Park City

We had a terrific fun weekend in Park City! Our neighbors came along with us, and we had a great time playing games, shopping, and biking on the Rail Trail. We were lucky to have beautiful blue skies all weekend, and Kevin even won a game or two! Here's a picture of the kiddies in their bike trailer at the trailhead. The Rail Trail goes on forever, we only biked a small section of it, so we'll have to go back for more. We stopped for a break on the downhill stretch for pictures. We went downhill all the way out, and consequently, uphill all the way back. We need to get out on our bikes more to make those uphill stretches easier! And, Kevin will have a built-in increase in his workout as Cora gets bigger....
Cora had a good time. She loved watching out the window while were were riding. She was zoning out quite a bit on the way back, and I think she would have fallen asleep, except she kept tilting to the side. We need to bring a blanket and create side supports for her next time.
We went to the park Sunday afternoon. Cora really did enjoy the slide more than it looks....
Cora's first time on the swings!




I think Cora was a little jealous that her friend could run around the playground... she'll just have to wait a few more months till she can walk around and gather woodchips too!
Even though Cora got to play with a friend, go for a bike ride, and get new clothes, I think her favorite part of the trip might have been playing in this cubbyhole in the bathroom. In and out and in and out! We put a pillow at the bottom to try and cushion her fall when she came out unpurposefully.

Happy Easter!

We were invited over to my cousin Monique's house for Easter dinner. We had a big yummy dinner, and then Monique had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard for the kids. So much fun!

Kevin and Cora hunting for eggs.

Cora with an egg and her cute, even matching, Easter bunny. She was too excited watching all the other kids to sit still for a picture!

Easter morning, before church. I loved this fancy dress for Cora-- she looked adorable! (And even though it was a Costco special, only one other little girl at church was wearing the same one!)

After church pictures in the backyard. Kind of bright outside!

Mama and Cora

Our neighbors saw us trying to do a timer picture and came out to help us. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very successful picture--shadows, closed eyes, and funny faces. Oh well!

Mmm.... Tastes like chocolate....

We did a lot of yard work on Saturday, trying to get our grow areas into shape. When we were putting down the last section of weed barrier, I set Cora down to stick in a stake really quick. She was even quicker! She had a handful of dirt in her mouth before we could blink! She must have thought it tasted good, because she tried for a second handful, and didn't seem to mind her new mud goatee, and cried when we denied her this new pleasure. We took pictures, then wiped her face and let her wash it down with some apple juice.

Biker Baby

Cora tried out the bike trailer for the first time this weekend! We took a trial ride last night, and then rode to the ward Easter party this morning. She seems to like it a lot. We're looking forward to riding on all the fun trails in Park City next weekend!

Here's Cora with her booty from the Easter Egg hunt! She did seem to be more fascinated by the long green grass than actually finding an egg though...

And, on April 4th, it was a breakthrough! No pictures available yet, but one of Cora's front teeth broke through this morning. Hurray! The other one should be out soon!

Breakthrough!

No pictures available yet, but one of Cora's front teeth broke through this morning. Hurray! The other one should be out soon!

Hello Kitty

Cora got a cute Hello Kitty dish set from Kissie and Pata last weekend. She loves playing with the plate, bowl, and glass, and especially loves eating Cheerios off of the plate! It was a bit hit. Cora also loved having more people around to love her and play with her. Her gum bumps keep getting bigger and bigger, but no top teeth yet!

On March 16th, Cora started clapping while ago (March 16th)! We're so proud of our big girl! 

Clapping

Cora started clapping while ago (March 16th), but we've had a hard time getting it on video. Here she is displaying her ball rolling skills and clapping too.

Outdoors

We made smoothies last Sunday and went outside to drink them. Cora didn't have any smoothie, but she did like the grass! Kevin says that we won't have to mow the lawn this summer if we take her outside enough to play. (Just so you aren't worried, the pieces of grass were so small Cora rarely could get them to her mouth, and when she could, we intervened!)

Stats

Cora had her nine month appointment with the pediatrician yesterday. She is 16 pounds 4 ounces, still in the 10th percentile. She is 27 inches long, so still about average for height. The doctor said Cora most likely wouldn't hit 20 pounds by her first birthday, so she'll be riding backwards in her carseat for a while yet! ... make that 'she'll be riding in her carseat rear-facing' -- not strapped in backwards!...

Stats

Cora had her nine month appointment with the pediatrician today. She is 16 pounds 4 ounces, still in the 10th percentile. She is 27 inches long, so still about average for height. The doctor said Cora most likely wouldn't hit 20 pounds by her first birthday, so she'll be riding backwards in her carseat for a while yet! ... make that 'she'll be riding in her carseat rear-facing' -- not strapped in backwards!...

One Noisy Flower

Cora and I play shadows almost every morning!

Cora's newest accessory-- her flower headband. She doesn't seem to mind it, and it was too cute for me to pass up in Target's dollar aisle. She's only pulled it off to eat it once! Cora has also been talking quite a bit lately-- she's got mamamama, dadadadada, yayayayaya, and nanananana down pat! She's also quite the little screamer, she especially loves to scream at herself in the mirror and to kiddies we pass by on our walks.

Cora was wearing wearing the headband when we took our family walk last night, and was yakking up a storm. One of the guys working on a new house we walked by remarked that she was sure a noisy little flower! She got lots of compliments from the neighbors too.

New Things

Cora has made all kinds of new discoveries in our house. She loves looking outside through our pack door to the patio (if you look closely you can see her drool mark on the window too!)

The computer cords are a favorite area too.... she likes to unplug! But now they are all blocked by pillows, so we're safe for a while till she figures out how to moves those. She also loves the scale-- must be how shiny it is, and she thinks it's grand when we set her on it-- it isn't a very reliable scale, but she's been weighing 16.5 pounds pretty consistently! We'll see how accurate it really is when we go to the pediatrician at the end of the month. Cora is still fascinated by doorstops, we've had to remove most of them in the high traffic areas, but she still likes to try for the one behind our closet door, but gets mad when she can't quite reach it because of the storage unit that makes the area narrow.

Cora is loving our walks more and more. It's so nice outside, there are lots of kids out playing, and she also studies each car going by very intensely.

Here is Cora with Auntie and Grandma feeding the ducks. Cora liked looking at all the duckies down in the lake fighting over the bread... and trying to sneak some bread from Grandma when she wasn't looking!

How much is that baby in the window?

Cora loves to look at herself! When she's in our room, she always makes a beeline for the mirror. She loves looking at herself in the mirror, on her blog, when we're on the webcam, and now, on the dishwasher and oven too. She thinks her reflection is pretty cute! Or maybe like the Baby Blues comic said yesterday, she's just going over to play with that other baby and wondering why there's always a window between the two of them!
I used to keep my makeup behind the mirror, so she always looks for fun things to play with back there, but since Cora has become more mobile, I had to find a new storage place!

A New Low

Last night Cora pulled herself up to standing in her crib several times... so this morning it was time to take the crib mattress down to the bottom notch! She is growing up so much!

Battle Wounds

Cora is crawling faster and faster every day! And she's starting to explore more, in addition to following me around the house. She loves sliding on her tummy on the tile too, and especially loves the coffee table-- which is bad because although it is pretty, it's a head bonk waiting to happen. She has some bruises on the crown of her head due to learning to balance and trying to pull up on things (she's not strong enough to make it up yet, she usually falls and bonks her head), and some roughed up knees too. She just keeps going though, and it doesn't seem to phase her much!

Cora's new-found "toy"

I think she likes the 'boing' sounds she can make with the doorstops! She seems pretty fascinated by them. Cora hasn't been nearly as interested in her baby toys since she started crawling and discovered all the other cool toys in the house-- like the phone charger cord, my make-up basket, and the garbage cans. I'm learning every day the ways our house is not baby-proofed yet!

Another way to play with the exersaucer....

Cora, Grandpa, and the Big Blue Ball

She gets around

Cora crawled for the first time yesterday! She must have wanted to impress her visiting grandparents-- she got those arms to move and got truckin'. She requires a lot of motivation for all that effort-- paper, a water bottle, a tower of blocks, but with the proper end goal, she'll show off her skills. Check it out in this video (the banging in the background is Kevin and Pata working on the basement). We better get that baby gate up! I don't think a pillow in front of the stairway is going to cut it anymore.



And, Cora also started making a new sound during Kissie and Pata's visit too! dadadadadadada. It's pretty cute. Now we have to get her working on mamamamama too!

Sweet Potato Make-up

Cora has been experimenting with blowing raspberries while I'm feeding her. She seems to think her raspberries are bigger, better, and much more fun if they are accompanied by green bean puree! Here she got an especially big blow into her sweet potatoes... that combined with a diaper blow-out got her an unusual mid-day bath, which she loves. Hopefully that won't encourage her messy behaviour!

Family Pictures

One highlight over the Christmas vacation was doing family pictures in Boise. It's so nice to have new ones with all the additions going on in the extended family!

Our little family.

Our big family!

Pata and Kissie. And they are coming to visit on Wednesday! We're so excited to see them, and shop, sew, work on the basement, eat, and play games together!

Won't you be mine?

Cora's stylin' in her V-day pj's from Queenie and Pata.

Cora checking out the teddy bear. She especially liked his ribbon bow around the neck, she spent quite a bit of time inspecting it.

Momma's sweetheart.
She's got skills! She's still figuring out how to use them though. Maybe she'll be crawling in the next few weeks. She can't seem to figure out how to get her hands to move, even if she does laugh at me while I try to crawl around by her and show her!

Also, we found out that Cora might be a UNLV fan! We took her to a BYU basketball game, and it was just too loud for her... she cried everytime BYU scored and the Marriot Center erupted in cheers! So Kevin and I took turns with her in the hall. It was a fun game though, but I think we'll wait 'til next season to try again and see if she's true blue or not.