Merry Christmas!

We hope you and all your loved ones have a happy, healthy, peaceful holiday!

Yes!

Our little lady has finally begun to say "Yes!" as exuberantly as she's said "No!" for months. She also seems to be saying "down", uses the sign for "bath" and LOVES our Christmas tree. :) Proof of 2 out of 3:

Also, some cute pictures of Nora and Max hanging out by the window:

Good week

We had a very busy, but good week. Nora and I had play dates and meetings and errands to run and Chris did LOTS of studying for his LEED AP exam, which he passed with flying colors yesterday! Yay! I'm very proud of him and we're all glad to have him back. :)

Last week, Nora got her 3rd and 4th top teeth and then seemed to have a week long break from teething during which she slept wonderfully (and so did I!). She would go to sleep around 8 and only wake up once, usually around 2am when she'd join us in our bed and wake up for good around 7ish in the morning. It was great. The teething seems to have begun again, however, (3rd and 4th bottom teeth, I think) and she was up a good bit last night. Hopefully, once these next two make their entrance we'll have a longer break before the canines!

Beyond growing teeth, Nora seems to be spending her time strengthening her walking skills - she now goes up and down the small step between the dining room and kitchen with hardly a pause, and she just started marching in place and turning in circles!

She has also recently started to repeat funny little things with certain books, such as: at the end of one that says "and rock and rock and rock to sleep" she always grabs the book and rocks it back and forth and at "bumpity bumpity hold on tight" she hops up and down. Pretty cute.

Last but not least, she has definitely surpassed the dog in the smarts department and will fetch us our slippers or a book or whatever else we ask for (no, we haven't asked her to get us a beer yet...opening the fridge is still a challenge). It's amazing to realize how much she can understand - if I ask her to go get Mommy that blue block she'll get the exact block and bring it to me with a big smile...granted, I do point at the block I want but I still think she's a genius.

Now for pictures...last Wednesday, Nora and I went over to Ashley and Alta's for a morning play date. Such a cute little pair of walkers...

And yesterday we went back to celebrate Alta's 1st Birthday Party, which was a cowgirl theme. :) Notice little Fiona in the background...

Where did my baby go?

Don't worry, she's not lost...just growing up. It seems like every day lately Nora does something to amaze me and make me realize that she's quickly becoming a full-on toddler and her baby days are going bye bye. Of course, it's bittersweet for us, but is mostly just amazing to watch.

Some examples:

1. Last Tuesday I took Nora to work with me for a few hours in the morning. While we were waiting in the lobby (it's a nature center, so the lobby is full of fun stuff for kiddos) Nora made a beeline for the art table. So, I got her into a little chair and handed her a crayon and piece of paper, fully expecting her to try to eat the crayon. I was shocked when she immediately started to draw on the paper! It was a piece of abstract art to make a mama proud! So, off I go this week to buy some art supplies. :)

2. Nora gets lots of finger foods, but if it's food that requires a spoon I always feed it to her. At Thanksgiving, Nora was sitting on G'pa G's lap and grabbed his fork and started to put it in his sweet potatoes and feed herself! I know she likes to stir imaginary food in bowls, but I've never seen her actually pick up food w/ a fork/spoon and put it in her mouth! It started out well, then we switched the fork for a spoon and it went south in a hurry (see last post). :)

Proof:



3. Nora learned the sign for milk at about 7 months, but hasn't really used it much since then (she usually opts for sticking her hand down my shirt or saying "mummummummum"). I've continued to use the sign when we start to nurse and have been inconsistently using the signs for food, more and all done with no results. Until last week, when she started consistently waving her hands at us when she wants out of her highchair. So smart! Now when she's whining to be let down I just say "all done?" and she stops whining and waves her hands proudly. It gets even cuter when she signs "all done" and then stuffs a last bite or two in her mouth before emphatically signing "all done" again.

4. Finally, a few days ago, Nora started to put the colored rings back on the Fisher Price stackable ring thing. She loves that toy, but always prefers to take them off and eat them or throw them or bang them together. But, today she's realized she can multiply the fun of taking them off by learning to put them back on. What a smarty pants.

Some more proof of her feeding herself:



Here's a video of her "saying" all done:



And here she is putting the rings back on the toy and showing off her new skills to Sadie: