All Nora's words

The doctor's office asked us how many words Nora knows. We gave them a guess: maybe about 70.

But that started us counting all the words Nora says. We didn't count anything she says when she is just repeating what other people say; we kept it to words that she's really mastered, knows what they mean, and uses in regular conversation. The current count is 175! We read somewhere that the average 2-year-old knows 150 words. Nora is only 1 1/2 years old! What a verbal little girl we have!

Here they are, in no particular order:

mama, daddy, Iain, baby, blanket

get down, no, yes, sorry, please

thank you, church, bye bye, hello, night night (goodnight)

diaper, wipe, messy, yucky, pretty

bow, have it, go, let go, see you later!

Friday, Jesus, book, Bible, peepo (peekaboo)

Peekaboo (our dog), rabbit, sheep, chichen (chicken), cow

moo, sobbies (strawberries), toast, milk, water

thirsty, Mila, sister, shhh, come up

more please, hungry, Word World, watch (as in look), watch (as in wristwatch)

look, riding, whee (swing or slide), ball, bosch (baseball)

jammin' (pajamas), dress, shoes, on, off

dog, funny, quack-quack (what a chichen says), ee-i-ee-i (farm), hat

glasses, eye(s), nose, ear, mouth

kiss, belly, feet, toes, hand

head, hair, all right!, wuv you, pants

hurt self!, broken, oush! (ouch), dolly, sleepy

bug car, truck, outside, flower, wash

this bear, eat, uh oh!, munch (lunch), phone

nana, stinkies, cracker, hot, ships

cookie, apple, bike, read, stop

help, oh cool!, giraffe, monkey, lion

hippopotamus, gentle, Nora, sit down, fall

clean up, here, open, bop bop (drink), horses

bounce, bouncin', gabbage (garbage), fish, aweshome! (awesome)

shirt, chin, cheeks, guys, house

take that, talking, train, close, deer

chair, seat, gun, bird, airplane

coming, bite, good, growl!, light

ambulance, fasht! (fast), goin', chop!, drivin'

what's that?, done, do it!, elk, other one

fix, hit, now, aw!, covers

game, clothes, tiger, food, cryin'

kick, stroller, pen, climb, strap

doctor, how are you? good, run! yay!

Our Joie

 
Nora is now 17 months old and big for her age. She's in the 80th percentile for weight and 77th for height. After all the trouble she had gaining weight in the beginning we are thankful for her robust health now. Robust is a wonderful word to describe our daughter. She has a zest for life and a fearless determination that is both a blessing and a curse. She loves babies and cars and the two men men in her life: Daddy and Iain. Her vocabulary is immense! As I recall, Iain was still fairly quiet at this age, but Elinor is adding multiple words a day now. Here is a sample:

Daddy
Mama
Ee-ya: Iain (sometimes you can hear the final consonant)
Mee-wa: Mila (Daddy has taught her this word even though she has no idea what it means)
baby
bop-bop: drink
bwankey: blanket (she is nearly inseparable from this lovey)
ba-car: bug car (she loves to "count" VWs with Iain as we drive around town)
fWOWr: flower
hungwee: hungry
pwettee: pretty
peepo: peekaboo (the game)
pee boo: Peekaboo (our dog)
bosh: baseball (This is the name of Iain's favorite player. Whenever a game is on TV Nora says: bosh!)
uh ho: uh oh
oosh: shoes
foo: food
ish: fish
mo mee: more, please
ba: ball
ni ni: goodnight
hew wo wo: hello
hi
bye bye (she will say this automatically if I say "Talk to you later!")
NO!!!!!!!!! (she loves this one)
Yesh: yes (sometimes accompanied by both arms straight up in the air)
Oush: ouch
dentl: gentle (we've been trying to teach her this as she loves to wrestle and hit!)
eye
no: nose
mou: mouth
whee: slide
gey dow: get down

She is our little firecracker! We love her sparkle and vibrancy and pray for wisdom on how to direct her strong will into the Lord's will. I love that she'll always be strong and not be afraid to tell people no, something her Mama isn't very good at. She is a great argument for genetics as she takes after her Great-Grandad, Grandpapa, and Daddy in looks and personality. She is her Daddy's girl and it is a delight to see them enjoying each other so much. We are so blessed by our little surprise!

Summer Sampler

Here are a few highlights from our crazy-wonderful summer:

Uncle Allan and Aunt Christine visited with cousins Daniel and Fiona. Aren't baby feet the sweetest?

Iain turned 4! We had a party at the park and Mama made a firetruck cake for the big day at home.

We camped at Yellowstone and drove through the Grand Tetons. I got to see my Uncle Greg on that trip!

Iain played T-ball for the first time and LOVED it!

We traveled, swam, went to a baseball game (Elinor's first!), visited with friends, enjoyed fireworks, and...

painted the house!

It was a full summer, rich with blessings.

Gratuitous Baby Photos

Most of these are quite old. Time to do another photo session!

A New Baby!

I can't believe I haven't logged into this blog since November! But it makes sense, because I pretty much stopped doing everything in November. The last months of my pregnancy were very difficult due to Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction which causes severe pelvic pain. Mine was so bad that couldn't tolerate standing or walking for much longer than 5 or 10 minutes at a time. It is already becoming a bit of a vague memory, which is amazing, because it was extremely painful.

Our miracle baby, Elinor Joie Douglas, arrived on January 22, 2010. She was 8 lbs, 5 oz. She was born on the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. What a testimony to the power of God! He truly does set the days and dates, as well as open and close the womb.

Her name means: God has given us light and joy! The verse we chose for her is Psalm 30:5b: "Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning."

Here is her birth story.

On the evening of Thursday January 23 Brian and I were watching television together (The Office, I think) and Iain was safely tucked in bed when... pop! Gush. I said that I thought my water might have broken. Brian said he didn't think so. I called the doctor. I read the internet. We decided to wait and see. After about 30 minutes it became apparent that we needed to go to the hospital because my water had definitely broken. I was excited and scared and there was a lot to do. We called our friends, the Goodwins, who had kindly agreed to watch Iain when The Time Came. We got Iain out of bed and explained to his groggy little self that we were going to the hospital to get his little sister. I don't think that sank in. After Stormy came to take Iain, it was off to L&D Triage for us. They confirmed my water had broken and we were off to our own room.

The only problem was that my contractions weren't coming regularly or with any strength. So we waited through the night at the hospital. I walked the halls, I tried to sleep. At 6am our wonderful friend and doctor, Dirk Carlson, came in to check on us. We started a low dose of pitocin and waited some more. Now I was having some contractions!



After 6 hours of induced contractions, I still had not dilated at all. I was probably hitting a 7 or 8 on the pain scale. We tried an epidural as a last ditch effort to see if it help me to dilate. No dice. At 1pm we decided to go with the c-section. I'm considerably more relaxed in this picture as I'm enjoying the effects of the epidural.


At shortly after 2, Elinor was here! Papa got to hold her right away, much quicker than with Iain.

And of course, Mama got to have some snuggle time too.



When I got to recovery, Elinor was already there, screaming her little heart out. This is a sound that has become oh-so-familiar around here! After they finished checking her out, I got to hold her for the first time.

They put a sweet little bow in her hair at the hospital and everyone told us what a beautiful baby she was! She has pretty blue eyes that I just love:


After several days in the hospital recovering (which went great-- I think I'm pretty much to 100% now) we brought our little girl home.


We are so thankful for this baby, completely unexpected, nearly inexplicable. We look at her and are in awe of God.