Nora's Notables

It’s been a while!  I’m not as good at remembering updates when I don’t do it monthlyJ 

Our little lady is becoming just that…a little lady.  I catch myself when I call her baby because it doesn’t seem true anymore. 

Our Nora is an outgoing, sweet, chatty little girl who brings SO much joy to our days and is growing more independent each day.  Without further ado, Nora’s recent notables…

• She chatters constantly, some recognizable and some not.  She and Luke love playing the “Nora can you say…” game.  This past weekend she was even mimicking words like octopus when Luke said themJ  The funnies thing though is that she still doesn’t make a recognizable sound for Luke.  We think the L sound trips her up.  She does say brother but rarely refers to Luke with words. 

• She has mastered the use of the word "no".  Prior to this weekend she really only shook her head no when she didn’t want a food.  But that changed quickly this weekend when she started saying "no" anytime she didn’t want to go along with what we were doing, eat what we offered, where we’re going.  It usually doesn’t come out as just no either, it’s usually "no, no, no" (in a desperate voice) plus a head shake.  Quite dramaticJ

• Since she’s now been walking for two months, she is very competent on her feet and loves the freedom and speed of her own two feet.  We’ve been working a lot on her listening skills so that she will learn to look at us when we give her instructions to come or go or whatever.  I’m very impressed with how well she’s doing, though of course there are times that she runs the other way.  She is a toddler after all;)

• She’s also been finding her independence in eating.  She’s been practicing more with utensils and also loves the applesauce on the go containers that allows her to squeeze it into her own mouth without any help.

The result of independent eating

• She is very aware of her surroundings and routine. She knows that on week day mornings, we pick up Ethan, drop Ethan & Luke off at school, pick up Papa, and finally Papa drops me off at work.  She waves good bye to the boys when we get to school, she says “Papa’s” when we get in his driveway, and she blows me kisses when we get to my work building.  She is also aware when we deviate from this routine.  The other day I had to return a movie to Family Video on the way to work.  She broke down in devastating tears when we stopped and I hopped out of the car for a minute to drop the DVD.  I think she was afraid we weren’t heading to Papa’s like she knows is the routineJ

• She is in the phase of leaving a trail of toys behind her where ever she goes.  The trails mostly consist of her favorite things: books and stuffed animals, though the items strewn about the house can vary by the end of the dayJ  We’re also starting to work on cleaning up toys which she’s starting to understand. 

• She loves hats.  She has at least four winter hats and will even wear them around the house.  Most any other item of clothing works as a hat for her too though.  She often picks clothes up off the floor or out of the folded laundry I’m working on and drapes it over her head and shouldersJ 

• She loves people!  She loves roaming around public places (within our view of course) and chattering and smiling at people. She recently did it at Festival of Trees, in a shoe store, and in the main lobby of Mayo’s Gonda Building.  This outgoing little lady might be stretching her introverted parents out of their shellsJ 

• She has lots of teeth, and I can’t keep up with the total number anymore.  Brent did say that she has three of her four molars so far. 

• We introduced her to coloring this weekend and she loves it!  It’s so fun watching how focused she is how she concentrates so hard to hold the crayon in a way that she can make marks on the paper.  We may have a crafter on our handsJ

Working SO hard

• She’s loving all of the Christmas lights and points them out (saying “lights”) on the tree, out the window, and when we’re in the car.  She was a good motivation to put the tree up this yearJ  We’ve been very grateful that, other than the lights on the tree, she really doesn’t care about the gifts or ornaments and has left them alone.

Festival of Trees