The cousins

Cousin Max came to play the other day and Sorin and Norah were very happy to have him here. And, as you can see, Max was very happy to be here. There is just something about babies interacting that is so cute!! Especially cousin babies...

6 months!!!

I'm a little late on the 6 months post - but better late than never. Boy do I like that little cliche. Norah baby is growing up. She spends her days talking and smiling and laughing and going after Sorin and still seems to have time for a lot of sleeping and eating. She is a fun little baby, full of life and very charming. We are amazed at how active she is.

Here are her new things:

Eating, so far just cereal, we're about ready to move on, though.

Crawling, she'll get up on her hands and knees really well, but then she resorts to more of an army crawl.

Morning yoga. She's very strong. She would make her cousin Britt very proud.

Sorin Pics

Yesterday I taught Sorin how to use our camera. It may seem irresponsible that I would let him use a real camera, but I didn't have a toy one on hand and, frankly, he would never be interested in a toy camera. He loves technology and figuring out how things work and I have a lot of fun teaching him and then watching him catch on and work on figuring it out even more. So I taught him how to just take a picture (which button to press, basically - he already knew how to turn it on and off). So he had the camera and while I fed his cousin, Max, a bottle he ran off with it and practiced (ok that may have been a little irresponsible). When I took it back and looked at the pictures, this is what I saw:

Trip to Appleberry Farm

As I've mentioned before, fall is my favorite time of the year.  Signs of Autumn:

• trees turning to gorgeous colors of red, yellow, and orange
• football in full swing
• jeans and a flannel
• apple orchards

Two years ago Katie and I took Sorin to Applegarten on down on Fish Hatchery Road.  It was a good experience but last year we discovered Appleberry Farms out off Mineral Point Road and it has become our favorite autumn destination.  (You can see from the pics how much cooler it was last year.)

Of course this year Norah had her first experience with the apples and pumpkins at Appleberry Farm.  It was a hot fall day, temperatures into the low to mid-70s by the time we were leaving.  This year we took a hayride for the first time and really enjoyed a relaxing tour of the property.

In a little back story, my sister Megan and Jeff got Sorin a wheelbarrow for his birthday.  You can see he's really good at using it around the yard.

So today at the farm Sorin jumped right into action when it was time to find a pumpkin for him and his sister.

Sorin even finished off the process by taking the pumpkins to the scale to be weighed before we could purchase them.

This year's trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch was a little shorter (and warmer) than in years past, but you can see the whole family enjoyed the morning together.

While Sorin Sleeps

We've all heard little stories about pets and toys coming out and playing little games while the family sleeps in the night. Right? That is what it feels like for Norah and me some days while Sorin is napping. There are times when, once Sorin goes to bed for his nap, Norah is waking up and we play and play. We have so much fun that I catch myself thinking, "If Sorin only knew, he'd never take a nap again..." Here are some things that we do...

Have 'wake up/smile time' in the crib and Norah practices balancing on her hands and knees - I think we're going to have an early crawler on our hands!!

Then we have a photo shoot cause as I'm playing with her I think about how cute she is and what good pictures this would make and so I get my camera and:

And then after that we have mirror time, and Norah Schiefelbein has a play time with her little friend Norah Mirror:

My little daughter is so much fun : )

Norah: 5 Months

As Norah turned FIVE months today, she wanted us to let you know that she doesn't ask for much. Essentially she can be put into a good mood by doing one of the following:

• give her food
• let her sleep
• lay her on her back and time how fast it takes her to roll over
• show a pic of her happy to be FIVE months old

So I thought I'd amuse our little girl.  Enjoy.

Happy 5-Month, Norah!!

gowaka ba

This Sorin's new thing when he takes a nap... Norah (gowaka) (we don't get it either) staying in bed (ba) with him for a little while. He likes to put his arm around her and, I think, 'take care of her' while I leave the room. I of course do not have the guts to leave for any length of time longer than what is shown on this video : ). But isn't that cute?? It seems like Norah enjoys it too...

Sorin's YouTube Channel

Are you ready for this? Currently Sorin's favorite books to tote around are about crocodiles. He pronounces it more like "cocka-way", but we've obviously picked up on his lingo for "crocodile."

A few weeks ago Katie found a crocodile video on YouTube and so every once in awhile they fire up the MacBook and watch YouTube crocodile videos together. Ahh, to be an infant in 2010...

Want to see what fascinates our son? It's only 1:48 long, but after about 0:35 you get the idea of the video:




So last week Katie and Sorin watched the crocodile video. After the video was over, Katie went to do some work in the kitchen when she heard the sounds of a different video playing. Note: this video is not a regular link from the crocodile video -- Sorin found this one himself. This is what Sorin was watching:

(It's about "a girl, a cat and big hunk of brie.")

Peach Shortbread

It is a cold and windy day today... and while it isn't raining, I just don't have the heart to go outside. Days like this require multiple projects or Sorin goes a little CRAZY staying inside all day. Early this morning I found that some of my VERY EXPENSIVE organic peaches had gotten moldy before they even were ripe, and realized that - a. I had to use the rest of them or they would follow quickly behind the others and b. I shouldn't buy them again this season. So I decided that our project was going to be Peach Shortbread.

Now, Sorin and I have - pretty much - the same taste in food. We both love pasta with a good tomato sauce made from

scratch, or sautéed vegetables with hint of kosher salt and lots of pepper, or a good honey mustard vinaigrette. We love tuna melts with tomatoes from the garden and bread and butter pickles, whole wheat pancakes, and oatmeal with cranberries and just a touch of brown sugar, and most of all we LOVE chips! (this is a terrible case of nature vs. nurture - I know).

Peach shortbread, I thought, would be a treat for us both. I am not that into sweets (Sorin and I differ on that point). I love shortbread, or tart

pies, and anything chocolate but could take or

leave cake and ice cream, and cookies (with the exception of

Han's hot-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, my mom's chocolate chip cookies, and my mother-in-law's cherry chip cookies). Now that I'm writing this, I take it back - I do like sweets - just certain ones. And Sorin has NEVER met a peach he did not like. So when I found this recipe on this blog I knew I

had to make it. It was a great recipe to make with Sorin.

Not a lot of ingredients, just the right amount of

stirring and a lot of patting dough into the

baking pan. Not to mention all the peaches you can eat, cause they've GOT TO GO!

So as you can see from these pictures, Sorin had

a utensil in one hand and a peach in the other at all times. Unless I told him to put the peach down and he did this -

He dutifully cut the butter into the flour

and patted the dough into the pan. And then I said, "Ok - it's time to put the peaches on top," and I turned around and saw this -

And VOILA! Our finished project.

Now go and make this because it is UNBELIEVABLY good. You KNOW something is good when you give it to Sorin, he gobbles it up and then looks at you and says,

"More."