16-Month Details

There are so many little things Norah does, and I absolutely adore them and never want to forget them. I am terrible at journaling them, so I'll blog them instead. I love these little details about my baby girl. Some have been going on for almost her whole life, and some are new things she's recently picked up.

She has always loved having her feet up. From the first time her feet could reach, she insisted on putting her feet up on the bar of her bouncy chair.

Her at 4 months

And since her first time in a high chair, she has always put her feet up to the edge of the tray. Her chair is usually pushed up to the table nowadays, and she likes to push her feet against the table (or Rich's leg if he is close). And then, Rich captured this gem last Saturday of her watching football, propping her feet up like it's no big deal.

It's amazing how much she reminds me of Rich in this picture. Watching sports with the legendary basketball pillow.

Norah loves to do laps. She walks in circles around the coffee table. There's a path she treads through our kitchen, dining room, and entryway. She walks around and around Grandma and Poppa Nelson's living room and kitchen. Even at church, she likes to make a loop in the gym. I guess she's ready for running on a track - I just hope she inherited her daddy's speed.

Norah loves all three of her blankies right now. She sleeps with them, and she carries them around much of the day. Today when she was pouting she found comfort by snuggling one of them. If she sees one of her blankies sitting on the floor, she'll stop whatever she's doing (usually her laps), and lay down to cuddle with it.

I've tried very inconsistently to teach her some sign language, and the one sign that has really stuck with her is "more" (even though it looks more like the sign for "again"). It usually means one of three things: at Grandma and Poppa's house it means cookies (Nilla Wafers), by our fridge it means cheese, and in her high chair it means pumpkin waffle. Which probably gives you a hint of what her favorite foods are right now.

 No matter how many times I sign it the right way, Norah has decided to sign "more" by taking her pointer finger on one hand and tapping it the palm of her other hand.

Most of Norah's babble makes no sense, but it sure is adorable when she gets going. Sometimes I think it would be nice to actually know what she's trying to say (if anything), but I know I'm going to miss her meaningless jabber when real words take its place.

She does know a couple words, if you can coax her into saying them: Momma (finally!), Dada, Poppa, cheese, shoe, ball, waffle. If she's in the right mood, she'll do some animal noises. Dog, cat, cow, pig, lion.

This girl loves puppies. If she so much as hears a dog barking, her eyes light up and she says, "Oof!" ("Woof!"). She doesn't really know what to do with them once they are close, and she's hesitant to actually touch them. But she watches them with great fascination. Someday you'll have one of your own, Norah. Someday.

Norah is an expert at giving kisses now. She used to go for it open-mouthed, but she has now conquered the pucker. She almost always gives kisses when you ask her to and sometimes even when you don't ask for them. She'll even give kisses to her stuffed animals and characters in books.

She started doing this on her own, and now she always kisses this page in this book.

She prefers soft-page books to board books, which means she likes to tear the books I don't want her getting in to off the shelf. I just need to accept the fact that kids books will get ruined, but it's so hard to do that while they're still gleaming in perfection.

She loves to say "shhhh" for quiet and sleeping. Any time we read "Go, Dog. Go!" at bedtime, she takes her binky out at the part where all the dogs are asleep to whisper "shhhh!" There's a part in her book "I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean" where there's a shark and you're supposed to whisper, and she always puts her finger to her lips to say "sh!" I noticed yesterday that she even shushes in books that she's not familiar with. We were reading "I Am a Monster" at Grandma and Poppa's house, and she shushed at the end when the monster was going to bed. It's so fun to see how much she is learning everyday.

She folds her arms for prayers, but she sneaks food with one arm still folded.

Anytime Rich is sitting or laying on the floor, she insists on sitting on top of him. Sometimes Rich likes to nap on the floor, but that's pretty hard when Norah sits on his face or stomach. If I sit on the floor, she'll walk up to me, and then kick into reverse to sit on my lap. It's absolutely adorable.

Oh man, I love this girl.

I do declare that there are few things cuter than a baby in footie pajamas. 

We tried watching "Ratatouille" together one gloomy day. She loved it. For about 5 minutes.

  Norah has discovered the funnest new toys in the bathroom. The first time she got to them I almost stopped her, but, hey, what harm can she really do with them, right?

We suffered through the BYU-Utah game, yet again. Maybe by the time Norah will be able to remember the games, BYU will win them. But at least we had good company at the Wallaces' house! Norah was a hit with the boys, teaching them how to use a stroller.

Norah has Rich's old phone as a toy, and somehow she came up with this message.

 We've never done selfies together before. Norah loved the front facing camera! She loves to see pictures of herself. I think she knows just how cute she is.

I tried my hand at a maxi skirt, and I think it actually turned out pretty good. I'm not sure I'm in love with the fabric, but I think I like the tutorial I found if I ever make another one.

And finally, this smile. Oh my goodness, she could not get any cuter!

Willie Day '13 (and More)

Just what is Willie Day? Well, it's a long story. Someday, Rich will need to pop on here and give the full story because I will only slaughter it. For now, the following quote from Rich will have to do:

"It's so difficult to just sum up Willie Day. Stumbled upon (blessed) in 2002 and first celebrated in 2003, this BYUXC-created holiday celebrates forgiveness and all-around joy in life. Traditions include peach consumption and respect towards Willie Nelson. Miracles are astoundingly abundant."

Willie Day kicked off a little early this year with this amazing postcard from the Durhams a few days before the actual day:

Then, on Willie Day Eve, I made a peach crisp (although, unfortunately the peaches were canned since we're past fresh peach season here).

Since Willie Day fell on a mutual/scouts night but we still needed our peach offering, we hit up Zip's on our way home for the shake of the month - Peachy Peach - to close out our celebrations.

And, since Willie Day, it's been a busy week for the Nellys, full of quite a few decisions. One of the biggest is that Rich has decided to put in more hours volunteering at Gonzaga to get him some more face time and to help him get to know the office side of coaching better. And around that he still needs to fit work and school.

And, last night, rather suddenly, we bought a car! We traded in the old Dodge Stratus for a Nissan Altima. We've been getting a little worried about the Stratus for a while now, and then a couple days ago the check engine light came on. That was the last straw. If there was anything seriously wrong with it, we did not want to spend the money on repairs.

A good friend of Rich's parents works at a dealership, and they and their children have bought probably 10 cars from him over the years (not exaggerating). So, we drove out to the Valley last night, just thinking we'd look and maybe come home with a couple options. Instead, we ended up leaving the Stratus there and bringing home our new Altima.

I feel like I want to name her, but I'm terrible at that kind of thing. Any suggestions?

I'm excited for the new car, and we both feel it was the right choice. And we are not sorry to see the Stratus go. It was sad to see Vince and even my old Blazer go, but I really felt no attachment whatsoever to the Stratus. I only wish we could somehow have ended up with two cars, but I guess we'll keep making one car work.

And, of course through all of this Norah has been adorable as always. I'll end with some of my favorite pictures of her from the past week.

 She doesn't eat the crust anymore. I can't blame her, but I didn't realize that this started so young.

 She has an uneven mullet in the back, and some of her bangs almost reach to her eyes. Yeah, I have no idea what to do with it. Good thing she's adorable and can pull off anything. My sister and I have this joke that all you need to do is put a bow in a toddler's hair, and, ta da, it's done! That is definitely my theory right now (not that the clip lasts for more than three seconds).

One of her favorite ways to play is to dump out the blocks and then instantly move on to something else.

 She absolutely loves these Minnie jammies, and I have no idea why because I don't know how she would know who Minnie is. But she always fishes them out of the dirty clothes and carries them around the apartment.

We're finally getting the bump on her cheek checked out by a dermatologist next week. After Lake Powell this summer, it did this weird thing where it turned into a blister, and then went back to normal (well, what it looked like before). The doctor said to keep an eye on it, and if that happened again he'd get us in to a dermatologist. Well, it happened again on Sunday, so I called as soon as I could for an appointment. Now it just looks like a scab. I hope we get answers. In fact, I just want it removed so we don't have to worry about it anymore.

I cannot get over how adorable and old she looks in her jeans. She really isn't a baby anymore. I mean, I'm shopping in the toddler section for her now! Time is flying by so fast.

 These pants are supposed to be skinny jeans (if only skinny jeans fit me like this). You can't really tell, but I tried to capture her sag here. Size 12-18 month clothes are still way too big on her, but she's too long for a smaller size. It looks like we're going to be pulling up her pants all winter.

 I finished this dress I started for Norah over the summer, afraid it would be too small by now. Nope, way too big. Maybe it will fit her next summer.

Playtime

Wednesday. That seems like a good day to update my blog. Let's see how many Wednesdays I can keep this up.

I've decided to not be afraid to share the pictures I take on my phone. They're not very good quality, but that's how I capture almost everything because my phone (or Rich's phone) is usually right there when I want it. Plus, losing so many pictures has helped me realize that any pictures, despite their quality, are better than no pictures at all.

Many of my pictures from the past week seem to have a common theme - Norah's playtime. She is a busy girl, getting in to everything and having tons of fun in the process. She loves to "read," and her current favorite book is "Go, Dog. Go!" She cracks me up on a daily basis with the things she thinks to do.

At Grandma and Poppa Nelson's house, Norah is allowed to go to town with the tupperware drawer. Norah loves to carry it around with her, so they'll probably be finding tupperware around their house for years.

A couple days ago, I watched my friend Aubrey's little girl, Alivia, for a couple hours. She and Norah had a lot of fun together, although I learned just how much Norah needs to learn to share. 

 After lunch, I was cleaning up the kitchen, and these two come up just like this. On her own, Alivia climbed into Norah's stroller, and then, again on her own, Norah decided to push her from the family room to the kitchen. It took me a little while to stop laughing.

Norah has this fascination with standing in this toy.

I'm not much of a baker, but lately I can't stop baking this bread. Cream cheese banana bread (I left out the nuts). Do yourself a favor - bake it.

Our Dodge Stratus is getting old. Words cannot describe how much I want a new car. Actually, just a second car. The Stratus can stay, but having only one car is getting really old.

Norah was having a rough evening on Sunday, but she calmed right down when Poppa read her a story. This is one of those pictures that just melts my heart. 

And they kept reading until all the furniture was gone.

(I guess that probably needs a little explaining. Grandma and Poppa got new carpet this week, so we had to clear out all the furniture.)

This room was done, so all the furniture got moved in here.

Can you spot Norah? 

Hiding in the arm chair, buried in her books. 

I decided to make a purse using this tutorial. I love the fabric I chose, but I'm not so sure I'm in love with the bag itself.

Lunchtime sleepy eyes 

Daddy was nice enough to share his popsicle.

Norah fell in love with this scrap of leftover carpet. Apparently, she approves of Grandma's choice.

I have a feeling every week is going to be a picture overload like this. If that means I have another backup for my pictures, then so be it.

And, of course, Happy Willie Day to all! Eat your peaches and be on the lookout for Willie Day miracles! I know the Nellys will!