18 months

I meant to get this posted sooner (since now Norah is closer to 19 months!) but time just keeps getting away from me! Things are still going really well. Norah is doing new things everyday. Her vocabulary has exploded in the last month. Now I hear "Mommy, mommy, mommy" over and over again:) It's cute but sometimes I wish she'd move on to another word! For a while every other word was owie so I guess Mommy is an improvement! I was trying to make a list of all the words she can say and there are quite a lot. She will also try to repeat any words I ask her to - they don't sound the same but she's trying! I know this will be boring, but I want to write it down so I remember.

She's now saying: mommy, grandma, grandpa, amber, matt, heather (howie), shoe, sock, hat, bye bye, hi, no, ball, puppy, pretty, apple, banana, snack, cookie, cracker, cheese, drink, owie, cold, hot, please, thank you, up, night night, sticker, all done

She also knows almost all of her animal sounds - her favorites are definitely a duck and a monkey (complete with arm motions!)

We went trick or treating and I really didn't think she would get into it since she really doesn't like sweets and really has no concept of candy yet, but oh was I wrong! She loved to walk right up to the doors and hold her bag up and say something that sounded like cookie (trying to say trick or treat). Then she would say thank you, bye-bye and then blow everyone kisses. She was quite the ham! Norah's cousin was dressed up as tigger and when Norah saw him, she looked at his ears and grabbed his tail and just started roaring at him - it was very cute. She helped me hand out candy too and would stand by the front door waiting for kids to come and then she would run over and grab my hand to take me to the door. When I would give out the candy, she would grab a piece out the bucket and say thank you and run to put it somewhere.

Lately her favorite thing is her socks - taking them off, putting them back on, pointing to them, showing me her socks.

Norah has also used the potty quite a few times! I don't push it but I leave it out in case she ever wants to use it and every once in a while she'll go in there and sit down. I know she's not ready for potty training yet since she will still run around in a dirty diaper but everytime she uses the potty means another diaper I don't have to change!

Here are some pics of what we'vebeen up to:

We've Been Busy!

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted last! Time goes by fast and we've been really busy. Plus, I just don't have time to post anything anymore! Norah is still doing great. In the last few weeks she's really started showing affection and now will give me kisses and hugs. She can also blow kisses, but she has a little trouble with the blowing part. She understands everything I say and has started saying a few words. Right now she can say:

Mama, hi, ouch, shoes, icky, teeth, uh oh

She knows what puppies, pigs, lions, ducks, and kitties say too. The sound for pigs and lions is pretty much the same but oh well! She also knows what a bunny does too - she can't quite crinkle her nose so she uses her mouth. She knows how to blow bubbles and is starting to help me pick up her toys and put them back. One of her favorite games right now is take everything out of the toybox and then walk away and not play with any of it! I think that's pretty typical right now and at least I'm happy she'll help me pick it up! She is also really starting to like books. At first she would have nothing to do with them, but now she'll grab a book and back up to sit on my lap to read it. We usually don't get through the whole book, but we'll get there.

Eating has gotten so much better! She will still eat anything and everything, but we've slowed down a little. She will let me prepare food now and doesn't scream everytime she sees food and she's not eating. She will even let me finish eating my lunch when she's done with hers - progress! She is actually chewing food now too. I have been cutting her food into very tiny pieces because she would just swallow everything whole. But now she can actually take bites of things! It's very funny when I tell her to use her teeth- she just grins up at me and starts chomping. It's very cute.

We went to my parents lake house over the 4th and had a great time. Norah loves the water! She wasn't too wild about the life jacket though. We went swimming off the dock and she just kicked and splashed around. I also got engaged over the 4th - talk about being busy! Apparently I felt the need to have all the major events in my life happen at the same time! Here are some pictures from the 4th:

Not so sure about the sand:

I started back to work a couple weeks ago. The first week my family helped out and she started at the sitter this last week. Things are going pretty well - she loves the sitter which makes me happy. Our only issue is that she won't sleep very well there so I get a very tired little girl when I pick her up at night. But I think once she gets in a routine she will do better. She doesn't get upset when I leave - she just goes to the door and waves bye bye to me as I drive out and she's very excited when I pick her up. I was a little nervous about it because she has cried very hard both times I tried to leave her in the church nursery so I wasn't sure how she would do but so far so good! She also got her first black eye! It happened about 2 minutes before I walked out the door to go to work for my first day back (of course)! She fell on the dog and got an instant black eye. It's all better now though. Here are some pictures:

Going for a wagon ride:

Playing shopping - she'll go through the house and put things in her bag:

Looking pretty cool at the zoo. She loves her glasses!

Helping Mama clean. She loves to swiffer the walls :)

Having our first chocolate chip cookie!

What we've been up to

Things have been going so well! Norah has adjusted wonderfully so far. She's been sleeping through the night every night and takes naps very well too. She is a great eater! She will eat anything and everything. She loves to eat and it's really our only struggle right now. She is still learning that food takes time to prepare and she just has no patience for it. So I've been learning to plan ahead and get things ready during nap time so I'm not having to cook a bunch while she's awake. She is getting better though - at least now she lets me take a bite between me feeding her! She's also been learning to feed herself. The first time I put something on her high chair tray, she tried to lick it off but now she's double fisting it! I've also learned if I give her a spoon, she will hold onto it with one hand and then it will take her a little longer to eat and gives me a chance to eat as well! We've been out to eat at a couple of restaurants and that has gone okay - not very relaxing because she has to have food in front of her the entire time if there is any food on the table. She's also learning that not all the food is for her! It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't eat so fast!

But so far that is our only issue so I can't complain too much! She is very attached to me which is great! She won't go to anyone else, well unless they have food :) Norah loves to play outside and is always bringing me her shoes to go out. At first she was very hesitant to touch anything outside, but now she loves to jump in puddles and play in the dirt. She is great with the dogs too. It was so funny at first, because she was so excited to be around them but she was nervous too. She would go up to one of them and she had this nervous laugh and would try to touch them but wouldn't use her hands - she always used her arm or elbow. It was very funny! She's over that and now we're learning to pet and not poke the dogs in the eyes :)

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to since we got home.

Having fun at the swimming pool:

Getting ready for our nap - she loves anything soft!

Swimming in the back yard:

Eating dinner:

Learning to brush our teeth:

Going for a walk. This girl loves her stroller!

We're Home!

We are home! Norah did great on the planes. We had 3 flights and she only really fussed/screamed for about the last 30 minutes of the 8 hour plane ride from Frankfurt to Chicago. I think her ears were hurting her. I tried to give her a sippy cup while we were taking off and landing for each flight but at the start of that flight from Frankfurt, she was completely out as soon as we sat down in the seats. She slept on and off and was awake and playing during our layovers. She was sooooo tired by our last flight though. I gave her a bottle while we were taking off and she was completely gone. Most people on the plane didn't even know there was a baby on board!

We got home at 6ish and I tried to keep her awake as long as possible. We made it to 7:30 which I didn't think was too bad! She woke up a few times in the middle of the night. Once was pretty bad - I picked her up and she was just soaked from sweat and she was crying like she was in pain. I gave her some baby ibuprofen and rocked her and got her back to sleep. She's getting a cold too. I got sick on gotcha day (perfect timing!) and my mom was coming down with it this last week, so I figured Norah would get it sooner or later. I'm just glad she got it now and not a couple of days ago.

Sorry these are not in order - for some reason blogger won't let me move them. Sleeping baby in our new bed!

Taking a little nap:

Enjoying the music on the plane:

Some More

Being very good while we were eating at a restaurant:

Throwing a fit:

Hanging out in the apartment:

Not happy after our dinner was gone:

Things are still going good here. We go to the Embassy tomorrow to pick up her visa and then we leave on Friday! Yay!

Pictures

Here's a couple pictures of what we've been up to the last few days. For some reason Blogger won't let me upload any more - I'll try again tomorrow.

Everything's Good!

I know I haven't posted since Tuesday, but I've been busy! Norah is doing very well - she will eat anything I put in front of her and everything's coming out well on the other end too :) She has been sleeping great too! The first night she slept from 8pm to 8am - not waking up once. Last night was the first time she woke up in the middle of the night but she went right back to sleep once I rocked her a little. For naps and bedtime, she'll let me rock her until she falls asleep and then I can lay her down and she doesn't wake up - awesome! Usually it only takes about 10-15 minutes for her to be completely out. There's only been a couple of nap times where it took longer because she was playing - poking my eyes and my nose, so I had to lay her down and lay on the bed next to her and she fell asleep on her own.

Wednesday we just hung out at the hotel and walked around Kaluga a little bit - it was cold and rainy so we didn't do much. Thursday, we had to go to the passport office to pick up Norah's passport. There was a chance we could have waited about 3 hours there but luckily it was only 1 1/2 hours. Norah didn't really care for the passport office, so my mom and sister took her on a walk in the stoller while I waited. Then we took the 3 hour car ride back to Moscow. I was a little worried about it because she's never been in a car seat before and 3 hours is a long time! But she did awesome - only wanted to get out a couple of times but I was able to distract her. Then she fell asleep for a little over an hour. Thursday night wasn't so great because she was off her schedule and it was just too much new stuff in one day! There were a few meltdowns over putting her shoes back on. Yesterday was pretty low key too - I've been trying to get her back to at least being close to her old schedule, and I'm hoping we're back on track today.

So far, she's been pretty happy most of the time except when her shoes fall off and we have to put them back on - oh the tears! I would have to say the hardest thing so far has been eating - and it's not her, it's us! She's never been around food that wasn't for her so it's been hard for my mom, Amber, and I to eat. Usually I feed her first, but she still needs something while we eat and we can't walk in the kitchen because if she sees food, she wants it now!! So we've been trying to go out for lunch after I feed her and then we just give her gerber puffs while we eat. We've been trying to eat in the apartment for dinner to save some money and that makes it a little easier - we can either wait until she goes to bed or take turns eating in the kitchen. We've made a little fortress in the living room of our apartment with the extra cots so she is contained, otherwise she would be everywhere! She loves to walk around but she's still not very steady on her feet and there are a lot of sharp corners in this apartment plus a lot of things she just can't have. So that has made it a lot easier on all of us.

She loves her stroller too! I was a little worried about it because we have been using it as a high chair too when we feed her so I was worried that she would always think she needs to eat when she gets in, but she is fine when we go on walks. When we get her coat out and her hat, she gets very excited!

I will post pictures soon. My mom and Amber went to the market while Norah naps and then we're all going to Red Square later today to take the mandatory St. Basils pic :) Today is supposed to be the nicest day this week so I wanted to get it done while it was sunny. Then Monday we start all of our embassy appointments and then we leave on Friday morning!