Norah's Special Place

We've had a great week. Norah has been such a good girl! She is really learning how to entertain herself, and be content playing on her own, which is a huge help to Mommy, when I have things to do like housework, cooking, or dare I say it?--Hair and makeup!

She's been exploring all sorts of things--and even experimenting with letting go of what she's holding on to while she's standing...but only long enough to switch to someplace else (like from the love-seat to the couch, etc.) She's walking around holding onto everything she can find, and when she can't get somewhere that way, she just lets go, and crawls the rest of the way.

This week, while I was working on a cake, she was playing quietly, close to the table where I was working. Then, I couldn't find her for a moment, so I turned around, to be greeted by what I thought was a pretty cute sight. She had somehow managed to gracefully nestle herself under her highchair, which was propped against the wall. It really is a wonder she didn't knock it over on top of herself getting in there. And to my even greater surprise, she exited her "special place" as gracefully as she had entered (I watched her, in wonder, as she delicately placed her hands and feet, just-so, as not to disturb the chair's legs)

I had to laugh at the second picture. That is the look she always seems to have when I find her doing something new to her (that she thinks might be a "no-no"). I promise, I don't beat my daughter--but doesn't she really look like she's expecting to be in trouble?

In addition to achieving acrobatic greatness, Norah also succeeded in occupying herself with no complaints, for the duration of my cake exploit. (Which is progess for us--I usually need Grammy to be here when I work on a cake because Norah has a tendancy to get jealous.

Another big milestone we've been working on this week is bedtime. We have been very blessed for most of Norah's 8 months, to have a sweet baby girl who likes her bed, and sleeps all night long, but sometime last month, she started fighting bedtime. Not fun. A few nights Jason would rock her to sleep (after we'd let her cry for 45 min. with no sign of stopping). But this week, we seemed to turn a corner, and the apparent solution was pretty unexpected.

It seems Norah needs a late nap--like around 5-6:30pm. When she wakes up from that nap, she'll play happily for an hour and a half, and then its time for bed. And for the past 4 nights, she's gone willingly. I guess she was just getting so tired between her afternoon nap and bedtime that she was fighting sleep because she was so tired...if that makes sense. At any rate, I hope we're out of the woods because it is SO much nicer to just put her in bed and walk away!