Laundry Day, New Tricks, and Something Truly Amazing

No, it's not what it looks like. Our little angel hasn't crossed over to the "Dark Side". Norah simply decided that Mommy needed some help (or at least a little entertainment) while I folded the laundry today. Anyone who's spent much time with Norah (or reading this blog, for that matter) knows how much she loves a good game of peek-a-boo (aka "Where's Norah?") Jason and I used to cover her face with blankets, or our hands, or anything that was close-by, and ask, "Where's Norah?". Lately, Norah has taken it upon herself to initiate the game, at will. Her most recent (and laughable) exploit was with Mommy's bathrobe. After playing a few rounds, she decided to dive way down deep into that bathrobe...maybe a little too deep, because I heard her whipmer, as she couldn't find her way out to "surprise" me. After a good bit of struggling, she finally emerged--through the sleeve of the robe! She was confused at the tight fit, but clearly proud of herself for finding an alternate exit.

Norah still loves riding in the laundry basket. I dont know what I'll do when she gets too big to fit. (Maybe invest in a little red wagon?) I think its safe to say she looks forward to laundry day more than I do. (Ok, who am I kidding...every day is laundry day...and I dont relish it!)

In addition to perfecting her peek-a-boo game, Norah has several new "tricks". She covers her ears, puts her arms up, touches her nose, and claps on command. AA gave her a Little People Noah's Ark for Christmas and Norah loves it. Noah is her favorite character, by far. In fact, she can be all the way across the room and if we ask her "Where's Noah?" she'll drop what she's doing and scower the room until she finds him. (She can also correctly identify the elephant and the zebra!)

She's been taking steps here and there for about a month now, but only when she's in the mood to, and only when Mommy and Daddy are close-by. She's getting really good at standing in place, and has even started to figure out how to correct her balance when she starts to loose it.

One final accomplishment I have to note (cause let's face it, this blog might as well be titled "The Chronicles of Norah") is that Norah has started to recognize written words! I know this sounds totally far-fetched, but let me explain. The company that I sell books through (Usborne) recently released a dvd series called "Your Baby Can Read", and this was one of Mom R's Christmas gifts to Norah. We started her on the first dvd about a week before Christmas, and she's already learned to read (or at least memorize) 5 words.

The video shows a written word, then pauses for a second, and then reads the word aloud. Then it shows a video clip that corresponds with the word. Well, last week, Norah began responding to the words, "hi", "clap", "nose", "arms up", and "dog" before the word was read aloud. She simply saw the word (no pictures, just the word) and did what it said. She's continuously done this for the past week, so even though I was a little skeptical and thought it was just a coincidence at first, I really think she's memorized at least these words. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen!

Well, I guess that's enough "That's my girl"-ing for one night. Have a great day!