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