Shoes - The Universal Girl Language

Cora's a rough and tumble kind of girl.  She likes to run, climb, scramble, jump, wiggle, flip, fly, and even fall on occasion.  But, she can be a prissy girly-girl, too.  Yia Yia and Dado took her shoe shopping recently and as soon as she got her new shoes on, she immediately cast off the old ones to the floor.  Apparently, the appeal of new shoes is universal!

I have a really bad habit of shucking my shoes as soon as I get in the door.  The problem is that I don't have a particular place I put them.  I just put them wherever I feel like at that moment.  So, at any given time, there may be a half dozen or so pairs of my shoes scattered about the house.  Cora's new favorite thing is to put my shoe on and walk around.  Notice I said 'my shoe.'  She puts one shoe on her right foot and walks wonkily around the house.  I tried to put the other shoe on her foot, but oh she got mad.  Did I mention she's fiercely independent?!

You'll notice she chose the black wedges to match her black and white striped pants.  She chose to accessorize with the red ball.  It was just the pop of color this outfit needed apparently!

My Kind of Game of Catch

This ball is much easier to catch!

Naptime Crafts

Recently, Cora and I had selected some fabric for the purpose of making a smaller, church-nursery friendly diaper bag.  Then, we met a friend who sells adorable monogrammed bags.  I couldn't resist her catalog!  So, I was left with some cute fabric that I wasn't sure what to do with. . .at least until I found this pattern for a reversible bubble dress in Tanya's Etsy shop.  Because I didn't use bandannas, I had to modify the pattern slightly.  But, I think it turned out pretty cute.  Here it is on the hanger.

It's not as puffy as I would like it to be, but that is from my miscalculation of Cora's size.  It was super easy to make, so I'll know better what to do next time.  

Next up, fun fleece scarves!

Cora's Many Faces (21 Months Edition)

All right Mr. DeMille, she's ready for her close-up!

Naptime Crafts

I've stated before, and I'll reiterate now, I'm not a crafty person.  I don't come up with great ideas, but I can take a great idea and recreate it.  I've seen a lot of little girls wearing cute little pillowcase dresses.  I was looking for a tutorial on the internet when I came across this tutorial for a cute dress out of hand towels.  As luck would have it, I had found some cup towels at Marshall's with an Easter theme.  I had to trim several inches off of the top of the towels since baby girl is a bit of a shortie.  But, after quick seams to the sides and a ribbon casing, we have a cute little Easter dress.  Yay for naptime!

The Amazing Coco

How does she do it??!!

Do Ya Like My Cap?

I got this cap here.

I think I'm gonna put it on.

Got it!

Whaddya think?

No? Not so much?

How 'bout now?

(I love it baby girl!  I love it!)

Go Bears!

Or, "Go, Bay-uhs!" as Cora says!

Fun With the Camera

Today I've been experimenting with my new camera.  And, without a doubt, I can definitely say that I have no idea what I'm doing!  But, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then, or whatever they say . . .  

So, Cora and I played in the backyard for a little while this afternoon.  She ran around and chased Penny, and I managed to take about 164 photos.  Most of them were not really worth mentioning, but I did get a few that I just love.  

Here's my favorite.

I cannot believe I managed to get a straight-on smile.  Yay!

I like this one of her laughing, too.

So cute!

And, this one is kind of fun.

She looks very thoughtful. . . probably thinking when is Mommy gonna put that silly thing down!

Wordless Wednesday

A Surprise From Mema and P-pa

Seems like we always meander down to Mema and P-pa's during Spring Break.  Last year, Cora crawled for the first time right in Mema's kitchen.  This year, we did not meet any major developmental milestones, but we sure had fun!

Mema and P-pa had a special surprise for John and I - a new camera!  P-pa dabbles in photography, and he helped me pick out a nice camera in order that I can take better pictures for my blog.  (But, I think he had an ulterior motive. . . I think he just wants more, more, more pictures of little missy!!)  So, here are the first pictures with my new dslr camera.

Two of my favorite subjects!

I like this picture even though little missy is a little blurry.

On the go!

More to come!

The Post Where The Mom Breathes a Sigh of Relief. . .Sort Of

You may remember this post from some months ago.  I was a little worried about little missy's mothering skills.  But, I am happy to report that she has bonded with her new baby.  Recently, Mema came was her for a visit, and she brought Cora a new baby doll blanket.  Cora is very fond of this new blanket and she loves to wrap up her baby and hug and coo over her.  Adorable!!  She also loves to feed her baby 'duce' (juice).
So, she will lovingly put baby on the coffee table  

and offer her the sippy of juice. (She may or may not take a pretend sip for herself before offering it to baby!)

The mommy was so excited to see this improvement in her nurturing.  At least she was excited until the mini-mommy repeatedly picked up and slammed down the poor dolly to get her positioned just right.  sigh.  Baby steps, I suppose.

At least we are no longer throwing the baby out of the stroller!

More Fun at the Park

The weather has been just beautiful here this week.  So, of course, Cora and I were just itching to get out in the fresh air.  We took a little walk over to our favorite neighborhood park to play.   My little monkey had such a blast!

You notice these are all action shots - as usual.  I asked Yia Yia when kids begin to sit still and pose for photos.  She told me that it was about 6 months ago! Hah!  

I love this shot.  Something about the sunbeams shining down on little missy makes me really happy.  I hope y'all are having sunbeams shining down where you are, too!

March Resolution Update

As I mentioned in this post, John and I vowed recently vowed to "get in shape, by golly!"  John found this fab website called SparkPeople. If you are unfamiliar with it, this site is basically like Weight Watchers online except. . .wait for it. . .wait for it. . . it's FREE!!  (Disclaimer:  This is not a paid endorsement, but I would gladly take it under advisement should anyone at SparkPeople decide that they should like to advertise in this very small and narrow market.  Clearly, this blog is an advertiser's dream!)  John and I are both experiencing immediate success.  Although, I have come to accept that there are some hard lessons to be learned:

1. Men can eat a lot more than women and still lose weight. (Especially men who are almost a foot taller than you!) The lower end of John's caloric threshold is the maximum of mine.  Tonight after dinner when I had reached my threshold level, John started to inform me "I still need to eat about. . . "  His voice trailed off when he saw the look of death I was giving him.
2. Men get more credit for the same amount of exercise.  Sunday, we had to trade off walks because of our schedules and Cora's naptime.  So, John speedwalked down to the trail and back for a total of 2.6 miles in 39 minutes.  He got credit for 319 calories.  I walked and ran the same distance in the same amount of time and only got credit for 150.
3. Men can just eat more.  John's basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories he needs per day just to stay alive) is 2500.  My basal metabolic rate is 1645.  This means that when we have reached our goals and just want to maintain our weight, John can eat almost a THOUSAND more calories than me - without exercising!  'Sup with that??

So it should not surprise you that John has lost about 10 pounds, and I have lost about 4.  But, I still love it, despite the fact that the process is cosmically (or is that comically?!) unfair.  The easy thing about it is that since you are recording everything you eat, you subconsciously make more of an effort to eat better.  Still, it will not necessarily stop me from a splurge now and then.  Like when I had a 500 calorie muffin for breakfast and washed it down with 250 calories worth of Dr. Pepper.   I balanced my 750 calorie breakfast with a 42 calorie lunch.  (It was a giant bowl of lettuce and some tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette. You can eat about a ton of lettuce for about 7 calories!)  I realize this is not the best approach to dieting, but that was the one day it was really off balance.  So, friend, you have endured all of that drivel so that you could get to the point of this post - Cora anecdotes!!

Along with watching what we eat, we have been exercising most days of the week.  So, Cora (who has incidentally now mastered climbing into her stroller by herself) is in heaven.  The day of my muffin transgression I had decided that Cora and I would walk to the store instead of drive.  She gets so excited about going for walks that John and I have to be very careful not to say 'walk' within her earshot unless we are planning on going immediately.   Anywho, we trounced off to the store where I discovered all kinds of wonderful things that I should probably not eat.  And, where Cora found all kinds of wonderful things that she would like to play with - things including a shiny purple pinwheel which happened to be only $1!  Score!  Best dollar I've ever spent.  

She loved watching it blow in the wind so much so that her poor mother spent about 20 minutes trying to replicate the wind with her lung power after they were back home.  (Some free advice:  Make sure to stop blowing on the pinwheel when you feel your head getting fuzzy and your heartrate rapidly increase!)  So, every walk since, she has held her pinwheel proudly in the air 

(It's hard to get a great picture of a pinwheel in action, so I took the liberty of labeling it for you. ; )  And, because I am a sucker for her sweet little self, her is another jewel for you.

She loves her sunglasses!  (I think she kind of looks like a cute, girly Johnny 05.  Bragging rights to anyone who can identify that reference!) Well, I think that ends this excessively long and boring post.  Happy March Resolutions, y'all!

Wordless Wednesday

Small Town Disney World

(At least in the mind of a toddler!)

On Friday, Cora and I ventured out to a small town near us.  I was given a tip from a friend about this neat indoor playground, and we decided to scout it out.  For a $5 total cover charge, this is what we had at our disposal.

We enjoyed a fun two story playhouse, tons of inflatables, slides, swings, a ball pit, costumes, giant stuffed animals, and even a special infant area.  Not surprisingly, Cora enjoyed the stairs on the playhouse the most.  

(Please excuse the fuzzy photos!  Cora is more of an action model rather than a still model!)  She surprised me at how well she was able to climb up AND down the stairs.  Considering we live in a single story house, she immediately figured out how to use the side rails to help herself down.  (If I had known this was going to be the highlight of the entire playground, I would have just invited myself over to one of my friend's houses that is two stories!! Would have saved the cover charge!)  

After she grew tired of the stairs, she ventured over to the infant area where we discovered many of the toys we have at home.  Again, glad we paid the $5 cover charge! wink!

Overall, I give it two thumbs up.   I think next time we may go in the middle of the week when it will be a little less crowded.  Anyone up for a playdate?

Snow Day (For Real This Time)

What a crazy week this has been!  It's not that we didn't do anything.  It's more that I haven't had the time to organize my thoughts and pictures to write about it.

By far the most exciting thing that happened is the 'big' snow that came on Tuesday.  You have to understand that any snow that sticks is defined as 'big' snow in these here parts!  Y'all, it made me wish to be in Vancouver for the Olympics.  It was so pretty when the big fat flakes started floating from the sky.  It was at that time that I realize how woefully unprepared I was to let Cora play in the snow.  I know you will laugh at her mismatched and random snow outfit.  Truly, it was not a very good snow outfit, but it did allow a few minutes of play in the small white patches in our backyard.

Yes, that's right.  She is wearing blue jeans and regular shoes; a hoodie and a denim jacket; a scarf, hat and mittens.  Clearly, we do not experience snow that often!

And, with me being home with her, if it is too cold, we just stay in.  Next season, I do believe we will invest in a winter coat!

She had a lot of fun crunching it underfoot.

And, when she did a face plant and got all of her knit wear soaked, it was time to go in.  It snowed quite a bit - I realize that quite a bit is a relative term!  By the end of the afternoon, we had quite an accumulation on our patio.  

(Yes, I know 'quite an accumulation' is subjective.)  Nevertheless, I enjoyed our little slice of winter!