Nora’s almost one! Here’s some of the things she’s doing these days:

She hugs us! The best chance for a Nora hug is immediately after getting her up from a nap. She puts her arms around your neck, buries her face on your shoulder and squeezes. It’s pretty much one of the best feelings ever.

She makes her baby doll give her hugs by pulling the doll’s arms around her neck. A Nora hug to herself.

Nora l o v e s macaroni and cheese. She ate it tonight until she started grunting. I think she must have been way past full.

She continues to love dogs. We know whenever a dog is around because she’ll say, “dog gee gee! dog gee gee!” Sure enough, we’ll turn around and there’s a dog.

Nora’s a starer. She stares at everyone within a ten foot range. I think it makes some of the neighbors uneasy on the elevator.

Poor girl doesn’t know what to make of the sun. When any rays land on her face, she squints and turns her head away like she’s just going to endure it as best she can. (She’ll get used to it during the sunny summer months… surely….right?)

She likes to hang out under the dining room table. Her own personal fort to read or tear apart a used tissue that Mommy didn’t realize she found. Of course, that’s also where Remy’s bed is so she regularly kicks him out. He doesn’t seem to like it, but he forgives her because…

Nora has been caught feeding Remy several times. She’ll hold her hand down to his mouth and giggle as he licks the food off. We are aware that this is very gross and are working on explaining that to both of them.

Speaking of our floor dwellers and their relationship; Nora is slowly gaining authority over Remy. Remy was begging near her high chair, as is his custom, when she looked right at him, said something like, “Ba!” and Remy humbly sat down. Another time Nora realized that her spinning ball toy scared Remy every time she made the balls spin. I could see the gears turning as she played with it and watched Remy scurry away. Her eyes lit up and a smile slowly spread over her face. As soon as he came back she did it again. Poor guy.

She’s still doing her little Nora dance- hands clasped in front, face forward, swinging her elbows from side to side. She’s gradually working a head bob in.

One of her favorite things to do is to put a small toy- or spoon, or sock, anything really- on the seat of a chair, wait to make sure it doesn’t fall, seems satisfied when it doesn’t, only to take the toy back and do it all over again. About 20 times.

Nora’s latest accomplishment is pulling herself up to stand. The other day, she was hanging out under the table (again) when I heard a small bang (aka bonk) followed by crying. Sure enough, she tried to pull herself up on a chair that was tucked in under the table. Turns out the table is just a few inches shorter than she is. She was so confused why she wasn’t able to finish her new trick or what force was pushing on her head.

Josh taught Nora how to do a fake laugh. It’s pretty gratifying- you fake laugh and she’ll join right in. I love that it’s obviously fake and entirely different from her real laugh.

She’s working on saying “uh oh.” It’s more like “eh eh” at this point.

Nora’s moved bath time into the big tub. And she loves it. She’s liked bath time since she was about three months old, but wow. She really loves it now. So many interesting properties of water to explore. (It looks solid, but it’s not! And where does it come from??)

1 month until Nora’s first birthday. We’re pretty excited, but Nora doesn’t seem to care. She’ll change her mind when she has her first taste of that birthday cake, though.