Weekly Nora

What a week for our little GIRL. She is changing so much again and learning by the minute. Nora started WALKING on the weekend! Yay! She had been taking a few steps here and there as you know, and just like everyone told me would happen, she just got up and started walking. It was too funny. We visited Nora's Aunties in Calgary this weekend and on Saturday evening I was getting her ready for bed and I couldn't catch her to put jammies on. She just wanted to walk in circles all around the room with a giant smile on her face. I was glad that someone else got to witness it with me because it was just too cute!

Helping with the winter tires!

Shoe shopping in Nordstrom

Play food to go with her new DIY play kitchen we have been working on... I can't wait to show you!

On Sunday both of my sisters and I took her to a pumpkin patch outside of Calgary which also had a petting zoo, playgrounds and a corn maze as well as several other fun fall harvest things like train rides and pig races! What a place! Nora was in heaven with all the animals and she was showing off all her sounds. She now knows the animals sounds for sheep, cow, horse, dog, cat, snake and fish. My favourites are the horse and the cat. She makes a really high pitched "Meeeeeeow" with the meeeee part long and drawn out and then the owww soft. The horse is the same but with Neiggggghhhhh.

I can't even handle that fur vest! I bought it at the mall on Saturday and of course she had to wear it the next day! So many people commented on how cute she looked and an old man even wanted to take her picture he loved it so much! 

Since Nora has started walking, I kept my plan to stop nursing. I don't think she was getting much to drink anyway as it hardly seems like there is any milk in there these days. We switched her to a bottle first thing in the morning and I have given her one at bedtime too the last 2 days and it has been totally fine. She hasn't missed it at all! I cannot believe I nursed her for over 14 months. It is crazy to think that I haven't hardly missed a 7 pm feed in that long. Remember this post when I talked about how hard breastfeeding was at first? I remember thinking to myself during the first few months that if I could just make it to 6 months she would start eating some solid foods and things would get easier. I was telling a friend this and they really bursted my bubble by telling me that they still nursed just as much, but ALSO ate food which was even more work ;) Well, as it turns out, nursing wasn't so bad and I became very attached to the idea of it.

I think the hardest part about nursing is that you have to come to terms with the idea that you are your baby's main food source. I used to have thoughts of myself getting into a car accident, and I'd survive, but I'd have to be in hospital and then I'd miss a feed and then what would happen to Nora. It was all OK, because we were going to be fine, but how would anyone know where to get bottles for her and which formula to feed her and how much she needed. I should be there feeding her! It was a recurring nightmare/daydream I had for several months.

I am glad to be finished with it and I am so grateful that it worked out for us and that I was able to feed Nora with "nature's best" for so long. However, time is up and I am ready to have Dad do some bedtimes every now and then!

We had a little battle with food going on for the last month or so and I think we finally broke some bad habits! Nora was in the routine of throwing, actually not just throwing, LAUNCHING her food across the room when she was finished eating or if she didn't like what she was given. For the most part, she still eats everything, but like everyone, sometimes she wants more of something rather than the next thing I had offered her. We tried in desperation to take the food away, put it out of reach for a minute, raise our voices with a firm NO, make eye contact with her and say it nicely, ignore it... nothing worked! Every meal it never failed that her leftovers would get splattered on the wall, all the way into our living room, on other furniture, etc. Finally, I decided to go the mean Nanny Diaries route and every time she did it, I would just say calmly, "don't throw your food please" and take her to her crib and leave her there for about 1 min. She would cry and have a little tantrum and right away I'd go get her and say "let's try again". It only took about 3 days of doing this and she hasn't thrown food in about a week! I knew she was just doing it to get a rise out of us in the first place!

Enjoying one of the finer things in life.. mini donuts!

We are on the Halloween countdown and I can't wait to show you Nora's adorable costume! Have a great week!