August 13th, 2012 - 17 months old today!

Nora is officially weaned but she's not going down without a fight. I don't think I've had to protect my breasts this much since high school. She Bugs-Bunnied me today into bending over so she could grab at me by luring me with a smile and a hug around my knees. Little did I know.

So when I left this morning to go volunteer and our friend Holly was watching her I had no idea of the day ahead. Her doll Polly was spiked on the ground, she flirted with Holly and said her name all to get her to give her a bottle and cuddle against her chest, and shouted for "sheep!". She was on the war path.

I got home and put her in the bath, read her favorite books to her, cuddled with her and even made a warm bottle of coconut milk. She refused to nap and was naughtier than ever. I thought to myself, "What helps me go to sleep?" I brought her into our bed, rubbed her back and her feet, and read her BBC news off my phone. It took less than 5 minutes before she was snoring.

_________________________________________________________________________

I love how relentless our daughter is these days. Did I say love? I meant I love to laugh about it later but in the moment I want to call in sick and ask someone else to fix the situation.

A couples months ago she became obsessed with her shoes. I started lining them up on her shelves at a height to where she could reach them and help pick out her outfit starting with her shoes every morning. I've created a miniature Imelda Marcos. She demands to have shoes on despite what we're doing or if we're going anywhere and cannot be deterred from her selection. She had picked purple shoes one day so I helped her pick out a purple outfit to match. If we survive the shoe selection we have the hat selection ahead of us to overcome. She once demanded to wear a hat two sizes too small because it was "pwetty". The green plaid sunhat was perched on her head like a Mason's hat.

Keep in mind it was in the mid-eighties outside when our pint-size dictator brought to me a purple winter owl hat to match her outfit yesterday. She insisted on wearing said hat, "Hep- hat?" Help was given and our mirth was contagious as we exited and the hat went flying. Did I mention she hates the heat more than myself? She begrudingly agreed to her sunhat being put on and promptly removed her shoes because they didn't match.

Wish us luck.
__________________________________________________________________________________

She's learning names and remembering faces. She says "hi" to neighbors that she's met before and is becoming weary of strangers. We look at photos of family for fun and she's starting to learn their names. Our niece Sophie is "-ophie", our niece Sydney is "nid-nee", Grandma is "mee-mah", Uncle Jim is "-im", Aunt Anjie is "-jie", and Unlce Sean is "-han".

I'm still "mama" and Jamie is still "dada" but our cat Simone is now "mrow" or "NO-NO!"  I now have someone to help me yell at the cats, it's awesome.

Now I just need her to learn how to say, "Go away!" with authority to the door-to-door solicitors.