"Die" My Baby Tells Me

So, Nora is officially a chatter box and is trying to put together lots of combinations of words. Her favorite remains "hi". She likes trying out different sounds and syllables. Her new favorite word today is "die". She's trying out the "d" sound with "hi". The result is all day my super cute, sweet baby has been very distinctly saying "die, die, die."

She has a really cute high pitched voice and "die" is all that is being produced by it. I couldn't help cracking up this morning when she was happily playing with her toys saying "die, die, die, die" and then slowly fading into a really creepy whispery "die, die". I'm sure it will evolve into something else tomorrow but it's been pretty surreal running errands with her all day while she's been wishing me dead. Good thing I have a twisted sense of humor.

Big Girl!

There seems to be weeks where all is status quo with Nora and then there are weeks and even days where things change literally by the moment. The biggest, most exciting change (for me) came a couple of weeks ago when she FINALLY began sleeping through the night. I feel like an entirely new person now that I'm getting some sleep. And my baby who has never napped is beginning to take 1-3 one hour naps a day. This is heavenly and she's in such a better mood for it!

This week Nora has changed exponentially. Her army crawl has a lot of gusto and she'll actually grunt and laugh as she's chasing the dog at full speed (poor dog). She's also learned to sit up on her own. She does this through very unusual means. She's really really flexible and actually does the splits and then pushes herself up. It's pretty amazing. She's also beginning to (inconsistently) pull herself up on our couch. All these changes took place in a matter of days. One morning Joel went in her room to get her up and she was just sitting there.

She's so much fun and has so much personality. Her first official word (since I don't think she's using mama and dada in context) is "hi". She says hi to everyone and everything. She's also begun to say "wow" which is really appropriate for this little firecracker. The baby sign language hasn't really kicked in yet even though we've been using it fairly consistently; however, she has begun to clap which is soooo cute! She especially likes impromptu family dance parties in the kitchen. I think she thinks my dancing is hilarious (and it is).

Baby Mug Shot

I think we've finally slogged through all of Nora's post-adoption paper work and our little girl has been officially registered, tracked and noted by the U.S. government. She's got her birth certificate, social security card and we have just applied for her passport. Holy paper work!

I'm so glad we were able to take care of her passport yesterday. Joel and I had to go together to apply in person. We both work at complete opposite ends of the city and the office hours at the post office for passports are 9:30 - 3, not exactly convenient if you both work. Luckily, we both were able to take off early and met at the post office at 2:30. We got in line and were laughing as there were two other families with babies in front of us.

Nora got her photo taken and it was perfect. All humans must instinctively know to give the mug shot/deer in the headlights look for government issued IDs. Nora completely nailed it and has joined the ranks of all of her fellow Americans with the same crazy look in all of their ID photos. (I actually am smiling and look happy in my driver's license and it freaks people out. I get a lot of comments.)

So, Nora is going to receive her passport in three weeks and will then be ready for her first trip to Costa Rica in September.