Yvonne wrote down this conversation she had with Norah today:
“Would you like to go on an adventure today?”
“Yeah.”
Where would you like to go?”
“To Panera Bread.”
“Do you want to go there for lunch?”
“Yeah.”
“Who will you see at Panera Bread?” (She thought Norah might say “Mommy,” since I work there so often.)
“Boys.”
“What are you going to do [...]

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Norah and I have been writing a lot of letters lately–she’ll color a picture, and I’ll take dictation, writing to Grandma and Grandpa, or Yvonne, or PopPop. Today she was playing with my book, and she took out my bookmark (arrgh!), and pretended it was a letter she was reading out loud:
“Dear Mommy. I love [...]

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I am only just finally starting to realize that Norah will be turning 2 soon. I don’t like to think about it–we have all loved this year so much, I just want to hang onto the last bits of her babyhood. But she’s not a baby anymore…she is truly a little girl now.
I was remembering [...]

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A few days last week, Brian was in Vermont for work. On Friday, as he was making the long drive home, I said to Norah, “Aren’t you excited for Daddy to come home?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you going to tell him when he gets home?”
“Ta ra ra boom-de-ay.”
Huh. No idea where that came from. Jack’s Big Music [...]

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I’m sitting at my desk working, and Norah climbs up into the rocking chair–no small feat.
Me: Wow, good job.
Norah: Super swell great.

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After our week in the Adirondacks, Norah had a terrible time sleeping. She had a hard time while we were on vacation–a combination of the big, dark, unfamiliar room; and the thunderstorm we had one night early in the week, loud and close, with the lighting flashing bright off the lake just outside our room; [...]

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I am amazed everyday at how Norah is growing. She’s not a baby anymore; she doesn’t look like a baby, she doesn’t act like one. She is a little girl. Starting to speak in sentences, to use a fork and spoon, to walk up and down the stairs instead of scootching. She can count to [...]

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Norah and Brian have invented a new game: Pond. It involves taking my old pink-and-green plaid comforter, the one from my college dorm, and spreading it out on the family room floor. That’s the pond. Then they throw a bunch of toys in (”Sploosh!”) and then jump in themselves (”Sploosh!”), belly flopping and doing the [...]

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Tonight Brian put Norah to bed, after having been in Vermont for the last three days. And after stories and prayers, he turned out the light, and she snuggled into his chest and said, “Miss Daddy.”

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Norah, today, pretending to cook with a tiny enamelware mug filled with the day’s finds–hosta seeds and teeny crabapples–very precisely, talking only to herself: “Measure-out-ing.”

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