Noelle Christine was born on December 24, 1968 at Notre Dame Hospital in Manchester, NH. She weighed 7lbs. 15oz. and had a lot of black hair just like I did when I was born. We lived upstairs at 134A Orange St., right next door to Paquette's Market! Noelle was a colicky baby and I, being a first-time mom, probably contributed to the problem by making some errors as a result of inexperience! Anyway, I did not get much sleep, for a long while. On a lighter note, we were at a La Leche League meeting when she was just a few weeks old....I had nursed her and was holding her in my lap to burp her and when there was a momentary lull in the conversation, she let out the loudest burp you can imagine, and we all burst out laughing!
When she could move around, she liked to take the magazines from the corner shelf and tear them up.....probably an indication that she would later love reading, and like to make things out of paper!
On summer weekends, we liked to pack up our Chevy sedan with everything but the kitchen sink and drive out to Bear Brook State Park for a picnic. Most weekdays I did not have a car, so I put her in the Stroll-o-Chair and we would walk a few blocks to downtown, or to the park, or to the Paquette's! Or, we would visit our elderly neighbor, Mrs. Seavey. She kept a little basket of greeting cards that Noelle could play with....again, the paper thing. Mrs. Seavey and I would talk about everything, including her childhood in Virginia, where she was cared for by the family's "Mammy". If it was a hot day, our little family could drive just outside town to Lake Massabesic, where it was always ten degrees cooler! We took Noelle to Montreal when she was about 8 months old, and explored the World's Fair, carrying her in a new-fangled baby backpack! We visited Wood's Hole Massachusetts on that same trip, as I recall.....
Another favorite outing was to visit Aunt Margaret and Uncle Raymond Paquette, and their German Shepherd Herlick, who lived a little way out in the country.
On her first birthday, we had a big party for all the Paquette's, and Noelle received a toy spinet piano!
When Noelle was about 15 mos. old, we had the opportunity to buy the house next door to Grandma Frances for $7000, so we relocated to Indianapolis and lived at 4930 Brookville Road for the next six years. David was born about six weeks after we moved in.....we had a nice yard and a big garden there.
One day, when I was on the phone, Noelle and David, probably aged 2 and 1, entertained themselves by sticking pieces of dry spaghetti into the toothpaste tube, withdrawing them and proceeding to lick the flavorful stuff off, for a treat I like to call "spaghetti popsicles"!
I am sure that was her bright idea! Then there was the time that she painted nail polish designs on my full-length mirror after I dozed off when we lay down at nap time! When she received a set of finger paints, I was so reluctant to break it out because of the perceived mess it would make.....not to worry....when I finally did, she was so disturbed about getting her hands messy that she never wanted to do it again!
Noelle started tapping at Dance Arts at age 5 with a group, went on to solo, and is still tapping today. One of her most memorable contest novelty acts was when she dressed up as Uncle Remus, blackface and all, and told the story of The Tar Baby, by Joel Chandler Harris. She won, too.....no doubt it would be considered "offensive" today!
I think one of her least favorite memories was when her dad bought 3 different sizes of the same "ugly" sneakers at Sears Save Shop, and she had to wear them "FOREVER"! Noelle was a very good student at St. Bernadette, and then flourished in the 6th grade AT program at #99! she skipped the seventh grade and went on to win the Booster Club Scholarship to Scecina at OLL!
In her senior year she was selected to be one of the Wm. H. Block Department Store H. S. Models. She participated in fashion shows, and was one of Santa's elves at Christmas time. It was fun to visit Santa Land when she was there...
Noelle and David were at odds during most of their younger years.....so much so that I sometimes had doubts about their survival to adulthood. But somewhere along the way through high school, maturity won out, and they moved beyond sibling rivalry. So parents, there is hope! Of course, I had to endure the same situation with Daniel and Nadia......definitely not fun to go through it twice!
At our annual Christmas Eve party, we always sing "Happy Birthday" to Baby Jesus and Noelle, and I am again so thankful for my special Christmas gift so many years ago.....
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