Isa gonna get daddy!

Last week, I took Cora and Quinn to work with me Monday night. I had an event at 7, but Landon wasn't free until 6:30, so rather than getting a sitter for an hour, we decided that I would pick them up, feed them, and have them ready for Landon to pick-up at my office at 6:45.

I had both strapped in the stroller. Quinn, as always, was happy to be there. Cora kept begging to get out. As we went down the elevator to go outside at 6:45, she was really getting restless. I said, "Cora, Daddy's outside. Let's go get Daddy".

(Side story). That morning, Cora wanted to be held the whole time I needed to get ready. I kept sending her on a "mission". I kept whispering the "top secret" mission in her ear to run and "get" daddy with a pinch and tell him the pinch was from mommy.

So... back to the elevator. I say, "Let's go get daddy". Elevator opens to a lobby with enough students to consider it crowded, but not so many that we could go unnoticed. When the elevator opened, Cora started happily chanting, "Isa gonna get Daddy's butt!!! Isa gonna get Daddy's butt!!!" And she chanted it all the way across the lobby, to the back door, and into the parking lot.

A few pics from this week...

 Quinn rolls everywhere now, and can sit fairly stable.Cora spends a lot of her time deciding with which toys Quinn should play.

I had put the suitcase at the base of the stairs to carry upstairs. I walked in to find Cora crawling in it. She was trying to strap herself inside.

 Cora announced she wanted to take a nap in our bed. Of course, if you know Cora, then you know Cora doesn't nap, but she looked really cute cuddled up here.

 Quinn LOVES peas more than sweet potatoes and bananas.

 After dinner tonight, they were blowing zerberts at each other. Sisters.

Well played, godfather, well played

One afternoon last week, I came home from work to find a big box on the doorstep addressed to Cora. Since I hadn't ordered anything, and since no one had mentioned sending a big box, I figured I should wait until Landon got home to open it.

It turns out the box was from Cora's Godfather, Mizzou-loving Tim Haskell.
A little background. Tim Haskell is to Mizzou what Landon Messal is to UTK (a fanatically obsessed fan). Tim and Landon have been best friends since age 10, and this schism of team loyalty hardly ever really mattered. Until this year. Mizzou left the Big 10 and joined the SEC. The day the announcement was made about the change, I asked Landon if he thought their friendship would survive this. When Landon announced that he and Tim are meeting up in Knoxville for the UTK/Mizzou game in November, I started considering what documentation I would need to bail the two of them out of jail for fighting... with each other.

So when Cora opened the box, and this tiger was inside...

 ... we knew we had been gotten good.
Cora loved the tiger. Loved it.
But she also loved picking it up and shaking it,

 And pinning it down to dominate it...

 And wrestling it.

 When she started dragging it through the house by its tail, we were reassured of her loyalty to Tennessee.

Fortunately, godmother Joy (and UTK grad) sent Cora money for her birthday. Perfect for buying her this...

Go VOLS! Beat Tigers.

Wonderful 2

From Happy Birthday, Little Pookie (one of our favorites):

"Here's to a child who is joyful and clever. Happy day, happy year, happy always and ever."

We are so lucky to have so many friends that love us back.
We are very spoiled people... and our two little munchkins are most spoiled of all!

 Baby Annalisa

 Bailey? Or Ariana?

 Mackenzie

 Anna

 Aunt Feather with Quinn

 And Grammy

 Keegan

 I tried getting a pic of all of the kids together.

 Mackenzie sat like such a big girl!

 James was uninterested. Alex was ready for the pic.

 We gave up.

 Brady from Miss Aimee's is one of Cora's favorites.

 Zoey, our neighbor, and the bringer of the hand-me-downs.

 Thomas & Charlie

 Gabe & Anna

 From A Dad's Life rap: "It's the dad life, it's the dad life, Take my daughty to the party (or potty) it's the dad life"

 Uhoh!

 Quinny's first bite of real food (not cereal). She looks like this was overdue, huh?

 Baily? Ariana?

Bedtime? But it's my turn to celebrate!