Sit down. Right here. Play with me.

Play with me.

She's started to want us to sit down and play make-believe or games with her. I hope we never think we're too busy. I saw a quote that the other day that said (something like) "Listen to the little things your children say when they're young so they'll tell you the big things when they're older. To them, all of it was big things".

It's hard to see in this picture (below) but that's Landon and Cora playing with her Little People Princess Castle.

I took this picture when we were playing with the castle yesterday. Why this angle? Because she was calling that princess carriage the "Tractor". All this time I thought I was raising a couple of couple of city folk...

We're hearing chants of, "Mommy, I break the ice! I break the ice!" Guess what game Cora Jane got for her birthday...

Last week was her birthday and Aunt Feather week. I've got SO many pictures and stories to post. My tenure packet is due Monday. Do you think I could count my blog as service? 

Portraits

Cora Jane's 2-year-old portraits
Quinn Elise's (just a little shy of) 6 month portraits

 Before Quinn was born, I'd run by the portrait shop every few months for a quick $14.95 package of photos (one-pose-only) to send to the grandparents. Of course, these shops make their money off of people who spend more than the $14.95 special, so I've always felt a little guilty about using a portrait session. I'm really able to stick to my guns when necessary and choose the ONE best picture from the set of 70.

I hadn't been in since Quinn was born (we did fancy newborn shots with Quinn instead).

 I thought it was tough to get Cora to smile for the camera... but to get two babies to smile for the camera, at the same time, is practically impossible!

 TWO!

 They've come to know me at the shop. When I'm only going to buy one photo, I always tell them. When it is an occassion and I plan to actually buy a whole package, I always tell them, too. (Cora's birthday, with people in town to visit, who can carry their photos home rather than getting them shipped).

And, I always tell them to not do cheesy backgrounds and props because I won't buy any of them. So when they shot a series of Cora in front of the neon yellow background, I wasn't impressed. When they put Quinn in this basket, on a silky cushion cover, with this background, I knew we weren't all speaking the same language.

 And when they pulled down THIS cheesy background, and started setting Cora up with a picnic blanket and fruit, I was biting my tongue.

 And, I really almsot lost it when Quinny was placed in this basket (really, people buy this?).

 Even Cora didn't want to get close to Quinn, turning her back to the picture. So when we reviewed the photos, and I realized that the ONLY picture of the girls really smiling was the picture that included a picnic basket and fake (FAKE!) fruit, I knew my "only-one-shot-$14.95-picture-karma" had caught up with me.

I hope the grandparents can get past the cheesy background and see my little babies' smiling faces...

I think that Quinny said it best:

We LOVE Bristle Blocks

Aunt Feather is here! (pics from the week will be posted soon)

The arrival of Aunt Feather means new toys pulled out of suitcases each day and extra-special-yummy pancakes filled with strawberries for breakfast. Only Aunt Feather doesn't put strawberries in every pancake because Landon (her kid brother) doesn't like fruit in his pancakes; she cuts the strawberries up and inserts them in half the pancakes as they are frying, so that everyone gets made-to-order pancakes.

We're feeling spoiled!

A couple quick stories.

Aunt Feather's first birthday present for Cora (seriously, there's a new present each day) was a set of Bristle Blocks from Lakeshore Learning (where she works). Because Heather works at Lakeshore, she brings the classroom size package of toys, which is pretty stinking awesome. The set that she brought had all of the parts to make cars, helicopters, and boats. It also includes a "family" (daddy, mommy, Cora, and brother... poor Quinn!) and four little red flags.

Cora loves the family. Cora loves the flags.

She walks around with the flags and family. The flags fit perfectly with her obsession with the American Flag (have I mentioned this?). We've been making a big deal about American flags. It started at the Tanger Outlets (the quintessential American location), where there is a ginormous American flag flying high at the entrance. We used it as a toddler distractor while exiting the 25 cent pony ride one evening. We did that a second time. Then, when driving by Rick Hendrick (a car dealership, another truly American establishment...), Landon noticed that the flag was huge, pulled in, opened the sunroof, and sat right under it hoping Cora would become entranced then fall asleep (no such luck). Now Cora notices every flag we pass, excitedly declaring, "Its an Murican Flag!!! Look Mommy!!! EEEsa Murican Flag!". If I'm still not acknowledging the flag with excitment, that's followed by, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! LooOOOk!!! Murican flag". Even material that's covered in American flag print gets the same reception.

So, these four little red sticks with triangle flags attached to them have become Cora's play version of the American flag, and she becomes frantic about them. "Where's my Murican FLAAAGs?!?!" "It needs an Murican flag on it".

Tuesday morning, Cora sat down for breakfast and set the people up around her plate. It was a rushed morning, so I was getting ready while she ate. I walked in to see her gazing sweetly at the "Mother" bristle block person, then saying, "I love Mommy".

If I could've, I would have bought her a million Murican flags at that moment.

Quinn: 5 Month Update

Better late than never, right?
Quinn gave herself a 5 month birthday present - she rolled from her front to her back (Memory: I was on the Schottland Scholar trip in Atlanta, and I announced the milestone to my students. We were on the bus. They all cheered with me). Arguably, she made this move because she hates her belly... but she still did it. She is now almost 6 months old, and is just starting to turn from her belly to her back. Every time she does it, her look says, "Shucks. I've gone and done it again." Just kidding - now that she is stronger she doesn't ENTIRELY hate belly time.

In fact, she has a new nemesis. Food. I've been fortunate to be able to produce milk for Quinn as long as I have. We've introduced a little formula, but have gone through only about 1 container of formula total. It really is more of a back-up. After Quinn's 5th month-birthday, I introduced cereal. She wasn't a fan.

 And she still isn't a fan. They've been feeding it to her at school each day, and each day they tell me she is refusing it. I'm secretly pleased! I don't want her to cheat on me yet with real food! Ha!

Lately I've talked about three things that Quinn hates: Belly time, cereal, and the nemisis flower on her exersaucer (Cora hated that same flower, too!). But I promise, those are about the only things that make Quinn cry. She starts to fuss when she is hungry (but usually just starts giving open-mouth kisses to whoever is holding her). She also starts to fuss when she is sleepy, but calms as soon as she is given her binky and lovey.

I was away from her for 5 straight days, and Mom came to stay and help Landon (dad joined them midweek). The report was that if they added every moment when Quinn cried while I was gone, including every fuss, the time would total less than one minute. I believe it. If Quinn starts to cry we all immediately react because she almost never cries.

Just today, she and Cora were playing in the floor. Cora did a couple of things that made me cringe and leap to intervene... but Quinn laughed each time, rolled in Cora's direction, and tried to grasp onto Cora to pull her closer. Quinn was loving it. Sometimes Quinn gets Cora's hair and Cora yelps. When we remind Cora that Quinn is just a baby, Cora always leans over and kisses Quinn.We'll sure be lucky if they stay like this!

My 5-month old baby standing flat footed in the exersaucer... it is on its highest setting.

 When Cora was a baby, the dangling duck and frog were almost always attached to this jungle gym. Now it is a scavenger hunt to find them. I laid out the mat this week, and was installing the bars. Cora immediately went to Quinn's toy drawer and pulled out the dangling ducks and frogs, and started hanging them on the mat. Good big sister!

 Quinn watching T.V. with the fellas.

And an afternoon nap with Daddy.

What Messal blog would be complete with out a Cora update?

 I started ordering diapers from diapers.com. Great deal. The best part is that they come in a big box... that box has kept things moving around here all week. She's crawled in and out, treated it like her very own art easel, pretended to sleep in there, asked to have the top closed around her...

There are a lot of giggles around this place.

Oh, I get it

"My turn" translates to "I'm going to do this all by myself so don't touch me even if I am holding out my hand like I might want help".

I'm glad we're learning to speak her language.

In today's Quinn news, Landon and I are exhausted after one day of a Quinn who fusses (not to be confused with crying) every time we sit her down. We forgot what it's like to have a normal baby.

And in sweet toddler news:
This morning Landon sneezed. Cora popped up with, "Bless you, dadvy", then turned to me and said "Dadvy sneezed".

At dinner tonight...
Me: Cora, who is your favorite friend at school?
Cora: Papaw

And she means it, too!

My turn!

We're starting to hear "My turn" chanted in our house, even when there isn't someone else trying to steal a turn.

$1 play dough from Target = 5 hours of play

Who knew?

Cora has started to understand negotiations.
For example, Landon was putting Cora to bed and she asked for a juice box from the outside fridge (normally reserved as a treat). She initially used her words, which typically gets her what she wants.

Since it was bedtime, Landon said no. When she started to whine, he told her that if she put it back in the fridge, she could have it first thing in the morning. Sure enough, as soon as she came down the next morning she went for the juice box.

Dinner is always a negotiation. For example, she'll ask for more of food A (usually bread/pasta/corn, as she loves carbs). We'll say, "Have two more bites of B (usually a meat, since she doesn't gobble meat) and you can have more A".

She's figured us out. On more than one occasion she has shoved several bites in her mouth, resulting in us giving her A. After A is on her plate, she spits B back out.

This is how today started, ready for church.

On Thursday, Cora sang her first honest-to-goodness song.

I was rocking her, and we couldn't find lovey (trauma!), so we were cuddling monkey as an alternative. Not having lovey had her a little wired, and she kept playing with monkey ("eee eee ooo ooo"). She started singing a song that they sing at school, but I didn't know the words to, until I pieced together what she was singing. From start to finish, she sang,

If your name is monkey,

jump round

jump round

jump round.

If your name is monkey,

jump round.

Now sit DOWN.

She sometimes adds extra verses, making the song never-ending.

She usually over-emphasizes the "now sit down" - I suspect my child likes to be bossy, and telling people to sit down is fun.

She was definitely singing this song, and we've definitely sang it all weekend.

In fact, Cora started singing the song at the dinner table on Saturday night.

Before we knew it, we all had a turn jumping around the table while Cora sang.

In fact, we ended up in "circle time" after dinner, with a few rounds of "jumping round", followed by a little "ring around the rosey", and an attempt at teaching Cora duck-duck-goose.

Eric came to dinner Sunday night.

I'm not sure he would have come if he had of realized he'd be joining us for some post-dinner "circle time", followed by a little "monster chase" (with Cora running through the house screaming, "I'sa gonna get Dadvy"), which all resulted in Cora's first cushion constructed fort.

During "ring around the rosey", Pearl ran around the outside of the circle. When we all fell down, Pearl also hit the ground.

When it was time to jump around, Cora called out whose turn was next. She called hers, mine, hers (again), Dadvy's (that's what she's calling him... and that's close to sticking, too), Big E's, hers, and then "Pearl Girl's". She was only a little disappointed when we explained Pearl can't jump.

One more story.

We arrived to church on time today, and it was a good thing as part of the homily pertained to arriving to church on time. The minister noted that if you truly believe that you are meeting God at church, you should want to wear your Sunday best (check), arrive on time (ummmm...), and stay until mass has ended (check). I was likely the only one in the 8:07 club who heard the message as we were the only ones (as far as I can tell) to arrive on time today, which allowed us to actually sit in the front, as we have a theory that sitting in the front causes Cora to behave better. Obviously it doesn't as Landon was in the back with Cora (and the rest of the eight-oh-sevener's).

Anyways... after homily and communion, Cora was back in the pew. She stood next to Quinn, who was sitting on my lap. Cora grabbed Quinn's arm. I firmly grabbed Cora's hand to move it. Quinn reached around and gave a hard tug to Cora's hair. Cora loudly responded with "Stop". The people behind us were laughing. The fighting has begun.

Somehow, Quinn manages to nap in this house.