"Sit down!"

Meet Blue Dog.

Blue Dog was a Christmas gift from Grandma & Grandpa. He is the source of Norah's new favorite game "sit down!" She likes to stand on him or start to climb on things she should not, look at us and says "sit down!" She thinks this is hilarious.
(I also hear her quietly tell herself to sit down when she is going down the step into our family room or when she is sitting to put on her shoes.)

The Sixth Christmas

"Can you hear me now?"

This weekend Grammy, Paul, Molly, Kate, Cassie & Evie came over for our sixth Christmas celebration! Norah was very pleased with her new phone. She babbles so much I wonder what she is saying in her little phone conversations. "Phone calls" are the only time she will say a full "hello," otherwise, we just get "hi."

Cassie, Kate, Norah & Stephan during a rare quiet moment away from the Wii and their made up spy/army game.

Kate & Norah....we can tell Kate will be a great baby-sitter. Norah is holding the abc leapfrog toy they gave her. It plays the alphabet song, which she recognizes and is starting to memorize when certain vowel sounds appear. She tries to sing along and says "oh!" and also "eee" when she hears e, g, p, etc. She has a great memory.

Evie the Dog Whisperer

Grammy and the kiddos

"All done!"

"All done!" is one of Norah's new favorite sayings. For a long time she has used a sign to let us know she is done (it's the same sign when she can't find something), but she started to say "All done!" this week when she is finished eating or gets to the end of a book. Norah says "Nan you" for "Thank you." They practice "please" and "thank you" a lot in her little class. She likes to pretend to sleep and says "Night! Night!" This weekend she started to say "Night! Night!" when it looks like night in a book. If we ask her to find the moon in a book, she points to it and says "moon," but then points to the front living room because that is where we often look at the moon at night. It's fun to hear her vocabulary grow and hear words she has been saying for a while become more clear. She used to say "babble" for apple, but now says apple clearly.

Norah is good at recognizing the color red if we ask her to point to something red and is starting to recognize blue pretty regularly.

Norah hugging her Daddy-Man after his trip. She had a tight two handed grip on him after he got home!

And I had a cute picture of Stephan, but he pestered me until I deleted it.

Norah is 16 months

Norah was 16 months as of Christmas Day. It is hard to believe she has grown so fast. She always makes us laugh and has such a fun, sweet personality.

Her new favorite word is animals or "animos" as she says it. She tries to sing along to songs, especially B-I-N-G-O and always chimes in with a cheerful "O!" at the end. We spend most of our time reading. Norah could read the same book a dozen times before moving onto the next book and reading it a dozen times. Her favorite are word books because she can find just about anything we ask. She does not know how to count, but understands the concept of counting on her hands. She holds up different fingers (although not the right ones) as we count for her.

Norah was moved to the 18 month class at her little school. We visited her new room one more time last week on my day off and she did not want to leave! When the teacher brought out a dog book and said to the class "I wonder what the puppy puppet will say today," Norah jumped up and said "Woof! Woof!" She had a wonderful first day today. I was concerned how she would transition to a class with circle time, no high chairs and naps on cots instead of cribs. Her teacher said she did very well with all three! (The nap report really surprised me!)

Stephan and Norah reading about two of her favorite "animos" dogs and cats. Or "meows" as Norah calls cats.

Art Museum

After Christmas, Gramps and Jude took us to the art museum to see a fun, interactive exhibit called Act/React. The kids had a great time and Stephan got to spend time with Ari and Nina Mae.

Norah was thrilled with the wide open space in the Calatrava. She just wanted to run back and forth. She probably fell 20 times, but kept going.

Norah and Jude looking at the beautiful Chihuly.

Enjoying a snack in the cafe.

Six Christmases

You may have heard of or seen the new movie Four Christmases. We laugh at the thought of a mere four Christmases. Four?!? That's nothing. We have SIX. Yes, six! Two Christmas Eve, two Christmas Day, one the day after Christmas and one yet to come. It's part of the joy of having multiple blended families. It takes a little coordination and a lot of communication, but we know we are blessed and lucky to have so many people in our lives.

A few favorite pictures.....(there are more, but I am not done uploading!)

Norah really enjoyed Christmas. We finally saw Santa a few days before Christmas (all of my other attempts were dashed by bad weather and Norah getting sick) and she enjoyed it. The rest of the holiday, she would say "Ho! Ho!" with her whole body whenever we asked her what Santa says. She also got the hang of gift opening. You can imagine she received a few packages at so many Christmas celebrations. It did not take her long to figure out there is good stuff under that paper.

Norah and Grandma in their westie wear. Grandma and Grandpa were happy to her Norah say their names (or her best attempts...Grandpa is lovingly called "Ba Ba") on their trip home from Arizona.

Norah & Jessie read "How to Make an A" on Christmas morning. (I wish the lighting was better in this picture!) Jessie flew in from Boston that morning. The next day Elliot arrive from Portland by way of DC. We were glad the rough weather did not interrupt their travels.

Stephan and Reese

Our (not so) Little Man

Norah and her Pops

Norah loves to watch the video camera as it records. She SQUEALS when she sees the picture.

Hannah, Elise & Norah

Norah admiring her cousin Josh

The little chef

When Grandma came back from Arizona to get ready for Christmas, she bought Norah a little apron to match Grandma & Stephan in their aprons while they baked and made chex mix.

Norah looks darling in her apron. It's like a little petticoat.

Norah loves to sit in this rocking chair at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was Casey's chair when he was a baby.