Norah gets spruced up, among other things

Last weekend, we went shoe shopping for Norah. When Mia comes home from school, she likes to go out to the curb and greet her (when she's not napping). It's a pain to keep putting on her sandals, especially because she likes to take them off. So I told Krys we needed to get her something that she could slip on easily, "like flip-flops." I put those in quotes because that's what I said, but I didn't mean we had to buy flip-flops, just something like them. This is important because several years ago, Mia's physical therapist said that kids shouldn't wear flip-flops at all, because it messes up the development of their feet. That's what he said! Krys, who thinks Mia's doctors are quacks, treats the word of her PT as gospel, so we couldn't get flip-flops. We ended up buying Crocs, because they're easy to put on but still provide some ankle stability. Norah, of course, immediately fell in love with them, and wears them around the house. Krys put butterfly pins on the shoes, and Norah likes to walk around saying, "Fancy shoes!"

Then she got a haircut this past Wednesday. I wasn't sure how she would react, because she wasn't too happy a few months ago when I took her to get her bangs trimmed, but she kept saying "haircut" as we waited, and then sat quietly in the chair, only getting annoyed when she couldn't get her hands out from beneath the cape. She looked very cute (as always) for a while after getting her hair cut, but soon put a blanket over her head and ruined the effect the stylist had given her. (Yes, we take both of them to a stylist, where Norah's haircut cost more than the one I get.) But that's cool.

So Norah is all spiffy, as she of course is all the time. We have noticed, as has her speech therapist, that she is talking much better. Her latest thing is "I scared birds." We're not quite sure when she became "scared" of birds, because she's not scared of birds at all. She just likes saying it. She is also able to identify the chinchilla at the pet store, although she doesn't say it perfectly. We know she's helping Mia, because Mia is saying a lot more in modeling what Norah says. We know she's not doing perfectly well in repeating what we say, but she is repeating Norah, so that's kind of neat.

Norah has also taken to reading books when she should be sleeping. I have begun putting her to bed at night, because she freaks out when Krys leaves her. So I read to her and turn off the light, and usually we end up hearing her talking long after she should have been asleep. When we go in to her room, she is surrounded by books, reading them one after another. It's very funny, even though she should be sleeping. At least she's interested in books! And at least when she gets out of bed, she gets right back into bed. We don't care that much, at least not when it doesn't last very long, because she's not terribly loud and doesn't bother Mia. We just think it's cute. Much like everything else she does!