Didn’t Nora just turn 16 months yesterday? Yeah, time is flying by. This month has been filled with figuring out our new routine and getting used to our new surroundings here on the farm. Although we have had a few bumps in the road, she has passed with flying colors!

Weight: An even 25 pounds. She is getting taller and is still skinny! But she still has dimples and rubber bands on her hands. That still makes her a baby, right? Wearing 18-24 month clothes.

Sleep: No more night terrors! We figured out that it was that all she wanted was her own bed. Once we got her back to the farm for good and in HER crib, the night time waking and screaming for hours stopped completely. And we are all much happier about that. She is still going to bed kind of late, 9pm, but she is consistently sleeping until about 8am and takes a 1-2 hour nap every day, so no complaints from this mama.

Eating: Nora’s eating habits have changed this month. She either eats really good, or really awful. When seems to go in spurts with eating and nothing really seems to trigger it. But from what I’ve read and what our doctor told us, it’s totally normal at this age. So we just go with the flow. Her favorite foods are: macaroni (duh), Triscuits, yellow and red peppers, carrots, chicken, peaches, any type of soup, and her new favorite thing is popcorn. Girl after my own heart 🙂 Nora still loves her juice and milk and enjoys picking out her sippy cup for the day. It’s pretty cute.

Toys and Play: Nora loves having her trike out now that we are back at the farm. She has enjoyed riding around in the shop on cold days and up and down the sidewalks when it’s warm out. She loves climbing on the tractors and pretending to drive them and especially loves mimicking tractor sounds when Grandpa or Daddy drive them around the farm. Her most favorite toy these days is her dollhouse. Our friend Angie gave Nora her daughter’s old dream dollhouse when we moved and after a good cleaning and some new furniture and dollies, it’s good as new! Nora plays with it for hours a day and it’s so fun watching her put the dolls “Night! Night!” in their beds or putting them in their chairs around the table to eat. I could watch her play for hours.

Words: Meh. We are still doing lots of grunting and pointing and shrieking. The new thing she loves to say is, “Night! Night!” whenever she goes to sleep or is playing with her dolls. Every once in a while we will ask her to say something and she sounds it out perfectly one time, then refuses to try and say it again and just smiles and runs away. Oh well. Someday my child will talk.

Some Lows: Well, we had ANOTHER ear infection this month. Boo! I think we will be talking to Nora’s new pediatrician about tubes this next visit. I have the sinking feeling that they might be in her future, especially after how bad this last one was – 104 fevers, delirious, walking into walls, hysterical screaming. It was so awful and happened in a snap. Lucky for us, we found a good urgent care clinic in Lincoln and got her in and out quickly. We also have had a hard time with temper tantrums this month. I feel like we are making some head way on working through them and are redirecting her really well. It’s just going to take time and patience, but we want to make sure we work through this now and not when she is in Kindergarten 🙂

I thought I would do something a little different this month and ask Eric what he loved most about Nora this month. This is what he had to say…

“She really likes to play with me now. Whether it’s playing on the bed or in her kitchen, she loves to play and involve me. I love playing with her at night on the bed. I like to pick her up and throw her onto the pillows and when she giggles that’s the best! And she is learning like crazy! I mean, she learned all by herself how to throw trash away. That’s awesome! Lately she has been sitting in my lap while I eat dinner and we eat together. I love that.”

Happy 17 months, Nora Sue! Mommy and Daddy love you SO MUCH!