Tonight, for the first time, Norah said, “Goodnight, Daddy.”

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Norah, the other night in the kitchen while Brian and I were making dinner:
Walking around the kitchen in my red kitten heels, pink hat on her head, opening and closing the baby gate and saying, “See you Monday.”
(It’s what Yvonne says to her every Thursday afternoon when she says goodbye.)

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Tonight, while were reading our bedtime stories, I had a hard time keeping my place in “Ferdinand” because Norah was flipping through the pages we’d already read. I was managing, because we’ve read the story enough lately that I know it by heart, but it was a struggle.
“Norah, what are you looking for?”
“Bee.”
She’s obsessed with [...]

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Norah: “Tooting.”
Me: “That’s okay, just say excuse me.”
Norah: “Music.”

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…Pushing Norah on the swings at the park for a full 45 minutes yesterday, just chatting with her and making her giggle. Plus the overheard conversation between two young parents about their 21-month-old (”But he knows ‘more’ and ‘cup’ and ‘doggy’…”), obviously sparked by the way Norah (2 months younger) was chattering with me about [...]

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I feel like Norah has grown so much in the time since I’ve written. I hate feeling like that–I want to capture every moment. This afternoon we were walking hand in hand across the field toward the school playground, and I was telling her that in just a few years, this would be her school, [...]

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I was sitting on the couch tonight after dinner, reading my brand-new O magazine, when Norah hauled herself bodily into my lap, perched herself on my ribcage, looked at the magazine, pointed at a picture of Oprah, and said, with absolute certainty and no hesitation at all, “Mandy.”
Whereupon I dissolved into giggles

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The girl is utterly infuriating, she spends the day crabbing and pushing you away, then whining and clinging when you leave the room. She is never satisfied, wanting “more! more!” of anything you give her. You are counting down the hours until naptime. And then, in her highchair eating lunch, as you are trying to [...]

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A couple of nights ago, just before bedtime, we stopped over at Tim and Dayna’s to drop off our old patio furniture, which they were taking for their yard. It was warm day, heading towards twilight but not dark yet, time to start thinking about heading indoors. Norah and I had been working in the [...]

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Brian had a late meeting tonight, so Norah and I took a spur-of-the-moment trip into the city to have dinner with him, since otherwise he wouldn’t get to see her at all today. We were the only people at Ambrosia at barely five o’clock, which was fine with us.
It’s been a beautiful day today, sunny [...]

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