Norah- Eighteen Months. ~ A Day with the De Jongs

Poor Norah has been way too sick! At the beginning of the month, she was still recovering from hand, foot, & mouth, and about a week after that she got influenza A and had a high fever (highest was 104), followed by a bad cold. Thankfully she is healthy now and will hopefully stay that way! Norah is the most grumpy with just a normal cold; when she has a fever she is just really lethargic/cuddly.

Schedule/Eating: The transition to one nap went smoothly, thankfully. Once she was officially only taking one we moved it back a bit, and now she sleeps from about 1:30-3:30. She still sleeps from about 10-9 at night, and she falls asleep quickly for both and sleeps well. We are very thankful for a good sleeper!

Norah is getting slightly more picky, but still eats pretty well. We are always working on not throwing food on the floor or spitting it out, ha! Norah's favorite foods are cheese, pretzels, oreos, and watermelon. She is getting a lot better at using silverware.

Teeth: 15^th tooth- Bottom right canine on 4/5.

Developments: Norah is saying so many words it's hard to keep track! A lot are still hard to understand, but you can still tell what she's trying to say because she loves to copy you! She is starting to associate words together, like dogs say “woof woof” and cars go “vroom vroom.” She is able to do more things, like build taller towers, match simple puzzle shapes together, complete her 6 piece shape sorter by herself, etc. Norah is one smart cookie! She remembers where things go, where to find things, and can follow simple directions. She said her first sentence on 4/9, which was, “Baby walk” as she was putting her doll into her stroller and pushing her. Norah switched to 5 diapers this month. She still doesn't love strangers, but is getting much more comfortable with being around other people and going to them. She will go to great grandparents now, which they absolutely love! She still likes to make sure we are there, but will venture farther from us in settings with more people. She is just starting to line things up together and starting beginning counting/pointing.

Words: Probably too many to count! She is able to say: dada, grandpa (bapa), Karlie, Kayla, Keat, Brett, baby, bye-bye, hi, wow, hot (which she always whispers), bath, please, eat, water (wah-wah), car, dog, walk, up, down, Daisy (my parent's dog), Ainsley (her friend), ball, and probably more that I missed. She signs eat, more, up, please, and bath. She will copy a lot of words that you say to her, but doesn't use them regularly herself yet. Some newer words she says are cold, shoes, poop, off, toes, wet, two (when counting), and side (outside). She is getting really good at communicating what she wants, whether it's with words, hand gestures, pointing, etc. She throws an occasional tantrum, like any toddler, but it's really not too bad! She is a good communicator!

Favorites: Norah loves to go outside and would stay out all day if we would let her. (She cries almost every time we come inside, even if we were outside for a long time.) She loves to get snacks from the kitchen jars and to say/sign please ever so sweetly for a chocolate chip. She loves to find dogs and cars outside or out the window. She loves her baby doll, changing the doll's diaper, putting food in her play kitchen microwave and pushing the buttons, hot wheels cars, and getting her hands on anyone's phone she can find.