Traveling and Norah news

Those of you who are in touch with me besides on my blog know that we are in Vermont for the month of May, spending time with our families before we depart for South Africa on the 31st. It is great being with them, and great being in Vermont at such a beautiful time of year. It is so green, and the gorgeous mountains are good for my soul. Not to mention how wonderful it is to just spend time with our parents and siblings, as well as our little nephew. Norah is soaking in her time with her family as well. It is painful to watch how they love her and know that soon more goodbyes are coming. Please pray for us in this time! We have to fix our eyes on our goal, but we know that this goal comes with sacrifices for our loved ones, as well as for us.

A big concern I had with all the transitions coming was for Norah's routine. She is almost 8 months now, and she has been doing very well with her daily schedule at home in Ohio. I am happy to report she has been doing even better in some areas since coming here! This is a learning experience for me. We stayed some with my family and some with Andy's family, so the first couple nights each time she was in a new room were a little tough, sometimes we bring her in bed with us so she feels a little more secure and so we can all get more sleep. (At home she was pretty consistently sleeping through the night in her own room). We sensed especially at the beginning of the month that she was feeling a bit insecure as she was aware of all the new faces and places, and she just needed to know Mom and Dad are still here. Then we let her cry a bit the next night, and after a couple nights she was back to sleeping through in her own crib. We've gone back and forth some and she still has some nights where she wakes, but for the most part she is staying on her routine. We are also not putting too much pressure on as we know much more change is coming with the plane ride, 6 hour time difference, and totally new environment in South Africa. But what we are learning is that how well Norah does depends more on how we act than on her surroundings. If we keep things familiar for her and as consistent as possible, if we remain calm, if we keep her routine as much as possible but also are flexible, she does better. I also found this month that one of the reasons she wasn't napping too well before is that I wasn't keeping her up long enough! She can take a short nap (45 minutes!) after say, 2 hours of being awake in the morning, but if I keep her up 3 hours she'll take almost a two hour nap. Much better in my book!

Norah is making a lot of great strides this month as far as milestones. I definitely think she has learned a lot from having all her loving relatives around. She is sitting very steadily on her own now, she is clapping, she makes a gaga sound (in addition to her other sounds like baba), and can stay in a crawl position now.

She is also eating a bit better. Not baby food (we never had much luck with that), but she has tried a lot more of our foods, and will even take rice or yogurt on a baby spoon. She loves bread pieces the most, especially bagels or English muffins with butter.

Well I am off to enjoy the rest of this month with our family and in Vermont, hope to update you all again soon on our family's adventures!