“I love my new friends!”

That’s what Nora has been saying a lot recently since she’s been having so much fun playing with her pals Maya and Rachel. Nora has been making up for lost time socializing and is loving every minute of it. Between frequent playdates with her new best buds, attending her first birthday party for another child and meeting a new friend this weekend she’s keeping her calendar full of fun. 🙂

For Nora’s cousins Lucas and Olivia’s birthday party, we brought Nora-safe equivalents to the cupcakes and ice cream they were serving. And Nora’s mango coconut milk ice cream on a gluten free cone turned out to be quite the hit! Mama Tom was excited that she now has a yummy ice cream she can eat with her diverticulitis and the kids just thought it was plain ol’ yummy. Nora had a great time and so did we. It was perfect that Nora’s first attendance at a kid’s bday party besides her own was at her great-grandmother’s house.

The birthday boy called Nora over to him and said he needed to “tell Nora’s something”. He made her wait for it and she was listening very intently for something important.

Nora started to get suspicious…..look at this face….she’s starting to catch on…..what’s this boy going to say..

In typical Lucas fashion he delivered a very important funny face message, I think it was worth the wait. 🙂

This weekend Nora and I met up with my friend Susan and her nephew at the museum of arts and science. It’s a great hands on place for kids to learn and play. (germaphobe alert)

John Corbin is about 6 months older than Nora, they got along good and made very sweet playmates. 🙂


Nora had a great time at the museum and I had a great time watching her be just one of the kids. But it was definitely a good dose of exposure therapy for me. It was by far the most germ friendly environment Nora had ever been in before, so many kids, so many touchable surfaces. I tried not to be too crazed wiping Nora’s hands down but she kept rubbing her nose all the while having a wonderful time playing with all of the toys. Then in typical 3 year old fashion Nora licks one of the play plastic foods just as I’m telling Susan how I’m seeing things through my germ goggles. (ahh!) Oh well, she had a great time and this experience was long overdue and she deserved the pure joy of it. (and hopefully she escaped cootie free)

(for those of you who’s eye caught the little girl with the backpack and were wondering, it’s just a backpack. in our experience seeing such a little girl with such a big backpack usually means there’s pump in it but not this time, I was nosey and investigated)