Texas Tech Cheerleader

Cora was a Texas Tech Cheerleader for Halloween. This is about the best picture I got - she didn't want her picture taken and this was right before she hit full blown whining.
We didn't mess with trick or treating. We went over to the Stark's Halloween party instead. It was fun, but she was pretty clingy. She wasn't scared of the costumes, but not many were scary. The one that was, she said it was an owl. On Friday we went to the Huber's party and she thought that a man that was dressed as 'swamp thing' was a lion. Whatever keeps her happy (and not frightened)!

Hanging Out

Just playing around the house.
She could be imitating Mommy or Daddy in this one!
Making Mommy supper.

Chilling - watching a movie and eating popcorn!

Potty Time

We are trying so hard to potty train Cora and she is not doing so great. She will sit on the potty about half of the time, but does nothing. She'll hold it in until she gets a diaper on. Very frustrating for us. I have even bribed with M&M's and she won't do it.
I thought she looked cute sitting on her big girl potty reading her book so I snapped some pics and some of the closeup ones turned out pretty good! Just ignore the toilet in the background.

Reverse Draw & A Sick Cora

Dennis and I went to the KC Hall for the Reverse Draw dinner with friends - last year was when we got into the last 5 and Dennis told them to go ahead and spin it again and they pulled his name...so we lost $2000. This year they pulled our name way before I had to worry about it. Out of our group we won $200 though, so that was fun. Here's a couple of us from that night.
Yep, Dennis is actually dancing!

The next morning we were to go to Nana's house to see Aunt Missy and Chase. Well Cora woke up with a fever. It wasn't bad and she was acting fine, so we went ahead and went down there. Well she got worse and I couldn't get her fever down. We finally ended up giving her a cool bath to cool her off. She finally recovered from it, but it was up and down day to day. I finally took her to the doctor and he said she was showing flu like symptoms and she probably had the flu. She was just suffering mostly from the fever. He said she was handling it very well so he wasn't worried. That is the worst she has ever had fever - poor baby.

Silly Face

One evening after her bath I was messing with Cora and taught her some silly faces. We had fun with it!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Daddy went hunting for the weekend, so Cora and I had a girls weekend. She was wonderful. She was in a great mood all weekend and it was gorgeous outside. We went to gymnastics Saturday morning and she was awesome. She did everything correctly and was doing things ahead of the teacher. We then stopped by the Leggios for a quick visit with the girls. We headed home for lunch and a nap and then ran down to the pumpkin patch in LJ. Then back to Pearland for a friend of mine's birthday party. All that and Cora did great. I was telling her all weekend that Sunday was Daddy's birthday. She practiced singing Happy Birthday all day Saturday and Sunday. Sunday morning she wanted to go get him some cupcakes for his birthday, so we did. She was so excited about it. Daddy came home and she got all shy, wouldn't sing or anything! Very disappointing, but luckily Saturday night we called and left Daddy a message on his phone and she sang to him. He really enjoyed that. I am going to try to get her singing on video, but we'll see.

Cora, not singing to Daddy.
She did enjoy the icing on her cupcake though!

She ate most of the icing, but I was able to scrape some of it off. After licking it to death...and to the disgust of both Dennis and I, she was full and didn't want to eat the cake part. But saw the icing on my plate from mine and wanted to eat it. I declined and promptly put it in the trash!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

I took Cora to the LJ Pumpkin Patch over the weekend. It was a quick trip and she did pretty well. I have taken her to this patch every year so far, so I figured I have to keep it up!

I thought this was going to be a cute pose, but she wouldn't smile. I think she was done at this point.

This and That

Cora had her tea party set up and had a place for her baby. It was cute. I think one was for the cat too, but she wouldn't sit still.
Another 'I do it' moment...she ended up needing help.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up Cora and her classroom was in complete chaos. I had been called earlier in the day about her being bitten by her 'friend' right before nap time. I was specifically told that it wasn't the little boy, Conner that normally bites her. Well this is that bite, on her arm.

By the time I picked her up Conner had successfully bitten her (see her leg below)! The classroom was a madhouse and I gave the director and earful the next morning. Conner was moved up to the next class to help with the biting, but it apparently didn't help and he was disenrolled by the end of the week. From what I understand from other Moms and the teachers he moved down the street to Primrose, which is our backup if we ever have a problem - not anymore! I also found out that another little girl left our daycare and went to Primrose because of the bites...well she all of a sudden came back! Hmmm. I couldn't imagine moving to get away from a child only to have him follow us! Ugh.

She has pretty much recovered from those bites, but was bitten again this week by the same little girl that bit her last week. I have another biter to deal with!! I am wondering if it will ever end for Cora. I think I need to put her in self defense classes!

Here's some updates and cute things she has done lately:

*She is getting much better at asking for things instead of 'I want' all the time. The other morning she said she wanted something and I asked her what a better way of asking for it was...and she responded with 'Mommy, may I have my milk please'. I was so thrilled it finally sank in to her! I have been making her repeat me over and over again for so long!

*Cora also walked up to me the other night and said 'Mommy will you open this please?' I about fell out of my chair - it was beautiful!

*'eh-go' is there you go.

*She doesn't like to sit at the stop lights and says 'I want to go'. I tell her we can't go until the light turns green so when it does she yells 'green - go'.

*I am usually trying to get her out the door for one thing or another and I have always said 'let's go Joe'. Well she has started saying it - at the red lights!

*She is becoming obsessed with TV and Dora. I am trying to limit her watching when I can.

*Cora is wanting to do EVERYTHING herself. I am in 'I do it' hell at this point. She wants to dress herself, put on her shoes and socks, etc. The only think I get to do is her hair and I am sure she'll try that soon enough!

*She still wants to be carried a lot. I have learned to bargain with her and it is working. If she walks to the kitchen and to the car, I'll carry her into school (which I prefer since there are cars everywhere).

*Cora has to hold my hand when she walks anywhere, even inside the house or to the car. And in the mornings she wants Mommy's hand, not Daddy's hand.

*She is still a Mommy's girl and wants me to do everything, but will throw me for a loop and want Daddy for something every now and then.

*We battled a few temper tantrums the other day. Daddy was home and involved in a couple of them. It was a tough battle and she was spanked for things she was doing during the tantrum (hitting Mommy). Dennis kind of took over on getting her under control as I gave direction (she was crying for me so he had to finish it to the end so she didn't get what she wanted). We all survived and she made her apologies. The funny part was after all of it and the spanking from Daddy, she wanted him to give her a bath! It was cute, but shocking...and again, it worked for Mommy! We are all having our struggle with this age, but then she does something that is so smart it is amazing.

*Cora and I were eating dinner the other night. I usually try to ask her things and make conversation and she does really well. Or we'll look at pictures on the computer of our friends. Well she all of a sudden said 'your eyes are green'. It took me a minute to figure out what she said, then she said 'my eyes are blue'. Makes me realize that I take her for granted and don't really realize how incredibly smart she is.

*When watching Dora she is starting to talk to the TV (when prompted by Dora) or she will tell me where the item is that they are looking for - 'there it is Mommy...see Mommy'.

*She is liking me to sing to her before we put her to bed now. We sing Rock a bye baby, Twinkle, Twinkle, Sunshine, ABC's and now the WonderPets theme song. She sings word for word right along with me and it is awesome. I need to learn some new songs for her though!

*Cora has to have her back rubbed when going to bed. She will cry for a long time if you don't do it.

*Cora is always asking for 'one more kiss'. She does it at bedtime to both of us and to Daddy in the mornings after he puts her in the car.

*Cora no longer wants me to kiss her boo-boo's. She wants ice for them only.

*Cora is getting more and more into pink things. If you give her a choice of things, she wants the pink one now. She picks her washcloth every night and she always gets the pink one.

*She is learning about folding things - washcloths, paper, towels, etc.

*She used to dip her food in Ranch dressing, but has recently started asking for ketchup as her dip instead. This is really gross to me because I don't like ketchup!

Little Helper

We headed up to Canton for the weekend with the OJT group. All the girls shopped and the guys stayed back with the kids that didn't want to shop. Dennis took Cora out for a little while, but it was so crowded he didn't stay very long with her. We had a rough ride home in the rain and traffic, but it was a fun weekend with the gang.

On Monday after all the rain, Dennis was going to get the trailer washed and put away. Well Cora decided she wanted to help him. Worked for Mommy!

She just realized she got soap on her leg...this really bothered her. Never mind the fact that she is soaking wet head to toe on the front side!

She liked to squirt the water more than scrubbing as you can see. She was completely drenched by the time they were done, but she had fun and helped Daddy.