Fourteen Months

Norah is 14 months today. I need the time to slow down. Here are some of her highlights:

• Pulling crap out of containers and then putting said crap in other containers is her favorite hobby. For example, she discovered that paper plates are kept in the bottom drawer of the sideboard. She dragged a laundry basket from the other room and proceeded to fill it with the paper plates. Then she turned around and moved all the plates from the basket to the drawer. And so on.
• She rocks playing with blocks.
• Her favorite place to poop is in the tub. Seriously. What the hell is this about? She'll be playing with her boat and duck and then all of a sudden a log floats by. It is SO gross. BVZ says it is just because she is totally relaxed in the bath and I shouldn't stress her out about it. Easy for him to say, every time she's done it he has been at work.
• Speaking of the tub, she spends the first 10 minutes splashing in the water coming out of the faucet (and trying to drink it), and then when I turn it off she yells at me for a few seconds and then turns her attention to her boat. She painstakingly chases all her bath animals around the tub and puts them all in her boat. As soon as she's got them all in there, I create a tidal wave and dump them all out. She pretends to be pissed, but she loves it.
• She doesn't love whole milk, but she's not spitting it out anymore. Her tray has a little indented spot in the corner for a cup, and she INSISTS that her milk cup be kept in its place the entire meal. At first I was worried she was being a little OCD about it, but then I realized that she uses it to hide food she doesn't want. Seriously, she puts all her unwanted food in the indented spot and then puts her cup on top of it so I can't see it. She's a wily one. We spent a lot of time working on not throwing food on the floor, so I can't be too mad she found another way.
• She no longer will let me feed her oatmeal in the morning. She still likes oatmeal, she just wants to feed herself. As a result, every morning she gets an oatmeal facial and hair treatment.
• She is sleeping through the night. As in 7 pm to 7 am. This deserves its own post, which I will do as soon as I am certain it isn't just a fluke.
• She finally has a lovey. It is a blanket with a furry side, a soft side, and sateen tags all around the edge. We call it Mr. Night Night. In her crib at night she has Mr. Night Night, a sippy cup of water, her yellow blanket, Beatrice the Bunny, Monkey the Monkey, Norm the Bear, and Prudence the Monkey-Owl.
• She has a fun picture book and she can point to: baby, dog, cat, balloon, ball, cheese, cookies, and milk.
  
• She's napping in the crib. Hell has most likely frozen over.
  
• She doesn't walk like a baby anymore, she walks like a kid. And runs.
  
• She is obsessed with the park. She is into the swing, but it is the slide that really rocks her world.
• She really loves the library. We haven't gone to the story hour yet because it conflicts with nap time, but we go and sit in the children's section and read lots of books. We don't check out any books because I don't want her to eat them (for the library's sake, but also for her sake--I am sure they have been licked by a whole lot of kids). It is interesting to me that the books she picks to read while we are there are totally different than the ones we read at home. At home she mostly has board books and the picture books are reserved for special occasions. At the library all she wants are the big and shiny picture books. It makes me happy to think that she recognizes that there is something special about the library. I remember being a kid and thinking that the library was full of unbelieveable treasures. I mean, at home I had the Babysitter's Club series. At the library I had the Flowers in the Attic series. The library rules.
• She is having a great time with Pam and Ruby.
  
• It is much harder to take her places in the stroller because she wants to get out and walk. We were at the mall today and she walked the entire time, looking around and holding my hand. Everyone who saw her had a smile. Even better, no one thought she was a boy.
  
• She loves walking around the block in the evenings. Of course, it takes about 45 minutes to walk from our house to the end of the block. She loves touching flowers, sprinkler heads, the grass, and the little girl down the street named Isabel. She used to be afraid of our next door neighbor, but he gives her flowers everytime he sees her and lets her pet his dog. So, they're cool.
  

There are too many more awesome things to list, so I will leave you with some pictures I took today. I am so bad about taking pictures of her lately, but she moves so fast that I literally can't divert my attention for even a second.