14 Months Old

Still growing, but in such a different way.

This past month or two, Nora's grown by leaps and bounds, but not physically so much as mentally.

She calls Mama "Mama" and Daddy "Dada" with great accuracy.

She wraps her arms around my neck and holds on for dear life.

She cries when I leave, but I hear she recovers pretty well.

She loves her Dada so fiercely she can't help but hang onto him like glue when he's home.

She loves books, and will bring one to you to read if you ask her.

She keeps time to music and is learning new songs. If you play music in the car, you better turn it up. Our Nora's a musical baby who wants to hear it like her Daddy: "If it's too loud you're too old"

She thinks it's funny and will openly laugh AT you if you yawn in front of her.

She loves the cats and still isn't too sure about Lucy.

She loves to smile at people, especially in lines where they're stuck and have to be nice to her back. Like the post office, or a recent discovery: The Safeway pharmacy.

She loves to walk/run...she can't quite run yet, but she walks on her toes as fast as she can, propelling herself forward so far that sometimes she just wipes out.

She's very interested in brushing her teeth, playing chase games, running and screeching and laughing with joy.

Additional locks have been put on more cupboards.

She has a babysitter for Mondays and Wednesday when I go to my Chemistry class. Linda is a wannabe Grandma who's 68, has a 40-year-old daughter who hasn't had any kids, so she's thrilled to spend time with a baby, and now calls Nora "my girl."

Since Nora's real grandmothers both go by other names than "grandma" we call Linda "Grandma Linda". Grandma Linda brings books for Nora, who eats them up like most of us would scarf chocolate at that age.

Oma (Brian's Mom/Nora's grandma) bought us a membership to The Gilbert House, a local children's museum this month, and we've already made use of it a few times. Nora is THRILLED there and runs around like a girl gone wild. It's like she KNOWS it's "her place" so she just goes and goes and goes.

Last week we went to Gilbert House and Nora got a new basket of toy veggies, and we work on what they are, what colors they are, and we put them in the basket and take them back out.

Who can ever believe she was this tiny???

Tonight we sat reading books, and she points at things and loves ANY of those touchy/feely books that have pages where she can touch fuzzy things, and she bolts right for the scratchy bear's tongue, or whatever...She amazes me as she grows so quickly. So smart. So funny. A true gift.

Tonight I held her for a bit, since I had to go in to get things straight (Grandma Linda couldn't find PJs so I went in to check and make sure she was dressed ok for the night.

Nora was breathing funny (just congested) and woke up when I came in, so I held her in my arms for a few minutes to help settle her back to sleep.

I see her little face, now fat with a 14-month-old's maturity, and I think of how tiny and helpless she was, and what a fierce personality she is now.

I still cry over her and get all choked up when I sing her songs at bedtime like "You are my sunshine" or The Beatles tune "I will" that has a line that says "Love you forever, and forever, love you with all my heart. Love you whenever we're together, love you when we're apart..."

As I told my friend Susan the other day: There's nothing like Mommyhood.

It's the best job in the world.