She's All Over The Place!

She is pulling up on EVERYTHING! It is great! She was chasing after the cat that was in the recliner...the cat bailed before I grabbed the camera.

She was so hyper and having a blast. All of these pictures were taken in about 15 minutes, if that long.

She had a hard week at school this week. Her favorite teacher's last day was last Friday and she has had a hard time with her being gone. And Shelia worked in the old room and it still was hard on Cora. She keeps going to the door looking for her. They have been letting her go back to the old class in the afternoons. I joked that she is having transition problems 3 months late. I think she is getting better, but we all miss Shelia!

I don't think I posted it already, but her second bottom front tooth came in last week. I think it came through Thursday night - the night I had Bunko. Her teeth keep coming while I am away from her. And Daddy gets to deal with her fussing. Now her problem is she keeps biting herself. She isn't quite used to them yet and she sticks her fingers in her mouth and bites down, then screams. She has a few spots of broken skin too. So far so good I haven't been bitten yet. We are going to start introducing cow's milk soon...probably in the next week or two. I am so proud that I made it this long nursing! I did stock the freezer pretty well and that is why I have been able to make it so long without having to supplement with formula. So that means we are going to be giving up the bottle soon too. Yikes. I am going to try again on getting the pacifier to only bedtime, but it hard. She is very addicted!

Well she is crawling around my feet and just pulled the power on my laptop, so I guess I better get back to her. I think I am close to being caught up...

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Dennis and I are celebrating our 6th anniversary on Sunday. I can't believe it has been 6 years already...time flies doesn't it?

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was wonderful. It didn't start out the best since Cora had a really nasty poopy diaper that was coming out of every opening...and Dennis had conveniently already put his crisp white shirt on for Church. All I kept thinking was 'Happy Mother's Day to me'.

Well my day took a very nice turn and I got my gift from Cora and Daddy. They both did very well! I got my diamond earrings...that I have been telling Dennis I wanted since before Cora was even conceived I think.

We had lunch at our house with our parents, Dennis's brother and his family and my brother. It was very nice to have everyone over.

We were trying to take some pictures of us and I tried setting Cora in the grass...she hates it! We have tried a few times and she just cries and cries. If she could pick up both feet at the same time she would. When you get her close to the ground her feet and legs come up and she starts screaming. I hope she gets over that soon!

Okay, I have a lot more pictures of her to post...but I am tired and it is taking longer than normal to upload pics, so hopefully I get them added this weekend! Have a great weekend.

Baby Dedication

Our church does Baby Dedications twice a year and Mother's Day is one of the days. We invited the grandparents up to see Cora get dedicated. It is a mass dedication, so she had to share the limelight with all the other babies. She did really well and didn't need her pacifier at all. Pastor Tim even made a mention of her awesome hair color! I wasn't paying attention, but I am sure it looked even more striking under all those stage lights.


Here's a picture of her before we left and then a couple from church.

Daddy and Cora made the big screen!

Random

I have been taking a ton of pictures...just don't have the time to post them anymore! Sorry, I am trying to get caught up. These are just a couple that are just random pictures. I gave her some avocado for dinner and she loved it - I am sure the daycare was loving her diapers that next day too!

And she is fascinated with emptying baskets. We have a few around the house with toys and books in them. The picture is of her pulling all her books out of one. She also loves emptying the cat/dog toy basket of course!

Easter Dress

Here are the pictures of her in her Easter dress...a month and a half late. She almost doesn't fit in it! She wasn' really in the mood to take pictures and all she wanted to do was eat all the props. And she kept crawling off of the set.

Catch Up

When she started crawling and wanted to sit back up, she would do the splits. It looks very painful, but works for her!
Smiley girl as always. I was trying to get a picture of her making a funny face after feeding her an orange and she just kept smiling at me.
She is feeding herself very well.

Here are some pics from this weekend. She has been fussy some all weekend, but I am sure it has to do with her teeth. She got a lot of bonding time with Daddy this weekend so Mommy could get some things done in the office. I got some spring cleaning done with all the filing and paperwork that was way overdue! I watched Dr Phil last week about an obsessive hoarder and it made me want to clean and throw away. Dennis is thrilled, but of course would like me to throw away a lot more!

Cora is eating a lot of table food. She is wanting to feed herself more so it works out. I still send baby food to school for convenience and since she will let them feed her. She is doing really well with the sippy cup too. If she likes whole milk I may have no problem getting her to give up a bottle! I am just worried about the nursing and pacifier. We went about 5 steps backwards over the weekend and now with the tooth pain on the whole trying to wean the pacifier. She pretty much has it in her mouth all the time.

Well during her dinner tonight she fell right to sleep. She was eating fine and then I was cutting up some more veggies for her and Dennis laughed and said to look at her and she was out! I didn't even realize she was that tired. Poor thing. She slept for about 15 minutes, then woke up and started eating again. I joked that she was going to be up all night because of her little cat nap...unfortunately I may have been right. I finally gave up on her because she wasn't going to sleep any time soon and started posting on the blog. A few minutes ago I heard Dennis tell her she was going to go to sleep or she was going to have to play it out in her bed. Well she isn't in bed yet, but it is awfully quiet in the other room, so I am guessing she has finally fallen asleep...he may have too!

FINALLY!

Okay, so this happened sometime last week while I was sick and trying to stay away from Cora. I think it happened Tuesday night. She was really fussy and I didn't want her to wake Daniel their last night here, so I had Dennis bring her to our bed. She slept in between us for a few hours after sliding off of Dennis's chest. She was tossing back and forth and I didn't get much sleep because she kept kicking me and grabbing my arm and pinching it to make sure I was still there! She has got the pincher grasp down just fine, trust me on that one.

So, I think the tooth broke through overnight on Tuesday. I discovered it Wednesday evening when I picked her up from school and she was fussing at me. Poor baby. She has been a little fussy this weekend too. Not sure if the one next to it is going to pop through any day now.

Cousins

Here are the pictures I have of the cousins together. Cora and Daniel played very well together...until bath time. The second bath together he got too comfortable and started splashing her. We made one outing with all three kids and that was entertaining. Kristan installed her two car seats in my Tahoe and we were off. Cora loved the company in the backseat. After the second stop Kristan and I were done. The whining had set in and we were getting headaches. Ok, in their defense, this was the day after Laura and Daniel had spent two days in the car, so that was the last thing they wanted to do!

And Daniel loved the bubbles too. We found a good bubble machine that put off a lot of bubbles!

10 Months Old

Wow! Can you believe it already? We had a rough weekend with my sister and her family. It was fun to see them and the kids playing, but we were plagued with accidents and illnesses. Not long after arriving at Nana & Grandpa's house, little Daniel stepped on a roofing nail. It was about an inch long and went all the way up into his foot. His mom was always prone to finding the sharp items on the ground when she was younger too. He recovered pretty well, just limped along. Laura had a really bad yeast infection. She was ok if she was busy doing something, but when it was time for bed she was losing it and keeping them awake. Then I ended up coming down with strep throat on Monday night. I went to the dr on Tues and got some antibiotics. But I had to steer clear of all kids on Tuesday. That was hard...especially since one of them was mine! Mom can handle Cora really well, so I wasn't worried.

But with all the issues, I didn't get many pictures taken and none of all three kids together! Kristan took some, but I haven't seen them yet. I do have some other pictures that I will post later.

Wildflowers

We took a Sunday drive to look for Bluebonnets. We didn't have a whole lot of luck. We found a really big Indian Paintbrush field and tried that. Then we figured out that Cora is her mamma's daughter and isn't real thrilled with grass. It touched her foot and she just about lost it. She recovered enough for a couple of pictures.

We drove around and found a tiny tiny bluebonnet patch in Brenham. We worked with it. Again, she wasn't thrilled with the grass, but again, she recovered enough to get a couple pics.

A few updates:

She has started to pucker her bottom lip out when she is starting to get upset...I have also noticed she does it before she sneezes. Either way it is very funny. I have been trying to get a picture of it for a couple of days now and just realized that she did it in the pictures we took on Sunday. You can't see it that great so I will try to get it close up later.

Okay, now for the exciting news - she says 'bye bye'. It is so adorable! I know, I am a sappy mom...can't help it! She mastered the wave a couple of weeks ago and started saying bye bye on Sunday. It just makes me melt every morning.

My sister and her family are coming to town on Friday and I can't wait to see them and for her to see Cora. I don't know if she is going to let go of her!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!

Oops!

Okay, didn't I say I got my Happy Baby Back? Holy cow - she is all over the place! I love it though. She is doing wonderful. She is crawling everywhere...pulling up on what she can...waving bye bye...and the list goes on! We went camping last weekend at Bastrop and I suck - I didn't take one picture! I don't know what happened. Everyone else took pictures, so maybe someone will send me some and I can post them. Cora did pretty well. She took great naps, but didn't sleep as well at night. New place, not her bed... It got pretty cold, but we stayed warm and I am glad I threw in some long sleeve clothes and a jacket for her at the last minute. She had fun and it was great getting back into the camping groove again.

These are some pictures I snapped tonight while playing. This dress really brought out the blue in her eyes. You can really see it in the pictures.

Well we are letting her cry it out some at night. She is doing really well...and so are we. I have been able to stay in bed for most of the night and it is great. Daddy is still getting up with her some, but she is staying in the bed and that is a huge improvement for us! I am also trying to cut back on the use of the pacifier. I started it on a whim on Monday evening, so I haven't been with her for an entire day yet, so I am sure I will cave tomorrow - especially since we will be at a big family function all day. Her doctor told us at her 6 month check up that we needed to be rid of it by a year, so I figure I better start now. We are going to try to just have it at nap time and nighttime. She has done great every evening this week with only a couple meltdowns and we survived without giving in! The morning teacher at school gives it to her a lot, so they will have lots of adjusting...but the afternoon teacher couldn't find it, so maybe there won't be a problem after all! :-)

Sorry it has taken me so long to update...we are just trying to do our best to keep up with Cora. It is wearing us all out! My sister and her family (Laura & Daniel) are coming to town the end of next week. I am so excited to see the kids and for her to see Cora. Cora may learn some things from Daniel while he is here (he is about 7 months older).

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

My Happy Baby Is Back!

Cora is feeling so much better!!! She is eating better, sleeping better and just all around feeling better. You can tell a difference in her eyes. Ok, so we got her feeling better and now my allergies are about to do me in.

Here are some pictures of her from this last week. She claps all the time now.

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.