Catching Up - Sucking her fingers

John has teased me from day one of Cora's life that she is my clone. Cora looks so much like I looked when I was that young. She even pouts the same as I did. . . okay, I'll admit it, she pouts the same as I do. You never outgrow pouting, I suppose. I always took John's teasing with a grain of salt. Her personality and mannerisms will probably mirror his - or so I thought. . .

Cora was about a week old, when I too came to the realization that I did not in fact need John's help. Apparently, I could clone myself! You see, I was sitting on the couch holding Cora. I happened to look down and discovered that Cora was happily sucking away on her two fingers the same way I did as a child. It was so amazing and funny at the same time. I'm a little concerned that my mother's prophecy (the "I hope you have a daughter just like you" curse), may have come true. Heaven help John if there are two of us around to deal with!

Me at about 6 months. . .

Cora at about 6 days!

A Tale of Two Babies

Last night was the worst, yet most wonderful night. Cora started out being really fussy at about 8:30. Unfortunately, this lasted until after 1 a.m. Not surprisingly, I was at my wits end. I spent several minutes telling her, "I don't know what you want!" It was so frustrating. At about 1:00, I had a stroke of inspiration. I swaddled her, shushed her, and swung her. Miraculously, she fell asleep. So, with much trepidation, I put her down to sleep assuming that she would sleep for a half an hour or so and then wake up screaming. However, when John's alarm clock went off at 4:30, she had not yet awakened. Naturally, I panicked thinking something must be wrong, but she was just a-snoozing away. She actually slept for another 2 hours after that! That makes a grand total of 5 - count them, 5 - consecutive hours of sleep. Thank you God!!! I actually roused her at 6:30 in order to get her to eat. After she had her breakfast, I put her down again thinking she would sleep for half an hour or an hour, but by some other sort of miracle, she slept for another 3 hours! I cannot believe it! I am so thankful for some good solid rest. I hope she is not just teasing me with this. I hope that this is her actual birthday present to me. . . I'll let you know!

Happy Birthday to Me!

If you did not know, today (July 29th) is my 30th birthday. A year ago, I had informed John that he owes me a big fancy party, on account of, I threw him a fancy party for his 30th birthday a few years ago. However, a few weeks after having Cora, I realized that I no longer cared about having a celebration in honor of this milestone. I really only care about getting a shower in each day, and, if I'm really lucky, a nap. Did you know that newborns do as they please?! Cora seems to think she runs the show!?! So, there was really no way to have a huge celebration. In true newborn fashion, Cora decided to give me a birthday present. Our first sleepless night. . . and by sleepless, I mean totally sleepless. I nursed her ALL night. The upside was that I learned how to use all the On-Demand features of our cable service. And, I got a birthday dr. pepper float at 5:30 in the morning. I don't know if that made up for the lack of sleep, but it sure made a difference having something to watch and something tasty to drink!

The Beginning

Cora Kemp
Originally uploaded by john_a_kemp

Well, I resisted making a blog for as long as I possibly could. I just don't feel that my life is really all that interesting - at least not interesting enough for me to put it out there for all to see. However, over the past few weeks it has occurred to me that while I may be a snoozefest, there are many people who are dying to know about Cora's every move. Hence the impetus for the blog.

For those of you who do not know, Cora is exactly 1/8th Greek. From her Greek lineage, she is only a 4th generation American. So, in the middle of the night during one of her many, many feedings, I decided to blog about our tiny Greek goddess.

While I am brand new to all this blogging business, John has promised to teach me how to make it really cool and interesting - see the title banner. . . If you know me at all, it is obvious that I did not create it! But, I do promise to do my best to keep it interesting and entertaining. Keep checking back with it. . . I have 5 weeks of Cora news to catch up on!