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.

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. :-)