and skinny (I don't know where she gets that....).

I'll leave you with these two cute shots:

friends!

my happy girl

Pumpkin Patch & Halloween

Better late than never, right? A few weeks ago, we made the trip just outside town to our local pumpkin patch. Last year, Nora was too little to go down the slides, pet the animals, etc. But this year, we were excited to show her everything the farm had to offer. We went at 4 p.m. on a weekday (thanks to our awesomely flexible work schedules) and had the whole place to ourselves!

Nora was especially interested in the goats, though she didn't want to pet any of the animals. She did later pet a goat when we visited the zoo, so maybe she's getting more brave. She also loved the corn maze (thankfully one of the workers clued us in to the short route so we didn't get stuck in there with a toddler who was over it!). But her favorite part was the slides. This girl could slide all day long.

A little happier than last year

Nora also enjoyed Halloween this year. I made her little witch costume and my mom bought her the tank that says "casting a spell of cuteness." I love how it turned out!

We made good use of her costume since we went to the downtown Norman Fall Fest with friends, dress-up day and baby parade through the city offices during the weekly library music time and then trick-or-treating with Grayson!

Nora's BFF "Franken-Fitz"

looking in the mail slot - this was completely unposed!

Nora loved trick-or-treating! She giggled and ran from house to house putting candy in her basket.

It's fixed!

I fixed the box-covered hole above the door in our living room. Excuse the poor photo quality...I only think to take pictures of this project at night and we have no overhead light in the living room so it's impossible to get a good shot. But, it's done!

Goodbye, Red

We recently finished painting over the awful red in our entryway that extended up the stairs and onto the landing area above (sorry if you like red, haha). It took a couple of months from start to finish since the cutting in was extremely time-consuming (not to mention the fact that we had to prime first!). We also had to fix a few issues, like the gaping hole in the wall from removing the old central heat (no a/c) thermostat, along with another previously used electrical outlet hole. We did uncover the original (?) wallpaper, which was a fun find. Sorry, I forgot to snap a picture of that (no worries, it will resurface again, I promise).

We also discovered that what we were told (by our realtor) was a coat closet behind the bookshelf in the entryway where the random hall shower currently lives is actually a pass-through. More on that later when we tackle that project! Enjoy the before and after pics. We love how the paint color turned out and how much calmer it feels! Next up: painting the trim since the people who painted the red were incredibly messy.

Move-in day, don't mind the mess

We had quite a time picking the color. The swatch I chose of a brown/gray turned out to look pink! So, back to the drawing board we went. We ended up picking "wood smoke," the color right below the thermostat. The blue/gray background is the tinted primer we used to cover the intense red. Already an improvement!

The Box: An Unknown Project

Last night at 9 p.m., after 5 months in our new house, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to find out what was behind this strange wooden box over one of the doorways in our living room (ignore the terrible pictures taken after dark in our no-overhead-light room):

We knew there must be something wrong behind this box. Why else would it be there? But what?! The uncovered spot revealed a small piece of missing plaster, along with years of different wall coverings:

This finding leaves me asking several questions:

1. Why didn't someone just fix the whole in the plaster?

2. Since you can see the original grass cloth (tan/brown area) surrounded by a larger area of sea foam green paint, that must mean that, at one time, there was a smaller box covering the hole that someone painted green around, preserving the original wall covering. Then, someone else must have adhered a larger box to the wall and painted around it with the current cream. Why?! How did more than one person think it was an acceptable fix to attach a wooden box to the wall?

Although it would be easier to simply put the box back up, we will be patching the hole and painting over the whole area (yes, the rest of the room is painted over grass cloth!). Thankfully, the previous owners left the matching cream paint. While it might be a pain to uncover yet another DIY project in a house with so many projects on the list already, I still wouldn't trade our 92-year-old home for something brand new. These discoveries tell the story of our home, and I love its rich history.

Splash pad fun

Yesterday we tried out the splash pad with our friends Laura and Fitz! We loved it so much that we're going again tomorrow before it closes on Tuesday. We can't wait until next summer; I'm sure we'll be spending a lot of time here.

sweet friends at snack time

Nora's first haircut

I've neglected my blog lately because I've had so many half-finished posts in my head or I'm waiting for a home project (or several) to be finished to share them. So, in the meantime I'll give you pics of Nora's first haircut, which happened today. Her hair wasn't especially long, but it was starting to look a bit haggard with varying lengths. She did a great job sitting on the booster seat and wearing the cape. So big!

helping comb her hair

Finished product...not much different in shape but much cleaner!