A "don't want to forget it" moment

Cora: Daddy, you broke mommy's car!

Bugsquito

Cora: that's a bug
Landon: I don't think that's a bug.
Cora: it's a bugsquito

Usually she counts to 3 before she does a daredevil move, like jump off the couch onto pillows. The magic number today is 8. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...go!

Happy to you!

Cora's fave song to sing this week is "Happy Birthday", but she always leaves out the word "Birthday". I like it. Makes more sense to just wish someone "happy" rather than limit it to a day.

Today is Dad's 60th. cora declared at breakfast, out-of-the-blue, "I'm papaw's friend".

I'm adding a few pics directly from my phone in his honor. "Happy to you", Dad!

Quinn: 8 Month Update

Quote from Grandma M: "Maybe if you squeeze her more tightly, she'll stop growing!"

Quinn started crawling this week!
She sometimes drags herself forward, but she's able to get on all fours and crawl.
She also puts both hands on the ground and pushing up with her feet so that she's standing.
Her little bum looks so cute up in the air.
She loves to blow zerberts, and will do it again and again if someone does them back.
It takes almost nothing to make Quinn cackle.

Superman wears a tu-tu... who knew?

What we have here is several funny Cora stories interspersed with some adorable Quinn pics.

What an adventurous Sunday!

Landon was out-of-town this weekend at the Tennessee game with Cora's godfather Tim (we aren't even speaking of the game!), and Cora's godmother Joy came to town to spend the weekend with us. She had never met Quinn, and we had a wonderful time. It was warm enough to beach on Saturday. I'm not sure that we snapped many pictures...

Today started with a major adventure. Pearl tree'd a raccoon. Pearl was being active, and the Raccoon was managing to dodge Pearl's advances by climbing a tree, so I didn't bother to remove Cora from her perch at the back door where she was watching intensely. In fact, I was betting on the raccoon, and waiting for Pearl to wear herself out before I attempted to drag her back into the house. I even left the room and went on with my tasks... until... I heard Cora break into terrified sobs from our bedroom. Pearl had managed to get the raccoon by the tail, and the two were circling each other in the yard. Cora was NOT happy, and I was met with repeated exclamations of "Mommy, I's scared" and "Pearl got the squirrel!"

I got Cora settled, and managed to get Pearl inside. As I had just taken Pearl away from the best thing that could ever happen to this city-fied hound dog, I put Pearl into solitary confinement until Landon could come home and address the raccoon issue. Pearl was making a whining commotion, and when Cora asked about Pearl...

Me: I put her in timeout.

Cora: Pearl's crying?

Me: Yes, she was bad. 

Cora: Okaaaay (her standard response)

Me: Yes, she got a raccoon.

Cora: She got a squirrel? 

Me: No, a raccoon

Cora: A toon. Okaaaaay. 

When Landon came home, Cora had just woken from a nap. Cora went from groggy to animated, with hands flying, she announced, "Pearl's in the office. In timeout. She bit a squirrel, a toon. Pearl's CRYING!"

(The pics below are from Mia & Papaw Jim's visit the weekend before)

Cora was full of "don't want to forget"'ems today. 

I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper; Landon and Quinn were both in the floor. 

Cora: (announcing, out of the blue) Mommy wears panties!

Me: Do you wear panties?

Cora: Yeah, I DO!

Me: Does Quinny wear panties?

Cora: No, sissy don't wear panties.

Me: Does daddy wear panties?

Cora: NO!

Me: What does daddy wear?

Cora: Um... PANTS!

In fact, Cora is pantie-obsessed. Last night, we were putting C & Q to bed. C insisted on having her baby... then insisted on getting a diaper out of the drawer... then insisted on stripping the baby down for a diaper change. Her reason? "She needs a new diaper... she STANKS!"

Cora has developed a redneck accent in spite of herself. Her favorite color this week is "Paaank".

And then... standing on Landon's back... Cora announced, "I'm Superman!" All while wearing a tu-tu. 

Quinn isn't being left behind today, either. I predict she'll be in a full-out sprinting-crawl by Thanksgiving. Today, she's lunging forward pretty well, and given proper toy-motivation, she can pull herself forward (Joy got to see her best army crawl yet). Tonight, while Landon and I were in the living room, Quinn made a strong effort to pull-up on her exersaucer. Where is my baby going?!?!?! 

Yes, I recognize that my children are dressed as ghosts today. Yes, I know it is the second week in November. But, when it was time to get dressed today I pulled out the white tutu, and Cora announced, "I'm a scary". So Cora and Quinn dressed as ghosts while we ran around the airport with Joy. Don't judge. 

Friendly ghosts? No, Scarys!

Mia stitched matching friendly ghosts outfits for C & Q.

Did I already tell this story? Our neighbor has decorated for halloween, and everytime we pull in the driveway Cora points at her tree and announces, "Scary!!!"

When I put Cora in her Halloween costume, she also exclaimed, "Scary!"

These two friendly ghosts don't look so scary to me.

We started out the trick-or-treat evening at our friend Alicia's house for some chili and hot dogs. Afterwards, the girls and I ran back home to get Landon and hit the houses where we were expected in our neighborhood (Cheri & Matt's, etc.), then headed back to Old Village. On our way into Old Village, we decided that we couldn't head to Pitt without stopping at (newlyweds) Justin & Stacy's house, so we ran by there. Somehow, we ended up leaving Quinn with the newlyweds, then headed with Cora to Pitt. 

 By far, the best  place I could have imagined to Trick-or-Treat. It took Cora about 4 houses to figure out what the gig was about. She looked around, saw all of these kids running eagerly up to a house, getting a treat, then running to the next house. After that, Cora was all in. She would have nothing to do with our help, never accepted our offer for a lift or a hand up and down stairs, refused to let us carry some of her candy to lighten her load, and independently marched up to nice ladies on porches.

When I said, "What do you say?" she would exclaim, "PLEASE!!!!" (good, but not hardly in the spirit of the evening).

It wasn't until we were on our way home that Cora realized there was candy in those packages.

She hasn't asked for much candy since.

 These pics were taken after 9PM. Quinn is ALWAYS like this. Seriously, I bet I could list every single time the child has cried!

 She is obsessed with the candy bucket

Two weekends after halloween, godmother Joy came to visit.

When it was time for the adventure of taking Joy back to the airport, Cora insisted on dressing "Scary!".

My little ghost looked pretty running through the airport, arms spread wide like an airplane, in mid-November.

Christmas list #1

Me: Cora, whatcha reading?
C: Santa!
Me: did you know Santa is going to bring you toys?
C: okaaaay
Me: what toys do you want Santa to bring?
C: candy!
Me: what else?
C: hearts!
Me: anything else?
C: stickers?
Me: do you know why Santa brings toys?
C: (puzzled look)
Me: because we're celebrating the baby Jesus
C: He brings me toys?

We're going to have to work on this one...