Wow, Nora turned two and a half over the weekend. To celebrate, we had my in-laws down for the weekend. This meant that Nora got some special time with her grandparents and Andy and I got to go out on a date night for the first time since Beth was born! It was wonderful. On Sunday, we got a lot done around the house while Nora was entertained, and even more while Beth had a nice long afternoon nap in the BOB stroller!
Nora is a wonderful, if sassy, two year old. She's figured out how to pedal her trike - even how to pedal backwards when she gets stuck. She's still working on getting the strength to go uphills, but she's almost there! She still loves to swing and climb and hike and collect acorns, feathers, rocks. She usually still eats like a champ. She'll try anything, which is wonderful. Some days, she just grazes all day and others she eats quite large meals (and still grazes). I try to provide her with 3 healthy meals, 2 good snacks and some fruit/veggies to snack on during the day. It is tricky figuring out when to make lunch and how to cut up the veggies if I forget to do it the night before. Nora is still not always careful around her sister and is sometimes downright mean, so I can't take my eye off from them if Beth is on the floor. Usually (but not too often anymore), Nora just pushes her over or takes a toy away, but we've had a few incidents of biting as well.
Nora tried to give up her naps, but she's just not ready for it. I tried for a few weeks to get her to nap at home, but she'd just get up and let herself out of her room. She'd be tricky about it as well. She'd stay quiet in her room until I started doing something and then she'd let herself out - usually while I was starting laundry or outside hanging diapers up. We ended up putting a bathroom doorknob on her door with the lock facing the hallway. We do have a paperclip in her room in case she locks us in (which she will at some point). So far, so good. We installed it over the weekend, and she has taken a nice nap for two days!
Nora's still interested in animals and farms. Her favorite books are the Appletree Farms books from USBorne and a few other farmyard tales that we have. She loves talking about the animals, pretending to be the animals, complete with sound effects and taking care of her farm animals. She's also surprised us with her counting ability. She counted all her Easter eggs from an egg hunt - 12. Then, when she counted them later, she only had 10. She couldn't quite make out that she was missing 2, but she knew she was missing 11 and 12. It's been interesting to see the progression from reciting numbers to understanding counting a little bit. She's starting to get really interested in letters now too. She knows E is for elephant and can recognize A, N, O and R as well (go figure). She also knows that B-A-T-H is something fun and she want's to have one every night! Andy and I have had to get more creative!
Nora still loves helping in the Kitchen. Kneading bread, as recommended by a friend, has been a great distraction/task for her while I'm putting Beth down for a nap! Here she is helping make homemade soft pretzels!
I just like the soft expression on her face here. Of course, the bump that won't go away is still there. Poor thing has bonked the same spot like 4 times now! Falling off a high chair, walking into a wall, sliding down a slide head first and falling out of bed (which she has only done once, thank goodness!).
