Words, helping mom and fun

Nora is still exploding with new vocabulary. Recently, she learned the sign for help and many words including snow, bread, apple, go, out and one of my least favorite - "mine." She is definitely at the age where she gets frustrated by her inability to fully communicate to us - which sometimes causes screaming or crying. We still try and play outside every day, but she has discovered a fun game - running out into the street - so we may end up waiting for nicer weather. She will push her stroller on the bike path (when it's not icy), which is nice. When she gets tired, I put her in the stroller and then push her so I can also get some exercise. Napping has recently become a major problem. For about two weeks, she has pretty much refused to nap. Usually, this means she's teething, and I think it's her molars bothering her (again). The top two have started pushing through, but haven't completely broken through, and the bottom ones are just hard lumps under her gums.

Meal times have become pretty interesting. Nora is sometimes a ravenous eater - eating anything we give her, and lots of it, other days, she just picks at her food. One day for breakfast, she had 2 eggs, a piece of bread and butter, about a quarter cup of blueberries, a quarter of a grapefruit and a piece of cheese! She's gotten pretty good drinking from a cup, and prefers that to a sippy cup. Unfortunately, she's not quite good enough (and still enjoys intentionally spilling) to drink from a cup outside of her high chair! She has also learned to drink from a straw, so we just picked up a cup with a straw top to try. Some days, she feeds herself, other days she hands mom or dad the spoon to get help eating. Most days, it's a combination. She'll feed herself for a few minutes, ask for help, and then feed herself again. She's very good at getting yogurt all over her face! Here are some photos of Nora drinking and right after taking a few bites of yogurt.




Nora has started helping mom with some of the daily chores. She helps sort the dirty laundry, helps put laundry in the washing machine and 'helps' fold the laundry - which usually means she picks up the folded clothing and puts it back in the laundry basket. She also helps empty the dishwasher - handing mom all the plates and bowls. She's also tried helping mom do dishes- as seen below, but she gets very wet! I think she had fun though.




Another word Nora has started saying recently is "baba" I know, sounds kind of odd from a child who won't take a bottle right. Well, it didn't take us long to figure this one out. She wears a balaclava on her head at night and if she's cold, and we sometimes call it a "haba," which is what her friends Austin and Emily call it (Balaclava is a hard word). Well, Nora's rendition is "baba," and she will ask for it at night before bed or when she want's to "go." She doesn't discriminate though - any head covering is a "baba." Here she is in a cute knit hat - I think it's the only hat we have that fits right now!



Nora has an amazing ability to concentrate on only one thing for a long time. For a few weeks, all she wanted to do was read. She would bring a few books to mom or dad and then sit while you read the books - over and over and over. Now, she's really attached to the blocks. We will sit on the floor and she will hand us blocks so we can build. She will also build her own structures, and she's getting much better at stacking some of the blocks. It'll be interesting to see what draws her attention next.

16 Month Photos

I was a slacker at 15 months and didn't take the normal photos of Nora, so here she is at 16 months. She's really starting to look like a little girl!

Wee wee wee!

Nora got a "Retro Rocket" ride on toy for Christmas, and at first was afraid to sit on it. She loved to push it around though. Well, recently, we put her on it and she just took off and started saying "wee wee wee" in a little voice. It was pretty funny. Now she asks for help to get on it quite frequently. She has learned how to get off from it herself.

Happy Valentines Day!

Eleanor loves to wear daddy's mittens. Here she is on Valentine's Day wearing her pretty red dress, and daddy's big mittens! She was so excited running around with them on!

15 month update

Nora has been 15 months old for a few weeks, but with the holidays and the cruise, I haven't had much time to update. She did very well at her 15 month well baby visit. She was 32 inches long (~70th %), 22lbs (just under 50th percentile), and has a whopping 49 cm head circumference (90th percentile).

She's got lots of words now, and seems to learn a new one every day or so. She says mommy, daddy, hi, bye, see-ya, uh-oh, wow, cool, wee, see, dat (that), shoe, doggie, more, down, tickle, tay-coo, (thank you), and sticker. I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember them now.

She's gotten pretty good at stacking blocks. She prefers to stack the cups inside one another instead of on top of one another, but she'll do if for a long time. She also loves the big puzzles and having mommy and daddy read books to her. She like Barnyard Dance, Snuggle Puppy, any Dr. Seuss-like rhyming book, and Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type, or pretty much anything else that we read to her. She'll bring the book to one of us and then point to the space next to use and say "down" which she uses for up or down right now. She loves being outside and will often bring us her jacket or a hat and point to the sliding door. We try to spend some time outside each day, but with the extreme cold we've had lately, it's been difficult. She likes to sit in the snow and move her hands through the snow, but there is just too much of it for her to really play in.

Nora has gotten quite proficient at walking now. She has finally realized that she is sturdy. On the cruise, she discovered climbing again, so instead of just climbing stairs, she now like to climb anything she can!

Nora still eats pretty well most of the time. We've suffered through 2 stomach bugs in the last three months, and we're having some difficulty after the cruise. We're working on veggies again. She's finally eating carrots, squash and peas again, but still won't eat broccoli (which she used to love). Fortunately, she still likes curried lentils, so we can "hide" veggies in that! She's becoming much more independent with feeding - she wants to feed herself as much as possible, but she's not very neat about it. It's been messy but fun watching and helping her learn to use a spoon - even though she'll often give up and use her fingers a short time later!

Well, I think that's all for now. I'm sure I'm missing something, but she seems to learn something new everyday, it's really amazing!

Cruise!

We had a wonderful time on vacation in early January. We went on a cruise (Danielle and Jeff's Adventure Wedding Cruise). It was so nice to get out in the warm sun for a few days, and Nora LOVED the beaches. The two days that were totally at sea were a bit tough because the public places on the boat were crowded so Nora didn't have much safe room to explore (people don't think to look for a 32 inch tall child running around with her arms in the air). We had the best waiter for dinner - he provided great service and great entertainment for Nora. Nora even started saying thank you to him as he brought her grapes and french fries to eat. Yes, we gave her french fries for dinner a number of nights. Unfortunately, dinner was so close to bedtime, we needed to entertain her more than worry about the quality of the meal. She had a great breakfast every morning - fruit, yogurt, eggs and oatmeal! Lunch was hit or miss. Sometimes, she'd have a small slice of pizza and some baby food veggies (we brought carrots and sweet potatoes with us), sometimes yogurt. Usually, something pretty healthy. However, she discovered that mom's plate usually had a chocolate chip cookie, so she'd also get a small piece of cookie for a treat after lunch. The beach days were great because there was enough space to walk around with her in the stroller so we could get her to nap! Naps were pretty tough to come by on the boat.

Our first night at dinner, Nora wore an appropriate big "What time is the Midnight Buffet?!"

During the safety meeting, we tried the "floating crib" on Nora. She was very good about letting us put her into it, but I don't think she was too happy when we didn't take her right out...

Enjoying the water at the beach. Nora just loves the water. She's still not so sure about sand, but she really loves to go in the water!

Looking cool on a beach chair...

Taking a nap after a long day in the sun.

Changed into dry clothes, but still enjoying the sunshine!

I'm ready to party!!!

Showing off my new dress!

Our room steward created a towel elephant and a towel doggie as well, but this monkey was really cool. Nora loved to look at the monkey, so we left it hanging until the end of the cruise.


Danielle and Jeff's wedding was amazing. Magen's Bay was beautiful and the weather could not have been better. Danielle made one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. It was great to see her and Jeff finally tie the knot. Nora was a bit unhappy...she screamed through the whole ceremony. It was totally because she was hot, hungry and tired, but it's still fun to say it's because she was afraid of losing her best friend (aunt Danielle)...

Danielle and Jeff gave everyone beach towels to remember their wedding. They are great towels. Nora "christened" one of ours the first day we used it. Lucky for us, there was laundry on board!

The groom and groomsmen on the boat the morning of the wedding.

The Bride and Bridemaids upon arrival at Magen's Bay.

Andy and I after the ceremony.

A great photo of the bride and groom. The background is just beautiful!

Another cute photo of Danielle and Jeff.

Christmas

We had a wonderful, if very long, Christmas celebration. We started on Christmas Eve. My dad, Danielle and Jeff came up and we had chinese food (after a 3!! hour wait) and opened gifts. Nora had a pretty good time opening up the gifts (hers or anyone elses). She didn't care much about what was inside, but paper sure made a good noise when it ripped!

On Christmas morning, Nora woke up to even more gifts. Santa didn't bring her much, and he only wrapped a couple of gifts, but she seemed to enjoy them. Danielle and Jeff came up for Christmas day as well and we had a yummy Turkey dinner and then went to Mike and Patty's house for some dessert and to see more family! Overall, it was a great day - and Nora did very well. She was pretty clingy at Mike and Patty's because of all the strangers, but other than that, she seemed to be okay with the whole change to her normal routine.

The weekend after Christmas, we had Andy's family visit to celebrate. Another great party, with lots of great food. We exchanged gifts yet again, and Nora got to visit with Cory and Rand's dog Dasher. He was very well behaved, and Nora learned the word "doggie" before the end of the day.

Playing with some blocks on Christmas Eve


Come on daddy, hurry up and get the toy out of the box!!


Finding a present under the tree Christmas morning.


Nora carried her gift over to the table so mommy could help open it.


All those wonderful gifts, and the best stuff is still in the Tupperware drawer...

Playing in the snow

We've had loads of snow this year. Before Christmas, Nora and I went out and played in the snow. Here are some photos from that day. Since then, she has learned how to better walk in her snow pants (hitting a growth spurt probably helped a ton). She likes to sit in the snow and move it around with her hands, and walk along the driveway so she can knock snow off the piles. The snow has been a bit too deep for her to maneuver well in, so if you sit or stand her in the snow, she gets stuck!

Here she is showing off her great new (to us, anyway) jacket.


She fell over right after I took the above photo. She was not too happy about getting stuck in the snow!

Nora enjoyed being pulled in the sled, as long as I didn't pull her too fast. I went too fast once, and she totally freaked out. However, at a slower pace, she would shout "wee wee wee" while moving around the yard.

Decorating or undecorating the tree

We put up our tree about a week before Christmas this year. Nora was very interested in the tree, but fortunately, never tried to climb it! She really enjoyed taking ornaments off the tree and handing them to mommy and daddy to hold. We only had one ornament casualty this year - a fish ornament broke in two, it was a bit more fragile than we thought!

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!