My poor baby is agonizing over this tooth. Twice today she has cried so hard and finally when we don't know what else to do, we'll lie her down and she passes out. Teething tablets don't work. So far the only thing that semi-works is something cold on her gums or tylenol. I'm about to find a way to pull this dumb thing out myself. . .

Half of my brother's band, Poor Rich Folk, came in town and we got to see them play. His stay was brief but it was good to see him. Nora even made it to the coffee shop where they played and was sporting her PRF jersey. It's hot glued ribbon with fabulous writing from a sharpie marker. awesome. It started at 8, which, after technical difficulty was actually about 8:30, so she passed out after a few songs. I'm pretty sure she thinks her Uncle Randy rules. I even got on stage and sang with them. No pictures of that, though...

I'm not holding her foot anymore!!!! My big girl's sitting up.
She bit it after I took this picture. She still needs practice but she's on her way!!

On the off chance someone else is up at 2:40 am, does anybody know how much Dimetapp you can give a five month old??

Kevin's going to kill me. I came home the other day when he was off work and taking care of Nora. This is what I found. When I took a picture he said "don't put that on your blog". Hee! Sorry, Kev, it was too sweet not to document.

Kevin took this picture. Nora always crosses her legs at her ankles or puts her foot up like this now. It's her new thing.
If the camera was moved down a bit you could see my hand barely holding her foot. We're almost sitting up but not quite...
This girl is all over the place. She army crawls everywhere. In seconds, too. I'll put her on one end of the blanket and she's on the other end in no time.

Attention Mothers of Daughters

I watch Oprah occasionally, but I think God directed me there today. I'm not sure if anyone saw it, but several people who read my blog have daughters and tons of my friends have daughters. You can read about it at www.oprah.com. The basic storyline was about little girls who have poor self esteem at age 4, 5, etc. There was also a teenager who hated herself more than I've ever seen anyone hate themselves. This is nothing new, however, what I didn't realize is how much a mother can contribute to this way of thinking in their daughters by how much we like ourselves. In every situation, the mothers had poor self esteem and the daughters saw this in their moms and received daily messages (unintentionally) from their moms which they translated into their own esteem. The moms would say, "you are beautiful, you're skinny to their daughters" in the same breath they would complain about their own appearance. It's not enough to just say to your child "beauty is from within", etc. We must work out our own insecurities or they will be passed on. It's amazing how much you don't realize until it's too late.

It was a real wakeup call. I would never forgive myself if Nora saw any insecurity in me and learned from this. There are sooo many times when I'm getting dressed and change into another outfit because I didn't like the way it looked on me. I complain about my face, hair, teeth, etc. Just the other day I had someone tell me about her five year old daughter who was getting dressed and said "mom, it just doesn't feel right". Where else could she have learned that statement? It really opened my eyes to feel everyday that God made me, I am beautiful to Him, your looks will disappear and what you have left is your inside. That will never go away if you work hard on maintaining your character, integrity, personality, etc. I must teach Nora that not only through words, but in the way I act toward myself daily.
Thought I would share. It was a great show.

On another note, a close friend of mine at work gave me something I'd never seen before today. It was a calendar that had specific things to pray about for your children. She took her daughter to college the other day (which I can't even fathom the emotions she was feeling), but when talking to about it she said, you know angie, she will be okay because I know her soul is ready. In other words, she has trained her so well that she has no worries about her daughter making the right decisions with all the freedom she's about to have. It made me realize, gosh, I'm responsible for Nora's soul. I better start praying more! I am giving Kevin a copy of this prayer to keep at work, this way Nora has her mother and father praying daily for specific things in her life. I tried to scan it and put it on my blog but I was having technical difficulties.

Here's some examples:
1- (first day of month) Salvation
Lord, I pray that my children would obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 2 Timothy 2:10
2- God's grace
I pray that my children may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18.
3- Love
Father, grant that my children would learn to live a life of love, through the spirit who lives in them. Eph. 5:2
4- Integrity
Lord, may integrity and uprightness protect my children because their hope is in you. Psalm 25:21

It's helpful because I try and pray for Nora daily, but sometimes I'm repetitive. This helps you organize your prayers and pray for everything from contentment to boldness. If you're interested in a copy post your address on the world wide web (kidding, e-mail me angiedee22@yahoo.com) and I'll send you a copy.

Nora graduated to the 'in between' bathtub..

My parents are here this weekend. Dad is having a blast with Nora and vice versa!

Got to feeling guilty for putting a picture of my poor, pitiful, sick mother so I deleted it. What a sweet daughter. She ended up feeling better the day before they left and got to spend a little quality time with Nora. That's a much more appropriate picture of her up top. :)

Early Sunday morning my grandma and my daughter’s namesake, Nora Leeta Reilly aka Mimi, passed away. We pronounced it Mimee and not Meemee. She was in south Texas living in a nursing home and peacefully drifted away. She had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for about 12-13 years. Mimi was my last living grand parent and was the 2nd Nora in her family. Her mother, my great grandma, was Nora as well. There are many things I remember about Mimi:

Always getting a package from Mimi and Happy (my grandpa) during holidays and most importantly, Halloween.
Spending all of my vacations in South Texas from an early age until junior high or so. I remember wondering when the vacations would end because it felt like we were there for months! You can only light so many ants on fire with a magnifying glass, or hit a tennis ball against the garage so many times!
Walking down the alley to the store to get an Icey. This was the highlight of my day.
Mimi or Happy putting out a bowl of milk for the 30 (seriously) stray cats that lived under the house and making the “brrrrrrrdt” (come and get it) noise.
Stealing Mimi’s stash of Double Mint gum from her top drawer. I never knew what else was in that drawer b/c I wasn’t tall enough to see, but I knew that’s where the stash was.
The AM radio blaring in the kitchen from 7 am until 10:30 pm every night. News all day and night. Awesome for a 7 year old who was already musically advanced!
Mimi and Happy drinking 15 cups of coffee a day. From 7 am until 10:30 at night…listening to the stinking news!
Mimi and Happy sleeping in separate rooms (weird!)
Finding wine or liquor in their pantry and my mom telling me that it was only used for cooking. Good job mom. I bought it…for a while.
Thinking that Happy looked like Higgins from Magnum PI. Happy was always dressed up in a short sleeve shirt with 75 pens in the pocket, slacks and wingtips no matter what time of day it was.
Mimi was a librarian and I remember eating lunch with her at school. I guess I was too young to be at school myself. Why do I remember eating a burrito and drinking milk at that school? That's really vivid and extremely gross now!
Mimi wearing “cat” old school glasses.
Going to church in Edinburgh, being one of 2 kids in class and having to read a scripture and talk in class. Ah, that was nerve racking!
Uncle Mike and Pat coming in late for communion and then sneaking out the back…ha!
Timing our departure from Houston to Edinburgh so that we made it to church in every small town in between.
Edinburgh c of c holding the record for singing hymns the slowest of any church in the world.
Mimi using the word “britches” instead of pants.
Old women coming over to “visit” with Mimi and mom, or rather, sit around for hours and hours drinking coffee and talking until I went insane. Maybe this is why I burned ants with a magnifying glass.
Getting hit by a pitch in the eye during baseball tryouts on their 50th wedding anniversary. Where are the pictures that show that awesome black eye, mom?
And many, many more…

Mimi lived with us during my senior year of high-school. I remember her taking all of my phone messages on her crossword puzzle/jumble books. I wouldn’t get messages until weeks after they were taken! This was the beginning of her Alzheimer’s. She always called my girlfriend at the time by the wrong name. That was funny! She also got in bed with my dad by mistake one night when she got confused! Hello!

The best memory was when I saw her last summer (for the first time in about 10 years!) and Angie met her for the first time while she was pregnant with Nora. Kyle and his family, Uncle Pat, Uncle Mike and Aunt Patty were there with her. She couldn’t talk and for the most part didn’t appear to know what was going on. So I thought. I think she was just fooling us! She would chuckle in her patented fashion just like she always did and play with her hands that wore all those same rings that I had remembered. That was her way of communicating with us. My sisters got down to see her several months after we did. It’s funny how we did not see her for so long, but after we went, she passed away. It’s like she was just waiting to tell us good bye.

Thought I'd share with you what I go through when I cook every day .....Usually I can't even open the cabinet door because Denver's head is lying against it.