We say it all the time: Nora is a character. And we say it because it doesn't always feel like we have a five-year-old in the house.
She has a lot of Jo in her, and I see it emulated back to us. From Jo, she gets her strong head. She has her own opinions, and she's not willing to accept because I said so as a rationale. When we're making decisions, she's more than happy to present her version of the plan for consideration.
She's becoming really independent. This is the same girl who, a year ago, wanted us to join her play and be actively involved in what she was doing. Now her imagination is running so wild that sometimes she just gets lost in her own little world, and we're guests. Occasionally interlopers who disrupt her from an adventure or a fairy tale she's spun up.
She's sharp. She remembers everything. Stories she heard over dinner. Where someone went on vacation a year ago. And she wants to talk about it. She loves joining the adults for conversations, wants to contribute, ask questions, follow up. She's quick to get flustered, but I think part of that comes from different parts of her brain being at different stages.
There's a real emotional intelligence in her. Fair enough, given how many of our friends are over, how many people in her life participate in her upbringing.
And yet there's still a five-year-old in there who can get really pissed off. Fair.
She's transitioning into the role of big sister. We expect different things from her than we do from Maeve, and she's old enough now to find that frustrating. (She may have hit me. I absolutely clobbered her back.)
She loves a craft. Loves a task. Loves creating something, whether it's a seashell necklace or a cardboard cutout crown. She loves having something she made.
She's curious about everything, and she doesn't want the small answer. She wants the big one. Her American Girl doll, Kirsten, came over on a boat from a northern country, and Nora really wanted to understand what cholera was.
She's funny, and she doesn't always know she's funny. She gets upset when people laugh sometimes, because she's worried they're laughing at her and not with her. But she's witty. She's quick.
She's starting to miss school, which is interesting. I don't know if I would have expected that. She likes school. She has friends, loves her teacher. But I think there's a format to school, a template she expects every day, that gives her more structure than our casual beach days and slow dinners.
She's grown a lot in the last year. And I'm only further convinced she's either going to be a great lawyer, or an even better gang leader.