Our Birthday Girl

 Norah turns 3 tomorrow and I can’t imagine anyone being more excited to be a birthday girl than her. She has been looking forward to this day pretty much since May 27th 2011 and she has been truly pining for it since Bryan’s birthday in February. She would ask me several times a week if it was her birthday and she was actually pretty patient and understanding for the most part when I said no. Sometimes Norah would say “okay Mama, maybe tomorrow?” and in hopes of delaying a repeat of the same conversation I would say “well, it is still cold outside and your birthday comes when it is warm” but after I gave that excuse a few times she just started suggesting we wear jackets. Oh she cracks me up! Poor little Norah has lately been losing hope that her birthday would ever come. Just in the last few weeks she has started to despair when I’ve told her it still wasn’t time for her party. I made her one of those paper link chains so she could have a visual sense of how many days there were till her birthday. At first she relished taking off one link at bedtime but then she finally tore off the rest of the links in one go. Throughout this emotional ordeal, Norah has been genuinely happy for others on their birthday. I’m always a little nervous that she’ll be overcome with jealousy at another kid’s party but she has amazed me with her grace. She acts like they must be the luckiest person in the world to have a birthday and celebrates their good fortune without a hint of envy.  I can’t wait to see her face tomorrow when we sing Happy Birthday when she wakes up – I mean when she comes into our room to wake us up – lets be honest.

These cute pictures were taken by Stacy about a week ago. Stacy is so talented with a camera and clever with kids. She had me get Norah some balloons so she’d cooperate with the photo shoot – genius!
This picture below is my favorite of the few she sent me because it just captures how much personality Norah has.
There is never a dull moment with Norah. She keeps me busy and frankly exhausted but I simply adore her. This little girl was born to be a leader and I’m so proud of her. She is smart, funny and absolutely determined. She makes my job tough because she stubbornly refuses to accommodate my agenda if it conflicts with hers but I’m honing my diplomacy skills and we are finding compromises we can both live with. For example, we’ve come to an understanding that she must wear shoes when walking to the car, but never while in her car seat.

Norah has grown up a lot this past year. She transitioned from a crib to a bed in August, became a big sister in November, and potty trained in April. She also mastered tricycling, visited NYC two more times, went ice skating, had her first dental appointment and finally showed interest in coloring. At two she was speaking in short sentences and making simple requests. Now at three she is telling us imaginative stories and coming up with grand ideas for how she wants to spend the day. She can understand some pretty tricky concepts like the meaning of pretend, far away, tomorrow, and “nursery is only on Sunday” – but she has yet to figure out that her grandparents can’t see her dancing when she is on speaker phone. I’m not sure how much she understands about our approaching move to Texas but I’m certain she’ll be up for the adventure.