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Originally uploaded by mrplatts

What a month! We welcomed Valerie Michelle to our family on October 19th, Marie’s Birthday too! Mom & Baby did awesome! The stats at the birth:

8lb 5oz.
20.75 Inches long

Born 8:03pm

This cow was big enough to eat Nora if it really wanted to. Look how brave she is as she feeds it!

Ok, I claim cutest kid, at least for yesterday. We stopped in Morgantown for some food, and we relaxed a bit and let Nora have fries (actually this place didn’t serve any other vegetables, gotta love college restaurants) — I gave her some ketchup to dip her fries in and she put it in her mouth and then took it out. We figured she didn’t like it (it was Hunt’s after all) Then she kept doing the same thing, lining up her ‘used’ fries on the table. Eventually it occurred to me that she just was sucking the ketchup off of the fries. I had to show her how to dip into ketchup and bite the fry! She got the hang of it immediately. I never thought I would have to teach my kid how to use condiments!

Well, we are in North Carolina enjoying the hospitality of Marie’s mom & dad.  Nora is having a grand old time, mostly laughing at the dogs being silly.   Getting here was a bit of a nightmare though. We chose to swing through Washington, DC to visit Marie’s sister, a choice that under normal conditions would have added about three hour of driving to the normal seven and a half hour trip to Burlington.  My frustration upon finally arriving in Burlington is evident in the tweet I sent when we arrived at Ann & RJ’s, finally.

This is no news to anyone who has ever spent any time on the highways around Washington DC, but for those of you reading who haven’t had this honor let me spell it out to you graphically.

EDIT: Come to think of it, there is no way DC is that far . . . 246 miles actually . . . mistyped the distance somehow.

Maybe it is just me that is behind the times, It could be all the rage to zip in and out of lanes of traffic (only to be passed by those people you endangered in about ten minutes) and then occasionally smash into an unsuspecting vanload of orphans, or whatever you prefer.  We did make it unscathed through the traffic, and Nora was absolutely wonderful in the car!  It could have been much worse with a cranky kid in the back.  Of course we did hear screams when Marie handed her a Popsicle in the back seat and then we realized the mess that she would be in a touch too late and had to retrieve said Popsicle.

So, that was Friday . . . Saturday was much better, RJ and I went to this really cool Go-Karting track (sadly no pic of me in a headsock and racing helmet.  These karts could fly, well I still argue that to make it fair that skinny guy we were racing against should have had a few sandbags in his Kart to even things out, my poor Go-Kart had to work twice as hard as his to accelerate.  Nora and Mommy went out for lunch with some friends & in the evening we all went to Burlington City Park to ride the rides.  (Pictures in following post.)

Sunday was a day at Wrightsville Beach, NC. The blue dot is where we chilled (baked) for the afternoon!

Pictures coming up!

Here on Carmen Dr. we are loving the lovely spring weather! Today is finally reasonable enough to leave the house in spring clothing, instead of 30 degrees in the morning & seventy in the afternoon! We are also looking forward to this summer! Nora finishes up at “School” (daycare) in just a few weeks and we will go from a full-tilt action-packed work schedule to a full-tilt action-packed summer schedule.

On the docket for our time “off”:

• Rich travels to Birmingham, AL for the National Forensics League Tournament
• An August wedding of Marie’s Cousin
• An August Family Reunion
• A trip to Toronto, eh!
• Painting Nora’s new bedroom
• Painting the Kitchen
• Finishing the seven jobs that are half-done around the house
• A week in North Carolina
• Rich’s two-week internship in the Technology Department at USC
• Rich is ‘project leader’ for a staff development program – so that will be in there somewhere. . .

Man, we are going to need a vacation after summer vacation is over.  I’m tired already!

Thought I would share a quick video of Nora. She is learning where her head, nose, and as you see her belly button are.

What can I say she takes after her mother. . .

Nora’s Funny Face

Originally uploaded by mrplatts

This is the classic “Deborah” Face!

We are expecting baby #2 sometime this coming October. Due date is the 21st!

Whew! What a weekend! Frankly we are exhausted, all of us, me, Marie and Nora. Nora took a nap as soons as G&G hit the road (at 9:00am). Ann & RJ arrived Thursday, and although I tried to keep her up to say hello, Nora was desperate to go to sleep. No worries though, she had all day Friday & Saturday to play with them. Frankly I thought she was going to wear them out, but it turned out that the opposite was true.

Grandpa got Nora the bike you see in the pictures below, which she absolutely loves. I’m a big fan too since it has this handy “parent push and steer bar” which means I don’t have to spend the day with my back bent down holding the back of the bike. Genius!

Saturday afternoon turned out to be nice weather, so we all had fun climbing up and down the playground equipment at Lincoln School!