The Face

Nora has been expanding her range of talents. Most recently she has discovered how to blow spit bubbles, mastered her "Indian war cry", and has become obsessed with making "The Face". I think the best way to describe the face is a pug snort with a touch of adorable. Her favorite time to make the face seems to be during a meal, sometimes getting us all sidetracked and forgetting why we had her in the highchair in the first place. Here's a cereal smeared version of The Face from this morning.

Learning to Share

About two month ago Nora and I had gone over to a friend's house for a play date (a term used very loosely since Nora was hardly mobile at that point). We had Nora sprawled out on her blanket with her toy and she was having a grand time interacting with the adults. Here comes Riley in the room, a jolly little two year old who loves Nora (or "No-No" as he first called her), ready to play with the baby. As Riley approached, Nora cautiously swept her toy close to her chest for safe keeping. Apparently Nora considered sharing her toys with Riley as a no-no.

A few weeks later Grandpa Buddy had taken Nora on a walk through our garden. Grandpa refers to these as "species identification walks" where he lectures on the different fauna they see and Nora touches and plays with leaves, branches, and flowers. Upon return from their walk, Nora had clasped in her tiny hands a pretty little flower. Grandpa brought Nora over to me and was encouraging her to give her flower to me. Nora kept her a tight grip on that flower showing no intention of giving it up. My father helped her extend her arm toward me and I picked the flower out of Nora's hands thanking her kindly for the nice gift. Out came the lip and her eyes welled up with tears. I have the feeling she wasn't really bringing that flower in for mom.

I'm starting to get the idea that we need to work on sharing a bit. It's just so tough for a little girl!

Watch out world, here I come!

Now that Nora has mastered the art of crawling, she seems to have gotten this silly idea that the next step for her is to get up on those feet. She just looks over at me with a mischievous grin, her eyes telling me, "Look Mom, I'm going to be walking in no time!" Meanwhile, I'm thinking, "Oh super duper!" But hey, I am proud of her. Unfortunately all of her curiosity and bravery often leads to tumbles and tears.

Earlier this week she was sitting up like a big girl on our hardwood floor playing with her toys. I was walking past her, and she followed me with her head and before we both knew it - WHAM - she had fallen over backwards and hit her head. Oh the water works! I picked her up and then she spied some super cool newspaper sitting on the couch which brought the drama to an immediate halt.

Her other favorite trick right now is to crawl into some tight spot she can't get out of. Like while I was writing this, she crawled between the ottoman and the love seat and made an immediately turn to wedge herself between the couch and the love seat. There she was a howling and flailing until I came and plucked her from the tight corners. And now she's off again, diaper butt on the move, seeing what else there is to discover.