Baby Lion

More of the perks of working at the Downtown Aquarium. Not sure if it makes up for all the crap I put up with on a daily basis, but it sure does help! This is Indy, a 5 week old lion cub that was visiting for a week. The lovely tiger ladies have a great relationship with the breeder that we got the white tigers from and from time to time she will ask them to babysit a tiger cub...well this time they got a lion. They are so much softer than the tigers and quieter. You can cuddle with them more and they are more mobile too. It was neat. I also got to feed her the other day, but those pictures are on my cell phone.

9 Months Old

Cora wearing her bunny ears. She wasn't feeling very well on Sunday and she was watching her video, so I was just interrupting her and she wasn't amused.

Sorry I haven't posted anything in so long. Last week was busy for us. I am trying to get out a little more without Cora since she is having some serious separation anxiety with me. And it is giving Daddy lots of Cora time. So far so good!

Well, Cora turned 9 months old on Saturday! I can't believe it. She is really doing a lot these days. She is crawling a lot now. I can tell her to follow me now. It is great. She is pulling up on me more now too. She claps all the time, even when she is crying. Pretty funny. We are trying more and more table foods. She is good at experimenting - she'll try anything. She loves cheese, bread and yogurt. I tried cottage cheese a few times and she wasn't real sure. She loves all fruits too.

We are struggling with her runny nose, cough and congestion. Zyrtec was working for awhile, but doesn't seem to be helping now. She is up a lot at night and is very noisy. We went to the doctor today and I decided I wanted a referral for an ENT to help get us some answers. He wanted to rule out a bacteria infection for sure before we do that, so he gave us some antibiotics to take for 10 days. I am praying this will do the trick. Her poor little nose is raw, she isn't sleeping well unless it is upright on one of us...so we aren't sleeping all that great either. We will get through this, but please pray for a dry nose for Cora. She puts on a good show for everyone else, but pretty much melts with Mommy. I took this picture this morning - she has been sleeping with her knees up underneath her and her arms tucked underneath as well. Very cute.

Here she is after eating some cornbread - she loved it. Again, she is her mother's daughter!

She is staying on track for weight and height...

21 pounds, 7.5 ounces - 80%

27 3/4 inches long - 50%

18 inch head - 85%

She actually lost a few ounces in the last two weeks. Between the crawling and being sick I think it may be slowing the weight gain down a little bit. I can tell her arms are thinning out some, but she still has her chunky legs!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Easter 2008

We went to Nana and Grandpa's (Alexis's parents) house for Easter Sunday. It was a nice relaxing day with the family. Uncle Eric was down with the girls and Chase was there. Uncle John came for the day and finally got to meet Cora. He was grossed out by her drooling and runny nose, but otherwise was good with her. Honey and Poppy (Dennis's parents) came over for a little while too. They brought some Easter goodies with them for Cora.

Cora and Taylor


Chase, Cora and Uncle John. Below, Uncle John finally warmed up to her and was messing with her.

Look Ma, No Handles

One more...forgot she is holding her sippy cup pretty well now. I have switched to the tupperware kind at home so she actually gets some water out. They leak like crazy, so she doesn't normally get to hang on to them like the other ones. She likes water though.

Happy Belated St Patrick's Day

Well I finally did my photo shoot with her Easter dress...but I am not thrilled with the pictures so we are going to try again next weekend. I got a new backdrop and am less than impressed with it. And Cora is still not feeling well. I had to take her to the dr on Thursday and they said she has croup again. They prescribed some medicine for her, but not much really helps. She just coughs and coughs at night. She has a pretty nasty runny nose too. So with all that, plus I was doing it by myself...I wasn't happy with them. But she looks darn cute in her dress - that she can't wear tomorrow because it is going to be TOO COLD! It has been nice and warm all weekend....but then again I did miss the weather so who knows what they are saying now.

Anyway! Here are the pictures in her St Patrick's Day t-shirt - it says "I'm Charming" on it. Cute, huh?

Here is one picture of her in her Easter dress that I will share...she's clapping more now! She does it spontaneously, not on command. She is her mother's daughter...I had just given up on the pictures and set the camera down. I think she was happy I was done changing her clothes and posing her. It was fun though.

I'm Stuck

I learned how fast Cora can crawl now...I left her in the middle of the living room floor and walked to the computer and got to one website and heard one of my wooden chairs rattling. I thought it was the cat at first, then looked up and Cora was gone. I walked around the corner and saw this. The look she gave me was priceless. It was as if she was telling me that she was stuck.

She has crawled all the way over there and turned herself around to this position. She was just struggling to get past that bar on the chair.

She managed just fine. She was quite content there too. I finally picked up the chair off of her so she wouldn't bang her head into it anymore. Oh, and she is still spitting, hence the wet drool mark around her neck and on her sleeve. Nice, huh?



Here's a picture of her eating my nursing stool...lovely.


She is all over the place now! We are in so much trouble!!

Easter Bunny

She looks like she is about to cry, but she really isn't. She was laughing, they just didn't snap the picture at the right time.

Well she is doing so much I can't keep up! She clapped last night. And she can sit up on her own. She did it yesterday at school, then again last night...I have never been so excited at 2am! That also means I definitely have to start putting the railing up on the crib when she is in it.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Ok, she had a cute little shirt that said "I'm Charming" on it. She wouldn't cooperate on Sunday to take a picture after I got the backdrop set up. And this morning I was still downloading pictures off of my memory card. Then she got it dirty at school today. So I guess while I am taking her Easter pictures, I slip it on her and snap a couple of pictures and pretend they were taken today.

She gave us a run for our money last night. She wouldn't sleep in her bed for nothing! (She doesn't sleep in ours.) She just wanted to be held and rocked I guess. I finally got her to sleep around 11:30 or so and she was up by 3:30. Nice. I think she finally went back to sleep around 4:45am. Just in time for me to hop in the shower to get ready for work. I was a zombie today...but managed ok. So my plan this evening was to wear her little butt out. So far so good. We played hard. She crawled a lot. And she was pulling up to standing position, then sitting back down over and over again. She gave herself a little workout. Then I put her in her jumperoo and she went nuts. She was jumping like crazy (above picture). She ate a good dinner and then we played some more. I am crossing my fingers.

I didn't mention much from the weekend in my previous post because I thought I was going to be posting a cute St Patty's picture. We had a quieter weekend. We ran a few errands on Sunday and went and took pictures with the Easter Bunny (I'll post later this week). She did good, just mainly curious as to what he was. She has not smiled as easily for pictures lately, so I don't know what is going on. I guess she is making me work harder to capture those dimples. We also tried some new foods this weekend. I thought the spitting meant she was through with the strained foods, but she is doing better now. Either way, we tried some roasted chicken, baked sweet potato, strawberry and yogurt. She did great with all of it but the strawberry, but to her defense it was the tart one of the whole handful I ate. Poor thing, we'll try those again when they are in better season.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Teeth???

She seems to be teething...but she has been this way for about three months. Everything is going in her mouth to chew on. And as much as she has been drooling, this is getting out of hand. She has been sucking her bottom lip in her mouth lately. And if she doesn't have her pacifier, her fingers are being chewed on. Hence why she has a rash on her chin and cheeks. We got a cream that is helping clear it up. Thank goodness since I am trying to do pictures!

Here's a picture of her stretching for a toy...thus is why she doesn't really need to crawl much. The girl is very limber even with her big ole belly. :-)

Swinging

Well she has been swinging outside at school a few times and they say she loves it. So, I got her a swing for our porch. She really enjoys it. Dennis hung it yesterday morning and she likes it. She went swinging a little that morning and again in the afternoon. It is a little too windy today to go out, but I am sure she will be out there next weekend!

Getting There...

She's either going through another spitting phase or she is getting sick of baby food. So the other night we tried some cheese! She like it, but it was the finely shredded so she had a little bit of a hard time picking it up. So last night I tore up sliced cheese to give her bigger pieces to grab. She did better then. Both nights had cheese everywhere...and Tucker has learned to stay under the highchair! I may be experimenting with other foods this weekend, we'll see.

Just sitting and hanging out on the floor. She has learned that when she makes the 'ahh' noise continuously and moves a toy back and forth over her mouth it makes the sound change. I was trying to teach her to use her hand like an Indian the other day, but she apparently has learned a toy does the same effect. She's so smart!



Ok, now for the exciting news - she's crawling! Ok, so it is still a struggle, but she is getting it. I know, I know it is easier when they can't move, but I love each new milestone she reaches. Nana thought she saw her crawling at daycare on Wednesday, so I called them and they didn't see it, but they got her to try again. She was pulling her knees up but not getting very far. I worked with her last night and she has the arm strength to pull herself and kind of scoot, now she is just getting the coordination of pulling her knees up underneath herself. It is so cute to watch her concentrate. Here's some pictures of her in action this evening...

She's getting it! Oh, she also said Da Da tonight. Of course it was after Dennis walked outside, but she said it! She has said it a couple of times between the ba ba's but that's it so far. I am working on it though. She has slowed down on saying 'ma ma' some.

She is starting to sleep better, even though the pollen is about to bring us all down! I asked the daycare to stop rocking her to sleep during the day and that has seemed to help. She knows how to fall asleep on her own, but they were rocking her and spoiling her (that's Mommy's job). She is still a little off from the time change, but we are working through that too. It is amazing how one hour can mess up a baby!

Since the weather was so nice today, they took the kids outside to swing at daycare. She loved it. I actually got her a swing for the porch yesterday. It is going to be warm this weekend, so I figured we could swing some. I was planning on taking her Easter pictures this weekend, but I can't get her slobber rash to clear up. So we'll see how she looks on Sunday. I may still do the Easter Bunny pictures though. That's about all I have for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We are about to start the third and final week of Rodeo, then we will get back to life as normal...or however normal our life is these days!

Happy Monday

Well Sunday Dennis and I got a glimpse into our future. We both had to work at the Rodeo on Hannah Montana Day! All the little girls....and I really wanted a girl! Poor Cora is going to be so deprived. Ha! Nana and Grandpa came up and watched Cora until I got home from my shift. She was still pooped from the day before that they ended up dog sitting more since she took a two hour nap.

Well I think she is wanting to try new foods. She is so done with cereal. She is good too - I try to sneak it in random bites and she knows. After getting it spit on me a couple of times, I usually quit trying to sneak it on her. We tried adding a meat and so far so good. It wasn't the straight meat yet, that might make me vomit so we are going to hold of on that for a little longer. Above is her taking a bite of the pureed chicken noodle. Now she would just rather eat the star puffs (below). She is getting better about eating them. Last night she was picking them up and putting her whole hand in her mouth. Tonight she was shoveling them into her mouth. I even gave her a little bit of a piece of bread that I was eating. She really liked that!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! I will be taking her Easter pictures soon, so check back to see them soon.

Rodeo Days

Saturday morning all three of us went to the Rodeo. We took Cora to see all the animals since she loves the dog and cats so much. She was just in amazement and took everything in! We ran into a lot of our Rodeo friends that usually only get to see pictures of her so that was neat. We walked through AgVenture and they really have some neat things over there. We started out taking her picture on a Longhorn. She was great, but really more interested in the saddle and really wanted to eat it!


We stopped in and visited Elsie and Beauregard. She pet him and of course pulled on his ear. He wasn't too thrilled with that.
After that we headed to the tractors and took some pictures over there.





She was interested in the animals, but couldn't really touch them very easily. Here she is checking out the chickens and roosters.
All of us with Maggie Moo. I thought she might get scared, but she barely would take her eyes off of her!

I loved these pictures! Okay, so she won't remember her 'First Rodeo' but these pictures will tell her she was there! She did so well, but she was pooped after about 3 hours of all the fun. She fell asleep in my arms walking to the car. I had to pass her back to Daddy halfway since she is so heavy!
Future career? :-)

Make Momma Proud

Well my little sweet angel came home spitting. I am talking major slobber everywhere! Don't get me wrong, it was quite entertaining, but the slobber was gross. She was having a blast though. She sat and spit for about 10 minutes. She was serious about it too - she would take big deep breaths in between spits and was really working her tummy muscles. Darling.

Well we got the new car seats in and Dennis installed them last night. Lately she has managed to stay awake to and from the daycare....but not today. She was out like a light both trips! I think she likes her new plush ride.

Dennis also lowered her mattress in her crib so she doesn't topple out of it when she does learn to pull up on the railing. One night over the weekend I was letting her cry it out a little bit and she looked like she was reaching for the railing. Made me nervous, so she is lower now. It makes it a little harder on me bending over the railing, but I'll get used to it. It is easier getting her in and out though - I am not having to hoist her over the railing - very nice!

Next is child proofing of the rest of the house!

Well I better head to bed. I am pooped already and she has a pretty bad stuffy nose, so I am sure she will be waking soon. Take care and have a good rest of the week!

Manicure Needed

Isn't the scratch on her face lovely? I picked her up from school and it was there. I didn't think her nails were that long...oops!
Well Rodeo has begun. I worked my first shift and survived without being able to see her online. I knew Nana was watching her though. This year is a little weird for me since I am not out there every day like I have for the past few years. We are going to take Cora up there on Saturday morning to see all the animals. Hopefully I will get some good pictures then. That will probably be my only trip up there other than working my shifts. Once she gets a little older I may leave her with a baby sitter...but just not yet. But I got to thinking about it and realized I will probably save a lot of money since I don't have time to walk vendor booths and buy things! :-)