So I never actually posted a Nora update last month, but I did take a picture. Here’s Nora at 19 months.

And here she is now, at twenty months.

It’s hard to believe how much Nora’s grown up in the past two months. One of the most noticeable things is her communication. At 18 months, I could have made a list of the words she knew how to say, but now there’s no way I could begin to count. She says a bunch of new words every day and is always repeating something that she hears one of us say (especially Jonah). Just recently, she’s also started saying words for the first time without directly copying someone, like when she came out from naptime and saw one of Jonah’s new construction worker guys and said, “Shovel!” which I had never heard her say before. She obviously has a lot of words in her head and is pulling them out all the time. She’s also putting two and three words together frequently, too, like “Mom help chair!” when she needs help getting down…

… because she’s started climbing on EVERYTHING! All the time!! When we were on our east coast trip, we visited so so so many homes and new spaces that Nora had a lot of opportunities to find her way around different kinds of furniture. A few early successes gave her great confidence to try even harder, and pretty soon she was getting up on just about anything she put her mind to.

Her hair has also had a tiny growth spurt, and she even occasionally needs a little hair dryer action after her bath so she doesn’t go to bed with wet hair.  She loves to climb up the stool in the bathroom to wash her own hands, brush her own teeth, and copy my face washing technique.  She is all about copying everything she sees.

It should also be mentioned that during these last couple of months, Nora has really cranked up the drama when she feels slighted or doesn’t get her way.  The arm-flailing, stomp-running, and wailing with her head thrown back is really something.  Oh my.

Nora continues to love seeing babies everywhere, and seeing her cousin, Phoebe, a few weeks ago has only strengthened this. She’s always wanting to see pictures of her on the computer and excitedly yells, ‘Phoebe!’ when something reminds her of her cousin. This has been interesting, too, because even though it’s been a few weeks since we saw her, Nora remembers little things like a book or song that Phoebe had, or a certain kind of pajamas and gets all excited. It’s fun to see how her memories are lasting longer now.

On our trip, Nora was a really super traveler. There were, of course, times where she really didn’t want to be held on the plane or strapped in her carseat for the fifth hour, but overall, she did did amazingly well. (And having an older brother who happily reads and draws for hours in the car gives her something to try to copy. :) ) She handled all the new houses and eating and sleeping arrangements wonderfully. We weren’t sure how it would go having her and Jonah falling asleep in the same room, but even that wasn’t a problem. Good little traveler.

She was also a really good sport about meeting tons of new people. She can sometimes be a little bit shy, but will also usually give people waves, hi’s, and show off some of the funny little things she does. It was really fun to have so many people get to see her for the first time.