Nora update

A couple of updates on 11 month old Nora:

Favorite foods: bread, oranges, bananas, cauliflower, blueberry pancakes. No more spoon feeding this girl. And don't even think of cutting food into bite sized pieces. She also has to have food in each hand while eating.

Teeth: 3! A top one finally came through this week.

Personality: Happy! She smiles at everyone--just don't try to take her away from her mommy or daddy. If someone gets too close, Nora clings tightly to one of us while continuing to smile. She has become quite the jokester. Yesterday she kept stealing the visor from my head and throwing it in the water table while laughing like crazy. She is always laughing when told "no" and at all of the crazy things that Alena does.

Locomotion: Crawling, cruising, and climbing. She loves climbing everything from stairs to couches to pillow piles. Nora is a fast crawler, especially when she hears the gate to the stairs open. She loves to get into the corner of the couch and bounce and laugh.

Strange baby behavior: Nora loves to find small things off of the floor to stick in her mouth, from previously dropped food to boxelder bugs. She will roll the item around in her mouth for hours if given the chance, kind of like baby chewing gum. She will scream and struggle if you try to remove it. No one is allowed to get a hand near her face for any reason.

Weekend

It was the warmest St. Patrick's Day ever with a high of 82. Who could resist not spending most of the weekend outside? Any time that we go to a playground, Alena thinks that we should have a picnic. Friday her dreams became a reality when we went to the park with Kaelyn and Brielle. Alena was running around the playground yelling "I am having so much fun!"

Saturday Alena and I went to Pinkalicious: the Musical. It was her first experience with the theatre and she loved it. Pinkalicious is a book about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink herself. We celebrated by making pink cupcakes. Yes, Alena did end up turning pink. Her hands were stained from pink sugar and her leg was stained pink when her new dress got wet and bled on her. Grandma gave her a Pinkalicious doll the next day and Alena decided that her pink cow, previously named "Pony," now should be called "Goldilicious" (the name of an imaginary unicorn. It is all very confusing.)

All that fresh air can really wear a baby out.

Alena hiding Easter eggs. She partially buried most of them in mulch.

Nora found an egg!

The water table is so much fun!

Those crazy baby pants.

Swinging

The weather is starting to feel like spring. Alena said it is summer and refuses to wear pants or a coat. She also got to open up the sandbox this weekend. Both girls have gotten a lot of use out of the swingset. Alena got the idea of using it as a jungle gym. She kept saying, "This is fun," and "I am very careful." Last night they were both swinging when I ran into the house to take supper out of the oven. When I got back, Alena was pushing Nora on the swing and they were both laughing. Alena thinks it is fun to make Nora laugh as do we. She has a cute little laugh!

Jumping

Alena and Nora like jumping side by side, Alena on her trampoline and Nora in her jumper. Here are some pictures through the month of the two of them.

Alena started putting pillows all the way around the trampoline to keep her safe. Nora is holding the hotly contested credit card.

Maribelle and Rapunzel like to sit on the pillows and watch Alena jump. Here they are taking part in the action!

Sometimes Nora crawls over to her jumper so she can go in it and bounce. When she is in it she is not trying to climb up on the couch, so it is a nice break. I let her climb the stairs today to let her feel like a big shot. Alena loves when Nora climbs the stairs. The other night she sneakily opened the gate. Nora heard it open and made a beeline for it. She got up 3 stairs before she was stopped!