1 + (202 / 365) = 1.55 years (and counting!)

We recently attended a birthday party for Izabelle (Trish’s college roommate’s daughter). We had a blast! They’re about an hour away from us in New Hampshire, it was the perfect distance for a quick cat nap on the way up and back. While we were there Nora became very familiar (eventually) with their dog Jillean — it never ceases to amaze me how obsessed Nora can be with dogs in books and pictures yet be so skittish with them in person. She eventually warmed up after a delicious lunch with Jackson:

It’s a monkey!

We knew very well that Nora had been listening to us and understanding most of what we say for months now. She’s the proverbial sponge soaking up the entire world around her from the second she wakes up from the second just before she falls asleep every day of the week. I won’t bother to list off all of the ridiculously incredible things coming out of Nora’s mouth, but suffice to say that she’s literally saying new things every day. The usual flow of conversation involves her asking “What’s that?!”, we say what it is and she tries to repeat us. You can almost see the wheels turning inside her head as she listens to us and tries repeat it.

We’ve just entered into the climbing phase, apparently — anything above floor level is fair game. Things that help you reach even higher things earn bonus points! We’re having to resort to timeouts here and there that ultimately end up amusing her more than anything else. Count to ten, right?! Right. As I mentioned, she lloves climbing up on things that let her reach other things — sometimes, though, she just sits and reads her books :-D

Nora + water == fun. She’s developing a rapport with water that we hope will last a life time. She loves tubby time, especially since we’ve stopped using the baby tubby. There’s so much more room, so many more toys to play with! We recently picked up a little backyard inflatable pool that’s been a big hit. Nora had her first underwater experience on Father’s Day at Uncle Brian and Aunt Christie’s pool. A puff of air to the face, a dunk from Daddy and few seconds later it was all over. She handled it all like a champ. We keep practicing in the tubby with putting our faces in the water and blowing out air, too. We can’t wait to play a game or two of Marco Polo! (Or get her into a kayak :-D)

Things really couldn’t be better. We’re all happy, healthy and enjoying the great weather. I know this is a recurring theme, but expect more frequent updates at a Sterner family blog near you ;-)