Nora - 16 months

I have been wanting to do a Nora update for so long now, but just haven’t gotten around to it. The days are full and by the time everybody is in bed, I am usually not far behind them.

(Not) so little Nora is now a full-blown toddler! She is walking, talking, opinionated and hilarious! She finally started walking just a couple of weeks ago. Much like everything else, once she decided to do it, it certainly did not take her long to figure it out. At her 15 month well child appointment, her gross motor scores were extremely low (as they have been every single time) because she wouldn’t do things like stand unassisted in the middle of a room, bend down to pick up and object without holding on to things, etc. And now, less than a month later, she is moving with no problems and the only thing on the ASQ that she is NOT doing is climbing on things…and I’m totally okay with that! I knew she was slower than others but I really was not concerned and am so thankful our doctor didn’t push us into doing PT just because she was a late walker.  The most interesting part of her 15 month appointment was that she hadn’t gained much weight in the last 3 months – in fact she’s only gained 1.5 pounds in 6 months! Thanks to crawling and moving around more, she’s slimming down. There’s still plenty of rolls though. I have no idea what her height is. They have not done  a very accurate job measuring because it’s been off the last few times. She is obviously getting taller and according to her 15 month height check she was shorter than at 12 months and 9 months….so yeah, no stock in that one.

You can just tell she feels like such a big kid now! She tries so hard to keep up with the boys while they’re dancing and loves playing in the tunnel  and the barn tent with them. I love it when little ones figure out HOW to be funny and make people laugh. She is always trying to make us laugh by sticking out her tongue, blowing bubbles in the tub, or playing peek.

She also LOVES to sing, just like her brothers. Kim always mentions how she sings in her crib at daycare and every morning at home she wakes up just singing away. It’s so pleasant to wake up to happy baby babble versus crying! She has the tune of several songs down like Baa Baa, Twinkle twinkle and “5 Green Speckled Frogs” She got that book for Christmas and drags it all around the house and loves to sing along. Her other favorite book is “Ten Friendly Fish” which was always one of Levi’s favorites, too. She also has gets really excited for “Slippery Fish”. The boys like to dance/burn off energy after supper watching YouTube videos and Nora’s favorite is the Party Freeze Game. As soon as we fire up YouTube, her eyes get big and she runs over to the TV pointing. Then she marches all around the room and yells “BAAAHHH” which I guess means “freeze”. Levi learned “If all of the snowflakes” at school and it didn’t take Nora long to catch on to sticking out her tongue and going “ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah” We’re just always singing and she loves singing along.

She says quite a few words like meme (blanket), up, baby, ball, mama, dada, thank you, moo, cheese, and she can say please, but she prefers to sign that one. She loves playing ball with Kim’s son in law, Spencer, when he comes over for lunch each day and she gets jealous if anybody else tries to get his attention. Everyone notes how good of an eater is. She eats pretty much everything we give to her and often times asks for more. Her current obsession is blueberries. She also recently discovered condiments and of course now shrieks when she sees syrup or ketchup. We tried to hold her off for as long as we could but it was only a matter of time ;) She also loves cottage cheese & pickled beets...definitely takes after her father in the eating category.

Nora is a princess and she knows it. She's perfected her pout and makes a pretty sour face on the rare occasion she is told "no". She is in the stage where she likes to throw things away. The drawer with the baggies is her favorite. She pulls out a baggie, crumples it up and tosses it in the garbage. She also discovered how to get the cereal cabinet open, so that has been a favorite spot for her to hit.

Sleep is still going great. By 7pm she gets pretty crabby and goes down easily shortly after that. And she is usually up between 6:30-7. She takes a pretty good nap in the afternoon. Sometimes I think it could be longer but she is getting almost 12 hours at night so I guess that's probably enough.

Similar to Levi, she hates wearing shoes and socks. As soon as she gets into the car she takes off her hat and socks. I never even bother putting shoes on her. She does like to try to put her shoes on, but if I help her she just takes them off right away. Levi still takes off his shoes and socks in the car quite frequently, too.

With that, I'd better just publish this, or it will still be sitting here in another month. I have barely taken any pictures since Christmas but maybe someday I will get them loaded in here.