(Le)Norah the Explorer

playing house

Lenorah was recently given Anna and Sofie's old playhouse, and she is enjoying it very much. Here are a few pics of her and her regular visitor, Mr. Cash.

 

spring has sprung

We love this time of year, because we love being outside and exploring.... no place to be, no watch, no expectations.... just wander and wonder :-)

growing up so fast

Oh my goodness, where do I even begin? She is growing up so fast, it is hard to keep up with the milestones!

She's running all over the place, getting more brave each day on the slide, and is a climbing fiend!

Her vocabulary is ridiculous and the words she has decided to be in her budding corpus always entertaining - lots of animal names, some clothing items, some places and temporal terms, some numbers and letters, etc. She can say Cash and Daddy and O (for Owen) and Nana and Poppy and Olivia (uh-de-ya), Oreo (the neighbor's cat - "O-we-o").... but little stubborn girl refuses to say Mommy ;-). She's saving the best for last I guess ;-).

Music and dancing, oh my goodness - all the time. Her current favorite song is "Jump" by the Pointer Sisters. She will point to my record player, spout off some gibberish w/ "dun" in there somewhere while bouncing up and down on her tip toes repeatedly (her current version of jumping). When the music comes on, she dances and claps and jumps. I think we played it back to back 7 times the other night. Such fun times.
She also has a new piano player (courtesy of Nana, what a surprise ;-), and of the many songs available to play, the one she selects over and over again is "Be our guest" from Beauty and the Beast.

She is just HILARIOUS! She had her first theatrical fake fall the other day, it was awesome. And her latest thing, when you ask her a question, is to look at you and say "Hmmm?". She cracks me up all of the time, I'm just smiling like crazy right now thinking about our times together.

Here are some recent pics of my sweetheart.

cute smile

smiling and laughing, playing with her piano from Nana and Easter lamb from Grandma Janice

walking (or marching really) with the grandparents

                                                                  playing music and looking in the mirror

                                                                      posing with Nana

18 month update

It was a pretty rough morning with the pediatrician - not only did she have to be examined and get her shots, she also fell and busted her lip - but the take home message - she is healthy. 50th, 50th, and 90th percentile. If you know her, you can easily guess which of those measurements ranked in the 90s ;-)

She is running, climbing, etc., meeting all motor milestones... and giving us mild heart attacks as she becomes more fearless. Any day now I expect to hear the "thump" of her falling out of her crib. (Parents, what should we do? Put pillows/cushions around the perimeter to soften the fall, or just leave it be and hope for the best? The latter choice scares me, now more than usual, probably b/c I'm teaching TBI this semester....).

Her receptive vocab is ridiculous - she blows me away. And her expressive is indeed exploding. (See previous post for other words: first-words). Her latest words are /ka/ for "car", "ow-oo" for "owl", "at" for "cat", "doggy", "uck" for "duck", and a carrier phrase "a [noun]" or "its a [noun]". She also tries really hard to say "alligator" - she gets the vowel right, which is hard. She uses that same vowel when trying to say "Abigail", which is her doll/rabbit that she reads with.

She is so happy, so sweet, so funny, so smart, so beautiful, so much of a blessing and gift to us.

Entertainment

Q being silly

O playing "Props"

 

These guys certainly kept Lenorah entertained. Who needs TV or toys with these cuties around?

Life is good

These moments with her, they fill my cup to overflowing.

Running with the big boys

What is our strategy? You go left, I'll go right?

                                               Break! Let's go!

Running in circles.

Going for the goal!

Run Lenorah Run!

1. I just saw Daddy on the stairs!
2. He thinks he has me, but I can make it!
3. Run run run! Breaking away!
4. There's my Mom, I'm almost on home base!

Mr. Elmo

Everywhere she goes, he does too :-)
He's been dropped on the ground, thrown in the tub, fed rice and cheese, etc. But that means he also gets to go with us to the gym, Moe's, Target, bathtime, bedtime, etc. I don't think he is complaining ;-)

Me and my sweetheart

We have lots and lots of fun. We sing, we dance, we play, we learn. No matter what craziness life brings, just a few minutes with her heals me.

"/ɪs tæ/ ?"

LHR now picks up things, holds them up for me to name, and says "/ɪs  tæ/", her version of "What is that?". I guess that means we ask that a lot (e.g., "What is that? Itʼs a ______!"). I don't know if I can officially count that as putting two + words together though.... she'll get to that milestone soon enough. I have a feeling her expressive language is about to explode.

She does some new fun things now. She sings a lot more, cutting off her babbling and vocalization at breaks in the music, dancing with the music, clapping lots and lots. Books books books are still her absolute love.

Probably another fave in her top three is running/being chased/crashing. Here are a few snapshots of this regular activity:

bathtime with friends

Some friends came over to play, and ended up staying for some bathtime fun!

Snapshots

Snapshots of LHR today.

We bundled up several times to go outdoors to feed the geese, swing, and even have a chilly picnic.

And some additional "snapshots" - On this day, LHR:
Listened to this record - Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues
Ate lots of - peanut butter
Read her favorite books - Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Polar Bear, Polar Bear
Danced with mom to this song (three times) - Ingrid Michaelson, Everybody

"Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants to be loved
Oh oh oh, Oh oh oh
Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants to be loved
Oh oh oh, Oh oh oh
...
Just let the love love love begin"

First words

Lenorah has an interesting vocabulary. Her receptive vocabulary is outstanding - she can identify a toy we name from a field of at least 20, and she certainly understands what we say to her. She loves to hold things up or point to things for us to name now, her name game that she likes to direct. And of course, the books, oh goodness, she cannot get enough of them.

Her expressive vocabulary is very interesting, and very much reflects her interests. No "mommy" or "daddy" appearing regularly in her vocabulary, though she throws us a bone every now and again and says it. No, her most regular words are "ta-ta" (for "pat-pat", which is what we do with Cash instead of pull his hair, so this is essentially his name, though she does say "ash" or "Cash" occasionally), "onkey" for "monkey", "e-cock" or "cock" for "peacock", and "teacha", "teata" or "teasha" for "teacher". We occasionally hear a "book" or "look" or "ocks"/"cocks" for "blocks". And she meows for "cat" and quacks ("ack ack") for duck. She signs "more".

Her favorite books have become "Brown Bear Brown Bear" and "Polar Bear Polar Bear". This love affair began when I introduced her to the books with their accompanying animals/figurines. The stories really came to life for her then, I think. We keep the animals with the books in a plastic storage bin up on her shelves in her playroom, and the first thing she wants to do in the morning is go into her room, point to her box(es), every now and again say "book", come sit in your lap while you read the book with the animals, and then she plays with her animals for a long time. Last Saturday, I think I read those books at least 10 times each. A close third is "Panda Bear Panda Bear" - I don't have the animals for this book, too hard to collect them all, but she recognizes it/relates it to her favorites, and really enjoys it. She also has a set of "Abigail" books - books that came with a doll who talks when you say key phrases from the book. I have the key phrases memorized, so sometimes she just brings me the doll, I say the phrases, and Abigail talks. Well, Saturday, Abigail wasn't working (needs new batteries, aka "surgery"). Lenorah set her down, went to her room, grabbed an Abigail book (out of about 20 or so options), and brought it to me. I'm guessing she thought having the book would fix Abigail. It was so adorable.

Other favorites - Pajama Time, Going to Bed Book, Moo Baa LaLaLa, Hungry Caterpillar, 10 little ladybugs, 5 silly monkeys, ... and many many more actually, I should stop.

Jonathan's birthday

Celebrating Jonathan's 21st in Greenville w/ Mom, Schawna, and Vince.

Recreating a moment from my 21st birthday.

Sweet friends :-)

inspired

I feel so rich. My life is full of people who inspire me daily. Schawna and Vince are two of those people. I met them way back in '95, after my life had taken an unexpected turn and planted me in Rome, GA. My, oh my, how much has changed since then. Still, a few things remain the same. Schawna, as she did long ago, still inspires me to keep going, even when the obstacles are seemingly insurmountable and even when it hurts. And Vince has recently made me believe that one can make radical changes in their habits for a healthier lifestyle, despite a lifetime of ingrained unhealthiness.

Meet Ms. Holly

It has been quite an eventful week. Brent rejoined the outside-of-the-home work force and Lenorah began spending time during the day with a nanny. This was not our original plan, we are still on 4 waiting lists for daycare, but we are really enjoying it so far, and even thinking this could potentially be a long term solution. The first full day, I must admit, I could hardly concentrate on anything. I could only think of my sweet girl and every worse case scenario (I MUST cut back on my crime tv viewing). I know it was hard for Brent as well, this has been an incredibly tough transition for him. He misses his baby girl like crazy. But things have gone really smoothly. We are working out the schedule kinks, getting to know Holly, and Lenorah has made it clear that she really enjoys her. When I get home, though, she still won't let me put her down or get out of her sight for a good hour or so - she prefers that I hold her or just stay in one place where she can see me and where I don't move around from room to room, or God forbid, approach the threshold of an exit. But overall I think she, and all of us, are adjusting pretty well. We are fortunate to have such an arrangement, that is for sure. Here are a few shots of Holly and Lenorah:

Reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Lenorah's absolute favorite book right now.

Waking up from a good long nap, with her trusty blanket in hand.

Hanging with her friends

We were able to have a relaxing evening with friends, and Lenorah was very happy to see Anna and Sofie again. Though not captured in the photos, I think the highlight for Lenorah was watching Anna jump on the pogo stick. Opening gifts with her crazy friend Astrid :-)

Reading with Anna

Aren't they cute?

Santa Claus came to Jefferson

Larry is a rough and tough guy.... and also a softie :-) Here are some fun pictures of Larry/Poppy as Santa Claus. I think this is Reese saying "That's not Santa, that is Poppy!"

Here we see Ansley being a troublemaker and trying to pull Santa's beard off.

Lenorah getting a gift from Santa. She followed him around everywhere :-)

Santa had to wear his glasses to see the names on the gifts.

Ladies, ladies, ladies

There are lots of ladies in the room when we gather at the Woodman residence. I don't know how the guys do it.... I guess it is payback for when Susan was living with Larry and their 4 boys. I was actually able to capture some pretty good shots of the twins and the cousins playing with Lenorah. Aren't they all so smart and sweet and beautiful?

The twins were great with Lenorah... they really "got" her, reading her body language when she was showing that too many people were in her space. If only they lived a little closer for babysitting... ;-)

Snuggling with Great Grandma June. She'll snuggle.... you have to work at it a bit, woo her, be patient, and be prepared for it to only last for a couple of minutes, but she'll snuggle (I'm talking about Lenorah, not Grandma June :-)

I love Grandma June's smile in this one

Lenorah crashed during the present opening portion of the evening. This was her deciding that she just had to lay down and rest.