Catching Up

Well, clearly since the last time I updated was in November and we are indeed all over the wretched gastro virus...it's time to catch up with more enjoyable news. There's way too much to include in one update, but I'll start with what's shakin' these days.

Norah is talking, talking, talking and is *thisclose* to really communicating in full sentences. She repeats anything we say, and new things are overheard every day around here.  *Note to all, keep it clean up in here, as we've definitely heard "aw f&*^" once! I love toddler language, and some of my favorite things she says right now:
"Line Cones" - Lion King, which she says for just about every lion
"Okhay" - her preferred affirmative statement
"Comfy" - comforters, blankets, or just literally to mean gettin' comfy
"Laff" - giraffe
"Ah-shines" - Einsteins (one of her Disney Jr. shows is Little Einsteins)
"Sofa" - Sofia (from another Disney Jr. show)
"Pulair" - polar bear
"uh-her one" - other one, another, the other
"love you much" and "kank you much"
"geeses"
"Nakey"
"lil bit"
"Entent" - elephant
"Wah-wah twy" - Norah try

"pa-cakes" - pancakes or cupcakes

typical, refusing to put on pants, she says "nakey minute"

While it's so amazing and rewarding to watch her learn about the world and put language to the people and places and things she sees, it's also a little bit sad for me to suddenly realize that the adorable words she used to use for things are replaced by words that are closer and closer to the real ones.  She no longer calls coffee "waff", or "ma-churs" for markers.  Language acquisition is probably one of the most incredible things to witness so far in development. I'm amazed every day at how well she can communicate with us.

more dip! gwapes! 

loves yogurt, and chicken-dip (chicken with ranch)

sorting mail in her mailbox

DIY felt mail

I was talking to a close friend last night who has a little boy who turned two in January, and we were noting how each child is just wired in such a unique and mysterious way.  It just seems they have traits that are innate, no matter what we think we do to provide them with certain unbiased non-gendered play options.  Norah mothers. She mamas her stuffed animals and her baby dolls. She diapers them and feeds them and snuggles them. She rocks and walks them. She covers them up with "comfies" and pats them to sleep. She "cooks" food and feeds us her tasty treats.  She loves to make little stories up with her animal figurines and stage interactions (that only she knows what is going on).  She plays house with the "little people" in the old plastic dollhouses my sister and I used to play with, placing the people in their rooms and driving them around in cars, and making them give each other kisses and hugs.  My friend's son, well, he likes wheels and gears and trucks and diggers. He is obsessed with the blender, and wants to watch how it goes on and off, over and over. Of course, some of these things are learned about in their daily lives and picked up on from influences they are (maybe subtly) exposed to...but I do think that males and females are just wired differently, and it's incredible to see it from the very start.

Having some tea

Making cookies

Unbeknownst to me, she is aware of her shapes. My father in law discovered her sorting through a bag of foam shapes and putting them into piles by shape and color one day. She has been labeling colors accurately for at least a month or so, with the exception that yellow often gets called "pink" (which is funny, because for a long time as a kid I called yellow "lello-pink").  At the store yesterday, she said as I picked out some produce "Two red peppers! Gween pepper too!" She also surprised us by counting to ten recently...I tell you, this child hasn't stop amazing us yet!

Sorting shapes at the Hands On Museum

She has been into trying out playdough a few times, but is still tempted to eat it quite often. This recent batch I made was a new recipe, and definitely NOT tasty (2 cups baking soda, 1 c cornstarch, 1.5 C water, plus I added maybe 3 T oil and some jello to color it).  She does like the feel and squish of it, though.  

She is strong-willed and opinionated, and isn't shy about expressing herself! She must choose her own outfit (ok, sometimes 3 outfits before getting it right) and usually it must include purple. She'd wear her "pa-cakes" shirt every day if we'd keep it clean (has cupcakes on a purple long sleeved shirt).  She chooses what she wants to eat (has been "chicken-dip" for breakfast the past two days).  I guess this is what the professionals refer to as a "spirited child", and we wouldn't have her any other way! She keeps us challenged, both in patience and intellectually, she is outrageously cute (of course we aren't biased), and she drives us crazy on a regular basis. We are so enjoying having the privilege of watching her grow, and recognizing that we are so in for it for the foreseeable future! Norah Annabel,  you warm  our hearts :)

home for a rare Mama-Norah day!