Chatting with Norah

Norah has begun using more and more complete and (somewhat) complex sentences, which is always nice to hear. She says "I like my dress" and "Hello, Daddy, how are you?" She still hasn't grasped the idea of "my" and "your" yet, as she says "my" when she means mine, because I'll say "my shoes" or something like that. I guess that's a common problem for kids, because it's such an esoteric concept. In the context of a longer sentence, like the one above, she gets it right, but I guess that's from memorizing the entire structure of the sentence rather than putting the words together. This is really a fascinating time in her life, as she begins to learn more and more and starts putting things together. She's memorizing structures but not necessarily why they go that way, and it will be neat to see her make that leap. But right now it's just nice to hear her using longer sentences. As usual, we hope it rubs off on Mia, and it does seem to have an effect, as Mia's speech therapist says she's noticed her using longer sentences. I've noticed it a little, but not to the extent that her therapist has. I guess that's why she's the professional!

You know how people joke about trying to get their kids to walk and talk and then trying to get them to sit down and shut up? Well, I might want Norah to sit down, but I'm very jazzed about her talking, so I want her to keep at it! I want to have a conversation with her!

Norah can open the front door

Yeah, that's not good. Well, okay, it is good. But it's also not good.

Norah is, of course, learning to do more and more. She has desperately wanted to open the door for some time, but has never been able to. She's been too short and unable to manipulate the knob. It's not a round knob - it's one of those long handles that you pull down. She still can't turn a round knob, which is a blessing in disguise so far. We have a storm door with a round knob which she can't open yet. She knows enough not to wander outside, but how long will that last?

Interestingly enough, the front door is difficult to open. It sticks quite a bit, and you often have to really give it a good tug. Norah really works on it to get it open, but she does it! She's very happy with her triumph.

I guess we're going to have to start putting the bolt across the door. It's much higher up on the door, so she won't be able to get to it. Of course, I could just keep an eye on her. But who wants to do that?

Diapers: the eternal conundrum!

Apparently, Krys and I are the only people in the Greater Basin Area who know how to put a diaper on. Whenever she comes home from school, her diaper is off-center and occasionally giving her a wedgie. The tape on the sides is often barely holding on, and it's often down further on her body than it should be. It's quite vexing.

How hard is it to put on a diaper, I ask? If I can do it, anyone can! It bothers me because the people who are putting these diapers on work in special education, so although I know Mia ought to be potty-trained, I can't believe they haven't put on plenty of diapers before. I don't know how uncomfortable it makes her, but occasionally she comes home with her pants wet, and that hardly ever happens when I put a diaper on her. And I, as we all know, am not too bright.

Diapers, people. It's not rocket science!

Norah has breached the final barrier!

I mentioned this a few posts ago - Norah has figured out how to climb over the gate the blocks her door and essentially traps her in her room. We knew it was coming, but we hoped it would be later than sooner. This week she did it again, at 5 in the morning. She wandered into our room and started bothering Mommy to get up. Krys usually gets up for work at this time anyway, so it wasn't too big a deal for her, but I usually sleep in to the late hour of 6, so hearing a small voice whining "Mama, Mama, Mama" repeatedly was kind of vexing. Krys said that she wanted to stop putting the gate up because she didn't want Norah to get hurt climbing over it, but I'm not willing to give up quite yet. I've been putting it up just so she has something to think about in the morning. Maybe she'll decide that staying in the room is better than climbing over it. This morning I was up before she was, and when I heard her wake up I went back and caught her in the act of climbing. It looked somewhat uncomfortable, and she stopped, climbed back down, and said, "My foot hurt." Now, I saw no evidence that her foot actually hurt, but it might have been uncomfortable as she swung it up and hooked it over the gate. If so, maybe that will deter her a bit.

She's usually pretty good about sleeping in, especially on the weekend (by "sleeping in" I mean until 7-7.30), so we'll probably stop putting the gate up pretty soon. It's just another indication of her growing up. Before I know it she'll be off to college. And then we'll have peace ...

The banshee

Norah has been screaming a lot recently. She's always had a good scream, but for the past week or so, she's really been showing it off. We don't really know why except that it has to do with Mommy, as usual. A few days ago she didn't want to eat dinner and she freaked out. We sent her to her room, where she continued to scream. I was reading to Mia to help her eat (that's what we do these days, and it really helps a lot), so Krys dealt with Norah. She kept trying to come out of room, and Krys kept yelling at her. I think she was a bit surprised that Krys was yelling at her, not because Krys isn't tough with her (she's gotten tougher with her in the past few months) but because she seemed really angry, which is usually my gig. Norah kept shrieking, and finally Mia finished her dinner and Krys came in to hang out with her. I went into Norah's room and sat down on the bed and picked her up. I stroked her hair and talked quietly to her, and she eventually calmed down. We totally switched the "good cop/bad cop" routine on her, and I think she was a bit confused. That'll keep her on her toes!

Today was more of the same. We went out shopping relatively early (around 11.30), so we didn't think she was tired. We went to Target, and she was fine until we tried to leave. Norah freaked out. She wouldn't walk with Krys, but she didn't want to walk with me. I finally picked her up, put my hand over her mouth, and carried her out of the store. We waited outside (in the 100+ degree heat, mind you) until Krys came out with Mia. She finally calmed down in the van on the way home, but later in the afternoon, after her nap, it happened again. Krys had to go back out, and she asked Norah if she wanted to go. When they got outside, Norah started crying. She didn't want to go with Mommy, but she didn't want to go inside. Krys brought her back inside and she went right into her room. I put her gate up and closed the door. She actually climbed over her gate (I didn't know she could do that!), and I got a bit grumpy. I put her back in her room, and she didn't come out again. Instead she chose to take every toy out of her drawers and throw them around the room. Screaming all the time, mind you. I finally went in and calmed her down again. She kept telling me that she was making a mess in her room and that she was screaming her head off. I told her I knew that. But she did calm down!

I think a lot of it has to do with her and Krys, because she's so jealous of Mia. We've had two weeks of strangeness, with our trip to Pennsylvania and then last week, when my mom was here, and now a three-day weekend with Krys home, so I'm really hoping that she gets back to normal now that Mia is going back to summer school and Krys is going back to work. I also think the heat has something to do with it. It's REALLY hot here, and I think, unlike previous years, it's bothering Norah more. It's certainly bothering Mia a lot, and I wonder if Norah is just generally cranky. We'll see.

In the meantime, I hope she stops screaming so much. As you might imagine, it's extremely annoying.