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It has been several months (OK, five) since my last update on Norrah. In the course of the last 5 months our family has made some major changes and so has Norrah. Norrah is now 3! Her third year of life was an eventful one filled with so many new and amazing accomplishments.

Norrah is a big sister to a sweet, 4-month-old little boy. She takes her role very seriously and enjoys helping with bottles, diaper changes and entertaining. Lawson (or “Nyon-Yin) as Norrah calls him is definitely her new favorite person. He has certainly helped her to become more independent and awakened in her a nurturing, mommy instinct that she displays often with her new found affection for baby dolls.

Norrah talks constantly. She uses full sentences and adds new words to her vocabulary daily. She is finally becoming confident enough in her speech that she uses it with strangers instead of simply reserving it for our little family of 5. While her expressive language is somewhat delayed and needs to be refined in terms of letter sounds and pronunciation, her receptive language is appropriate for her age.  She follows instructions well, including new, unfamiliar tasks and descriptions.  For instance, if I want a book that fell under the kitchen table, I can tell her to “Go get the book under the kitchen table and give it to Mommy.”  AND SHE WILL HUNT IT DOWN AND DELIVER IT.  But not before saying “OK.  Be right back.” (complete with one waving finger as if to signify one minute.)

Norrah is enjoying food a lot these days.  More so than ever before.  Gone are the days of gagging and throwing up and sensitivity to textures.  Now our biggest struggle is getting her to take small mouthfuls at a time,chew, swallow and repeat.  She would much rather stuff her entire dinner plate into her mouth at one time and worry about the chewing and swallowing later.  I worry about her choking but she seems to have a method to her madness (one that involves many sips of water and spitting out the excess).

Her weight is in the 25th percentile on the typical-child growth chart and her height is in the 50th.  Still, we would love for her to break 30 pounds one day soon.  We seem to dance around the 28-29 pound mark but have never made it OVER that threshold.

Norrah is healthy.  She does still have an atrial septal defect (ASD) but it has been shrinking consistently over time so surgery is not on the calendar for any time soon.  She was diagnosed with vesico-ureteral reflux (VUR) at 3 months but has never had a UTI since then.  Her kidneys are currently functioning at 100% and appear undamaged on ultrasound, both suggestive that her VUR may have corrected itself.  Still, she remains on prophylactic medication to prevent UTIs until she is better able to express herself in terms of the indicators of an infection.  Once she can tell us herself if she has a belly ache or her privates hurt or it hurts to urinate then we will say goodbye to the meds and see what happens without them.

We cannot remember the last time she had a seizure (and pray that it stays that way!).  Her epilepsy is well controlled with a very low dose (1ml 2x daily) of generic Keppra.  Thank God.

This little 3-year-old is walking, running and kicking a kickball.  She loves to be outside and spends just as much time on her feet as her big sister.  We are working with her on jumping and pedalling her tricycle (for now her feet are elastic-ed to the pedals).  We are also working with her on depth perception.  Norrah tends to move forward in blind faith at times and deals with the consequences later.  At the playground recently she took a step off of a rope swing ledge without any hesitation and hit the ground over 3 feet later.  Unscathed (thankfully!)  It took quite some time for her to become used to the steps and ledges around our home.  Now we are trying to get her used to the rest of her world in terms of drop offs, stairs and obstacles.

In September she will begin a new adventure (2 mornings per week) at a typical preschool.  She will receive her OT and Special Instruction there.  Speech and Physical Threapy will happen in our home.

We are looking forward to all that AGE THREE has to bring for Miss Norrah.  We are so very proud of her and believe that she can accomplish anything she puts her mind (AND HER STUBBORN PERSONALITY) to.

***  For those of you who check out Norrah’s personal blog (www.knowingnorrah.blogspot.com) – we have made some changes and will now be blogging about our entire family “under one roof” at www.ourlittlepond.blogspot.com.  Knowing Norrah will disappear from the blogosphere on August 10th but please feel free to follow along on the new blog and contact us through that site. ***