A Zoo, a Boo, and a Tooth or Two

Mom and I met in Columbia to take Cora to the zoo. It was a tad bit chilly, but she didn't seem to mind. Her favorite: the monkeys!!!

She was checking out a big grizzly bear.

 Cora, look, it is your lovey! She was entirely unfazed.

 The monkeys!!!

Trick-or-Treat! Our little bug.

 Buzzzzz! Buzzzz! Buzzzz! Cora was after "Sean the Mad Scientist"

 World Series Champs with our Little Bug

 This pile of fodder for the fire is very telling about Cody. I've never seen a campfire so oranized!

 Oh, little bug!

 Cora running around in some Vintage Mommy!

 Cora was once fascinated by the remotes, treating them like telephones and picking them up to say "Hello". Now, she has started finding the remotes and then running them to one of us (usually Landon). She is always so proud of herself.

 That's right - she's dressed for daycare in a tutu and polka dot leggings. Thanks, Stacey, for the Punky Brewster style duds. We love them!

 Grandma Lechleitner sent a box of cookies for Hall-O-Ween. This is Cora's first expereince of Grandma Laura's cookies. I think she was a fan?

 Oh, Mommy, I've never tasted anything this yummy in my life?!?!?!

 With her good friend Fred Bird! Cora was dressed in red to support the Cards. It worked! The Cards took the series that night.

 Who needs a trip to the zoo when we have our own animal kingdom in the backyard?

 Poor Landon - he was trying so hard to get her to laugh.

Just last week, I noted that Cora is still toothless on top. No longer true! Two new teeth popped through this week, and two more are on the way. She looks really funny because her new teeth are off center. That is, of the top four teeth, her two left teeth are in and her two right teeth are still buried. We should have dressed her as a little hillbilly for Halloween.

 Trying out Mommy's Bike.

 On Hall-O-Ween, my mom asked if we had shown Cora herself in the mirror while she was wearing her costume. Mom thought Cora might think it was funny. Landon's response: "How would she know anything is different? Carrie dresses her in ridiculous outfits everyday".

Fair enough. Especially given that the fur coat in the last picture has a matching Russian style winter hat.

I love having a little girl!

Additions and Subtractions

A few things have noticeably been subtracted from the Messal house. A few other things have been added.

A summary:

Subtraction: Throwing food. Cora is getting better about not purposefully dropping food off of the side of her high chair, and she loves putting her sippy cup into the spot on her tray for sippy cups, exclaiming, "Good Girl!" Pearl is pretty sad about this development.

Addition: Spoons & Forks. Of course, Landon and I have been using these all along, but now Cora is working on it, too. It is pretty awkward, and sometimes she gets food on the fork then gives up and picks it off with her finger (the fork is WAY more awkward than the spoon), and there is almost always an accidental pile of food by her high chair, but we are working on it. Pearl is happy about this development.

Subtraction: General Table Manners. That's right, that's my baby at dinner with her toes on the table.

Addition: In honor of the St. Louis Cardinal's trip to the World Series, I've been working on teaching Cora to throw her arms in the air and yell, "Go". She's been working on it in the car. Oddly enough, she outgrew this year's Cards outfit (a 12 month onesie), so she is without any gear this late in the season. Do not worry: I am honoring the Haskell crew by dressing her in red as much as possible.

Addition: A forward facing car seat. We just couldn't make it any longer. Every time I put her in the car, I was having to wrestle her into the seat. Her head would consistently bop on the car's ceiling as I tried to get her into her seat. And, she just all around seemed over it. I know that the new recommendation is to try to make it to 2 years, but we couldn't see us making it any longer. We caved - she is now forward facing.

Subtraction: Shoulder straps on her car seat. This is not on purpose. At 2 different points today, I tugged and prodded and thought I had her in her car seat as tight as she could go. At 2 different points today, I glanced in the rear view mirror to see my baby with no shoulder straps trying to lean forward in her seat. Both times, I had to jerk the car to the next safe spot on the side of the road, crawl into the backseat, and wrestle her back into the straps. The second time, I pulled out with her as secure as I could pull the strap only to look in the rear view mirror to see her trying to get out again. Houdini? Maybe. 

Additions: Words in context. Every morning, we have the Looney Tunes playing in the background while Cora has her bottle and breakfast. One morning last week, Cora was sitting in her high chair across the room as an episode ended (with the classic Looney Tunes episode ending music...). Cora's little hand popped up in the air and she said, "Bye Bye". As late as last weekend, she was only saying Dada on occasion and Mama when she really wanted something (it came out more like "MaaaMaaaaaaa").  Sometime last week, she turned a corner and she is saying Mama as she hugs against me and Dada any time she can.

Subtraction: Supervision from Mommy. If I were a better mother, I would have intervened when she was doing this...

Or this...

Or this... (But who CAN resist a dive into a suitcase full of bottles)!

Oh wait, this one was on Mia's watch.

Subtraction: Daddy's judgment. It won't be long before Cora will be trying to crawl into the shopping cart herself. Way to go, Daddy. Oh, wait, who was taking the pictures, you ask? OK, I might have been involved in this fun trek around the house.

That is a credit card she is looking at lovingly. We may be in trouble.

He is crashing her into Giggles the Bear. No wonder she had trouble sleeping Friday night!

This one, however, was all Daddy. I just happened to walk up in time to capture it.

Subtraction: Mommy in the kitchen. When I am trying to cook dinner, Cora now wedges herself between the cabinets and my legs, pushing me away from the counter top. The whole time her little arms are stretched upwards wanting to be held. This happens every single afternoon. As much as I possibly can, I cave into her. The fact is, she is going to be a big sister soon, and she'll have to learn to share. Until then, I am all hers!

Subtraction: Cora's control over her emotions. She was having the best time.
She was laughing...

And tackling...

And going crazy...

Until the melt down began. We have no clue where it came from. The funniest part was she kept playing, climbing onto her zebra and bouncing up and down, all while wailing.

Subtractions (or maybe just still missing): At nearly 14 months, I still have a practically toothless baby. Only 4 teeth, all along the bottom.

Subtractions: The Messal family from the church pew. We've been working on trying to keep Cora quiet in church. The good news is that Cora really likes to sing, and makes a very joyful noise all through the parts when everyone is standing and singing (in fact, in the backseat of the car with the music up, Cora makes the same happy sing-songy noises). The problem is that she likes to continue making those noises even when no one else is singing. Last week during church, Landon went to stand in the back of the church with her. After the message, I turned and looked up the edge aisle to see how they were doing. Landon was holding James Groeber, and Cora somehow managed to break free of Erin and run straight back down the aisle towards me. Fortunately I had turned just in time to run and greet her. The best part about standing in the back through the service is the ushers. We've made some pretty good friends back there!

Addition: "Good Girl". Yes, she has been saying this for a couple of months, but it has become an epidemic around here. EVERYTHING gets a "Good girl" from Cora. She says it when we say "No". She says it when she picks up a rock or a leaf from the driveway. She says it as she is crawling up the stairs (with us trailing her, of course). She says it when she puts a piece of food in my mouth. She says it as she is being rocked to sleep. It remains the most regular word she says.

Addition: A little more vintage Mommy. This one came from the trunk of clothes my mother kept from my childhood. It was perfect for Messal Family Work Day last Saturday - cleaning out the garage and the office. Cora was a big help all day, bringing us all the leaves she could find in the driveway. Good girl!

Subtraction: Her binky. We took it on October 3rd, the day before her 13th month. And, maybe I am crazy, but I actually took it during the 8 hour car ride from KY after Summer's shower. In all honesty, I just figured that if we could survive that, then we could survive anything. We had a rough middle-of-the-night wake-up, or two, but otherwise, it was without incident.

Addition: "Pearl Bark". When Mia kept her the first week in October, she swears that as Pearl was barking outside, Cora stood and announced, "Pearl Bark". I haven't heard her say this exact phrase, but she does say "Pearl" every time she hears a dog bark, and she's big on standing at our bedroom door and yelling "Pearl". Next to "Good Girl", "Pearl" might be her second favorite word.

Subtraction: Pearl's bark. When we got Pearl, it was only 2 months before the arrival of our baby. She was nearly too little to train, although we worked really  hard. Once Cora arrived, there were a lot of things we just let go. One of them was her barking in the backyard. Its just hit that we have approximately 4 months before the new baby arrives to fill all of the training gaps that we missed with Pearl the first time. Wish us luck!

Addition: A new gift from Nelson, Betsy, & Catie. Just like Catie, she loves pulling these books in and out!

Neutral: Landon's recollection of Holidays. Despite the fact that Landon and I had our first date on Valentine's Day AND got engaged on the same day 2 years later, Landon has to confirm each year what day Valentine's Day actually is (the 14th or 15th?). It isn't personal - it is generalized to other Holiday's, too. For example, he is always confused on whether we are about to celebrate Memorial Day or Labor Day in May. One morning early last week:

Landon: Did you know Friday was Friday the 14th?
Me: Um... Yeah...?
Landon: Friday the 14th! Like Freddy Krueger and Jason! We missed it.

Yes, Landon, we did...

In Landon's defense, I admit that I keep talking about how many more games are left in the Super Bowl.