As we go for walks around the town I see couple after couple toting around a baby younger than Nora and all I can think is “where did our little one go?!”. She’s right there with us of course, usually holding on to someone’s finger as we walk along the sidewalk to the park or the pond.

Family Snushi Dinner

We went out for a family sushi dinner a few weeks ago to a local restaurant japanese joint! Mommy and Daddy took care of the raw fish while Nora polished off a California roll (light on the soy sauce/wasabi) all by herself. Well, almost all by herself. She got to try some miso soup and vegetable tempura, too. She loved the sweet potato tempura, crunchy + sweet and mushy = yum. This was the first of what will be many visits, I think. I hope.

We don’t really worry as much about little things like “is she going to see that big crack in the sidewalk?”, our worries are more like “where did she go?!”. Seriously. Nora moves with the grace of a baby elephant yet remains nearly silent. She confounds our sneaky baby detection systems. She can make it from the kitchen to the office in 13.7 seconds flat. It’s funny how that’s both amazing and, at the same time, terrifying.

Communication used to be somewhat difficult with the little peanut, that’s all changing. She probably understands more than 90% of what we say to her (and in her presence, yikes :-/), it makes things like cleaning up pretty nice akshully. If asked to help pick up the destruction she causes she usually obliges for at least a few minutes. That’s usually followed up by MOAR DEMOLITION!!

Nora, where’s your belly?!

There it is!

When she’s not busy unstacking books or chasing the kitty around so she can give her kisses Nora can still usually be found with her face in a book. Her new most favorite makeshift-toy-in-the-kitchen is a Ziploc bag of bottle caps that Daddy uses for home brewing. Sometimes they come out individually or in small groups, sometimes the bag is shaken about like she’s some maniacal maracas player with bottle caps soaring through the air and ricocheting off of walls, cabinets, whatever is in their way. It’s quite an event but rather difficult to get on film due to its short life and spontaneous nature. Speaking of Ziploc bags.

Nora’s figured out how to open zippers (she actually got this months ago), Ziploc bags, boxes of cereal, screw-off tops and, last but not least, doors. Yes, that’s right. Nora opened her first door last night. It was the door to her closet so she could get her tub out. Why her tub? We don’t know, we were both awestruck at what we’d just seen.

When it comes to talking Nora’s never been a slouch. I know that she understands about 90% of what we’re saying, the flip side is that we are starting to understand her about 10% of the time. I imagine we’ll understand 100% of what she says by the time she’s 14 or so. Get it?! Get it?! Her vocabulary consists of words like, “Teddy!”, “kitty!”, “what’s that?!”, the sometimes awkward “who’s that?!”, “cookie” (followed by her infamous cookie monster impersonation), “chicken”, “truck”, “GRRRRR” (a bear/tiger), “snort wheeze snort wheeze” (someone/something sleeping), the list goes on and on.

Last but not least, Happy Easter!