Summer Lovin'

At dinnertime on Sunday, I realized that it had been one of those weekends when I hadn't taken any real photos of our happy little girl. To make matters worse, I hadn't taken any photos of her during the week, either--with the exception of iPhone pics, of course. Thankfully, there was still plenty of time (and daylight, yay summer!) to fix that.

After dinner, we head outside to find a backyard set for exploring, toys to be played with, and... beautiful light. I even busted out my favorite lens (the "nifty fifty" 50mm f/1.8) for the occasion.

While I'm sharing, I figured I should probably do a little update on Miss Nora, since I haven't posted many stories or updates on her recently. I certainly haven't been great at chronicling her second year of life in written format (I did monthly posts her first year), but hopefully I've at least hit the highlights. Now... first, I want to address language, since we've seemingly been picking up words left and right lately (nevermind that most of them still seem to start with "B" and "M"). :)

Nora currently says:
- Dada, Mama, Tessa
- No, Yeah
- Uh oh
- "Sssssss" = Shhhh (hush)
- "Muh" = More (with the sign language, too)
- "Boon" = Balloon
- "Buh-buh" = Bubbles
- "Moo" = Cow (She will point to random pictures of cows--like in the dairy section at the store--and say "Moo")
- Bye-bye
- Ball
- "Bloooo" = Blue
- Bobo (the long dog toys from the PetSmart commercials. Nora loves giving it to Tessa)
- "Peez" = Please
- "Too Too" = Peek-a-boo
- Diaper (I'm not even sure how to phonetically spell what she says for this, haha)
- "Dat" = That. She uses it as an answer AND a question (like "what's that?")

She also makes animal noises: Rahhh (bear), Moo, Baa, Meow, Ruff (dog), Ssssss (snake)

It's hard to remember them all, really. I know I'm forgetting at least a handful--I guess I'll have to keep coming back and updating over the next day or two for my own sake!

We're currently going through a pretty good period as far as tantrums are concerned. Last month, we had a week or two when tantrums were CONSTANTLY occurring, over pretty much everything. Try to get her to sit down for a meal? Tantrum. Declare a meal over? Tantrum. Get dressed? Tantrum. Time to leave the house? Tantrum. Get in car seat? Tantrum. Going inside from playing outside? Tantrum. Bathtime? Tantrum. Bedtime? Tantrum.

All of this, accompanied by biting, hitting, and thrashing about.

IT WAS FUN.

Of course, she's nearly two (OMG, sniff sniff), so those things still happen (including the hitting, and sometimes biting), but I would describe the incidents as occasional instead of constant now. MAYBE once a day? Even her daycare provider mentioned to me this week that she has been a lot better with tantrums lately. I'm sure we'll be due for another round of fun soon, but until then, we're enjoying our (usually) happy girl.

In Nora's eyes, Daddy is the bee's knees right now, you guys. I would say that up until this point in her life, she always preferred me--just slightly, but still, it was there--but I've seen the "Daddy's Girl" side of her begin to play first fiddle. It's actually been sad for me and a little tough for me to deal with at times, if I'm being honest. Last night, I was planning to put her to bed but she just wanted Michael, so she started crying and hitting me. She even bit me on the shoulder (which resulted in her going to bed with NO bedtime routine with EITHER of us, by the way). My feelings were hurt and I even said something to Michael like, "That always happens when she wants you, she never does that with me."

And then sure enough, this morning, she wanted me. She cried when I gave her to Michael to take downstairs for breakfast. Huh. Guess I was wrong about that.

So I guess she just has moments where she prefers one of us over the other. I don't know whether it's best to just "go with it" (when possible) or if it's best not to cater to those preferences. There is so much to think about when raising little ones, isn't there?

At this age, Nora knows SO MUCH. She can point to probably hundreds of different things when asked to do so. Body parts. Animals. Objects. People. Characters. We're working on colors; for right now, she thinks every color is "bloooo!" :)

She follows commands and is actually a pretty good listener most of the time. She uses our names (Mama/Dada) to get our attention.

She continues to looooove Tessa. She brings Tessa toys and "hands" them to her. She giggles at Tessa's antics. She pets Tessa. She tries to pick her up.

Nora loves all things outdoors. She likes to systematically bring everything (toys) out of the garage, one by one. She's not so much a fan of bringing them back in. She likes to scribble with sidewalk chalk, and loves to color with crayons as well.

In her playroom, Nora will set up a tea party all by herself. She takes stuffed animals and dolls and places them in the chairs at her table, and pulls out plates, cupcakes and sprinkles from her cupcake kitchen. She "pours" tea from her tea pot, and pretends to drink it. She also loves taking care of her baby doll--holding, feeding, kissing her. She brings her to us whenever her little hat pops off, because baby NEEDS her hat, don't you know?

Nora is OBSESSED with the alphabet. She loves to "sing" it--every letter is "dah" but she does carry the tune! She'll get the song started on her activity table and then dance. Or, she'll go to the book shelf and pull out her alphabet book, turning it to the last page where the entire alphabet is displayed, pointing to letters as the song plays. She's not pointing to the correct ones, yet, but the fact that she knows that letters go hand-in-hand with the song is adorable to me. She'll also point to the alphabet up on her playroom wall. One morning, she even pointed to the letters on Michael's shirt. She's a smart little cookie.

She will "fill in the blanks" to her "Moo, Baa, La La La" book by Sandra Boynton.

At 22 months, she is still shy. She still gives the cold shoulder to people--even our families--at first. She does warm up pretty well, though (usually). I was "painfully shy" (so said my kindergarten teacher) as a child so I am not surprised or concerned about this at all.

She is stubborn and determined. There is a strong will inside of her, despite the shy exterior.

She laughs. And giggles. And subsequently gets the hiccups.

Nora is a pretty darn good eater. She goes through phases, just like most toddlers, but for every night when she won't eat anything, there will be a night when she will eat EVERYTHING. We have followed our pediatrician's advice from the beginning--to always offer her what we're eating, and to not allow ourselves to become short-order cooks. If she refuses what she is being served, she goes without anything until the next meal or snack. It seems to be working really well for us, and it's not like she's going to starve. She still has some control over her meals--whether or not to eat them--but we will not let her control what that is, if that makes sense.

There is so much more I could say. And so much I'm sure I've forgotten that I *would* say. But this would go on forever.

Overall, our little Nora Grace is just a healthy, happy kid. Who is dangerously close to turning two years old already. I can't quite believe it's getting to be time to plan another party.

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Evaluation

Nora had her early intervention evaluation for her speech last Friday.

It went really well. We weren't sure exactly what to expect in terms of cooperation on Nora's part, but she was great. A little shy when they first arrived, but she warmed up quickly. We scheduled the appointment for early in the day--9 a.m.--so that she would be well-rested and at her "best."

Two women came to evaluate her. One was an early childhood specialist who was there to evaluate her development--social, physical, cognitive. The other was a speech pathologist who was there specifically to evaluate her speech.

All they really did was play. And ask us a lot of questions. They brought a lot of props and toys of their own, to test specific things--covering an object with a blanket to see if she would look under the blanket, hiding things under cups and moving them around for the same purpose. Practiced "feeding" a bear with a plastic spoon, practiced laying the bear down and covering him with a blanket, etc. All things that they directed her to do that she cooperated with. They gave her a hand mirror to see how she would respond to her reflection, and she performed--smirking at herself and moving her head to take peeks at different angles. HILARIOUS.

They also looked at books--random ones that they pulled off of her shelf--and asked her about objects in them. Nora pointed accordingly. At one point they were going through a Sesame Street book and the woman was asking Nora about the characters. She turned the page and Nora's finger went out immediately, pointing, and her little voice said, "Boon!" Both women looked at us. "Balloon?" one said. Yep. Pointing right at the yellow balloon on the page, she had said it with conviction. Balloons are one of her favorite things on the planet.

That's the funny thing. As I mentioned in my previous post--ever since I made that call to early intervention, Nora seems to have made a lot of improvements. Picked up a few new words, even since I last posted--Balloon. More. MAMA. That's right, she says Mama now. Every day, multiple times a day. It is awesome.

So, an hour or so passed, and they were done with the evaluation. They had put Nora through all of the "tests," and had asked us all of their questions. The full report with all of the results won't be ready for us for a few weeks, but they told us her scores right away--and told us outright that Nora does NOT qualify for services.

Exactly as I suspected.

According to her scores, Nora does have delays. Not only in speech, but in the social and cognitive skills, too. BUT her scores were borderline normal, just a bit below. They said that the reason for her lowered scores in the social and cognitive areas were all for things related to speech, so... well, it all makes sense. That was why we were in this position in the first place.

At the end of the day, Nora's delay is considered "mild," and children need to have a severe delay to qualify for services. And Nora doesn't, which is honestly a relief. They expect that she will catch up on her own, reassuring us that the range of what is "normal" at this stage of development is extremely broad. Some kids are talking in complete sentences. Some have only a few words. It's just the way that it is.

Given the small sample of children in my family that we've since "surveyed," it sounds like not really talking until after 2 years old is not as uncommon as I might've once believed. Two of our nephews were late talkers. So were a few of my cousins' kids. All are bright, healthy children who eventually caught on--by themselves. No therapy needed.

So, it is what it is. We continue to do what we've been doing. Narrate our day, work with her. Encourage her speech. We do a lot of object identification exercises. Singing. Reading.

In six months, if Nora still seems to be below the curve, we'll have her re-evaluated. But I'm not worried.

I see the light at the end of the tunnel. And there are a lot of words there. :)

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Early Intervention

Nora is a child of very few words. Quiet, she is not. But words? Well, she really doesn't have them.

I think I've mentioned this concern on my blog before, perhaps in posts about her chronic ear infections and the surgery to place her ear tubes. Or maybe in passing in other posts as well. But I've never dedicated an entire post to it because, well... we've always just hoped that--like with a lot of other things--Nora is a "late bloomer" when it comes to speech.

And maybe she is.

Nevertheless, at Nora's 18-month well-baby visit, her pediatrician said that she wanted an update on her speech development at 21 months. She said that if she hadn't made marked improvement, she would refer her to an early intervention program. She noted that it would mostly be precautionary--she doesn't really worry until they are past two years old--but that it was worth at least being evaluated by early intervention at 21 months because the process is easier when working with the county (as opposed to the school district, which is apparently who we would work with if she was 2+).

A little more than a week ago, I called the doctor's office to talk to her about behavioral issues--tantrums. She loves the behavioral stuff, so we have an open invitation to call her with questions whenever, which is really nice. Anyway, during the conversation I mentioned Nora's speech, and when our doctor heard that Nora had really only added one new word in the past three months (which is "no," by the way), she told me to go ahead and call early intervention.

It's a process just to be evaluated, so I don't know when we'll actually find out anything noteworthy. But we have an appointment with the service coordinator this week, who will go over our "options" and then I guess we'll get on the schedule for the actual evaluation.

The funny thing? I don't even think she's going to qualify for services. I really don't.

In talking to a few friends who have been through the process, the therapists evaluate the children using a number of different factors--and then come up with an overall score. If the score is too high, the child doesn't qualify for therapy. Apparently, half of that score is based on receptive language--and Nora understands. Nora understands a lot.

Even more amusing is the fact that in the last week since I made the appointment, I swear we've noticed a handful of new words. Like when she's in the bath tub and she lines up her little sea animals on the edge--we always count them. And a few times, I've said, "Count your animals, Nora." And she'll take her little finger, point to them, and say "wuhh. tooo. tee." (one. two. three.)

Or last night, when Michael kissed her goodnight, said "I love you," and started to leave the room when we both heard what very well could have been a version of "I love you" escape Nora's lips.

Also new this past week has been a couple of animal sounds. We ask her "What does a tiger say?" and we get a "Raaaahh." and "What does a cow say?" and we get "Mmmmm!"

Thankfully, she has also picked up "Yeah," which is a nice complement to "No" (although not used nearly as often, I'm sorry to say).

I don't know what the evaluation will bring. Maybe she would benefit from some time with a speech therapist. But I can't help but feel like perhaps the "language explosion" is just around the corner.

One way or another, we should be making some progress very soon.

Of all words in our language, of all of the things that I can't wait for her to say, there is just one magical word that I look forward to most.

I hope that I will finally--someday very, very soon--get to hear her little voice say "Mama."

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The Sippy Cup Wars

Oh, the battles you have to fight with toddlers. They are over the dumbest things.

Nora was the type of baby that would take any bottle. Any pacifier. As long as it was a means to nourishment and/or comfort, she was game. She had a laidback personality, it seemed.

But then she became a toddler. I've told you before my stance on toddler mood swings. They ain't pretty.

Anyway.

We went through a time around Nora's first birthday when she suddenly gave up the bottle. She wouldn't drink from one anymore, but she also wouldn't drink from a sippy cup. She would nurse for a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes at night, but that was it. I still don't know why she did that--self-weaning, teething pain--who knows. But when we finally did get her on a sippy cup, there was only one kind that she liked. These ones:

{Playtex First Sipster}

They were only the second sippy cups we tried, they worked well, they were easy for her to use by herself--so they were winners. DONE. We went out and bought several more. No complaints from us.

Eight months later, though, and Nora has a lot of teeth. The spout on these cups is not what I would have considered "soft" compared to others (in other words, it's nothing like a bottle nipple), but come to find out... it can definitely be chewed up. And Nora was starting to purposely chew them. Once I realized that they were, in fact, sort of soft-spouted, I knew that we would have to make a transition to a hard-spout cup. I wanted to make a good choice for the next sippy cup because ideally, we would transition her just this one more time before she'll eventually drink from a normal cup. It needed to be something that could grow with her a little more.

I had seen a number of people recommend these Nalgene Grip 'n' Gulp cups, so I started to look into them.

{Nalgene Grip 'n' Gulp}

Then, one of our friends happened to mention that her nearly 4-year-old son uses the Nalgene cups and that they love them, so I was sold. We ended up finding them in the water bottle/outdoors section at Target for cheaper than they are online, by the way. Still a pricey sippy cup at $7.99, but they are virtually indestructible. We had Nora "pick one out," and we came home to give it a try.

BIG. FAT. FAILURE.

Nora wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, every time we'd bring it near her, she'd push it away, and if we tried to set it on her high chair tray, she'd throw it off. Unfortunately for her, we're not ones to give up easily, so we made the decision to go cold turkey. She wasn't going to get her old sippy cups back, no matter how difficult she tried to be about it. Because the thing about her stubbornness?

She gets it from me. I can play at this game.

I remembered back to August/September when she was refusing the bottle and sippy cup, and I recalled our pediatrician telling me that Nora would absolutely NOT dehydrate herself in order to prove a point. At that time, the doctor maintained that Nora was getting enough liquids to keep at least partially hydrated through her foods.

Over the course of the next week, we had limited success with the new sippy cup. Sometimes she would take it (briefly), other times she wouldn't. Sometimes, I practically had to force it on her for her to see that it was actually water (or milk) in there, and then once she realized, she would drink. But then at the next meal, we'd be struggling all over again.

During our weekend in the Poconos, she was especially difficult about it, and I have to admit--even I was growing tired of it. Michael and I talked at length about it. We wanted to put an end to the wars, but we weren't willing to go back to the old sippy cups in order to do so. We figured that we just hadn't found the right sippy cup for Nora.

Then, on Memorial Day, we were at a restaurant and Nora showed special interest in my straw. When I was done with my cup, I filled it with water and presented it to Nora. Wouldn't you know it--she gulped down the entire cup through the straw. That was it: A STRAW! I thought we had finally cracked the code, so we stopped on the way home to pick up a straw sippy cup.

{Nuby Super Straw Cup}

As soon we got this thing home and out of the package, I discovered that it was not what I had expected. The "straw" on the top of the cup is SUPER SOFT--much like a bottle nipple, in fact. You can suck the liquid out as if it's a straw (because there's a straw that goes down inside), but the "feeling" of it is nothing like a straw. I don't know what possessed me to try this with Nora, for we could've just taken it back to get our money back, but alas, we tried it. And it was an even bigger failure than the Nalgene cup.

I did everything I could to get her to drink from this thing, but she wanted nothing to do with the top of it. If I removed the top and separated the hard straw from the top and let her simply sip the water through the hard straw, she was completely happy. But since this clearly had to be done with my assistance each time... no. It wasn't going to work.

We weren't ready to give up on the straw, so back to Target we went to get what I had been picturing all along. We came home with these guys:

{Playtex Lil' Gripper Straw Cup}

We had high hopes for these ones, but unfortunately, we were met with limited success. We gave these ones a few days, too, sending Nora to daycare with them. Apparently she drank out of them a bit there, but I don't think I ever saw her take sips from them.

To top it all off, these are THE BIGGEST PIECE OF CRAP CUPS EVER. They leak all over the place, and for no reason. As I mentioned, Nora doesn't drink out of these. She won't. So all we've ever done is to put liquid in these and then let them sit there in case she'll actually take it. While they're sitting there, liquid inexplicably gets drawn up into the straw, which continues to happen until eventually the liquid is spilling out of the straw uncontrollably.

PIECES OF CRAP, I tell you. $7.50 for a two-pack of crap. Playtex has a "leak-proof, satisfaction guarantee" so I'm currently trying to get our money back, but since we didn't save our Target receipt OR the packaging (since I had to shred it just to get the cups out) I don't know if that'll happen.

So you might wonder where this left us.

Well, here's the thing: Once we had other "options" for sippy cups in the house, we started to try to give Nora choices with them. We'd fill up a piece-of-crap straw cup, and we'd fill up her Nalgene cup, and then we'd let her choose. At first, it didn't go so well--she pushed them BOTH away--but then, one morning, she just started (mostly) tolerating the Nalgene cup.

Now, we're in a (pretty) good place with it. The Nalgene cup, that is. For the past few days, she's taken it without (much) issue, and has drunk plenty from it throughout each day. I think we're actually getting places. We're contemplating buying a couple more of them so we have a few in rotation but I'm still a little afraid of jinxing it. :)

One comment that I have about the Nalgene cup is that with the leak-proof "stopper" inside, it is IMPOSSIBLE to drink from. I could barely extract liquid from it (and yes, I did open up the bottom of the stopper), so how the heck do they expect toddlers to do that? The only way Nora has been drinking out of it is with the stopper removed, so if she tips it, it leaks all over the place, of course. But that doesn't really bother us that much since she only drinks water when she's away from the table, and thankfully, she doesn't tip it over much anyways. It works for us, but it sure as hell wouldn't for some other people.

And in case you're wondering... we spent $10 on alternate sippy cups that our kid refused to take, only to end up right back where we started with the Nalgene cup. Who's laughing now?

It's been an interesting few weeks.

Has anyone else engaged in "sippy cup wars" with their kids? Who "won"? How did it play out? How much money were you forced to spend on cups before it all came to a close? I don't know how you felt at the end of it, but GOSH I'm tired.

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Up and Down

I'm convinced that toddlers are bipolar.

I don't mean to make light of the actual mental condition--I know it's very real, and very serious--but SO ARE TODDLER MOOD SWINGS. Dear lord.

Nora was such an easy baby. Seriously, she almost never cried. But then she turned one, and went all crazy. The tantrums were moderate at first, but they have slowly progressed to be the most ridiculously dramatic episodes of all time.

On Friday night, things escalated to an all new level. Nora had gone a few days with bad naps at daycare, and had been spending a lot of time outside playing. On both Thursday and Friday, she fell asleep in the car during the 10-minute drive home, which is saying a lot because she NEVER does that. I actually left her in the car to sleep for an extra 15-20 minutes or so once we were home in the hopes that it would hold her over until bedtime.

No such luck.

She was crabby as all hell, didn't want to eat dinner, and just generally seemed exhausted, so Michael and I decided to take her up to bed early. As we were attempting to change her diaper and put her pajamas on--notice I said WE because it was a job for two--it was like wrestling an alligator. And then it was like a crazy switch was turned on, because she was literally screaming her head off and going insane. She had this insane look in her eyes and I actually kind of laughed in disbelief and said to Michael, "I think we need an exorcist!"

It was nuts.

No matter what we did--pick her up, put her down, give her toys, give her milk, give her books--she just kept screaming. We finally got her to calm down by putting on a movie for a few minutes, and then she went to bed without issue.

We went through a similar episode yesterday morning, but without the proposed exorcism. She didn't seem QUITE as crazy, but she did scream and cry and roll around on the family room floor for a good 15 minutes because Michael dared to get her out of bed in the morning. She didn't want to get her diaper changed, didn't want to get dressed, didn't want to eat breakfast. You get the gist.

We've been assured by the pediatrician that this is all normal, especially considering that Nora does not have more than a few words. I've done some reading on "manipulative" tantrums vs. "frustration" tantrums and I am damn sure that I can tell the difference.

Nora's manipulative tantrums occur when something is taken away, or when we won't let her do something she wants to do--like run into the street, or stay outside longer. She's crying because she doesn't get her way. With those, we can distract her, or ignore her, and she just gets over it.

The frustration tantrums are a whole different story. Sometimes, they are easy to solve because she'll come running up to me, arms outstretched, just wanting me to pick her up. And when I do, she calms down. We talked to our pediatrician about this, and she said that in these cases, we SHOULD pick her up, because when she's coming to us like that, it's her way of asking us for help. But there are times when picking her up doesn't help, and she just gets completely out of control. I've been reading about ways to deal with this, too, like holding them tight to help them regain that control. We've tried to just let her cry it out like a manipulative tantrum, but it just doesn't work--that's when we end up with her rolling around on the floor for 15 minutes, or charging at me like a crazy person (and when I pick her up, she just keeps screaming).

There have been days that are just hard. I've come to realize that this is just a part of her development, it's a stage to get through. As all parents say, "This too shall pass," and I know it will.

But today? Today was a good day. We have good days (or at least parts of days) frequently. That's the funny thing: As challenging as she has been lately, she's also been the most fun that she has ever been. As I've mentioned, we've been outside a lot, and she is just eating it up. She loves to swing and play with chalk on the driveway. She walks around aimlessly, and points at all of the dogs in the neighborhood while saying "TESSA!" (Yes, she thinks all dogs are "Tessas.")

Nora has a sense of humor. She laughs when people burp. She smiles so big that her eyes close.

In short, she is amazing in every sense of the word. Amazingly difficult. Amazingly smart. Amazingly sensitive. Amazingly beautiful, inside and out.

It's a rollercoaster, but it's one that I'm thankful every day to be on.

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Toddler OCD

Nora has a thing for making sure objects are in the "right" spot.

When she plays, she makes her share of messes, but a lot of times, she'll pick up after herself--because she likes putting things away as much as she likes taking things out. Sometimes, she'll be playing in the cupboards in the kitchen and the next thing I know, I look down and there is no sign of her having been there at all. I have to a double take and make sure I'm not going crazy--she really WAS just playing there, right?

She was; she just cleaned up all of the evidence.

Nora was given the Fisher-Price Little People Zoo for Christmas, and when Michael first opened it and put it all together for her, he put the gorilla in the tree swing. Now, Nora can't handle it if the gorilla is NOT in the tree swing. If she walks over and finds him anywhere else in the zoo, she immediately moves him to the swing, then will often just walk away again. It's like--as long as the gorilla is in his place, her job there is done.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when someone--AHEM!--tries to put your lens cap back on while you're busy taking her picture. Because, you know, the correct "home" for a lens cap is--you guessed it--on the end of a lens. God forbid that it's lying on the floor somewhere; that's a situation that needs to be immediately rectified.

All of this is hilarious and adorable. I get a huge thrill out of this behavior, because it demonstrates just how observant she is and how her brain is sucking things in like a little sponge. My kid is SMART, y'all. And as her parent, it's so fun to watch her learn before my very eyes.

After all, we all have some OCD tendencies, don't we? I could name a few of my own. How about your kids? Do you notice that there are things they HAVE to have a certain way?

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Spurt

Something different is happening.

My petite-since-birth, perfectly-5th-percentile-dwelling little Nora is... well, I think she's packing on a few pounds. :) At her 12-month appointment, she was 17 lbs., 14 oz., which was right on the 5th-percentile growth curve she had been following all along. The doctor used words like "perfect" and said she was "doing exactly what she's supposed to be doing" as far as eating, drinking, and growing.

Then, at her 15-month appointment, something funny happened--Nora had gained 3+ pounds, weighing in at 21 lbs. total, pushing her into the 20th percentile. Our doctor pointed it out to us, and said, "What do you think is different?" I shrugged and said, "Well, I'm not breastfeeding anymore." (I stopped completely when she was around 13 months.) She asked how much milk we were giving her, and I quickly estimated that it was maybe 21-24 oz. a day. She said that now that Nora is eating table food, we should cut back her milk intake to a maximum of 15 oz. a day. So, we did. No big deal.

Nora has been eating like an absolute champ lately. Ever since she recovered from being sick for that week in December, she has been shoving food into her mouth by the fistful. She won't eat everything we serve her, but when she likes it, she loves it. There are times when she seems simply insatiable, and we can't imagine how her little tummy is possibly holding all of the food that she's eating. But we've always been told that babies are very good at regulating their own food intake--if they're not hungry and they don't "need" it, they won't eat it.

{check out that buddha belly! watching the beginning of "Tangled" with my mom on New Year's Eve}

Still, I think Nora might be "filling out" a bit. Her little buddha belly is hysterically round (and cute!) these days, and I notice that she feels a bit more "solid" when I lift and carry her. I (very unscientifically) weighed her at home this week and I think she could be over 22 lbs. now--and it's been less than a month since she weighed in at 21 lbs.

What gives? Everything you read/hear says that babies all "grow at their own pace," but that they're considered healthy if they "grow on the curve." In fact, from the very beginning, our pediatrician said that assuming she goes through life eating healthfully with a balanced diet, Nora would likely still be on the 5th percentile curve when she graduates high school, for crying out loud.

Are these just normal fluctuations? Is she just "catching up" after being so tiny for so long? Is it a sign of an impending growth spurt? Or are we actually overfeeding her? These are the questions that are running through my head. She's only (almost) 16 months old, so I don't want to stress about her weight--but I guess I'm just paranoid given the whole previously "perfect" growth curve. I suppose you could say she's throwing us a curve ball. (hehe.)

{more round belly!}

Don't get me wrong: I do think she's healthy. I look at her and see nothing but a healthy, growing girl. And it's hard to argue with the amount of food she's consuming when she's eating things like broccoli, green beans, black beans, and oatmeal like it's going out of style. Avocado. Veggie burgers. Sandwiches with a little bit of hummus or peanut butter. Pretty much anything that we eat for dinner. We try to give her balanced meals as much as possible--protein, carbs, vegetables, fruit with every meal. She doesn't drink any juice.

So, who knows? We're just first-timers with this whole parenting gig, so we want to make sure we're doing everything right. I think we just have to wait and see what happens between now and her 18-month appointment. We're fairly confident with the way we're handling it, but still plan on checking with the doctor (and get her weight checked officially) when we take her in for her follow-up ear infection appointment next week. Until then, does anyone have any experience with this? I've been told by a few parents that kids "grow out, then up" so we should perhaps prepare ourselves to see her get a little taller soon? I'm hoping that it'll all even out in the end--maybe she's gaining faster now, but will slow at some point?

In the meantime, Nora's good appetite doesn't seem to be letting up. My girl likes to eat! :)

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Making the Cut

Nora's teeth, that is. But let's back up a second.

Nora had her 15-month well baby doctor's appointment today.

Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with another ear infection. We've chosen not to treat it at this time, since she is still sleeping well and is not completely miserable (though she has her moments). But we do have the prescription just in case we need it.

Aside from that, it was a good visit. Nora is now 21 lbs., jumping up into the 20th percentile for weight (she's always been hanging around 5th percentile, so this was a surprise)! Still petite, but not quite as petite right now. She's 29 inches (also 20th percentile), and her head is something like 47 (or 49?) centimeters, which is the 77th percentile. Her daycare provider said that's what makes her so cute--that her head is slightly bigger than the rest of her body. Haha!

We talked language development and walking and attitude. All deemed normal, of course. :) Little Miss got four vaccinations, which is always fun. Not.

Oh, and the pediatrician confirmed that Nora is cutting at least EIGHT teeth right now, including four molars. No wonder the kid is a little irritable. What's funny now is that at any given moment, we don't know what's bothering her. Is she pitching a fit because her teeth hurt? Is her ear bothering her? Or is she just being a toddler with 'tude? I guess we will never know. We're trying to err on the side of caution--giving her the benefit of the doubt--and being a bit more sympathetic than we would typically be to her outbursts.

Tonight, she pitched an absolute fit once we were home from daycare. She would.not.let.me.put.her.down. Let's be real: I love holding her, but I would try to put her down just to play with her and she did not want to have anything to do with the floor. I tried to put her in her high chair to eat and she flipped out, so I marched her upstairs to put her in the bath and get her ready for bed. She threw a big dramatic tantrum during the bath (which, as a result, only lasted about two minutes--long enough for me to wash her hair and wipe her down), and once she was out and dressed in jammies, she was fine. In fact, I brought her back downstairs and she proceeded to eat one of the largest dinners she has ever had. She scarfed down everything we put in front of her.

One minute she's a monster. The next she's an angel. Such is life with a teething, ear-achy, moody toddler.

I try not to overuse painkillers/fever reducers, but Nora has had at least one dose every day for over a week now, thanks to her mysterious illness and these dang teeth. I've also been using Orajel every night before she goes to bed, and busting out her teething necklace. (I owe you guys a review on that thing. Watch for it, hopefully soon!) We've tried offering her the frozen/refrigerated teething things before, but she never wants anything to do with them. I was given a bottle of teething drops made by Gentle Naturals, but haven't used them yet.

Do you have any tips and tricks to help soothe a teething toddler?

I have to say, as much discomfort as she's probably in right now, I'm glad we're dealing with a bunch coming in all at once--let's get this over with! Better a shorter time with more discomfort than a longer, drawn-out period of teething with a little less discomfort. Am I right, or am I right? :)

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Beast Mode

So last week, I was working on this post about how my generally sweet, easy-going baby girl had suddenly turned into a beast/monster/little hellion (fill in the blank, really). I questioned what could have possibly happened to cause my toddler to throw needless temper tantrums every two minutes.

We'd put her on the changing table. Tantrum.

We'd try to put her in her high chair. Tantrum.

Leave the house? Tantrum.

Strap her in her car seat? Tantrum.

Pick her up. Tantrum.

Put her down. Tantrum.

Pick her up from daycare? Epic meltdown. (This was, by far, the worst. Working mommy FOR THE WIN.)

It seemed that we really couldn't win with her. No matter what we did, our little girl just wasn't happy.

At first, I thought perhaps she was sick. Surely she must be sick, right? I kind of wanted her to be sick. But she was sleeping fine. Eating fine. No fevers. And, she seemed to be able to turn the crying/screaming/biting (oh, I didn't mention the BITING yet?) fits off as quickly as she could turn them on.

Some of these tantrums were complete with throwing herself on the floor, kicking her legs, rolling around, looking over at us with big crocodile tears for dramatic effect. I was starting to think I should prepare myself to be the parent of a future Oscar winner. So, we were feeling pretty sure that this was just Nora, trying to assert her growing sense of independence. Or expressing her frustration at not yet being able to communicate very efficiently. A stage. This, too, shall pass.

We exercised as much patience as we could muster. And we were actually really patient. But we were also miserable. All of us. When you only really get to spend 2-3 hours a day with your kid (between morning and evening), you don't want to spend that time fighting a kicking, screaming, crying mess of a child. It was hard.

And I found myself wondering, Isn't she too young for this? Because seriously, if this is what tantrums and attitude are like at 14 months old, I'm terrified of the "Terrible Twos," y'all.

It had been maybe 3-4 days of near constant misery. We were about to lose our ever-loving minds. But then something extraordinary happened. Nora flipped the switch back the other way, and she was suddenly back to her normal self. I picked her up from daycare, and once we were home... No tantrums. We had a pleasant evening at the dinner table together. We managed to get her through to bedtime without a single tear.

We were thanking our lucky stars.

Then, yesterday, I was riding in the backseat with her in the car, and playing peek-a-boo and other games with her. I had her laughing big belly laughs, squealing with glee, mimicking me, etc. And there, with her mouth wide open, in the bright light of day, I saw them.

Teeny tiny little white specks poking up out of her gums. And red, swollen marks in not one, not two, but three other spots in her mouth. And possibly two other swollen spots as well.

The girl is cutting 4-6 new teeth. Seemingly all at the same time.

Cue the feelings of being the worst mother in the entire world. I didn't even consider that her antics last week could be teething. I never even gave her ibuprofen to experiment to see if it would make a difference. I just assumed attitude and did... nothing. Nothing, while my poor kid was probably in pain.

I'm just.so.awesome.

In my (half-hearted) defense, I have two points: 1) She only has four teeth--the ones in front, two top, two bottom. Those are supposedly the "easy" ones to cut, so we've never really gone through any sort of teething hell before. I had no idea that it could make them so completely irritable like 24/7, and that teething would manifest itself through constant crying and temper tantrums. And 2) If I hadn't spotted those budding teeth, we probably still wouldn't know what the problem was. But we noticed a drop-off in her appetite this weekend, too, and more hands-in-the-mouth activity.

Now, of course, it all makes perfect sense.

Hindsight is 20/20, you know.

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Steppin' Out

It seems that for months, whenever someone has asked, "How old is [Nora]?" they follow my answer with, "Is she walking yet?"

This question gets old, people.

To help keep things lively, I tried to change up my answer. "Not yet," I'd always start out, but I'd continue with things like, "She's taking her time." Or "She's just not ready." Or "We're enjoying it while it lasts."

Although she rolled over on time (perhaps even early), started sitting up at an average age, and even belted out an impressive "Tessa" for a first word at 10 months old, Nora has been slow to take on other things. She was late to the party when it came to standing. And crawling. She didn't cut her first tooth until 10 months old, and still only has a total of four teeth now. As a result of the "no teeth" thing, she was late to tackle finger foods. She still really only has a handful of recognizable words, when other 14-month-olds are talking up a storm by now. And, well, as so many people remind me with that age old "Is she walking?" question--she's late to learn how to walk.

Most of the time, I don't worry about any of these things. I know that the "normal" range for milestones is large. Kids do things at their own rates. On their own time. When they're ready. I know that it doesn't make Nora "slow." I know she's not "dumb." I have this mommy/spidey/sixth sense that tells me she's just fine. Plus, our pediatrician has said she's fine, so there's professional backup. It also helps that at daycare, Amelia (the other baby girl, just two weeks younger than Nora) has been on the same "schedule" as Nora, and in some ways, Nora has been ahead of her.

Until Amelia started walking two weeks ago.

So, I admit it. Every once in a while, I will see blog posts or video or photos of kids Nora's age doing things that Nora's not doing. Or I'll see these things in children in real life, like with Amelia. And worry tries to creep its way into my mind.

I am happy to say that as of yesterday, Nora is proving my instincts correct, and helping to ease my mind. The last week or two, she's been taking steps. But just one, maybe two before collapsing into a heap on the floor. She's been walking a lot more with assistance, but her balance? Pretty much atrocious. She's kept trucking, though.

And now? Well, see for yourself.
(iPhone video, sorry for the quality.)

Tell me: How long do we have until she's running?

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Pearly Whites

I'm told you're supposed to start brushing your kid's teeth pretty much as soon as they come in. So, well, we're about 3-4 months behind, but... whatever. Nora still only has four teeth, so I'm not really sweating it.

But recently, Nora's been showing a lot of interest in what we're doing when she sees us brushing our teeth. Within the last few days, she has even gone so far as to open her mouth when she sees us with our toothbrushes.

We decided to take advantage of her interest and pick up a toothbrush for her while we were out today. I stood in the toothbrush aisle for about five minutes, overwhelmed by the choices for toddler/children's toothbrushes and toothpaste. I narrowed it down to three choices, held them out for Nora, and let her choose. She picked Elmo. I grabbed the "matching" toothpaste and we were on our way.

Tonight, after her bath, we introduced toothbrushing into Nora's bedtime routine. She looks thrilled in this photo, doesn't she? (She was really tired. Daylight savings time is THE SUCK.) She looks a little unsure here, but she was loving it. Checking herself out in the mirror. :)

  Once her teeth were brushed she had eaten all the toothpaste, we would've normally been done, but we went back for Round 2 so we could also get it on video camera. Silly parents.

Of course, it was only after she had eaten two "pea-sized" portions of toothpaste that I actually looked at the back of the tube (I was trying to figure out the flavor). Come to find out, this particular brand of toothpaste (Crest Kids) is for children and adults aged 2 and up, and is not supposed to be swallowed.

I'm so glad I spent five minutes in the toothbrush/toothpaste aisle, only to come home with the WRONG KIND OF TOOTHPASTE anyway. *sigh* What the heck! I guess I fell for the marketing on the tube, which featured Elmo and Abby Cadabby. That crap was expensive, too. Damn it. So now we'll have to go back and get her a tube of the completely edible toddler-safe stuff.

How old were your kids when you started brushing their teeth? Are they good about it? How many times a day do you brush them?

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Picky

Nora has always been an awesome eater.

She did great with breastfeeding. During the pureed food stage, she ate every single kind of puree that we offered her (including sour/bitter cranberries, when mixed with a bit of applesauce!). We thought it was hilarious, because she just took to everything, opening her mouth like a little bird for bite after bite after bite.

Unfortunately, finger foods have proved to be more of a challenge.

I've been a somewhat picky eater all of my life. I'm way better now--I'd maybe call myself "choosy" but not necessarily PICKY. However, I would say I was severely picky as a child. My mom always said that she had been a picky kid, too, and that I was her "mother's revenge" for giving my grandma such a hard time when she was younger. My mom always swore that I would someday pay my dues as well. I thought I had escaped that sentence with Nora, but now, I'm not so sure.

Cake was deemed "a-ok" with her on her birthday

I'm nervous that Nora is developing picky tendencies. But since we're first time parents, it's hard to know what to classify as "normal" toddler eating behavior, and what to classify as "picky." It's my understanding that toddlers are...finicky?...about what they eat. One day, they might love sweet potatoes. The next, they may refuse to even taste them. For those of you with older toddlers/kids--have you found this to be true?

I've also read that babies may have to try new foods anywhere from five to 15 times before they "accept" the new taste. We've taken this (and the advice of our pediatrician) to heart, and we continue to offer her things, even if she's rejected them in the past. Sometimes, we'll get lucky and she'll suddenly start to like something! Other times, she simply rejects it over and over again.

Michael and I have been debating with each other whether pickiness is a nature or a nurture problem. Michael likes pretty much everything, and always has, whereas I (as I already mentioned) am pickier. He believes that it's a matter of nurture--if you're raised to try everything and anything, and essentially forced to eat what you're served (or go without anything), you won't be a picky eater. Based on my own experience, and the stories my mom has told me (about how I would literally gag over the taste of certain vegetables, even as a small baby), I believe there is something to be said for a nature argument.

In all likelihood, aren't we probably both right? I'm thinking it's probably a combination of both.

At her 1-year well-baby visit, our pediatrician basically told us to offer Nora whatever we wanted her to eat, and if she didn't eat it, to put an end to mealtime. She believes that if you set a pattern where you offer something else after your kid refuses to eat something, you'll just be teaching them that they can always get what they want to eat. And I totally back her up on that--I see how that would be true, and have seen such patterns develop with friends' kids. Still, it's difficult to be tough with your 13-month-old daughter who is just starting to try all of these foods, you know? If she doesn't like something, we're really supposed to just cut her off?

Nora's not starving. She eats well during a lot of her meals. But the past week or so, she just seems to be really testing us at dinner. Anything new we give her to try, she takes MAYBE a couple of bites of it, and then launches the rest off of her tray and cries. 

Feeding a toddler is tough.

So... for those of you who have "good eaters"--were they ALWAYS good eaters, gobbling up anything and everything you put in front of them? Or did you have to "develop" the good eating habits over time? Anybody with picky eaters that you managed to (at least somewhat) reform?

The other problem is that I feel like we're feeding Nora a lot of the same things all of the time. Partly because she rejects a lot of new things, but partly because it's hard to come up with ideas. Whenever we do make a good dinner for ourselves (which is not as often as I'd like right now!), we try to feed her what we're having, but a lot of nights, we're feeding her separately from what we end up eating. And for lunches to send to daycare, it's tough to think of easy things to pack. Our pediatrician said that the more you limit their food choices, the more you are encouraging them to be picky, so we want to make sure to break this habit as much as possible.

For the record (and since I'm anticipating that some of you might ask), I'll share a list of foods that Nora does eat. And y'all can tell me if I'm crazy for thinking she might be picky.

Nora eats: cereal w/milk (shredded wheat, corn chex, wheat chex, bran flakes, etc.), pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, bananas, pears, peaches, pineapple, mandarin oranges, applesauce (and any other fruit puree), plain yogurt, peanut butter sandwich, grilled cheese, cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, american), sweet potatoes, white potato, pizza, pasta w/sauce, ravioli, macaroni and cheese, deli turkey, puffs, hummus sandwiches, apricots, steamed carrots, avocado

Unless I'm forgetting something, these are pretty much all of the foods that make up her diet. While I know it's not TERRIBLE, it is really not all that extensive. Right? I think we're good on carbs/grains, and fruit. Where we're struggling most, I think, is with protein and vegetables. The girl can only eat so many eggs, cheese, and sweet potatoes. We've tried other veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans) and sources of protein (veggie burgers, beans) and she is just not into them--at least not yet.

Any advice? Suggestions for new foods to try to add to the rotation? I've mostly been able to stay patient, knowing this is all part of her development, but I have to admit to getting a little frustrated sometimes. Dinnertime in particular has become a bit of a battle, usually resulting in her crying because the food on her tray is not what she wants. I would love to get back to peaceful eating!

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Observation is Key

Nora is my baby, y'all.

She may be approaching the big "1," but let's face it: She still drinks breastmilk. She eats pureed foods. She can't walk, wears diapers, and sleeps in a crib. SHE'S A BABY.

But lately, it has become increasingly obvious that she's more than that. Her brain? is a sponge.

It started when she busted the word "Tessa" out of nowhere.

Then she started giving kisses.

And waving bye-bye.

And throwing tantrums when things don't go her way.

You know, all of these things that are "big girl" things. So, I suppose I should not have been surprised by her latest display of cognitive development.

I was standing by the door last week, talking to my mom on the way out, and was letting Nora play with my keys. (I never *used* to let her play with my keys, because yuck, GERMY KEYS! but it keeps her quiet and happy these days and that's a winner in my book.)

On this particular day, Nora was REEAACCHING from my arms and I honestly was not paying much attention, because she's quickly becoming a toddler, and toddlers don't want to be in your arms. Reaching is normal. Suddenly, though, my mom stopped the conversation and said, "Look at her. Look what she's doing."

Nora was trying to put the key in the lock on the door. She dropped the keys, I gave them back to her, and observed. She used both hands to separate the keys, singling out just one of them, then positioned it the right way in her hand. Sure enough, she then reached out toward the door knob and tried to put the key in the lock.

I mean, seriously. Are you kidding me with this kid?

No one ever TAUGHT her that keys go in the lock. But every time we come and go, we're holding her while we lock or unlock the house. Observation is key. (BWAHAHA, oh I kill myself.)

I'm not claiming that my little Noo Noo is smarter than the average bear. Rather, it is in times like this that I have a little OH-MY-GOSH-WHAT-HAPPENED-TO-MY-BABY? kind of hysterical mommy moment. Because the growing up? It is happening too fast.

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Surfacing

Well now. Look what finally decided to show up.

What, you don't see anything? Take another look...

How about now? Still not convinced? Alright, here's another...

You mean you STILL can't see it? Really? C'mon... how about now?

Alright, so I'll admit, there's not much to see yet. But that little arrow right there is pointing to the tip of a tooth that officially broke through the surface today. I can feel its sharp little ridges and see them if I get the right angle (hard to get her to let me look at them these days!).

This is one of those baby book things that I'm not sure how to handle. Like, for Nora's first word, we weren't 100% sure when to count her official first word. That is, until she started clearly belting out "Tessa" every five seconds. For the first tooth, do I count when it just breaks through the surface (today)? Or do I count when it is fully visible? THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT DRIVE A TYPE-A MOTHER INSANE. I need it to be accurate as possible, people. I think today counts?

If that's the case... First Tooth: July 19, 2011 at 10 months and 8 days old. It's about dang time. :)

And for the record--looking at those photos above, I don't think tooth #2 will be far behind!

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