Peanut Morsels

Norah has started using words like "actually," "probably," and "just."

My mom asked her whether she wanted blueberries with her cereal. Her response was, "Actually, bananas."

I recently put her PJ bottoms in the laundry basket and when she spied the matching PJ top laying on the floor she sort of mumbled to herself, "Oh, this probably go in laundry too" and proceeded to put it in the basket.

I was trying to get her to keep moving one night while brushing her teeth (sometimes every step of the process is painfully slow). I said something like, "Come on, Norah Gunden," and she replied with "Kauffman." I had no idea she knew her last name, and we are still a little perplexed as to where she would have learned it.

We have started to have some consistent success with the discipline technique of sending Norah back to her room. We send her back with the instruction that she can come out when she is ready to have a better attitude/listen, or whatever the particular issue is. She typically runs all the way back, plops herself on the floor and starts crying. A few minutes later we ask her whether she is ready to come out with a better attitude, she says, "yes" and we move on. Sometimes even just asking whether she needs to go back to her room is enough to improve minor behavior issues.

Norah still talks about TJ and Luka a lot, but Mikayla seems to have taken the spotlight. I told her we would be going to the lake over the weekend and asked who else she thought would be there. After Mimi and Papa, the next name she threw out with much excitement was, "Mikaylaaaaaaa!"

She is still infatuated with Daddy's new car. She and Seth were telling me goodbye the other day and she instructed me, "No drive Daddy's new car."

Evidently I sometimes say, "No ma'm" or "Yes ma'm" to her because we have heard her say the same thing to her snuggly ("Nani") and other stuffed animals.

Norah continues to be in a Mommy phase. Only I can do the nighttime routine, which is hard for both of us. Sometimes I just want a night off, and Seth just wants to help and spend time with her, but all we get is resistance. We continue to try to find a balance of meeting her emotional needs and not giving in. I've racked my brain for strategies of how to work us out of this stage (particularly before my last trimester of pregnancy, and before the baby is born) but I have come up dry.

And now for a few pictures...

(New post below.)