Flash back to when you were a wee one of three months. Mommy and Daddy decided that our townhouse was too small for the 5 of us (including Brandy & Lazer).
Your toys & "gear" over took the house within a week of your birth. We searched for a more spacious home. Your father MADE me go and look at a house in Westminster, MD. I explained to him that I would look but there is no way I am moving to Westminster.
A week later we put a bid on the house in Westminster. Drats, your father won again.
The house was perfect. Want to know what the deciding factor was?
You.
As we toured our home for the first time, your father and I did not talk much. I was in a tizzy about something or other. Anyway, after the fact we were discussing the pros and cons of the different places we had seen. When we discussed the Westminster home, we both pictured you growing up there. I saw you running down the stairs on Christmas morning skidding across the floor with your footie pajamas. Your father saw you swinging under the tree in the backyard. I could imagine that too. So we named the tree: Nora's Tree.
This tree symbolizes so many of our hopes and dreams for you: happiness being the most important.
What does this have to do with your nickname you ask? I'm getting to it.
So Westminster it was. Daycare. We needed part-time daycare for you. None of the centers would take an infant part-time. So I ran a search of the state certified in-home daycares within a mile of our new home. There were three names. I spent the afternoon calling. The first had infant 9mo old twins and had no openings, the second did not take clients under one and the third had an opening! But we had to interview because there were multiple families who wanted the spot.
We interviewed with Ms. Patti's Daycare. Your father was on a business trip. It was at night, you were fussy and wanted a bath. I thought there was no way this woman was going to take a spastic mother, an absent father and a cranky baby.
But she did. Ms. Patti was also best friends with our new next door neighbors! And she had provided daycare for their two children who were 16 and 20! We quickly realized what a small town Westminster is and everybody knows your name. It felt good.
The first night we spent in the house was the Sunday before your big first day at Ms. Patti's Daycare. On Monday morning, I got you all gussied up in your yellow flower onsie (it was July 20th) and off you went. We've never looked back. Ms. Patti has become an intrical part of our lives. You LOVE Ms. Patti and all the kids and we love Ms. Patti too. When you started crawling a month later, Ms. Patti suggested pants. I bought you all these pants but apparently you would take them off at Ms. Patti's house. All of a sudden you would be sitting there with no pants on! "Nora!" Ms. Patti would say, "where did your pants go???" You found this very funny and liked not having pants on. For the record, you also would not keep your socks on (a problem we still have).
No pants Nora. That was you.
Now you keep your pants on but the nickname stuck. Your father and I find it fun whenever you won't do something (like nap) we just add it to your nickname.
'No pants, no sock, no nap Nora' turned into 'No pants, no socks, no nap, can take five steps Nora!' Because you took your first series of steps at Ms. Patti's four days before you turned 10 months old.
This is a picture of you after your first day at daycare with Ms. Patti. You were so exhausted from the experience you slept for 2.5hrs that evening before bed!
Look, you can still see the moving boxes behind you.
Although I never pictured raising a family in Westminster, we could not be more blest. Our house, your tree, the town, Ms. Patti, our neighbors are all... as they should be. They just fit us... like you did on the night you were born.
All is right with our world and I am grateful.
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