Updates

Here are a few new things Cora has been doing lately:

~First instore tantrum! We've had little ones with trying to get her to sit in the shopping cart, etc, but our first major one was at Deseret Book last week. It was the first time in a long time I've taken her in a store where she wasn't in a stroller or a shopping cart. She loved it! She loved all the books and wanted to pick them up and take them around. But when we had to leave, she threw herself on the ground and started shrieking. Not that fun, but it did make me laugh (inside!). I guess it's a milestone!

~Kissing it better. Cora has picked up on the idea of having her owies kissed better and loves it. Sometimes I can't figure out where her owie is, but she'll always show me and it works for her!

~Stringing words together. She has a bunch of phrases down, like "Where did it go?" "There it is" "Daddy come home" and some shorter two-word ones, like "Let's go" and "go outside". It's fun to see her put it all together and see how much she understands and can verbalize.

~Elmo. One of the great loves of her life. If we are in a store and see an Elmo item, immediately the whole store hears "ELMO!!!". We were shopping at the Gateway, and everytime she saw one of their Elmo posters (for the Children's Museum exhibit), the whole street knew about it.

~Cora has successfully jumped a few times now-- achieving lift-off of both feet at the same time. We talk about bunnies --"What does a bunny do?" and she responds "Hop!" and then she tries to hop too.

~Babies. One of the other great loves of her life. We went to the Church History Museum last week, they had a children's exhibit called "I Am A Child of God" with lots of hands-on activities. So well done! And free! But we needed to walk through the exhibit backwards-- the babies were in the very first part, and I don't think Cora really saw too much else of the cool activities they had there. They were pretty big babies, the hard plastic kind, and she had to carry the baby, blanket, and bottle everywhere with her. This was quite a feat for such a little girl. That baby sure got fed and cuddled a lot. And there were some tears when we had to leave.

~More baby stuff. My cousin Monique let us borrow the family cradle again for this baby. Cora loves it! She put all her babies in it, rocked them, and told us "shhh" because they were sleeping. Hopefully she likes this new baby too! We have been reading a few big sister and baby-prep books that she really likes too.

~Learning new songs. We've started to add more songs to our repertoire, The Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, and a few others. She loves doing the actions, and sings along sometimes. She's got about half of the ABC song down too, but we might be the only ones who understand it so far.

~We've been doing family scripture time every night for the last few months, just 5 verses a night. I'm sure Cora doesn't get a whole lot out of it yet, but it's a good habit to start. We know she is listening some though, when we read a set of verses that mentioned the Jews several times, she started demanding her juice.

~We've successfully weaned her tv time down again, not an easy task after using it as a comfort tool when she and I were both sick for those few weeks. But she still likes to watch Curious George off our DVR most days. I always know when the show is done because when the screen goes black I hear a loud "Oh No!" and she runs to come get me.

~Popcorn is a new favorite snack. She loves watching it come out of the air popper and fill the bowl. This morning she woke up saying "popcorn, popcorn".... I didn't think she would notice, but she must have smelled the (burnt) popcorn smell from my snack last night!

~Kevin was teaching Cora how to hop on the ball in the backyard. She picked up on it pretty well and was having fun with it. Cora LOVES to play outside, no matter how cold it is, or if it's getting dark, she'll point out the window and say "outside? Elmo bubbles? bubbles?". We've been lucky to have a bunch of nice days in a row, but it's going to cool down here again this weekend.

Growing

I've been trying to get all my unfinished craft and sewing projects done before the baby comes. I didn't realize how many of them I had that I had started and not finished! Yesterday we got quite a few of the little tasks done, and even got some closets cleaned out too-- another thing on my 'to do' list for the next 5 weeks. Kevin and I hung this growth chart in Cora's room. It's vinyl lettering on a mirror, so Cora can see how tall she is (she looks even taller in this pictures with her crazy left-over ponytail hair!). I also wrote on the mirror with a Sharpie to mark her height at birth and one year, and will continue to track her growth this way.

Pictures

Here are some scanned images of pictures we had done recently. I never got in for Cora's 1 year pictures (aggh!) but wanted to get a few of her before the baby came. I thought I was picking a good time of day and was prepared, but Cora must not have thought so. It was our most difficult picture-taking session yet. No smiles! We had a few that turned out okay, but hopefully we can get some better ones when she turns two, and some family ones after the baby is born.

Concentrating

Today was Cora's first chance to finger paint. I spent a while getting it all set up-- smock, paper, paints, everything. Cora spent about 3 minutes on one sheet of paper before she decided enough was enough and she wanted her fingers clean! We'll have to try them again another time.

I think she did like it, she was so intense, she couldn't be bothered to look up at me or smile.

First finger painting masterpiece.

More Fun at the Aquatic Center

Saturday we went to the acquatic center. I'm not up for swimsuits anymore, so I was the picture-taker! Cora and Kevin had a lot of fun, and the life jacket was a hit too. Cora cried when we tried to take it off her before we left. I'm not sure if she loved the life jacket sooo much or if she really didn't want to leave! But the jacket made it a little easier for Kevin to relax and have fun too.

Cora is getting braver about water splashing in her face!

In the kiddie pool.

She has hated floating on her back before this, but she didn't seem to mind! Must be the head support on the lifejacket.

Jumping in the deep pool.

I guess that's why dads are more fun....

I was doing some stuff on the computer tonight and heard giggles in the kitchen! When I went to investigate, this is what I found:

Elmo bubbles INSIDE the house! Cora loved it, she had fun blowing the bubbles around and popping them. And, Kevin mopped the floor (that part of it at least :)) afterwards, so it was a fun time. I think next time Cora and I will try it in the basement though!

Cora was waking up at night when she was sick because she wasn't feeling well. But, now we're going on the second week of her waking up in the middle of the night even though she's all better. It's killing us! We don't do anything to encourage her, just go in once if she's crying loudly for a long period of time to make sure she didn't toss her binkie or something. But, many nights she'll be up for several hours crying only in little spurts and talking to herself in a playful way the rest of the time. We are longing for her 12 hour a night straight sleeping habits she had before! Tonight we tried keeping her up a little bit later to see if that helps, but she really was so tired at her normal bedtime, it was a struggle (hence Kevin pulled out the Elmo bubbles). I guess we'll just have to see how it goes and experiment some more. It might have something to do with her finally catching on to the one nap a day habit, maybe it threw her sleeping schedule for a loop. Any ideas? She usually goes to bed at 7:00 and wakes up at 7:00. Lately she's been up 2-4 am. And she sleeps from 11:30-1 or sometimes longer for her nap.

Post note: Cora slept 7:30-6:30 last night. Hurray! Maybe patience is the best tactic. Or maybe we just got lucky :).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cora and I had a fun day today! She got to wear her "Daddy's Litte Valentine" shirt, and we made a Valentine's Day card for Kevin. She loved putting the little sticky foam hearts on, and we even broke out the markers for the project. Here she is with her little presents: fingerpaints and a lap quilt I just finished. We might even be brave and make a decorate sugar cookies this afternoon! A day of a whole bunch of 'firsts' for Cora. Kevin and I had our Valentine's date last weekend-- dinner and a movie. It's been a long time! So it was great to do something just the two of us, especially before the baby comes. And tomorrow, we'll all go to IHOP for breakfast (thanks Kissie and Pata!) to celebrate all together-- the snow was just too bad this morning to make it out!

Live in Elmo's World

The Children's Museum here just started their visiting exhibit: Sesame Street, The Body. It's mostly geared for kids a little older than Cora, but I knew she would LOVE seeing all the Elmo and Cookie monster stuff (her two favorite characters, well, and Baby Bear and Abby too). So we put on her Elmo shirt and went. I couldn't get too many pictures, she just wouldn't hold still long enough! She was so excited, she ran around from station to station for pretty much the whole time. It stays in Salt Lake until May, so we may just have to visit again.

Looking at all the kids, exhibits, and fun going on.

At the Sesame Street grocery store. Cora was very intent on taking each item out of the basket and pushing the cash register buttons!

Measuring up to Big Bird.

In Elmo's world.

Watermelon!

Costco had yummy yummy watermelon as a sample the other day. I couldn't resist and we had some with our Sunday dinner. Cora loved it! We just had to watch to make sure she didn't start chewing on the rind. I don't think she understood why we were so particular about it.

The new addition to our bathroom: Cora's potty. She actually gets a kick out of sitting on it, we just couldn't coax a smile yesterday. We'll be waiting till late spring / early summer to start training, but I wanted her to start getting used to the idea...

... because it may take a little while to grasp the concept!

She also loves that it turns into a stool.... one that allows her to reach our bathroom counters. We've had to be more careful what we leave out so my lip gloss and wedding rings don't go missing! She also loves to stand there while I put on my makeup, she pretends to put some on too, and is upset if I don't share. (That's just the watermelon juice on her shirt, the pictures were taken right after dinner, and Cora has been reluctant

to wear a bib lately).