All About Our Little Norah-bird

Little Miss Norah has changed so much since the arrival of her baby brother! Physically, she's grown at least two inches taller (though she's still a petite little hummingbird), she finally has hair (!), and she's talking up a storm which has provided hours of entertainment for anyone who actually stops to listen to her. :) The boys were so different with their verbal/communicative development; they started with single words that progressed to two or three word commands, then simple sentences and so forth (pretty text-book). Norah may have started with single words, but then (for the most part) went straight to lengthy sentences complete with sarcasm and sass. For example:

Norah: "Mommy, a-I have nolk, pease?"

Mommy: "You want some milk? Okay, do you want chocolate in it?"

Norah (enthusiastically): "Yeah, a-course!"

-0r-

Mommy: "Okay, guys! Time to load up! Everyone get into the car, please."

Norah: "Mommy, I know! I sit in Eddie-O's car seat and Eddie-O a-sit in my car seat. Okay, mom? That a good idea, mommy?"

She is just so funny! I love that she loves to talk and especially love to listen to her converse with her brothers. Some other of my favorite Norah-isms:

She's the only one who consistently calls Eddison, "Eddie-O." In fact, Justin and I are pretty sure she believes that to be his real name.

She also has a big soft-spot for Eddie - which is so funny as it took a long time for him to warm up to her when we brought her home from the hospital following her birth. Whenever she has something she's excited about (like when I painted her nails) she immediately says, "Where's Eddie-O? I a-go show Eddie-O."

As I was buying school supplies for Jackson the other day I fell under her spell and ended up conceding to buy her a pink and purple owl lunch box. She looked up at me and said, "Pease, Mommy? Pease?" Who could say no?! And then what was even more adorable was that she spent the next five minutes trying to pick out lunch boxes for Jack and Eddie-O. She finally decided on a Spiderman one for Jack, but wasn't happy with the selection for Eddie as she kept saying in a concerned voice, "A-where's a Hulk lun-box, Mommy? A-for Eddie-O?" That she even remembered that Eddie loves the Hulk was just so cute! I ended up convincing her that we would come back with the boys so they could pick out their own lunch boxes.

She can sing her ABC's perfectly and counts up to at least 12 - but if I even acknowledge that she's singing she becomes self-conscious and smiles a shy smile and stops singing. I can usually get her to start again by encouraging her and starting the song myself, but her "shy" face is so cute!

As adorable as she is Norah can be surprisingly (shockingly, even) aggressive. For example: at church a few Sunday's ago we were sitting in the back during Sacrament meeting and Norah started to get fussy in her stroller. After the Sacrament was passed Justin unbuckled her and let her do some exploring. A very sweet (and very old) Latina woman was sitting behind us by herself and she kept smiling/waving at the boys. Of course they smiled and waved back and then she would whisper something about how cute they were in Spanish and then Jack and Eddie would giggle because she was speaking Spanish. Anyway, so then there's beautiful little Norah in her poofy and elegant white and pink tulle church dress with her cute little pig tails. Once Justin unbuckled her she was able to get out of her stroller and turn around to see who had captivated her brothers' attention. The woman just beamed at Norah and leaned forward and whispered, "Hi" while waving at her. Norah stood there, and after a split second of indecision she made claw hands and literally hissed at the woman - and then spat at the ground. I only wish I were joking! I was mortified (but trying not to laugh at the same time) and Justin was no help because he was also trying not to laugh. The woman seemed completely taken aback and I think Justin may have whispered, "Sorry," as he quickly picked Norah up and took her out to the hall.

Norah-bird (a.k.a. Norah-burger as dubbed by Jackson) is thriving at being the only girl amidst her three brothers. In fact, I feel guilty that there aren't more girly things for her to play with since her older siblings are boys and therefore most of our toys are boy-ish. Now that she's 2.5 she has started to become interested in more specific and decidedly more feminine things like Dora the Explorer, playing dress-up, caring for her stuffed animals, having her nails painted, etc. I realized just how much I need to build up our girly toy supply when she announced that she wanted to play dress up and the only thing she could find was Eddie's ultra-padded Hulk costume. She was undeterred and put the costume on without a second thought. The outfit was complete when she put on a pair of her princess shoes. How sad and adorable is that?! Yep, I know what she's getting for Christmas!

Justin loves to wrestle with the boys and likewise it's their favorite pastime. Norah has never shied away from the action and loves to be thrown into the air, thrown on the couch, tackled and tickled, etc. A couple of weeks ago I tried to show Jack and Eddie some simple martial arts moves (yes, I made it to green belt with a black stripe for those of you who care) to try on Justin when he got home. Little did I know that Norah was paying more attention than the boys were! Now whenever she wants to wrestle or one of the boys says "let's wrestle!" she'll immediately slightly squat down with her right leg back, left fist up by her chin and right fist down/diagonal in front of her. It is so funny! I need to get a picture. :)

Norah continues to love to be read to. Her current favorite book is, Are You My Mother? It used to be Jackson's favorite when he was around her age (he loved it so much that he had most of it memorized at one point). His copy was eventually destroyed and I meant to replace it, but soon forgot. Then a couple of weeks ago Justin and I went on a date and stopped by Border's bookstore and I spied a copy on the shelf in the children's section and remembered how much Jack and loved it - so I bought it and it has been read at least once a day to Norah (and the boys who usually stop what they're doing to come hear the story, too). Oh - and of course I do all of the voices! :)

Whenever we meet someone new (like a cashier, a random person at the gym, or whoever!) Jackson takes it upon himself to introduce the whole family. When he gets to Norah he says, "This is Norah. She's two and she's the boss." Ha ha! I don't know where he picked that up from, but it's a pretty accurate assertion, lol! :)

We love you, Eleanor June!