So this post is a few days late, but better late than never, right? We had Nora’s one year check up yesterday, and she passed with flying colors! But after I bragged on Nora for hardly crying after her last two rounds of injections, my big mouth bit me hard when she screamed for over 5 minutes with these ones. I will never brag about my daughter on here again 😉

Nora measured in the 50% for weight at 21 lbs, 1 oz and in the 93% for height at 30.7 inches tall (both Eric and I are short, we have no idea where this comes from! Future Hesston College Volleyball player?). Dr. Deroo was “tickled and impressed” when he saw how well she was walking and how quickly she warmed up to him once he came into the room. He said most kids her age know that when they see him, they get poked and prodded, so they automatically start crying. But Nora was sweet and gave him a hug and a high five. That’s my friendly child 🙂

Some fun things that Nora figured out this month and milestones reached:
Walking-everywhere and anywhere that she can. After she took her first steps at home (which, BOTH Eric and I were home to see!), I went out and bought her some big girl shoes and she has hardly taken them off since. She continues to crawl about 40% of the time, but is definitely getting faster and faster the more she walks. She is going to be running before we know it!
Teeth-Nora now has 4 teeth! Two bottoms, top right middle and the “hillbilly” right side tooth. The hillbilly tooth made a grand appearance on our flight home from Canada-it wasn’t there when we took off, but it sure was when we landed. Never again do I want to fly while Nora has the potential of getting a tooth in-never. She continues to LOVE brushing her teeth and squeals with delight when she sees her toothbrush. She still has a lot of trouble with gum pain, even with tylenol, so we got her an amber teething necklace this weekend-here’s hoping it works!
Travel-speaking of plane rides, our family went on another trip this month. We went to Canada for a week in August where Nora had a lot of firsts: first bike ride, first donuts, first trip to an indoor wave pool, first bonfire and first pancakes, just to name a few! Besides the flight home, she was perfect the whole trip. She enjoyed watching all of her little cousins run around her and for the first time, watched her REALLY enjoy interacting with other children. It was a great trip!
Milk-two weeks ago, we made the switch from formula to whole milk. Nora took it like a champ, but has suffered some pretty significant constipation from it. So after talking with our ped yesterday, we decided to add some naturally laxative-type fruits and a little bit of juice to her diet. In the next two weeks we are going to do away with bottles completely and go straight to sippy cups…Yikes! All prayers appreciated on this one!
Music-my dreams have come true…Nora started DANCING this month! Bouncing up and down, swaying back and forth, clapping her hands in-time to her favorite songs. It makes me so happy to watch her enjoy music so much.
Stairs-Nora has been climbing UP stairs for a couple of months now, but has never figured out how to go down. But a couple of weeks ago she finally got the hang of it and now zips up and down the stairs with ease. Makes it a little harder to keep up with her, but I can’t get upset with she squeals while sliding down on her belly 🙂
TV-Nora has taken significant interest in the TV lately. I got her a Veggie Tales music video DVD and she can’t take her eyes off of it! Of course I don’t let her watch it everyday, but when we do watch, she eats it up. She has also figured out that the remote control makes the TV do things, so she is constantly holding up the remote, pointing it at the TV and pushing buttons-it’s pretty cute.
The Park and Running-Ever since she started walking, Nora has fallen in love with the park down the street from our house. It’s fun watching her climb up the stairs and go down the slides. She is such a big girl! Nora has also taken a special interest in running with me. She loves to go fast and wave at all the other runners and dogs and we trot along. There is also a small fence of sunflowers on the last leg of our run and we stop almost everyday and pick Nora a flower. I am betting that some form of the word “flower” will be one of her next words 🙂