Happy Halloween

Up until last year, I had never handed out candy for Halloween. The past ten years have also been dedicated to the Halloween Bus Party until last year. Tia and I did walk around our cul-de-sac and did some trick or treating, but we also handed out candy for a while too. This year, I decided I wanted to do something better and so I ordered candy and some toys and bagged them so it is easy to hand out. I think Tia will have fun handing out these bags to the trick or treaters. Here are some pictures of Chris and Tia being silly:

Alright! Here You Go! Oh No!

I have to say that I love Tia's sayings... She has really started to talk and it is adorable. She says alright a lot especially when you do what she wants. Oh no when an oops happens and here you go when she gives you something. Chris's favorite is when she says 'oh no Tia' which cracks him up because she says it to herself. He calls her Jimmy from Seinfeld who talks in 3rd person. She is a little chatter box for sure.

World Series - St. Louis Cardinals

I am super proud of our St. Louis Cardinals. As a team who came back from being pretty much out of the running has now won the World Series for the 11th time. I made sure Tia was all dressed up in her many St. Louis Cardinals shirts. Thanks to Aunt Wes Wee (Leslie), Tia had a few cute Cardinal's shirts to wear the rest of the week. On Friday, October 28th, we went over to cousin Jeremy's house to watch the game and meet his new little addition Elliot. It was nice to catch up and relax. The game was well played by the Cardinal's and of course after they won, we were hysterically excited. Almost amazed really! So I am excited that in Tia's lifetime, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series and hopefully the first of many more in their life. Plus, baby Norris #2 is alive in my belly and is also witness to the exciting World Series win. Here is a picture of little Elliot experiencing his first World Series win.

Tia Loves Outside

One of Tia's favorite words is outside. She absolutely loves playing outside. Aren't these photos adorable.

Mommy's Girl

The past several mornings, Tia has been super clingy, extra cranky, and does not want me to put her down when we get to daycare.  I hate seeing her cry, but I have to leave to get to work on time.  I am not sure if she'll crack this routine. She has been this way for months, but after being sick last week, she added the crankiness that is hard to handle.  As a parent, it is so hard to know what your child needs if they can't communicate it. When she woke up this morning, she seemed fine, but then she wouldn't eat, drink, let me change her clothes, and just cried.  She wanted to be held, but acted like she didn't. She didn't want daddy or do any of her normal routine. I just had to put her in the car as is. I changed her and fixed her hair when we got to daycare.  When we went in, she seemed fine again and then as soon as we got to her classroom, she went into a cry. It feels like I'm abandoning her, but of course I'm not.  Hopefully she'll rid this soon. I would hate for Chris to have to go through that during my maternity leave.  Maybe she knows there is another baby coming and wants to hold on to being my baby girl for that much longer, ha.  Either way, I just can't get enough of Tia. She is just such an amazing addition to my life!

St. Louis Cardinal's in the World Series

I'm so proud of our St. Louis Cardinals. They have made a huge comeback from barely making it into the playoffs to being in the World Series. They are even winning 2-1 in games right now against the Texas Rangers. They should have won game 2, but after almost a shut out game let the Rangers score 2 runs in the last inning for the win. They won the last game 12 to 6 with Albert Pujols hitting three home runs to break Babe Ruth's record. Albert is the only person to ever hit three home runs in a World Series game. Wow, what a great honor. So the Card's are 2 games away from winning the world series. Let's pray they do it!! Woo Hoo

Good Bye MeeMaw

So Tia has a lot of Grandma's and she calls all of them MeeMaw including my mom. My mom lived with us the past week as her house closing became final and her husband started his new job in OH. They originally were moving to Thailand right after they closed on their house, but he got this final job and thought it was a good one to take as his last one. So they are moving to Toledo, OH for a few months. My mom's plan is to stay until Baby Norris #2 is born and then she's off to Thailand. So, her husband Ray flew in yesterday and this morning, they left to drive to Toledo in my mom's car. It is about a 9 hour drive. She said they won't come back for Thanksgiving since it is so far away and that over Christmas, they go visit Ray's brother who is on his last leg out in North Carolina. She will be back around the time I give birth for her final days in STL and U.S. Chris and I were very spoiled this week having my mom here. She has a cleaning fetish and I certainly didn't get that trait. I do like my house tidy and clean, but not as clean as my mom likes it. She sees dirt where I can't and she has an urge to clean. She does clean houses for a living including a couple of my coworkers and she used to do some Ram's players houses too. She does a great job and no, she has never cleaned a single house I've ever lived in until now. I cleaned before she moved in, of course, but she did an overhaul and cleaned the kitchen, would make our beds, took all the dust/cobwebs away, ironed all of Chris's clothes, even cleaned our basement a little. The list goes on. We were not complaining and then there was her food. I know we all say this about our mom's but I LOVE my mom's cooking. I've been spoiled with her, my step-mom's, and my grandma's cooking my whole life and I love it. My mom cooked every day and Chris vowed he'd gain a ton of weight this week, but he just wanted more and more of her food. It was nice having a week of pampering and just having my mom around. Thanks Mom!

6 Month Doctor Appointment for Baby #2

I had my 6 month doctor's appointment on Wednesday and had to take Tia with me. By now, she had been to the doctor quite a few times and almost every time she had shots given to her which she hates. I didn't even think that she'd react when we walked in because I knew this was for me and baby #2, not her. But as soon as the nurse came in to take my blood pressure, Tia started freaking out. She went into this scared cry as if the nurse was going to give her some shots. I kept saying, 'Tia's this is for mommy, not you', but she didn't care. After the blood pressure was taken, the nurse walked out. We waited for the doctor for quite some time and Tia just sat on my lap like a good little girl distracted by the iPad. Then the doctor came in and he snuck in because he had heard how Tia reacted to the nurse. We chatted a bit and he said, we'll let's listen to the heartbeat. When I tried to put Tia on the chair, she screamed out with the scared cry again. We were trying to tell her that this was not for her, but she didn't believe us. So I just pulled up my shirt and the doctor put the instrument on my belly and we heard the amazing sound of baby Norris #2's heartbeat. Tia was still crying, but not as hard. I could tell she wasn't sure what was going on. Then it was time to leave and Tia was saying bye to everyone. I think she was happy to get out of there. I guess it is safe to assume that we are going to have a hard time with her at her 2 year appointment - oh boy.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

The past couple days have not been fun with Tia. It is pretty emotionally exhausting and honestly, I just pray that she gets better quickly, because I hate to see her in so much pain. I was on Tia duty last night and I wasn't sure how it go, but it was excruciating. We went to bed and she seemed to sleep just fine at first. We got home late because we had dinner plans and Katma watched Tia during the day. Chris watched her in the afternoon, then Great Aunt Jenny watched Tia while we were at dinner. The key is to keep her distracted, which seems to be pretty easy, but she has her moments where she just is in so much pain. The spots on her tongue turned into holes. Chris explains it as if she had tongue piercings and took them out. They do look so painful. Her feet are all discolored red with some spots here and there. She wouldn't eat or drink anything. She would barely take medicine and she was just not happy! So we got home late from dinner with friends at Kobe and watching the end of the St. Louis Cardinal's play game 2 of the World Series. She slept until about midnight. I slept in the spare bed in her room, just because I knew it would not be a fun night with her and I was right. She woke up just after midnight and was having her pain/hurt cry constantly. Nothing seemed to help her. She didn't want anything I had to offer from holding her, putting her in bed with me, a bottle (that we brought out of retirement), a drink, food, rocking, or even watching Barney. Nothing seemed to soothe her. I just held her and tried to soothe her but there was nothing that was calming her down. I felt bad for my mom sleeping in the guest room because Tia was in the condition for almost 2 hours. I was at my wits end and it was the type of cry she had. I could tell she was in so much pain. So about 2am, I finally threw in the towel. I walked her into our bedroom where Chris was and in the midst of her crying said 'honey, I'm desperate and pulling out the pinkie'. I didn't want to do it, because she had gone over a month cold turkey without one, but I was desperate and it was time to call in the big dogs. So I said, 'Tia, you wan't a pinkie' and she smiled (finally) from ear to ear and said 'Kee Kee' and I knew she wanted it. So I found one, washed it off and gave it to her. She was careful in putting in in her mouth. You could tell it hurt at first, but she wanted it badly. She then pointed to her crib and I put her in it and she was out. I got into bed next to her and we went to sleep. She got up almost every hour on the hour with a painful shout, and sigh of being uncomfortable, but then she went back to bed each time. I was saying 'Amen' under my breath. I just hated seeing her in so much pain. She'd be going to Katma's on Friday and I prayed that the worst was over.

Hand Foot Mouth Disease

I have to admit that I have never heard of Hand Foot Mouth disease until this week. Tia was super cranky last weekend and wouldn't eat much, but we just summed it up to possibly teething or a growth spurt. However, a few days later we found out what she had and I have to say that it is a horrible thing. On Monday, I got a call from daycare in the afternoon that Tia wasn't herself. That she was laying on the cot just crying after her nap and she wasn't being her normal diva-like self. So I left work early and went to pick her up. She seemed fine when we got home, but I did notice that she was eating/drinking more careful that before. I wasn't sure what that was about, but with Tia, I just sum it up to her being her little cute self. Then Tuesday, I got another call and this was early in the day. They said they think they know what is wrong with her. They saw some sores in her mouth and on her feet. They said they think it is HFM, but they don't know for sure. So I called the doctor and they seemed confident that it was exactly what the daycare said. They gave me some recommendations on how to soothe her pain, but they pretty much said that there is nothing we could do for her because this was something that just had to run its course. We did our research and I asked around and this is something that is very common among kids and the daycare circuit. Chris was able to pick her up and head home. My mom was able to watch her for an hour when Chris left to go bowling and I was on my way home. That night she didn't eat a thing. When she'd drink, she drink from the very tip. Then she slept horribly which made us sleep horribly. The next day, I took off of work to watch her and had planned to work a half day and have my mom watch her the 2nd half of the day. But Tia was extra cranky, extra clingy, and I was not going to leave Tia with my mom in that condition. So I just took off the whole day except an hours worth of work to get things finalized for meetings the next day. I had some pretty big meetings in the morning and needed to get a good night sleep. I just did not know how she'd sleep. She was up a few times and I was beside myself tired, so I asked Chris to go and sleep in her room so I could get some sleep. He kindly did so, but said he didn't sleep but 45 minutes the whole time. I promised to do Tia duty the next night.

iPhones for Mommy & Daddy

I have never really had an urge to get an iPhone, but for some reason we got one. So the truth is that I love having a keyboard. I had a Treo from 2003 until 2008 and really had no intention of getting rid of it. But, the Sprint store talked me into something a little more with the times, ha. I guess I can be a creature of habit from time to time. I have a Samsung Moment for the past three years and I've really liked it. Touch screen, pull out keyboard, and it seemed to do everything I needed. Recently, it has been acting up and I've had the urge to change, but again I just get into my same old routine. We've been sitting on our upgrades for months now and decided that we've finally could both use some new phones, but we didn't quite have an idea of what. Then Sprint announced they were getting iPhones which was big news. So we thought, why not. The iPhone 4S is supposed to be the latest and greatest introducing Siri (talking assistant) and iCloud. I pre-ordered on the first day about 4am and it wasn't long that the pre-orders were sold out. There were no guarantees when we'd get our devices, but we weren't in a huge hurry. Except our excitement of course. Luckily, we were one of the first and we received ours the first day available. I have to admit, it has been a few days since I've had mine and I absolutely love it. Even if it doesn't have a keyboard where I can feel the individual buttons. I know Chris likes his too. So Mommy and Daddy have new toys! hee hee

Family Weekend

We had a great weekend with my mom, Ray, and my little sister Sam. My mom and her husband were supposed to leave Saturday for OH where my step-dad has his last contract job in the U.S. before they go to Thailand. However, my mom decided to stay behind one week to finalize finances from the sale of their house and say some final goodbyes in St. Louis. So Ray left Saturday and made his way to Toledo. I was able to get my mom's AWESOME Thai beef noodle soup on Friday night. We had a family dinner and it was, as Chris would say, 'Glorious'. Then since she stayed on Saturday, she cooked us her spaghetti too. I was able to get that recipe too. So she plans to cook this week some of her other dishes and I can't wait to get these recipes so I have them. My little sister came home from college to spend the weekend with us. I think it was great for her to get quality time with Tia. They seemed to bond quickly and were just loving each other. So I have my mom here for one more week. She'll head to Toledo and probably come in a couple times in the next months until Baby Norris #2 is born. Then they'll be off to Thailand. If flight prices go down, she could go earlier but we'll see. It is nice having her around.

Night Owl

Tia is such a night owl. She does not want to go to bed. We have set her bed time at 8:30pm because that seems to be about the time we've fed, played, washed up, and are ready for her to go to bed. However, the past months, she has really tried to push that time to as late as she can get. If you ask her if she is ready for night night, she'll say no. So we'll have to coax her into going to night night which is not easy. She does fight it and she gets so upset. I have friends whose kids can barely keep their eyes open after 6 or 7 and here is Tia the night owl. Now Chris is a super duper night owl and I used to be before having Tia, so it doesn't surprise me. She gets up in the mornings with me around 6ish and lately she has fought that so now I know she is my daughter because I love my sleep and I love sleeping in...so does Chris. The past few nights we'll put her in her bed and she'll talk or sing to herself. Last night, she did it for over an hour. It was super cute of what we could hear through the monitor, but it was getting to be almost 10 and she was still jabbering away. I loved it when she started singing 'dada dada daddy daddy' and I could tell Chris just loved that. She sings and talks and we just get a kick out of it, but the girl would not go to bed to save her life, ha. I have a really hard time sleeping and I pray she does not grow up with that problem. I don't think she will, because we've exposed her to noise and other things and she has had no problem. I do know she has started to get 'uncomfortable' and I definitely have that problem too. My thing is that I grew up in a quiet house. It was so quiet you could hear every cricket alive. It was also pitch dark. So I am used to having nothing but dark stillness when I go to bed. College was a chore because I had some terrible roommates who didn't care if they were loud while I was sleeping. My cousin Missy has slept with a fan her whole life and I started to adopt that shortly after college. I know it took a short while for chris to get used to it, but now he loves it too. The fan helps me get that steady quietness I need while Chris can stay up and watch movies, etc. My mind races too. A list of to-dos or things I need to work on race in my brain at night and it causes me to have a hard time falling asleep. I will say with being pregnant again, it isn't as hard to fall asleep because I am always so tired. The other thing is if I watch movies right before bed. I will spend an hour or two analyzing the movie. One reason why I can't watch scary ones anymore because I'll spend countless hours reliving every part of it in my head. I sure have a vivid imagination and I guess I am super analytical, but sometimes when it is time to go to bed, I just wish I could shut off the brain power to get some Zzzzz's. Probably why I have such crazy dreams too. So me being a night owl days are long over with the arrival of Tia, but I can tell she is a night owl too.

Tia's Little Words

I just love Tia's little words that she says all the time. They are so darn cute. She sings with us and communicates. Tonight, she rammed her toy into the door and I gave her a look of 'no-no' but before I could say anything, she runs over to the time-out chair sits in in and says 'No-No' with her index finger waving in the air. It was too funny. Later, I was showing her my big belly and said 'baby' and she has finally caught on that there is a baby in there or at least mommy calls her big belly baby. She rubbed it and said 'baby' then out of no where, she does a chest bump but with her belly on my belly. It was hysterical. She did it a few times. She just kept bumping her belly with my belly. Chris and I just laughed so hard. She says she is sorry which is so darn cute and says I love you. She says 'here you go' when she hands you things and of course her favorite word is 'no'. I do love it when I hear her say 'mommy' and 'daddy' and so many other words. I love it!

Mom's Moving to Thailand

So my mom has had a goal of moving to Thailand for quite some time. Her and her husband Ray bought a house in Thailand about five or so years ago in preparation to move there one day. Due to taxes, high cost of medicare, and lack of retirement, it is very hard to live in the U.S. when you haven't worked for the man your entire life. Ray has worked as a consultant, but that doesn't come with a lot of the secure benefits that normal 8 to 5 hour jobs do. Hence, they have weighed the costs and it is much cheaper to live in Thailand. So the time has finally come where they have made the plunge. They put their house on the market and were aggressive with buyers. Their house sold in a matter of days. So they are closing on Friday, October 14th and so they'll be moving in with us for a few days. Ray got a contract job in Detroit, so instead of moving right away, they'll move to Detroit for a few months and then off to Thailand they will go. They hope to wait until Baby Norris #2 is born and I'm sure they'll come stay with us from time to time until February 5th arrives. Some of you know my upbringing in that I was raised the majority of the time by my dad only seeing my mom for a month out of each year. When I got into high school, I saw her a little more and then when her late husband Ron (Sam's dad) was dying of cancer at 43, she asked me to move to STL to help her with his final days and Sam's upbringing. So after college, I moved to STL and lived with them for a couple years. It has been great getting to know her better over the years and of course spending time with her. I am going to miss her when she has moved, but I'm hoping we'll see her at least once a year or once every couple of years. I am sure Chris and I will get over there at one point after all of these babies are born, but it will be a few years for sure. So I'm enjoying my mom's final days/months while she is in the U.S.

Go Cards!

This may be one of the last times Tia gets to wear this shirt, so I wanted to put a picture of her on here. It says 'It's not my diaper that stinks, it's the Cubs"....sorry Maria/Rosie/etc, I know you are Cubs fans, haha. We had some tough games and won! yay! World Series here we come - I hope! Tia is so awesome. Go Cards!

Tia Applesauce Head

You know those times when you kids do things and you NEED to yell and be upset, but when you look at them, you just crack up. Well, here is Tia when she was eating tonight and decided instead of eating her applesauce, she would literally take a bath in it. Chris and I were watching TV and had our back to her most of this time, so we didn't catch it until it was too late. I said 'Chris, look at your daughter' and when he came over instead of being mad like 'we are supposed to', he just busted out laughing. I had my stern face on, but his laughing made me laugh. Gosh she is so darn cute. She knew we were upset though, hence why she is making such a serious face in this picture. She knew she was in trouble, but lucky girl got an instant bath out of it which she loves. Isn't she funny? and if you were wondering, yes, that is a coolie on her cup of milk.

Daycare Incident

I just wanted to note that last Friday, September 30th, there was an incident at Tia's daycare. A teacher tried to move Tia out of the way and used her purse to do it. It hit Tia hard enough for her to fall and bite her bottom lip. Tia is perfectly fine and nothing to be alarmed about. We know the teacher and we feel it may not have been the best course of action, but we certainly believe that she did not do it on purpose to intentionally hurt Tia. I picture it as her hands were full and Tia was using her favorite word 'no' and wouldn't get out of the way. The teacher probably was trying to shoo her out of the way and underestimated the weight of her purse. Now, I'm an optimist who tends to see the positive sides of situations and people. In my heart, I have to believe that the teacher would never want to intentionally harm Tia...in fact, I've seen her so loving to Tia. She is one of Chris's favorites. She is young and always bubbly when we are there. The downside of this situation is that the teacher got fired and the police also arrested her with a charge of child endangerment. The daycare was just following protocol and doing what the Department of Family & Child Services would do, etc. An investigation has brewed and we've been contacted by DFCS several times the past week. They even went to see Tia, made sure the daycare was following protocol, etc. My honest opinion is that the teacher already got fired, probably feels terrible about what mistake she made, and she is young and going through enough. I am praying that she doesn't not get the record for child endangerment that can hurt her the rest of her life. As a parent, I know I've done a few things that were mistakes and childcare on a daily basis has to be full of little incidents. I rolled over and elbowed Tia in the forehead the other night. She didn't cry and it didn't hurt her, but I felt bad still. It just happens. Now I also realize that Tia is just fine from the daycare incident and had she had to go to the hospital or something worse happened, my view on the situation would be totally different. I want to believe that the girl made a mistake, she got fired because of it and does not need a permanent record reminding her of this. We love the daycare and we know they've done everything they can to ensure Tia's safety. I just wish this situation would not have happened. But it is what it is and we have to carry on. Please pray for that teacher who lost her job!

Little Soccer Player

One thing that I love about Tia is that she has athlete written all over her. She is strong, fast, loves being active, and if you saw her trying to unlock a door...you'd see the muscles in her calfs. It would surprise me if she didn't turn out to be athletic. Of course, Chris and I are soccer people who both of us have played for most of our lives. The little girl in my belly is extremely active. Tia was active but more towards the end of the pregnancy and we sort of had a system down on how we'd get her to react to us. This baby though has no problems with being active. She is active all day, all morning, and all night. It feels like she is doing summersaults in my belly or she has a treadmill that she is running on. I love it because it makes me know she is alive and kicking, literally. If she is as active as Tia is now, then I think we'll have some athletes on our hands and hopefully two little soccer players. I can't wait to get Tia involved with soccer and then again with our second little girl. So much fun!

"Outside"

We hear this word all of the time from Tia. She loves going outside. We love that she does, but we aren't able to let her go outside as much as she wants. Our backyard is not in a condition to let her just roam around and play unless we are right there with her every step of the way. It not only has two very steep hills, but the retaining wall is at least 4 feet tall and she loves to climb on it and walk along the top of it too. Our front yard is equally steep and the driveway has at least a 30 degree incline. She does get to go out every once in a while, but coming back in is a chore. She is not great at transitions from fun to not so fun and she screams her head off. I've bribed her with ice cream or we've let her cry it out, but it just sucks because she goes from being on top of the world with smiles from ear to ear to crying her eyes out like it's the end of the world. We hate that. But we don't want her to just be held captive inside all the time either. After church yesterday we took her to a local park. We thought, what they heck, she deserves some good playground time. We stayed for almost an hour where she went up and down the slides by herself and we did the swings which she loves. But when it was time to go, it was trouble for mommy and daddy. I even did the countdown from 5 more minutes to 1 more minute and she did not want to leave. So we had to take her kicking and screaming. All the way home, she screamed too. We got her home and she screamed. We put her down for a nap because it was time and she just screamed. It was as if she couldn't calm herself down. So we did our best to get her calmed down, but she would not. I had to take her and rock her to sleep. This is something I love doing, but don't want her to get into the habit of it. She would fall all the way asleep, then as soon as I'd put her down, she'd go into a cry again. So I spent about 2 hours rocking her or laying with her. She is just my sweet baby and it was nice to have some mommy/Tia time. I know we are a sensitive family and when you get all worked up it can be hard to get calmed down again, so I just gave her some love and attention. I just am not sure how to give her outside play time when she will scream her head off when we leave. I guess we'll just have to keep doing it and deal with the crying until she understands, but it can be emotionally draining too. We'll get there. She's had a big month with getting rid of her pinkie...she's 3 weeks without one, literally cold turkey. She's two weeks with no more bottle and so she has had a few milestones to deal with. We just love her so much though and regardless of her sensitivity, we just love hugging and kissing on her.