Prepare to be Amazed

Here are some of the things Nora has done lately to amaze her mother (and yes, I'm biased):

-She plays hide and seek. She walks around to the other side of one of our dining room chairs and ducks out of sight. And then when you find her, she giggles and runs away.

-She can sing the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

-She tries to wash her belly and feet while taking a bath.

-She is a tough cookie. She's had a bruise and a cut on her forehead for a week, and we have NO IDEA what happened, and we're 99 percent sure it happened in the living room one evening while we were all home.

-This is an older one, but she goes onto the little toddler couch in the playroom, often with a cup of milk, and sits there and looks at books. Sometimes, if Owen is watching TV in there, she gathers all the remotes and then sits there to watch the show.

-She likes to bring us our shoes. And if Owen is upset, she'll grab his blankets and give them to him.

-We kiss the animals on her mobile before bed. We also take the wooden sheep off the shelf and kiss it. Very important is that she puts the sheep back, by herself.

-I swear she was trying to say "1, 2, 3" tonight in the bath, which is what I usually say before splashing her with a cup of water.

-She has started pointing out noses, as in "where's Mommy's nose? where's Nora's nose?" Sometimes, she does it a bit forcefully, and when I tell her to be gentle, she leans her head in to cuddle my head.

Yep, she's pretty amazing. Best reserve a spot for her Vegas show now. OK, that made me giggle. I can see it now: she'd taste-test the microphone, dump her cup of water on the floor and then determinedly walk off stage. Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp.