Happy 7th Birthday!

(I actually wrote this on Norah's birthday - but needed to upload some pictures and then forgot to post it. Oops)

Today is Norah's 7th birthday!! Wow! 7 seems so much older than 6. We are hitting that phase of being somewhere between a little kid and a bigger kid. Norah is still very much into pretend play - I think she could pretend all day long. Maybe she will be a writer someday. She is always creating new and different scenarios to pretend.

The biggest changes for Norah since her last birthday are:

All the teeth she has lost. Since turning 6, Norah lost 5 teeth (plus the 2 she lost before that - wow - 7 teeth). Most of the permanent teeth are in or almost in - so she is well past the period of having multiple holes in her mouth. (update - she lost her 8th tooth is Florida this week)

She is a reading machine. I love it!! She had a hard time switching from reading to me to reading independently, but with some suggestions from Heather (for me) and some encouragement (or forcing), Norah has officially transitioned to reading chapter books completely on her own.

Norah is riding her bike without training wheels. We actually wondered if this would ever happen. She had zero interest for awhile and then all of the sudden this spring she wanted to try and is doing great!!

Norah decided about this time last year to grow her hair out to donate it. It was a LONG year for me letting it get so long (and tangly!), but she did it and the day after her birthday she had it cut off. She looks adorable, although she wasn't so sure if she liked it at first. I am loving that she doesn't have any tangles!!

Before (I know the quality isn't great but it was the best picture to show how long her hair was)

After

Norah is a great helper with Daphne and Daphne adores her! Norah often enjoys picking out Daphne's clothes and playing with her when I am busy doing something else. Norah and Lucy play great together as well. We certainly have our fair share of sibling squabbles, but those moments when the girls are playing so well are heavenly.

Norah has a very passionate personality which can certainly be a good thing and a bad thing. Her passion can get her into trouble but she often doesn't understand why. However, her passion also gives her a zest for doing things she loves.

It is so fun looking back at Norah as a baby and toddler and it is so fun to watch her grow up! We have been so blessed and look forward to seeing what God has planned for Norah as she gets older.

Some Daphne Funnies

Daphne: After getting her dressed, she looked down at her outfit, rubbed her belly and said, "Cute."

Daphne likes to pray and often shouts "me!" when someone else is praying. Her prayers usually go something like this, "God: Mommy, bear. Daddy, bear. Rah-rah, bear. Si-si, bear" and then she repeats this a time or 2.

Our girls just adore our babysitter, Gaby. I have to agree - she is wonderful. She takes really good care of the girls and plays all kinds of great things with them. The best part is that she loves Jesus and my girls know it and see it every time she comes over (Gaby's whole family is wonderful! They are a HUGE blessing to us all the time). Anyway, Gaby was on spring break this week so she came over for a few hours on Wednesday. Literally, as soon as we walked in the door from picking her up, Daphne was saying, "bye, mommy. bye, mommy." She was quite anxious for me to leave!! So much better than the crying Norah used to do whenever we left her!

Last night as I was putting Daphne to bed, I told her we were going to pray. She said, "Gaby?" I told her we could pray for Gaby. As I started praying, I was thanking God for our day and praying for Norah, Lucy and Daphne and Daphne was shouting, "No, Gaby, Mom!" over and over until I actually prayed for Gaby. Apparently, I was supposed to pray for her first.

Today, we were getting shoes and jackets on to run to the grocery and the library. Daphne says, "Gaby?" I told her no so she said, "Gaby, now." Then as we were driving to the grocery, she says, "Gaby, hug. Gaby, hug."

Daphne's little friend, Adler, comes over sometimes on Fridays. His parents have been on spring break so we haven't seen him for a couple of weeks. Today, Daphne says, "Ladler, cuuuute. Mommy, Ladler, cute?"

Daphne has started stomping up the stairs. It is quite amusing to watch a tiny 2 year old try to stomp up the stairs. She usually shouts at us "Room!" or "Stomp!" just to make sure we know what she is doing!!

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