Shoes

Norah loves, nay, is obsessed with shoes. From the second she wakes up to the second she goes to bed, she insists on wearing shoes. This has presented a bit of a problem seeing as she only has two pair of shoes and she tends to misplace them. So yesterday she magically found two shoes from when she was 6 months old. Not two matching shoes, mind you, just two shoes. Luckily one was for her right foot, and the other for her left. Unluckily, they did not fit. One was a yellow polk-a-dot flip flop in which her toes and heel hung on the edges, and the other was a tiny cloth shoe for a pre-walking child. She wore this combination all day without complaint. Just goes to show, women learn early on that beauty truly is pain.

So today we decided shoes might be something we should buy our daughter. We took her to Target and walked into the shoe department. She immediately shed the shoes she was wearing and started pointing to every shoe in the isle asking, "yes? yes? yeah? yeah?" We bought three new pair.

Say my name

Now that she's almost 17 months old, Norah officially says, "mamma." Took her long enough. Here's just a small sampling of the words that came before her own mother:

Dad

Banana

Stuck

Hi

Bye

Duck

Ball

Yeah

Yes

No

Down

Broccoli

Norah loves LOVES broccoli. Tonight I made (and when I say "made" I mean I heated up a frozen pre-made meal, we're gourmet like that) macaroni and cheese with broccoli. Norah refused to eat the macaroni and cheese, but she devoured every little piece of broccoli in the entire dish.

She loves these greens so much that anytime I have the fridge open and she can see the broccoli in the vegetable crisper she points to it and says "please" repeatedly. I admit, there are worse things she could love. And frankly, there are worse things she does love. Like candy and ice cream.

To Grandma's House

Yesterday we were getting ready to go to my parents house for dinner. I asked Norah:

Do you want to go see Grandma?
Yeah.
Do you want to go see Granddaddy?
Yeah.
Do you want to see Aunty Carlie?
Nah
Do you want to see Aunty Rylie?
Nah

Girly girl

Norah is such a girl, I love it. Here are a few examples:

1. She LOVES walking around with her purse on one arm, strutting her stuff like she's all that (and really, she is all that), stopping occasionally to check the contents of the purse and add more random items such as spoons, shoes, etc.

2. She sits on my lap every morning while I do my makeup and whines until I dab a brush on her face and tell her she looks soooo pretty.

3. The girl loves shoes.

Just keep swimming

Norah loves the water, like totally loves. Bath time = best time of her day. So today when I took her swimming at my parent's house, I figured she'd be in heaven. Giant bathtub, right? It started out great, she was splashing and laughing and acting generally merry. Then Rylie dove off the diving board and went underwater. Norah freaked out. Then when I took a dunk to wet my hair, Norah was in hysterics. Apparently people disappearing underwater is traumatizing, who knew? So, to get her over this fear we're going to be spending a lot more time at the pool. Naturally.

Walk this way

Norah took her first steps on Sunday, but seems rather unmotivated to actually walk. When we do the classic "walk back-and-forth between your parents" exercise, she just sits down between us and looks up as if to say, "seriously? Why would I learn to walk when I'd much rather be carried?" Smart girl.

Communicating

Norah's constant "talking" is now starting to sound like actual words. Other than "dad," which she's been saying for a while, Norah can also say "duck" and "please." Although they sound more like "dut" and "ees," it sure is adorable. She also does the asl sign for "more" and "please" and folds her arms for prayers. Of course the arm folding lasts all of .25 seconds, but again, adorable.

Dadda?

I think it's safe to say Norah loves her dad. Today when I went to get her out of her crib after a nap, the first thing she did was look up at me, held her hands up and shrugged her shoulders in a questioning manner and asked, "dadda?"

And no, she doesn't say "mom" or any variation of mom. In fact, the only words she says are "dad" and "dadda."

Stand and deliver

Norah is now capable of standing, and her favorite thing to do is stand up in the middle of the room with a giant grin on her face waiting for applause. As soon as we give her what she wants, she sits back down and does it again.

Little singer

Today Norah and I were baking cookies, and every time I'd turn on the mixer she'd start singing along with the hum of the motor. She also does this every time I vacuum. Looks like she may have the Evans gift for music, because it certainly didn't come from my side of the family!

Dancing Queen

Last night we had a family outing at the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. After walking around and enjoying the flowers, we bought dinner at the food trucks and sat and listened to a bluegrass band play. Norah loved the music and was rocking out the whole time.

Kitty love

Norah loves our cat Sonny. The other day she was sobbing inconsolably. Wouldn't nurse, didn't want to be held or put down ... nothing I did calmed her. Then in walks the cat and she started giggling, crawled straight to him and was totally fine.

Daddy's Girl

Today as Jason was leaving for work, Norah realized he was walking out the door so she crawled to him as fast as she could. He told her "goodbye" and started to shut the door behind him, just then she sat up an started whining. Norah loves her daddy and, naturally, didn't want him to leave her.