Wow, 15 months already?!? Our sweet girl is getting so big! This month has continued to be FILLED to the brim with learning, changing and giggles for our little Nora Sue. Here are some highlights from this past month.

Eating: This girl has the appetite of her daddy. She still eats just about anything and in extremely large quantities. There are random days through the week when she will decline meat or dairy, but will pick right up again eating it the next day. When she is all done or doesn’t want something, she does this adorable “decline,” and closes her eyes, turns her head away from you and shoos you away with her hand. There are no words to describe how cute it is. Nora continues to be a sweets connoisseur and jumps at any chance of a cookie or ice cream. She likes using a fork and surprised us the other day by dipping her chicken in her sauce with a fork. Eric and I both started clapping and cheering, right in the middle of Chick-Fil-A. She drinks less milk these days, but loves ice water and apple juice. We have FINALLY transitioned over to sippy cups FULL TIME now. It was a rough week making the change, but it was so worth it! Her favorite snacks include: graham crackers, grapes, animal crackers, strawberry yogurt cheerios and pumpkin-oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. Little oinker 🙂

Sleep: We had a bit of sleep regression this month. Nora tends to have her teeth break through slowly instead of swiftly and she has continued to work on her molars this month. There have been many a rocking and cuddling in the middle of the night this month, something I’m trying to not take for granted 🙂 When she does sleep through the night, Nora goes for about 12 hours straight, from 7pm-7am. It’s lovely when she does that.

New Tricks and Skills: Nora has had another month of learning! She figured out how to do “The Michael Jackson,” aka walking backwards and it’s so cute! Her running speed has picked up considerably, probably due to all those laps we do in the basement together around the couch! She finally got comfortable going down the slide on her bum like a big girl and raises her hands when I yell, “blast off!” as she goes down. She LOVES helping do chores around the house – her favorite things to do are empty the dishwasher, put laundry in the drawers and “scrub” the floors. I even got her her own little broom and dustpan a few weeks ago and it’s fun watching her sweep along side of me. Nora has been trying to help putting her own clothes on in the mornings and brush her hair after bath time. She LOVES brushing her teeth and we sometimes have to bribe her to do things with her toothbrush.

Games, Toys and Clothes: Nora still loves her dollies and likes feeding, burping and taking them for walks. She loves tractors and cars and spits all over the place when she makes engine noises. She squeals when she points to different animals and is the CUTEST when she makes animal noises and actions. Most kids have a security blanket or toy…Nora has a security coat. No, I’m not joking at all. Great Grandma Joyce got Nora a pink and white polka dot coat for her birthday and this past month, the child has barely taken it off. She naps with it, wears it around the house, drags it up and down the stairs….it goes everywhere. I have to wash the thing at least twice a week, as it’s usually covered in graham cracker crumbs by the end of the day 🙂 We still read ALL THE TIME (but of course we can’t read if we aren’t wearing our jacket-nope, I’m not kidding). We read together for about 2 hours a day. Sometimes the books can get old and boring, so we have resorted to acting books out, doing motions to the books, or making up new stories to the pictures as we go. Nora seems to like it when we change things up a bit, and of course it’s always a nice change for me. She wears size 18-24 months and some 2T’s right now. Hoping that she gets some new clothes for Christmas 🙂

Not-So-Fun Changes: Nora has started throwing temper tantrums this month. She mainly has small ones at home and it’s normally when she can’t figure something out or plays with something she’s not supposed to. We did have a very public tantrum a few weeks ago in Wal-Mart. After screaming and throwing groceries out of the cart, I picked her up and let her walk with me in the produce section. When Nora grabbed a pomegranate and I said, “No,” and put it back, she did the unthinkable: laid on the floor, rolled around and screamed and cried. I just stood there and looked at her, horrified that this was happening. But then, I remembered that Wally World can be a little bit sketchy, so I didn’t feel too out of place. But I was still mortified. Praise the Lord, this hasn’t happened anymore. Let’s pray it doesn’t EVER happen again! Nora also thinks that that it’s now fun to “run away” from us when we call her or ask her to do something. I honestly don’t think it’s her being naughty, but just playing a game with us. She gets this huge grin on her face, squeals and runs the other way. As cute as it is, it makes getting things done a little more time consuming..

This has been the hardest, and the most FUN month for me and Nora. I feel like her personality is skyrocketing to heights I had no idea were possible and it’s been a joy watching her learn so much this month! I have so much joy from being Nora’s mom. We are entering into a phase of Nora really having a mind of her own and testing her limits with us, and I just pray that we can have the patience to gently work through all of it along side of her. This next month is full of Christmas parties, celebrations, traveling and packing of boxes as we prepare to move and I hope that it’s a month of great joy and play for our little girl. Nora also became a cousin this month to Elisa and Patrick’s little baby, Dakota Marie and we are hoping to drive out to Colorado Springs this month to let the cousins meet and start their journey to becoming life long friends. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next month of our sweet girl’s life. And I can’t wait to spend it with you, Nora Sue 🙂