All Aboard ...

Like a runaway train, Nora's new skills are taking off, leaving us wide-eyed and staring at the horizon, wondering how the heck we got to here from there.

Beware: this is where we go into the FASCINATING detail of Nora's human accomplishments ... which will sound like tedious, obsessive detail to most normal people. We can't help it. It's like a sickness, really.

Three days ago, she started picking things up from once place, and putting them somewhere else, on purpose. A little thing? Well, maybe. But heretofore, she'd picked things up, examined them until she was done, and cast them aside. Sometimes with a little bit of attitude. Like, "Psh, seen it. Done it. Next!" and the object was unceremoniously dropped or flung. The first time we noticed her placing something, somewhere, with intention? She handed her puzzle pieces to mama, one by one, holding them out with a "Unh!" (read: "Hurry mama! Helloooo!") until mama took them. Then she picked up daddy's shaving mirror, and slid it into a basket on the bathroom shelf. Later, she pulled her blocks out of their sideways box, and placed them, one by one, on its lid. If you think about it, what all of this means is that she's realized a whole new level of control over her environment. She can change it! On purpose! And creatively!

Two days ago, she made the baby sign for "diaper" (hands tapping the lower belly) over and over until Nonna figured it out, and changed her diaper. (Sure enough - she was soaked.)

Yesterday, it became abundantly clear that she understands not just individual words, but nouns and verbs put together. "Nora, where's your monkey?" [Nora crawls to her room, and points at her sock monkey.] "There he is! Go kiss your monkey!" [Nora crawls to her monkey and plants a smiling, open-mouthed smooch on Monkey Man.] What this anecdote also tells us? She remembers things that are out of sight, and knows their names. Whole new lobes of her brain are turning on, my friends ...

Words Nora Knows When She Hears Them (and if she says them, her pronunciation is noted in parentheses):

Dada (this is also the only word she speaks of her own volition - not as mimicry - with obvious meaning)
Mama (Mammmmm-ah)
Nonna
Binkie (Ghee)
Ball
Diaper (Di-dee)
Bye-bye (responds by waving)
Book
Cheerios
Baby (this is interpreted by her as any of her stuffed friends)
Hippo
Monkey
Get (as in "Get your ______")
Where (as in "Where's your ___?" - she points to whatever you're looking for)