It's been a month!

I haven't blogged in a month! Life has been pretty busy since before Thanskgiving. Nora has been making leaps and bounds with her walking and talking. She has so many words now, it's pretty amazing. She's also starting to learn to sign for diaper changes and naps, which is making life a bit easier.

As everyone knows, we are all still recovering from the ice storm. We were lucky enough to have our power restored quickly, but many of our friends (including our next door neighbor) are still without power. Some have been told they will be without power until after Christmas. Fortunately, everyone I know has found a warm place to stay or has an alternative way to heat their home (either with a generator or a wood/gas fireplace). My heart goes out to everyone who is without power. This is a difficult enough time of year for many, and to add this stress is very hard. I've seen many work crews out every day, so I know they are doing their best to restore power as quickly as possible, despite the cold, sometimes nasty weather!

"Helping" with the dinner prep

Nora loves to stand in her Learning Tower while mum works on dishes or chopping veggies for dinner. She has recently started to "chop" her own veggies and bread! Here she is, "helping" mum prepare dinner. She, of course, doesn't always have the best aim with the knife...

I like to feed myself!

Nora has been very interested in feeding herself lately - and not just finger foods. She loves to try and feed herself oatmeal, yogurt and peas. Of course, the first time she fed herself peas, I had to take a photo of the aftermath. The sippy cup was a mess, but Nora was very happy! She didn't do to bad - most of the food ended up in her mouth, but at one point, she got tired of handling the spoon (with help), and chucked the spoon to eat the peas with her fingers!



Nora does much better with food such as eggs. She must have her eggs served in her own plate, but often she takes them all out and puts them on her tray (then back in the plate) while she's eating. Once she is finished though, you need to be quick because the plate goes...on top of her head!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

For Thanksgiving, we went to my sister's house. It was pretty nice. Jeff's family was there, as well as our own, so it was a pretty big party. Nora, as usual, realized that it was a special day and refused to take a nap. We had been hoping she would take her normal morning nap, which would help get her through the day. Luckily, she didn't get too cranky. Nora enjoyed lots to eat on Thanksgiving. She had some squash, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach souffle, cheese and crackers. She also got a little apple pie filling and a few bites of pumpkin. She learned that she could get everyone to laugh by spitting out her food in a loud and messy fashion. Andy and I had been working on teaching her to say no thanks (using signs) when she was done eating, but she couldn't resist all the attention. Another big favorite of Nora's was my sister's cell phone. I think she held onto it for most of the day!




The day after Thanksgiving, Andy and I drove up to Maine to visit his family. We decided it would be a good time to drive up to Damariscotta to visit Andy's Grandparents, since they haven't had the opportunity to see Nora since last Christmas. It turned out to be a really great day! Andy's grandparents both enjoyed watching Nora play in the middle of the room - she provided great entertainment for all involved. It was great to see Andy's family as well. We got to see a lot of people that we don't get to see very often.





We spent Saturday in Maine as well, and just enjoyed the day with Nora's grandparents. Nora enjoyed playing with some beads almost all day. She would put them on, take them off, put them on, take them off, then put them all on the ground, pick them up...amazing how something so simple kept her busy for so long!