What's New With Nora!

Yesterday was Nora's 6-month check-up at the doctor. Our growing girl now weighs 14 lbs., 5 oz. (25th percentile) and is 25 1/4 inches long (45th percentile). The doc said she looks great and is growing consistently. He also mentioned that it looked like she'd be sprouting some teeth pretty soon, which makes her daddy quite happy. Here is what else is new with Nora:

1. Eating solids is going great....in fact, Nora LOVES to eat cereal and fresh fruits and vegetables. So far, she has tried apples, pears, peaches, green beans, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. I have begun experimenting with making my own baby food over the past few weeks. So far, I have made homemade applesauce and pears. I've also made pureed bananas and avocado. It's so easy and doesn't take very long to make at all.

2. Nora is now sitting by herself unassisted. Of course she has to be put in the sitting position, but once we help her get to that point, she can balance really well on her own. She's really gotten good at it just over this past weekend.

3. Nora has a few "tricks" that she's learned. The first is what we have coined her "head dancing." She will spontaneously start moving her head from side to side, and loves the attention that she gets when you acknowledge her moves! Also, and this is our favorite, she has learned how to play peek-a-boo. It is the cutest thing ever. Jonathan and Nora were playing on our bed this past Saturday when he took one of her blankets and would drape it over her face and ask, "Where's Nora? Where is she?" He would then pull the blanket away and say, "There she is!" After a few times, Nora grabbed on to the blanket and started covering her face and moving it away all by herself. It's funny when she does it but doesn't actually cover herself up, but she gets excited anyway when she "reveals" that she's really there. Over the past day or two, she's started initiating peek-a-boo on her own. We are in love, that's all I can say!

4. Teeth shouldn't be too far away.....as the doctor mentioned, her gums are bulging and she has woken up several times in the night a few times which is very unlike her.

5. We have dropped our late night feeding, and now Nora sleeps from 8 pm to 7-7:30ish in the morning. It's wonderful!!!!! We have truly been blessed with a great sleeper.

As Spring draws nearer, we have had a few BEAUTIFUL days of warm weather. I try hard to get outside on those rare days to take Nora for a walk in our neighborhood. This past Sunday, we met several families from our Care Group at the park....the guys wore themselves out playing football and frisby while the women visited, supervised the kiddos on the playground, and took walks. It was wonderful!

And even though I am greatly anticipating the warmer weather, I can't forget to mention that last Wednesday, we had SNOW! And lots of it (for Knoxville, anyway). It was great and actually stuck for a few hours. We managed to snap a few pictures as it was coming down....this is not something this New Orleans girl is used to.

Anyway, that's the lastest with us. Enoy the latest pics!