I had no idea this was going to be what we ended up doing when I turned on the crummy video camera on the laptop. My sincere apologies to everyone whose name we forgot to say. Leave a comment and she’ll greet you next time. :)
Oh! and sorry about the terrible sound.
Nora and I ended our penultimate day of leisure (she returns to school on Wednesday, Jen returned to work today) at the Downtown Branch of the Ann Arbor District Library. Our friend Josie works there but, alas, was not in when we called.
Nora learned the word ‘eel’ while watching one wriggle in the large, marine aquarium in the Children’s area. She stood on a red, metal stool and got herself a drink of water from the drinking fountain (then yelled, “I did it!”). She and a little boy played with some very cool multicolored window building blocks on a felt-covered table. She waved at a room full of quiet patrons in the music area and yelled ‘hello, people! hello!’. Finally, we went to play with the dazzling array of puzzles and picture books until Jen walked down from her office and picked us up. On the way out of the library Nora looked back in through the window to the music area and yelled, “bye bye, people! Nora purple house!”. Which was probably her way of saying “I’m going to my house”, but it might also be a crazy new nickname she’s trying out for herself.
Nora’s new craft corner/table is great. Now she has a place to play with playdoh that (a) we don’t care what happens to it and (b) she can comfortably sit and (c) we don’t have to clear away at meal times. I think I may have to pinch some of these cutters from her for use on cookie dough.
I am sad to report that Mr. Schnee is no longer with us. I found out about it from Nora so I’ll just quote her directly:
(running inside and tracking snowy boots across the living room)
Snowman fall down!
Snowman ouchie head!
My Nora's* snowman fall down!
It’s both true and our little peanut has quite the flair for understatement. Mr. Schnee’s head basically exploded upon impact with the ground. He has passed on. He is no more. He has ceased to be.
I explained to her that it was okay and that we’d make a new snowman the next time it snows. Unfortunately, Nora doesn’t quite have the concept of “next time it snows” so she pesters us 30 or 40 times/day with, “new snowman! new snowman?”
Actually, time has been pretty interesting with Nora lately. As recently as 2 weeks ago if you asked her what she ate for breakfast she’d list things she’d like to eat right then. Starting today or yesterday, though, she’s able to run through a comprehensive list of everything she had for breakfast. She’s also able to remember that yesterday we saw Papa & Baba or Uncle Jim.
On December 24th she did a pretty cool thing. She saw, just before bedtime on the 23rd, that I was making cookies. Naturally, she asked for a cookie and Jen said, “no cookies now, but you can have a cookie in the morning.” And the first words out of her mouth when she got up the next morning were, “cookie! Nora cookie!”
I have another post coming tomorrow without any pictures but this one should feature audio and be of interest to my linguist friends (particularly phonologists!).
* yes, she often marks the possessive with “my Nora’s”. She will also simply say “my” or simply say “Nora’s”. The redundancy honestly seems to be emphatic. She definitely has no problems with the deixis of I/me/you/we/his/hers/mine/yours/etc.
I fell asleep on the sofa and Nora decided I needed the bed, mattress, blanket, and tiny pillow from her dollhouse. “Daddy, bed! Daddy nap.”
