Dear Nora - Happy First birthday, love bug!!

I cannot believe I am sitting down to write your first birthday letter. The fire is roaring in the wood stove next to me and you are sleeping soundly (for now) in the pack and play. We are still staying with your Grandma and Grandpa Blocher while we look for a house. You have officially lived here for half your life. This is not the vision we had for your first year as we all sleep in one room and live on top of each other but you enjoy your Grandparents so much it's not something you see as a struggle in anyway at all. I know you will miss them terribly when we do move into our own place and begin a new normal.

You continue to bring so much laughter into our family, sweet girl. You are such a ham and you know it. You have such a sense of humor and its so much fun to witness as you interact with us.

You have decided that you love to do action songs this month and you sit on my lap for the whole of the story and song time at the library - you never sit still so it's worthy of a mention. You watch all the kids and jabber away. You open and shut your hand for "open, shut them" and wave your arm back and forth trying to do wheels on the bus. First thing in the morning you often sit up and open just one hand, for "Twinkle, twinkle little star" which is a favourite, (you have even mastered making the diamond shape with your pointer fingers and thumb!) even though at 6am its tough for me to sound too enthusiastic, but you don't seem to judge quality, thankfully :) Just tonight when I was rocking you to sleep, I was humming the elevator song and realised that in your dream state you were lifting your arms up and down in the chorus! You love music and I love watching you love it.

Your inner bookworm continues to grow, and you have some faves. You love the ones with animals in the best, and point out dogs and bunnies on every page they are featured and then make your cute noises. You hardly ever finish one book before you are pulling out the next but you just love to look at the pictures.

You still don't say a ton of words, not that that hinders you getting your point across ever, but still, you say, "mama" and newly "dada" and "awe duh" (all done) You grunt a lot and when you are desperate to say something you bounce up and down waving your arms in the air at the same time! Even without much official language to speak of, you make your wants known with ease. You use a few signs to communicate too but I think you feel that grunts work just as effectively.

Your walking is really starting to take off, you gain confidence every day and slowly but surely are becoming a real little toddler. I love it, but I will miss your wiggle when you crawl, its so cute!

You are a big fan of accessories and are always bringing me your shoes or hats to put on and you wear them with pride.

You still love to hold two of the same things in your hands, and because your brother likes to step out of his socks all the time, you have a constant source for your obsession. This would be fine except for the fact you keep depositing them in strange places all over the house - thankfully you leave them together so we often find a complete pair but still, your brother will have none left one of these days!!

You still love to eat, except when your teeth are bugging you, but you can be hot and cold about the foods you like. One day you eat your weight in carrots and the next day you are not interested. You still love to nurse, and only take 4oz in a bottle at night before bed.  We will be heading down the weaning road soon and I know we will both miss it very much, but honestly I'm hoping it will help you sleep longer at night and settle easier at nap time. You are getting better with your sleep but it could still improve :) You nap 1.5hrs in the morning and about the same  in the afternoon but our living situation means you're often woken up in the afternoon so I am curious if having your own space will help you to sleep for longer.

You love to rock on the rocking horse and the rocking chairs and have just figured out climbing on the little rocking chair and sitting down all by yourself!

When Daddy gets home from work at night, you and Levi really enjoy jumping on him and bouncing on the bed too. You are so excited to be big enough to join in with all the fun now :)

We love you so, so much and enjoy your sweet spirit and hilarious sense of humor, you are ever the jokester.

Thank you for being our sweet love bug, Happy Birthday!


Mama xx

Here are a couple of pictures from your party (2/14/15)