That is a heck of a first shiner, kid

Have I mentioned that Cora is an "active" sleeper?

She's always woken up screaming a lot in her sleep, especially when we travel. Not a typical wake-up either, and not the type of screaming that is satisfied by walking in to pick her up. Most of the time, rather than being relieved when we came to get her, she instead screamed even more. At times, I even worried that she would get hurt during one of those screaming sessions - I worried that she would kick or wiggle so hard that I would drop her, especially as my belly has grown this year. On several occassions, I had to just sit her in the floor and try to stay as close to her as she would let me, until she calmed down. Landon and I, without diagnosing the actual problem, started to recognize that these events lasted a lot longer when we went to comfort her. By going in, we realized that we were disrupting her in some way, causing her fit to last much longer (sometimes for an hour). If left alone, we recognized that she would calm down and be back to sleep in minutes, allowing us to go in and check on her once all quietened.

When we have house guests, or when we are house guests, I have anxiety about the screaming. It's really hard to not go to her when there is a housefull of people, or when she's sleeping in the same room as us. AND it's especially hard to convince other people to not go to her when we don't (I can't blame them). Which caused me to start to look into the cause of the screaming...

One day in January, when we went to pick Cora up from daycare, Miss Gabby mentioned that Cora was doing the same thing during naptime. She described two different types of Cora-naptime-behaviors: 1) Cora sits up, screams like she's falling off of a cliff, kicks and thrashes for a couple of minutes, and then settles down and returns to sleep, or 2) Cora sits up, climbs off of her mat, walks around the room really dazed for a few minutes, and then settles on her mat and goes to sleep. Gabby's mom described it as "Cora's badness catching up with her" in her sleep! On her own, Gabby had also concluded that the best thing to do was just leave Cora be during the episode.

Hearing Gabby describe it, it all makes perfect sense. Sometimes at home, we also hear a loud thump in her room, like she's bumped herself hard in her crib, but then all is quiet. It makes sense now... she is sleep walking. And, when she wakes up screaming, she is having a night terror. Disturbing her only makes it worse...

All of this leads up to the point that Cora got her first shiner this week. It's hard to see the little bruise on her cheek in this picture (in the eyes of her parents, this little boo boo was a HUGE injury), and it's even harder to see that the bruise turns into a (admittedly very tiny) scrape that skips into her hairline. She stood up for her naptime trek around her classroom, her feet became tangled in her blankets, and she didn't try to catch herself as she slammed into a table.

This is a pretty minor injury, yet Landon and I both said if we had of been with her when the bruise first started appearing, we likely would have taken her in for an examination. And, I admit, we went in to check on her several times throughout the night. I'm not sure how I'll manage when Cora or the Messal Watermelon experience real injuries!

Mia came to town Thursday night! My visit to the doctor indicated that my body is progressing towards labor, and afterwards, we all (Mom, Dad, Landon, and I) admitted that we were experiencing anxiety about what we would do with Cora when the fireworks begin. We have so many friends who have offered - and I'm positive that they are all good for it - but I found myself every afternoon at 4PM trying to determine if the contractions were Braxton Hicks or something more, how far apart they were coming, and whether or not I needed to go ahead and put someone on standby for getting Cora from daycare (followed by making lists in my mind "Is there a spare carseat in our foyer?" "Who has a key to our house to get it?" "Who can I call that knows how to install it?" "Where is Eric today? Can he get from North Charleston in time?" "what if all 90 of our friends are sick/busy/on James island?" "Where is Landon at this moment? Should I call him and alarm him?" "Should I leave now to get Cora? What if I get stuck on Sullivan's Island when the bridge is drawn?"). As I've been having fairly active contractions, this routine was happening every single day. Landon said he was doing a similar routine: Would he be able to get Cora settled with friends and get back to me in time? Labor with Cora was so quick... When the doc indicated that I should probably take every minor sign of labor seriously given Cora's quick delivery (even nausea, minor back pain, regular Braxton Hicks contractions), Mom was on the next flight out of Huntington, WV. Here we are, 3 days later, all of the laundry in the house is complete, Mom swiffers the floors every day, I haven't unloaded the dishwasher since she arrived, Landon feels like he is on vacation from housework, we've watched a movie or two, and Cora is taking full advantage of having Mia in town! What's the hurry? Why try to rush labor? This is the life! (Just joking, Mom!).

Here, Mia and Cora took the cart to get the mail. Cora is really into this hat. I was watching from my desk in the office as they made their way across the cul-de-sac. A big wind came, blowing Cora's hat off. Her reaction was so funny. She looked like a grumpy old lady as she accepted it back from Mia, put it back on her head, then stood there stubbornly in the street holding onto the rim with both hands.

It is hard to see, but these shoes are two whole sizes too big. They are leopard mary janes. I picked them up on clearance for next fall. I was showing them to Mom when Cora saw them and insisted that she wear them. It took us several hours to wrangle them off of her feet, despite tripping several times.

In this hat (vintage Reese), with these shoes, I could totally see her serving as a rural route post lady!

Cora usually toddles between my bathroom and closet as I get dressed in the morning. She always chooses shoes for me. On THursday, her selections included these black strappy shoes, followed by these red heals. I'm not even sure why I have these red ones! I think that I've worn them twice - once when Joy and I hosted a redneck party, and a second time when Joy, Taylor, and I were at a conference over Halloween so we threw together 80's gear for a costume contest. Two days in a row, Cora insisted that I wear these, throwing herself in the floor screaming when I tried to put them up. On Friday, the fit was only satisfied when Mia agreed to put them on. She really likes shoes...

And she really likes make-up. I've been keeping my make-up bag packed, as I don't want Landon to have to try to pack it once I am in the hospital. I turned my head for just a second, and she managed to pull the bag off the counter. Fortunately, she hasn't figured out how to roll that lipstick up out of the tube!