Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Labels

I was working on labeling Cora's birthday party invitations and she was helping. Well she was hindering more than helping so I gave her some blank labels to play with. She kept asking for more and more. Every one of them I made her say 'please' and then 'thank you', and I followed up with 'you're welcome'. Very cute.
I was trying to get a picture of her with all her 'stickers' before she started to take them off and she was twirling in a circle. I took this one right as she stepped back because she was dizzy. She was laughing so hard and falling all over the place. It was hysterical.

Updates on her doings & sayings:
*She is starting to say 'Daddy' as opposed to Dada, but it is more 'da-eee'
*Over the weekend I would yell 'Dennis' to get his attention and when he wouldn't respond she would yell it over and over again until he finally would respond to her. But it was more like 'Nennis'.
*She is saying 'ank you' for thank you. And she says it often...but not to new people. She is doing it so well that it is really surprising...just all of a sudden last week started saying it.
*We are working on 'please' which sounds more like 'peas'. I usually have to ask her to say it, but we are getting there.
*She asks me to sing 'bus' (The Wheels on the Bus) when I am getting her ready for bed. She will grab my hands and make me do the motions along with her if I am not doing them.
*She will try to sing her ABC's and does pretty well, but usually stops and wants me to sing 'Bus' instead.
*When riding in the car she points out things - balloons, dogs, cows, etc. Mostly balloons & Dogs, though.
*She will ask you 'what doin'
*She tells me 'daddy mowin' and waves every time he passes by the window.
*She is very interested in the animals. Wants to pet Katie and I caught her trying to feed Tucker. She will get down on his level and look him in the eye and talk to him. She gets frustrated when he doesn't do what she has asked though. We often get a look from him to get her away from him, but she loves him.
*Cora is doing better with her colors and usually will tell me what color something is...probably because I am always asking her what color everything is.
*She'll tell you that Tucker is 'ow-side'.
*She has repeated me twice when I have said 'dadgummit' (I picked it up from my sister & brother in law). It could be worse, I guess.
*She is very animated when talking and gets more animated when you ask her to repeat what she is trying to say.
*She is obsessed with buckles and will buckle herself in her booster seat, the shopping cart, etc.
*When the phone rings she announces 'a phone'.
*She says 'Ahh Man' all the time. I finally figured out that it came from Dora...which she really likes now. She usually says it at the right time too.
*She is good at throwing things in the trash...and I use that trick to get things away from her too.
*Cora likes to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and will read it by herself.
*Tonight she asked for 'pirar' which we both swear sounded like pirate...after a few times of her saying it and looking right at the book 'The Hungry Caterpillar' I finally figured it out. That was a 'duh mom' moment.
*She calls butterflies 'fye'.
*Cora can recognize a lot of words - apple, cup, car, flower, dog, egg, etc. They are flash cards that have the picture on one side w/the word and the other side just has the word. Dennis was showing her the word only side and she knew most of them.
*Cora can recognize her name written.
*We have a routine at night that I read her a book or two and then we 'rock'. Then Dennis will take her to bed. If you ask her if she is ready to go night-night, she says 'no, rock'. It is really cute.
It is pretty funny to listen to us trying to figure out what she is saying too.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Weekend 2009

We went to New Braunfels area for Memorial Weekend with our regular camping group. It was a great weekend and Cora had a blast. Friday when we all got there we got set up and headed to Gruene for dinner at the Gristmill. There was 28 of us in all! It was fun and the food was very yummy.
Saturday morning we started as usual with a big breakfast!
Sweet girl.

Cora went right to Bella. I was impressed.
Cora took Tucker on a walk every morning. It kept her busy and got him out of the trailer for a little bit.

When it was time for Tucker to go back inside Cora was mad and wanted to keep walking him, so she walked Daddy for a little while instead.


The girls ready to go float the River on Saturday.

Daddy and Cora.

We decided to take Cora to the pool since she was too little to try the river floating.
The water was really cold, so only her feet went in the water.

After the pool we hung out at campsite and ate lunch. She managed to steal my hat.
The poker game. While the rest of the group went to float the river, the guys (and Jill L) that stayed back started a poker game. It lasted for quite a while...and when the river rats made it back some of them joined in the game.

It lasted so long that Dennis and Big Mike L ended up cashing in when it got down to the two of them.
Megan and Cora. Cora was actually going to people really easy this weekend. It gave me a nice break every now and then.


Alyssa and her new hat she made. She kept coming out with it bigger and bigger...this was the final product.
Jason took Cora to the moonwalk and she loved it.



She wouldn't come out. She went in the moonwalk multiple times with the kids. Just when I would feel comfortable to walk away and let them play, the girls would all start screaming something about Cora. When I would run over there they would tell me that she went 'poo'. Something about the moonwalk made her go 'poo' because she did this two days in a row. The second time the girls wouldn't jump with her anymore because she was 'gross'. Yet they all ran to our trailer to see the dirty diaper since it was so gross. Dennis declined to show them when he was throwing it away...

Some random shots of our campsite...


We were set up nice - big tent, BBQ pit and moonwalk! Plus we had two sets of washer boards so the guys and girls could play.

She had fun scooping the rocks into her bucket and dumping them out again...over and over again.
Playing with her balloon.
Playing with Emilee and a new balloon.
Miss Jill H got left behind on the river trip to the Comal...

They came back and got her though...after we called and asked to speak to her! Oops.

We went to Gruene while everyone went to the river. We took a drive up River Road to see how it looked and Cora passed out within minutes of leaving our park.


We got dressed to join the big girls at the pool on Sunday, but it was still too cold. She wouldn't take her cover up off on Saturday, so I had to get her picture in her bathing suit.
Jealous...she was trying to push Daddy away from him.


I think this is the whole group and some extras that came for the day with Yogi Bear.
Some of the ladies and girls were teaching Cora marching and cheer leading moves. She was trying to copy them - it was really cute.
She was actually crying in this picture, but I don't remember why...probably because I was making her go take a bath! She was so dirty all weekend...it was killing me!
She had a nightmare or something Sunday night and ended up in bed with us. She usually snuggles with Daddy and ends up kicking me...
Going home. She was covering her eyes like she was tired and had a headache or something.

We had a great trip and are pooped! Cora had fun and broke away from Mommy some...which was good for both of us! She was sweaty and dirty most of the weekend and is fitting in just fine with the rest of the girls in our camping group. They all take care of her since she is the youngest girl in the group. We can't wait until we all go again next month!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Misc This Week

As a child we used to always play with the empty wrapping paper tubes and say 'to-do-to' in it. I have Cora doing this now. I always give her the tube and she does it. She was doing it to Daddy and having a ball.


We put a bird feeder out the kitchen window. I told Cora that when she sits in her chair she will be able to see the birds. She gets very excited when the birds come out. Well the feeder was emptying very quickly after it was filled and a lot was in the pot below it. We thought it was a squirrel, but we hadn't seen it on the feeder yet. Sunday morning I caught him in the act. Little stinker.
We had our first 'I do it' moment on Saturday. She was insistent on putting her shoe on. She couldn't get it by herself so she got a little frustrated. I waited patiently for her to ask for help and she finally did after a few minutes.
She didn't actually say 'I do it', but she was saying 'mine' and jerking the shoe away from me.

She is starting to ask for certain foods. Last night she asked for yogurt.
She is also getting a lot clingier to her lovies and blanket. Plus she has become attached to a stuffed bunny she got for Easter from a friend of ours. She has meltdowns in the mornings to take her lovies/blankie to school. Sometimes we can get her to leave them at home and sometimes not. She has so many, too!
'Purple' is a small taggie blanket with her name on it. This is the favorite and I have no duplicates of course. I need to order a duplicate just so I can wash it - it gets stinky!
'Bear' is one of two pink lovies with a bear head in the middle of a small silky blanket. I have duplicates of one of these and of course the favored of the two is an only one. She also has a couple cream colored ones that I bought to switch in and out in case we lost one, but she doesn't request them as much as the pink ones).
'Pink' or 'Blankie' is her pink blanket (she hasn't figured out that there are two of them and I switch them out to keep them clean.)
'Bunny' is a stuffed brown and white bunny that she got for Easter and loves it.
It is funny when she is need of all of them...she can barely hold them all! If you can get them away from her in the mornings she doesn't think about them again until bedtime, so it isn't too bad yet...
If she sees them, then she wants it. She is an 'out of sight, out of mind' kid...which is very good for us!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Ragin Cajun

The Bottomless Pit had a get together at Ragin Cajun on Sunday. We drug Cora with us and she did great. Everyone couldn't believe how much she has grown.

An actual picture of me and Cora! Ok...yeah, she looks a little bit like me!


Some of the guys...

Cora didn't get much of a nap and was fading towards the end. She actually went to Margie and sat in her lap for a while. She knows a grandma when she sees one!

Mia's Birthday Party

We went to Mia's 6th birthday party on Saturday. I can't believe she is already 6!! I remember visiting them in the hospital on our way out of town to celebrate our 1st anniversary.

I think Cora may be ready for a bicycle...she climbed up on this by herself! We weren't looking at her and all of sudden we looked and she was sitting on it ready to go. Yikes!

She liked this little table.
Pretty girl in her party dress.
Eating pizza with Gaven. She always ends up sitting next to him at parties...hmm...

See we do let her eat sugar!
I just had to post this cute picture of Miss Madeline and her Mommy. She's a doll.

Baby Bunnies

Welcome to our mini farm...we are now the adoptive family of a few wild baby bunnies. The things are so darn cute...but I don't want them! Ugh.

She wasn't sure at the beginning, but she likes them now.
They didn't drink the milk...I think they were still in shock at this point...
I think we are going to start calling Dennis 'old McWolford'...