Norah recently. ~ A Day with the De Jongs

I'm pretty sure I've said every stage of Norah's has been fun, and this is no exception. Norah recently turned 2 1/2, and it's such a fun age. She is an excellent communicator and very verbal, though in new situations in public she can be shy. She loves to sing loudly at home, and hearing her little songs all throughout the house is so cute. She has recently started saying, "Of course!" when we ask her to do something and it's so adorable. (She certainly doesn't respond like that every time, just sometimes, but when she does it's great.)

Norah is an excellent big sister. She loves Lucy and Ellory very much and enjoys being with them and holding them. We've had to explain gentle touches a lot, as she loves them a little too hard, but never in a way to hurt them. She tries to pick them up a lot and we have to remind her she needs help. She calls them sisters or twins, and often calls them sweetie pie, and it's super cute. She tries to give them toys when they are crying and doesn't understand why that doesn't make them feel better or why they don't grab it and play with it. She loves to get really close to their faces and give them kisses or say hello. Lucy has started grabbing her hair, which upsets her, and we have to keep explaining she's not purposely trying to hurt her.

While there are a lot of great things, 2 1/2 is not without it's challenges too, and I'm sure it was greatly impacted with the addition of the girls. She's doing much better now, but when the twins were about 5-6 weeks old, it was pretty difficult. She had a slight potty training regression and was having some accidents, and also had a sleep regression. She took a long time to fall asleep, and would cry and cry in her bed, which isn't usually like her. She even had a week where she would get out of bed, which she's never done before, and was night waking again too. (We also had daylight savings time too, which didn't help.) Thankfully that stopped! For a couple weeks there, we had many many tantrums and battles and I wondered where our sweet girl went, but she's returned and it was just a short phase after a big transition. She overall has handled the twins really well, but I know it was hard on her to have us be gone for so long when we were in the NICU, and then to come home with not one, but two new babies. We have had amazing help from family, which has been so helpful, and Norah has been enjoying having lots of people around to play with her!

Norah is absolutely loving that spring is here and wants to be outside every chance she can get. She begs to go outside often. She loves to ride her trike, take her baby doll for a walk in her stroller, go across the street to see the neighbor's cat, swing on her swing set, and take many trips to the park. She's also learned that the bank and grocery store will give her a piece of candy or a sucker, so she's been all over that!

Norah's favorite game is hide and seek, and it's so funny to play with her. She really understands the counting now, and that one person hides and one seeks, so it's neat to play for real. She loves to color with markers or dot markers and watercolor paint. She enjoys playing with her sensory bins whenever we get those out. Some of her favorite toys are her dolls, doctor kit, magna-tiles, legos, and trampoline. Her favorite color is blue and almost all her pictures now are full of mostly blue. She loves to go to the bakery and get a sprinkle donut for special treats, and loves to help bake in the kitchen, especially with stirring.

Of course we are biased, but we think Norah is super smart. She knows the words to many many songs, and can "read" her favorite books that she's memorized. She pretends to write her name (scribbling from left to right), loves to color and can draw a few shapes and identify what she's drawn. She can identify circle, square, triangle, heart, star, diamond, blue, purple, black, white, brown, and green pretty consistently. She can count to 10 perfectly and a few teens numbers. She has an excellent memory. She can sequence events and use logical reasoning more. She can use the bathroom more independently now and get herself dressed/undressed. She loves to see her friends and looks forward to playdates.

Norah, you are a true light in our lives and being your parents is a joy. When I put her to bed at night, I try to make sure that the last thing I say to her is, "I love you and I'm so glad you are my daughter." Those words are true everyday, all the time, my sweet girl.