Nora is 18 Months Old!

To me, eighteen months (a year and a half!) is so big...and yet, so little. Nora was having a little come-apart in the van this morning and was asking for her "naynee" (paci) and "nimee" (bunny). Sadly, I didn't have either (and oh, was it ever sad) because I felt like she was big enough to leave the house without her comforts. Michael sweetly reminded me that at eighteen months, Nora is still very much a baby...and is entitled to her comforts every now and again. There's something about becoming a big sister that grows a little girl up fast! Nora is so full of life, everything she does is BIG. She laughs big, eats big, cries big, and talks big. She lives life with gusto, and she encourages me to do the same -- it's hard to be bored when Nora's around! And at eighteen months, she really is doing so many big girl things, such as:

• talking all the time. Nora jabbers from the moment she wakes up to an hour after we put her to bed. (She and Phoebe are usually up late "talking", and we're still trying to figure out how to handle that one!) In her jabbering are plenty of real words, and occasionally she'll string two words together. ("I do", "hold you", and "I love you" are two phrases we often hear.) Her words are becoming clearer, and we know it won't be long before she and Phoebe are having real conversations all day long.
• has no more new teeth. She'll surely have her one-year molars before kindergarten, right?
• loving her baby sister and her big sister. The novelty of having a little sister to love hasn't worn off, and Phoebe and Nora are now beginning to act like the best friends I tell them that they are. Anything Phoebe can do, Nora tries. And as social as Nora is, she loves having two sisters to play with all day long.
• having some difficulty with her naps. While Nora remains in her crib for the full length of nap time, there are days where - bless her heart - she naps for about an hour and a half, and that's it. So much is going on with her developmentally, I have no doubt that her brain is in full overload. That or, maybe I can blame it on teeth? Or baby sister noise? Who knows! And with the trouble she's having settling down at night, I think that Nora's just too afraid to miss something fun.
• letting me know when she has a dirty diaper...not that she's excited to get it changed or anything.
  
• being fully blanket trained. I thought we'd never get there; it felt impossible to go beyond twenty minutes with Nora. But Nora spends at least 30 minutes a day in blanket time while I feed Ruthie.
• dipping her food. Nora has now been introduced to the world of ranch dressing, sour cream, ketchup, mustard, and guacamole. She thinks dipping is the greatest thing ever, and will dip anything in, well, anything. She is not picky about her dips. In the world of food, Nora's favorite foods are grapes, eggs, broccoli, hot dogs, cheese, beans, rolls (with plenty of butter, please), and peanut butter.
• knowing and saying the answer to Question #1 in the Catechism for Young Children. (Who made you? God.)
• singing along with Holy, Holy, Holy and Jesus Loves Me. Cute overload.
• wearing her first big girl pigtails. (Nora's hair is growing oh-so-fast!)
• loving to play outside, especially climbing, sliding, and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Nora also really likes to paint with water... but she usually ends up painting herself instead of the sidewalk.

Nora keeps us laughing all the time. It's hard for me to remember that in spite of all the big things she does, Nora is still so little. I'm so thankful that God has given me such a sweet little sunbeam to brighten our days!