Cora's 1st Year Portraits

Cora's photos have ALWAYS been a challenge.

Typically, when we get to a photo studio, she totally freezes and looks around suspiciously at the photographer, the wand with feathers being waved in her face (in an attempt to get her to smile), the tables that we are sitting her on. She has given more than one dirty look at the photographer for particularly bright flashes...

However, her 1st Birthday portraits were an entirely different challenge. This time, Cora was on the move, and she wasn't taking that feather wand sitting down. The game was that I would sit her in the middle of the background, and then run, hoping that the photographer could get a cute picture of her on the move.

I take her to get a pic made all the time (or at least every 3 months), but I thus far have stuck strictly to my plan: pay the sitting fee, choose my very favorite pose, and just order enough of those so that we can formally document her cuteness and those not on Facebook get the copies that they need (aka, the grandparents). This has been easy before - she usually only looks happy in one picture at the most. This time it was a bit more difficult...

I sprung for a few extra pictures this time, and ended up with the CD. I included all 73 pictures from her session, mostly because the series really captures how "on the move" she was. In some, you can even see my legs as I try to chase her or my arms as I try to catch her. In a couple, you can even see the pink feather stick that she is chasing.

So thankful for my active, little (but getting bigger quickly) baby!

Around our house... August 2011

What has our little pook been doing?

When I am reading a board book to her, she prefers to turn the pages (little Miss Independent), and most often I hold the book that I am reading while she sits in my lap turning the pages on another book.

She is taking several steps at a time. My favorite? When she picks up a prized toy, then takes her steps in my direction, ending with a big hug. Have I mentioned that her hugs are getting more sincere? It is no longer just us giving her hugs - she is now hugging us back. When she wraps those little arms around my neck and lays her head over my shoulder, my day is made. Since I was traveling for work most of last week, I've been getting extra hugs this week!

She babbles constantly, but has very few words that she actually says. Most are words that we recognize ("ba" for bottle; her word for our puppy kind of sounds like "Pearl", etc.) She is still only saying "Mama" when she doesn't like what I am doing, and she frequently babbles "da da da da da". She is starting to wave at people, and the other day my dad walked in to find her standing in the middle of the living room waving at all of the people on the TV lined up for the Today show. He tried to capture it on camera, but she is trickly like that. But she is saying something that makes her daddy and I SO SO SO proud. She is clearly saying "Good Girl". Every time that we say it, she says it back. It makes us fell pretty darn good that she has heard positive affirmation so much that she's picked up the phrase on her own. Good girl!!!

Cora is Walking

It's official. It took us a while to finally capture it (and in fact, my Dad filmed about 2 hours of footage to get this clip of her from a good angle really taking a series of steps). Our sweet little girl! All morning, she has been picking up toys from across the living room, then toddling over to me to give me (and the toy) a big hug. I've been traveling for the last 8 days and sure have missed this little hugger!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYLJiBxLuI

Have I mentioned that Cora keeps getting cuter?

We've come to the point that I've been looking forward to: the point when Cora's personality is really emerging and she is giving us "Cora-isms" to share with friends and family. Admittedly, it isn't like she is stringing words together (or really saying many words at all). But if you've been around the kid lately, you'll likely agree that she is getting pretty sassy.

A few...

She wants to eat everything that we are eating, and if you try to sneak some food that she can't have by her, she'll shoot a glare in your direction. When she is in a position to (like if she is playing on the floor and I am sitting on the couch eating), she'll crawl over, pull up on your legs, and say "Bite!".

We were eating at Taco Mamacita on Sullivan's with Jose and Jessica yesterday. We had just come from the beach, and I had overshot Cora's lunch by a bit. I ordered a piece of cheese and some beans for her immediately, but the waitress (not familiar with babies?) brought out our salsa, guacamole, and chips first. I started scooping guac onto chips and letting her have it, but was worried that the salsa verde was too spicy. I had Cora sitting on the table right in front of me (maybe I'm not familiar with kids either?), and before I could stop her, she lunged forward and put both hands in the bowl and had one in her mouth. I don't think that she loved it, but she didn't seem too upset either.

She likes to feed us. When eating, she often holds out her food to offer us a bite. Sometimes she'll actually let us eat it. Other times, she jerks her hand back quickly and smiles. This morning, I gave her for breakfast a plum and a peach (which both ended up being a bit sour), a banana, and the soft parts of an everything bagel with some cream cheese (she eats everything, I tell you). When offering me a bite, she consistently let me have the plum and the peach (both items she had deemed to sour), but consistently gave herself the bagel and banana. She gets that behavior from her daddy!

She is a complete and total beach bum. If you've seen her lately, you'll know that her skin has easily become sunkissed. I promise she is wearing SPF 50 for every significant sun outing (for example, I do not put sunscreen on her to go to the mailbox, but I always put it on her if we are hanging in the baby pool or going for a run after 8AM) but she is naturally a little brown berry. She is totally in her element in the ocean's edge, and loves to sit where the water hits her waist, letting the waves wash up against her. She often crawls towards them, sitting down when a bigger one is coming and throwing her hands up in the air. If she deems herself to deep (e.g., if a wave splashes her face a little) she instead squats and holds onto one of us and stands to greet the waves with the same sort of raised hand enthusiasm. She is definitely entertaining the beachcombers.

The same is true at Splash Island. (I am not sure why I never have my camera at the water park, but I usually have too many things to juggle to try to juggle pictures.) We've been to Splash Island several times this summer, and Cora gets more comfortable each time. She puts her face in the water on her own, and is starting to kick her legs behind her when we hold her under her arms. She likes to be set at the top of the baby slide, and then pulled down the slide on her bottom (in fact, when she reaches the bottom and we pick her up to let the bigger kids have their turn, she squirms and lunges for the slide until it is her turn again). She seems to like to sit off to the edge of the medium size racer slides and watch bigger kids come down (for example, when Landon and I took Amy with us last week, she loved watching Landon and Amy organize races between them and two other kids). She also likes to sit on top of two kick boards and be guided around the lazy river (which is really little more than a lazy whirlpool, as it isn't very big). She can only do the lazy river when Landon goes with us - she is too squirmy with me. I think that she is just more comfortable with Landon when in anxiety provoking situations, which is very primal.

She has a new nemesis: the duck that we use to cover the spicket in her bathtub. When allowed to roam free (aka, when not forced to sit in her suction cup seat) she stands, extends both arms, and lets out a tribal yell as she leans in to attack the duck. She lifts it's hat (where bubble bath can be poured in) to see if it has a brain; she turns and twists it to see where the water is coming from, and then she goes in for her kill, tugging it off of its spicket and swinging it in the air.

She has learned to get only 1 puff out of her snack pod at a time (which is a significant advancement in our ability to entertain her - before she would shove her whole hand in, causing them to fall out by the tens). She is standing on her own for 15 to 20 seconds at a time, and when she doesn't think about it, she is able to multitask while standing on her own (drinking from her sippy cup, for example). She has several words that she repeats after us (duck, dog, mmmm), a few that she says on her own (mama and dada, especially when she doesn't like what we are doing), and some that sound eerily like us ("no!" in a very sharp tone. ouch.). If she is fussing in the car, Landon and I both start humming or holding "Ahhhh" for several second. We usually get anyone else who happens to be in the car with us to join us. When we become quiet, Cora, with a very confused expression on her face, is often making the same noise in a very soft voice.

Can you tell how much we enjoy her?


I keep a small clear box of finger nail polish in the floor of my closet. Remind me to move this to the "safety locked" cabinet under the sink...

She loves black beans...

 And sweet potatoes!

 Landon is able to do this, but I never am. Often, I get up with her in the morning, nurse her, then leave her to cuddle with Landon while I put in my contacts. It isn't unusual for me to find her sleeping on his chest. Why does she never do that for me?

If I have high heels in front of my closet, Cora finds them.

She was so sleepy here!

You can't tell it, but she got so dirty while eating that I actually went and changed into a robe to pick her up. My little cuddle bug!