No More Mama Milk

Nora is all done nursing, and it was basically a mutual decision. She had lost interest for the most part, except that one or two times a day she would ask for milk, nurse for about 20 seconds and then tell me "all done!" and hit the road. So a couple of days ago when she asked for milk I started telling her that mama's milk was all gone. Then Nora asks "where?" (because Nora asks "where?" approximately 1,000 times per day) and I tell her that she drank it all up and it gave her big muscles.


Which is the truth, right? Check out these guns.

Nora in Action

The Elinor method of getting to the bottom bunk:

 

Bubbles

Here's Nora at 15 months blowing bubbles. Her big sister had an alternative method of bubble blowing when she was a baby, remember?

Nora is ONE!

Well, that was the fastest year ever. Our Nor-bugs is ONE!

We got a jump on the festivities the day before. Sylvie and I baked Nora's cake (Ina Garten's Carrot and Pineapple Cake with a few modifications). 

And Sylvie and Thomas worked on a birthday gift for Nora, a cat pull toy made from a shoe box, inspired by Joel Henriques. They also made a dog pull toy for Sylvie.

When Sylvie woke up birthday morning she was about to explode from excitement over her gift for Nora.

 Fortunately, Nora thought it was fantastic too.

Later we met up with grandparents for a late breakfast at The Coffee Cup Cafe, where Nora had blueberry pancakes, eggs, fruit and cottage cheese. Have I mentioned what an enthusiastic eater our Nors is?

During her afternoon nap, we got the house ready for a special birthday dinner. Sylvie was given the important job of choosing the menu for Norsie's birthday dinner. She chose pesto noodles, a family favorite. Nora loves balloons so we hung balloons from the ceiling

 

and cleared out the living room for a game of balloon and paper plate (with popsicle stick handles) paddle ball.

 Sylvie and Thomas frosted the cake and gave it a number one made of pineapples.

 Nora loved her birthday song and loved her cake!

 She really loved her cake.

Happy Birthday, Elinor May Sunshineface. I only wish I could have slowed you down a bit.  It is so hard to believe that your squishy little babyhood is over and you are off and running (make that crawling and climbing).

You are so totally loved and adored, Norsie May.

Nora: 11 Months

Nora is 11 months old, can you believe it? I am amazed at how it can both feel like we just brought her home and also like she has always been a part of our family. She is our busy, joyful little ambassador of goodwill, and just a perfect fit for our family.

Nora loves books, just like Sylvie. When she wakes up, books are the first thing on her mind. OK well milk, then books.

 Crawling races with her sister...

 Really, anything Nora gets to do with her big sister is pretty spectacular. Candyland...

Cars...

But sometimes a big kid needs some alone time, so Sylvie will go in her room and close the door. Nora finds this to be totally unacceptable and will pound on the door until Mom distracts her with something else.

Our Norsie is a big kid trapped in a baby's body. Recently on a gorgeous day we went to the playground at the beach with 4 of Sylvie's school friends. Nora was in big kid heaven.

It's so hard to believe that next month she'll be ONE!

Nora: 10 Months

Happy 10 Months to Norsie, or as Sylvie recently called her, "the good-est girl in the whole wide world." Since I just got around to taking her to her 9 month check-up, here are her stats. Nors is 31 inches and 21 pounds, or as the doctor put it, "A GIANT." She continues to be a major chatterbox. Some of this month's new words are banana ("nana"), five ("fie," as in high five), hat, head, woof ("voof") and kiss ("kith"). She uses signs for more, fish, chicken, eat, all done, play and bath. Most recently she is putting together "eat" and "nana." Nora is a hardcore banana addict. She loves to give kisses and high fives, wave and clap.

Nora: 9 Months

What a month it has been for Nora! She claps, she waves, she signs for "milk," "more" and "music." It seems like new words are coming everyday. Her current list: dada, dog, cat, Hank, and good. She even has a Hank calling voice: HAAAANK! She is trying hard to say mama (currently "baba"- sounds like mama with a head cold) and kiss and woof. She is putting signs and words together to say "more dog," "more good" (this usually means more food) and "good music." My iPod is docked in the kitchen so Norsie usually wants music as soon as she sits in her high chair and then tells me it's "good, good, good!" She also loves to play musical instruments. Nora loves to feed herself. Fortunately, she also loves baths. She currently has teeth numbers 7 and 8 coming through.


She crawls everywhere, pulls herself up on anything, and can almost stand without support. She loves to play independently with her family close by. Her favorite book is Doggies and we read it several times per day. She keeps me busy and fills me with so much joy. 


She loves to play with big kid toys, but sometimes we have to take one away that's too small and replace it with a baby toy. Nora thinks that stinks. Poor Nors, so mad but still so cute. Oh Norsie, you are so loved.

Nora: 8 Months

Happy 8 Months, Norsie!

Nora loves reading books, especially the books that have fuzzy spots to touch.

Nora is pulling herself up to stand and also crawling! A couple of weeks ago, she and I stayed at Sylvie's school for circle time. One of the kids was in front sharing and Nora crawled right off my lap and across the circle to get to the share toy. With everything going on it took me a second to realize Nora was crawling! But I am not surprised that's when Nora decided to start crawling. She loves an audience, especially an audience of big kids.

It's hard to say what Nora's favorite food is because she loves everything. Tonight for her birthday dinner she had scrambled eggs with rosemary. She loves applesauce, bananas, persimmons, green peas, black beans, corn, quinoa. Well, basically everything she's tried. Norsie is a great eater.

Nora has said words that sound like "da-da" and "Hank." We are waiting to hear from her again before we declare an official first word. (Daddy is working hard to sway her to "da-da!")

Our sweet Nora is growing so quickly and crawling all over the house. We can't wait to see what the next month has in store for our Norsie!