Christmas in Iowa

Matt's brother and his family live in Iowa City and this Christmas Matt's mom, stepdad, father and stepmom met us there as well. It snowed (I had hoped for a white xmas) and was beautiful. We cooked and talked and watched movies and ate. What better way to celebrate the holiday!

Nora Lee had four cousins there and was in heaven having all those kids to play with every moment of the day. Xmas was the first time she got to experience so many presents! Ripping off all that paper was delightful!

We also celebrated her birthday in Iowa and went to the Children's Museum to play. There was a small grocery store where kids got to shop and pay for groceries. There was a hospital where they could be doctors and nurses, a puppet kingdom and a small house and a play television news station. I think Nora could have happily moved in.

Oak Glen

Oak Glen is a wonderful little town about two hours outside of Los Angeles. It's known for its apple orchards and each year during apple season you can go and pick apples on many of the farms. We took Nora Lee last year but she was too little to pick apples. This year was different!

We went up for the day and ate apple doughnuts and apple pie and just poked around the beautiful little town.

October and Halloween

A few days before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out a few pumpkins. On Halloween Matt carved while Nora Lee and I watched.

That night we took Nora Lee trick-or-treating and we all had a blast. No one trick-or-treats in our neighborhood so we went to a nearby one where tons of kids go. The houses were all decorated and there were children running everywhere! At first Nora Lee didn't understand what was going on, although she loved that there were so many kids around.

She was in her little pirate costume and carried a tiny metal bucket. We walked up to the first house and said "trick or treat" and they put candy in her bucket. It took a few houses but Nora got the hang of it and was really into it. We had to protect her a bit from the older kids running frantically from house to house, but it was a lot of fun.

21 Months

Matt and I are blown away every day by how capable
Nora Lee has become. She loves doing things for herself and is quite
helpful. For the last several months she has been helping me with
chores around the house such as unloading the dishwasher and doing the
laundry. But now her skills are even more helpful. She is in charge of
putting the silverware away in the drawer. For the longest time placed
each piece in the drawer randomly. As of the last few days she has
successfully learned to put the right silverware in the right place -
the spoons together, the forks together, etc. She is also understanding
the difference now between clean and dirty. For a while she knew we
would unload the dishes from the dishwasher but would start to unload
them even when they were dirty. Now she understands when they are dirty
and we put them in the dishwasher and when we take them out. She helps
me put the soap in and can close, lock, and start the dishwasher.

She knows how to cook things like oatmeal and can gather the necessary
tools to make it happen. She knows we boil water and then get the
measuring cups out. She loveshard boiled eggs and can peel them and slice them in the egg slicer.

She helps me with the laundry and knows where many of the clothes get put
away. Nora Lee really likes order and likes to put things away in their
proper place. If she ever comes to you saying "Uh, Oh" you know
something has fallen down or gotten out of place somehow.

Nora Lee and I still spend lots of time outdoors digging in the dirt and
playing with bugs. She LOVES bugs (or buggies as she calls them for
some reason). She always wants them to crawl on her foot. We watch the
squirrels and now she alerts me when they are in the yard and may be
eating our vegetables!

The potty is very interesting to Nora Lee and she has pooped twice in her toilet. She tells us when she has pooped and runs to get the changing pad and a fresh diaper.

Her language is exploding and its really exciting. She repeats most things we say and probably has about 60 words that she says and can understand everything we say.
She just started putting a few words together like this morning she
said "mama, egg, one". I always repeat what she said "you want one
egg?" so she can tell me if I understood her correctly.

She is still enjoying dress up and dancing.

Nora Lee is quite sensitive and becomes upset when other people are
emotional. She cries if another child is in distress but can stay calm
when there is emotion that's not intense. I was crying the other day
(happy tears) and she came and sat on my lap and touched my face and
said "tears". She is very affectionate and loves hugging and kissing.
She loves other kids and follows them around to give them hugs.

She has quite a lot of stamina. I go hiking with her several times a week
up a mountain near our house. She rides on my back most of the way but
lately I have been letting her get down and walk some of it. Ive been
amzed at how far she can walk without getting tired!

She is a dream come true and a blessing each day.

Sara

Our Boozer

Nora Lee LOVES food. Its a huge part of every hour of every day. So when the refrigerator opens she is right there waiting to see what delicious things comes out for her to snack on. Recently as I was grabbing food and putting it on the counter I turned around to see her with a beer can up to her mouth. It cracked me up so much that I ran for the camera. Its even more perfect that she is wearing her Johnny Cash Folsom Prison outfit.

Dress Up

Nora Lee is starting to enjoy "dress-up". It first started with her trying on everyone's shoes in the room and attempting to walk around in them. She does much better with only one shoe on at a time.

About a month ago she began asking for us to put her boots and snow cap on.

18 Months

On the 29th of June Nora Lee will be a year and a half old.  She has certainly moved from being a baby to a little girl.  Her personality and likes and dislikes develop more each day and it's such a fun ride!

She continues to show signs of being a dancer.  She has a handful of pretty impressive moves if I do say so myself.  She likes to dance fast to fast music and sloooow to slow music.  It's incredible to watch her shift her movements with the change of music.  She has actually done a demi-plie which we find magical.  We have shown her salsa, contemporary, waltz, and other dances on TV but she is most excited about watching the contemporary dances or waltzes - the slower dances.  We are excited to explore classes with her when the time is right.

As I mentioned in previous posts Nora Lee has been great about using sign language to express her needs.  She signs "food", "nursing", "change me", "sleep", and "more".  Just this week she started saying "more" and I was pretty excited.  Until now she says "dada" and "bye-bye".  Bye-bye she consistently knows what it means but dada means "dad" and has meant many other things in the past.  Mama still is very very rare.  She knows who it is and will bring me something if Matt says "bring this to mama" but she doesn't really say it.  

In this last month we have been more social with other kids and families.  Its been sweet to see her with other kids and their parents.  Im delighted at how gentle and affectionate she is with them.  Lots of unsolicited hugs and kisses.  She is quite tender with babies - stroking their heads and kissing them.

Nora Lee loves the outdoors just like her mom!  We do a lot of gardening and play time in the yard with water and dirt.  She also loves animals and looks at these national geographic books from the seventies again and again and again and again.  I do all the animal sounds for her and she repeats them but I get stuck when we come to platypus and pronghorns.  I just go silent and turn the page.

She is showing signs of enjoying "dress-up".  She asks to put on my hats and scarves and shoes. Yesterday she even managed to get a high heel on and tramp around the house.

Last month we noticed she was giving us the "change me" sign and was dry and then would poop a few minutes later.  Since she was aware her poo was coming we got her a tiny toilet to see if she was wanting to toilet train.  So far she loves spending time on it but hasn't actually used it yet.

She's very interested in what goes on in the kitchen and will scoot anything nearby to stand on to see onto the counter.  We have to be careful that she doesn't choose things with wheels to stand on.

Those are the updates for now!!  We are having a blast :)

Sara Jean