Norah in December

Norah has finally taken an interest in drawing. This is the one area I’ve been concerned about in her development because we could never get her to even scribble. Alice started trying to scribble a few months ago and I was distressed when her drawing was about as good as Norah’s. I think 90% of the credit for the breakthrough goes to her preschool teachers who have insisted on her coloring (they once in exasperation made her take home a coloring page that she had refused to do at school as homework and said she had to finish it!). 10% of the credit goes to her uncle Matt who coaxed her into coloring on Thanksgiving day and praised her profusely. I don’t know what exactly happened but it was like a light switch turned on. She has been a coloring fanatic ever since and is quickly catching up with her fine motor skills. A few days ago she asked Bryan how to spell Santa and wrote the letters all on her own.

Norah is also warming up to the idea of speaking Spanish. She’s been attending Dallas Spanish House since the last week of August but was staunchly opposed to speaking any Spanish. She learned her colors but that was about it and I was wondering if I was wasting my time driving her 20 minutes to this school but I think she may be turning a new leaf. She has started asking us how to say various things in Spanish and sometimes I’ll hear her in the back of the car practicing “Buenos Dias! Buenos Dias? Bu-ay-nos Di-as. Como estas?  Como ESTAS? . . .” It is so interesting – she used to do that when she was 2 - I’d always hear her practicing in the back seat. I’m hopeful that she’ll start picking up vocabulary much more quickly now that she’s expanded her definition of “real words.” She used to tell Bryan “don’t speak Spanish, only speak real words” ha ha. Here she is with one of her preschool teachers – Ivonne.
She had a preschool party and they sang and danced to “Feliz Navidad”This has seriously been the best Christmas season ever for me. Norah is so enthusiastic about all the simple pleasures of Christmas from decorations to Christmas music to Santa sightings.”A Christmas tree!! I see a Christmas tree!” “Please please please can we listen to Christmas music?” “are these treats for Santa?” It’s just non stop. She talks about Santa all the time – wants to get him a gift, write him a letter, visit him, give his reindeer some treats etc etc. She’s so cute sometimes that I feel like someone must be coaching her with a script. When she saw Santa at our ward Christmas party she was a little starstruck and hardly said anything at all but when he started to go she called out “Don’t forget Alice Santa!”It just melted my heart that she was worried about her sister getting presents because Alice couldn’t tell Santa what she wanted.

Norah and I have been making a lot of holiday treats for neighbors and friends. I took a picture of this one because we used a cake pan my dad gave me that belonged to my grandma Brooks. Norah and I had a lot of fun making this treat together. And for good measure here is a picture of Norah on a ridiculously beautiful December day at the zoo. Random note: Lately Norah won’t look at the camera when I take her picture. If I ask her to she will for a split second but even if I capture it, the picture is usually blurry because she’s moving her head (see above!).