It takes 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days (and a 1/4)

Once upon a time, there was a very little girl who used to be even littler but was getting even bigger. She was so big (even though very little) that she was old enough to have one candle lit with one match and one birthday crown next to one symbolic little house on top of one little table in her own little every day house (which was really an apartment on the top of a very tall and very old building).

Every day this big-little-little-big girl did ordinary extraordinary things, because that is the way it is with little girls who are big (and little).

Most of the things she did looked just like this:

And that is where this story never ends, because it is always beginning.

Happy Birthday, Nora Somerville Jorgensen! You are the dearest little-growing-ever-bigger daughter.

(many thanks to Emmy for the photos...and please find a few more here)

Coughing the cough

The first time or the 51st time, having a cold is no fun.








Okay, maybe a little fun...








...but not really.

Talking the Talk

Nora has a word.

There are several words she understands and a few she uses with vary degrees of baby ability. "Papa." She's had this down for awhile. When she first started saying it, it was but a whisper, usually spoken upon waking. Now she says it with confidence and can point Papa out in photographs. Sometimes she calls me Papa, but most often it's more like "Mapba" with the "pba" more heavily accented. I am also "Mama," but sometimes that just means she wants to nurse. "Mum" definitely means she wants to eat and most usually it means eat an avocado. She will point to your or someone else's nose if prompted with the question "Where's my nose?" She can say "bye" and wave like a champ. (A champ who wants you to leave, I suppose.) She sort of maybe sometimes says "up" when she walks up stairs. "Uh oh" makes a regular appearance.

But now she has a word that can truly be called her first.

Hat.

She first started saying it the day after Thanksgiving. This is no big surprise as she spent much of Thanksgiving playing with a rather becoming fedora belonging to Uncle Nathan. Auntie Erin heard her say it first: "hhaaaaTTTT." She really worked at that "t" sound. Then she said it a few times the past few mornings. Then she got shy about it and would look at hats if we said hat but not say it herself.

Until today.

This afternoon Nora and I were in a classroom doing some observation for one of my teaching jobs. After saying "bye" to all the kids as they left for recess, she started to say "hat" with much purpose. And pointing. Because...there was indeed a hat in the room, a good ol' cowboy hat. Clinched: can say word, knows what word means, identifies object in place other than home. She's been "hat" "hat" "hat" "hat" "hat" all day long.

She tips her hat at the tip of her tongue to you all right now!