i'd rather be camping: November 2011

Seventeen Months

11/15/2011 - Posted by Allison - 0 comments

At 17 months Nora is into:

broccoli (tees!)
clinking glasses (salut!)
doing it herself
chasing after Gatsby(Ats-ee) the papillon carrying around a large tupperware tray filled with sippy cups
her lovey, Booboo (tiny fleece blanket with a lamb/hippo/rabbit head depending on which one is clean)
her stuffed turtle (Tuh-tle) from "Uncle Brandon"
being done with dinner when she she is done with dinner
tea

Why am I giving a 17 month update? Because we had 17 month photos taken and I feel the need to write something and not just post photos. The timing is slightly less random than you might think. Basically, I wanted 18 month photos/holiday photos taken but our wonderful photography Tanya of Precious Moments Photography is due with her second child in early December and wasn't going to be available closer to the time Nora hits 18 months. So we went with 17 months. I'm keeping the holiday photos under wraps (pun totally intended) until a more appropriate time. I refuse to give into the holiday spirit until Thanksgiving has passed.

Catfish Kisses

11/13/2011 - Posted by Allison - 0 comments

Finally! A schedule-free Sunday with no Packer game. Thank you Monday Night Football. It's not that I'm anti-football or anything. It's just when the Badgers take up a chunk of every Saturday and the Packers overwhelm Sundays and the Brewers were in the playoff for far too long, weekends tend to get kind of crowded. That's way more sports than this barely casual fan can handle.

Plus, we were running out of food. And though the local Piggly Wiggly manages to keep us stocked with staples, getting real groceries requires an hour and a half roundtrip drive to Dubuque. Since there was no game to get home for, we used the opportunity to visit the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. Mike and I had been before, mainly through Girl Scout trips when I was in grad school and working for GSUSA. As the admission price is borderline outrageous (I would prefer Smithsonian affliates charge what the Smithsonian does...ie. nothing) I made an executive decision that we should probably go before we have to start paying for Nora, and it gave us an excuse to see the new addition in the old Diamond Jo Casino. I hope Nora appreciated the trip - because we're now broke and future trips to an aquarium will probably involve the fish section at PetSmart.

Loving the toddler accessible fishies.