Our budding artist; September 27, 2012

This was Nora's first time painting, ever. We've done finger painting but mostly with food or unintentionally with her snot. This was her first forray into using brushes with paint and gluesticks.
I'll let the pictures speak for themself.

She blew all of us away that she understood how to use the brush the moment she had it in hand.

Nora and her friends.

Mama giving her encouragement.

Nora wouldn't share the hot pink paint.

Her boyfriend, Rowan, was giving instruction.

Nora let Rowan use her paint. He traded the finger paint for it...Nora gave herself a mustache.

She wouldn't let me clean it off. She kept telling me, "No!"

Post art class. She had one smudge of paint left on her arm.

Don't mess with Nora; September 14, 2012

My offspring is asleep after being mauled at the Mo Phillips show. Some little shit decided to forcibly hug her from behind/tackle her not once, but twice, and then got smacked himself by Nora in response and cried like a little byatch. It was pretty awesome. Nora clapped and smiled as he got dragged out. I was so proud.

The other moms were laughing in shock and open amusement. The mother of the brawler was not amused, I just smiled. Nora adjusted her clothes and sat back down to watch the show and clap along in time. My friend, Bekki, exclaimed, "Whoa, Nora is badass!" She has a sense of decorum and etiquette that you dare not cross...I wonder who she reminds me of?
I'm off to clean/cook/write as fast as possible before my love creation awakens to torture me and ransack our house.

September 4th, 2012 - 1st sentence and so much more...

Nora has mastered naughtiness. She'll get angry and throw her sippy cup on the floor. We calmly respond with, "Nora, pick that up, please." If that doesn't get a response then we follow it up with, "Nora? What do we do with our cup?" This normally elicits her naughty smile and the placement of her sippy cup on the nearest table (mind you she's just shy of 18 months).

Her new exchange these past two weeks? "Nora, please pick up your cup."
Response: "What's that about?" (With her hands on her hips and her head cocked to the side back and forth with a smile.) Oh no? Oh, yes.

New words these last couple weeks:  Pepe (short for Peter the cat), down, no-no (in response to naughty behavior or cat behavior, take your pick), ow-cha...haahaahaa (hot things are funny because adults in pain are hilarious), shhhh-dowg (dogs are to remain silent), and ba-bah smah (babies are small and apparently beneath her or at least should remain quiet in her presence because, after all, don't they realize they're in the presence of a BIG girl?).

There is a distinct fascination with hats, shoes, spoons, and anything that is related to babies which is amusing. She rarely used a pacifier and thinks they are ridiculously funny. This would be cute except it is incredibly awkward in public when she steals them from infants and runs away with them. She's like an earth-friendly guerrilla warfare front of one against the orally-fixated infants of the greater Portland area. Let's just say she's about as good as her mom at making friends. I try to return them and make a joke but the sleep-deranged mother with the wailing infant is never amused. I don't blame her.

Nora has figured out how to open doors, unscrew caps, open purses/bags of every type, unleash dogs, and draw with anything that will leave a mark...It's tempting to put her in daycare just to see what havoc she could wreak in a week. I should find one of those new-age ones with live video links. I could make millions off the feed. Or, I could stay home with her until she's ready for school and truly prepare her for terrorizing others. Yay, family values!