It’s been such a fun year with you. You are so smiley and squeezable! And now you’re ONE!
You are doing so many fun things now.
You love to see other kids so you can wave and smile at them.
You can sign “please” and show us where your hair is.
You can stand on tippy toes and reach things that Mommy didn’t think you possibly could. We have to especially careful to keep the remote away from you because you like to hide it in laundry baskets or with your blocks.
You love to sneak up on Remy when he is napping so you can grab his tail and say, “AH!”
You can spot dogs from across the street and have starting yelling, “Hey!” to them.
You have a new purple hat that you wear with a big smile when Mommy says, “Oh, so pretty!”
You changed your dance style; now you hold your arms out to the side and shake your head so hard, you almost fall over.
You love seeing your daddy come home from work and crawl across the floor as fast as you to say hello with a big hug.
There’s a stuffed dog that says your name and you like to wrap your arms and legs around it and fall face down on top of it, sumo style.
The other day, you crawled up to me laughing because you were carrying one of your shoes in your mouth. I think you were trying to make me laugh, too.
And today Daddy taught you a new thing- he taught you to hold up your hand to Praise the Lord! Just in time for your birthday. You also had your first chocolate chip pancakes!
We love you so much and are so happy that God is letting us take care of you. We have had such a wonderful year with you and can’t wait to see what you’ll do next.
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.
She whispers “dadadada” very quietly to herself. We’ve decided that she’s practicing because she knows the first Dada needs to be delivered well. We’re all planning on it being a big moment.
She has an impeccable ability to know exactly which objects around her are within reach. I have to clear a wide circle before we begin any meals or else I’ll be cleaning sweet potato smudges off everything she touched.
Any time she’s playing on the floor and is suddenly quiet, she’s definitely getting into something she shouldn’t be. Such as the printer. Which, by the way, has an extendable paper tray. I did not know that until she extended it.
She pitched her first fit after a two year old friend took the empty lint brush roller from her. (Despite being surrounded by actual toys.) She was very, very upset. Hunched shoulders, balled up fists, wailing- the works.
She gives “kisses” when requested. She puts an open mouth on your cheek and breaths loudly.
Still no crawling, but she can roll herself around and will eventually end up where she wanted to be.
Josh is recovering from a cold and anytime he sneezed, coughed, or cleared his throat, she burst into tears. This was happening several times every hour. It got to the point where Josh was throwing out neck muscles in attempts to muffle his sounds.
She’s showing a new interest in books beyond chewing the corners. (Although she still does that.) Now she yells at the pages. Not sure what to make of this one.
Her favorite game is knocking over towers of blocks. She starts flapping her arms in excitement as soon as she sees one going up. She grunts in frustration if you hold her back while you finish a particularly tall tower.
As she falls asleep, she rolls her left foot from side to side. The more tired she is and the more desperate to sleep, the faster her foot moves.
When she thinks something is funny, she’ll look at you with a big smile to make sure you’re in on the joke.
She bobs her head like she’s rocking out. Or agreeing wholeheartedly.
Josh & Lauren got married in the summer of '05 in Marietta, GA. Now, they live just outside of Seattle in Kirkland, WA, where Josh is a designer for Google. Lauren stays at home with their daughter, Nora, who was born in March 2009. Remy, their dog, spends most of his time sleeping. And this is their site where it all happens.
Ok, then what's up with the name of your website?
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