Baby on the move

Nora--good luck trying to keep this kid still for long!  She really only rests when she sleeps and would prefer to do everything while walking, including eating and bathing.  She has a great love of shoes and socks.  If she is not wearing them and sees some, she either tries to put them on herself or she brings them over to one of us to help her.  Her love of walking is probably equaled by her love of sleeping.  An hour after waking up from her 13 hour slumber she is usually ready for another 3 hours.

Nora has a couple of words that we can recognize:  Mama, dada, yeah, uh-oh, bye, meow, roar, nana (which can mean Nora or Alena.)

Alena is still her idol.  Nora tries to get kitty blanket every chance she gets.  Alena is a pretty good sport about it and keeps an eye out for Nora causing trouble.  The other day I was in the kitchen and heard, "Nora is drawing on the couch!"  Sure enough, Nora had a blue marker and was going to town.  When I asked Alena why she didn't stop her, she just laughed.

 

 

Alena models

 

 Alena came down the other morning and she had dressed herself for the day.  She decided to wear 3 skirts.  A modeling session followed.

 

We are so proud of Alena for giving up diapers at night.  She decided that she would rather get up to use the potty when she needed to and was successful as soon as she put her mind to it.  Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought!  If she has to go in the middle of the night she does it by herself without any help!

 Poor Alena has been sick the past few days.  The other night at 3 am we heard her door open.  Fearing the worst (that she had, or was going to throw up) Ben and I both sat up in bed.  She came in and said she wanted to finish her apple juice (that she started before bed) and was in a very chipper mood.  After drinking the juice and asking Daddy some very important questions such as, "Why do you stand up while you pee?" she was sent back to bed.  Where she had turned her pillowcase into a sleeping bag because it was "cozy and warm."  She was running a fever during the day which led her exclaiming, "I'm as cold as an iceberg!"  Hopefully she feels better soon.

May

Poor Jones.  Sometimes it can be hard to find a warm lap to relax on.

Such a sweet girl!

Forced into playing peek a boo.

Nora waited several days to exact her revenge.  Alena was taking a rare nap on the floor and Nora went over and repeatedly tried to step on her head.

 

Nora now thinks she is old enough to jump on the trampoline.  She has her muscle shirt and parachute pants on so she will be comfortable during the workout.

Hanging out in the crib

When Nora wakes up from her nap, Alena likes to climb into her crib with her.  This afternoon Nora woke up and was playing music on her mobile when Alena came in to jump around.  Nora is pretty much 100% walking now.  Really more like running.  When she plays it mostly consists of walking back and forth across the room.  She doesn't even like to sit down to play--everything should be done while walking!  And she really loves her shoes.  If she is not wearing them, she is carrying them over to Mommy or Daddy to have one of us put them on her.

Four teeth--the other top tooth has finally dropped far enough so she looks less lopsided.

Someone is in the doorway...

Daddy is home from work!

Muffins

Alena and I made some chocolate chip banana muffins this morning.  Nora wasn't as dainty eating them as she was her birthday cake.
 

Baby Aunt Kristina is peeking around the corner!

 

The pooping monster

Alena came down this evening when she was supposed to be sleeping.  The reason:  the light turned off on her ladybug and when it is dark the pooping monster poops on your eyes and you can't see.  Which isn't nice of the pooping monster.

One-year-old walker

What does a 16 pound, 14 ounce, 27 3/4 inch one-year-old look like when walking?  She looks really cute!  Nora likes to do the majority of her walking practice at night.  I think she is doing a pretty good job with only a week of practice.  Other big news is that her blocked tear duct finally cleared up.  She was scheduled to have a procedure to have it unblocked last week,  but two weeks before it her tears spontaneously started draining on their own.  Her eyes look even prettier without the gunk. 

Happy birthday Nora!

The big day came and went, but not without some excitement. We had a party with grandparents and two aunts. Nora tried some cake but didn't really go as nuts as we thought she would over it. A couple of highlights of gifts she received were a new cell phone and a shiny bow on top of a package. The real excitement came as the party was winding down--Nora walked back and forth from Mommy and Daddy repeatedly (some while talking on the cell phone.) What a way to end a birthday party!

Excuse me, I have to take this call. Dadadadada.

Nora's wall of fame. Look how much she has grown!

Cake consultants were on hand.

That was good, but let's get to walking!

Fisherwoman

Daddy recently decided to give fishing a try, and Alena has gone with him a couple of times. She caught a "big mouth bass" out of Grandpa's pond and we fried it up for supper and it was really good. The only bad thing is, she didn't have the proper gear. She refused to use the little black pole that Mommy used as a kid because it wasn't pink. We were at Cabela's this week when she saw a Disney Princesses fishing pole. She took it off the rack and was carrying it around. When I told her that we needed to put it back, she told me, "Don't take it away from me." Well, I guess we were feeling crazy, so we let her get it. She got a couple of sparkly rubber worms for the fish to eat which she played with for about an hour on our way home. She has been practicing casting and reeling in a weight in the backyard. When she reeled it in, she declared it was a keeper and let everyone eat some of it

Alena and Papa Ed at the fishing derby.

It's a keeper!

Easter

For Easter, we enjoyed a ham dinner with all of the trimmings courtesy of Mama Diane. There was an egg hunt with the cousins and candy was consumed. Sunday afternoon we decided to head up to Minnesota to visit Lily and Finn (and those aunts and uncles, of course.) We had a great week with them, including Nora's first visit to a zoo. She loved it, especially the monkeys.

Checking out the loot.

Alena was so excited to see the Easter Bunny at the greenhouse on Saturday.

Nora took a nap while we dyed eggs.

But there were plenty of plastic ones to play with when she woke up. Plastic eggs are pretty much her favorite toy.

All dressed up in their Easter finery.

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!

So big!

Nora loves that she is getting so big. This is her variation which always includes clapping to start. Daddy claims she took four steps last night, but it doesn't look like she is going to start walking too soon. Tooth number two finally came through this weekend, 3 weeks after the first one. And she is starting to bust out of her 6-9 month clothes.

Ulterior motives?

Lately Alena has wanted to give Nora hugs. I believe it is mostly an effort to injure Nora, just a little. Nora's intentions aren't entirely pure, either. She is trying to chew on the brown buttons on Alena's shirt.