Hobbies

Carys is pretty dexterous.  She's very grabby to put it plainly.  And, one of her favorite activities is to dump things out.  Mema and P-pa recently bought her a shape sorter, and that one toy has gotten more mileage than most of the others in her toybox.  Well, that and the light up aquarium that used to be Cora's.

Take it out...
Put in mouth...
Repeat...

Stadium Seating

 I have a love-hate relationship with my double stroller.  Actually, I just have a hate relationship with it.  I really, really do not like it.  But, when we go for a walk in the evening, I guess it is more of a necessary evil.  Thank goodness I have John to push it!!  Being that the stroller is pretty much an outcast in our house, it doesn't really have a place to stay of its own.  It just pretty much resides wherever we find that is somewhat out of the way. Last night, that convenient, out of the way place happened to be the corner of the living room.

(Not so) Little Missy, who is fascinated by anything with wheels that she can push, kept climbing in and out and trying to push it.  Eventually, she was able to finagle it to face the tv so she could watch Tangled (what else?!).  For a few moments, she sat contentedly.  Then, she got a little worried.  That's when I heard, "Uhh, Mommy?  Can you buckle me?"  She cracks me up!

Cora's Kidisms Volume 3

And, boy is she a talker!  Here are some of the things she has said lately.

Today I had my first official But why??! from her.  I knew this day was coming.  Looking forward to many such conversations in the future.  sigh


She calls our house her back home.  We went around the corner to the mailbox the other day, and when we got back in view of our house, she exclaimed There's my back home!


Her favorite funny phrase is holy cow.  Apparently, I said it off-hand one night, and she thought it was hilarious.  One day during naptime, I could hear her just cracking up on the monitor.  When I listened more closely, she was repeating holy cow and then having fits of boisterous laughter.

She has started framing her questions/requests with should I?  In other words, she'll run up to me and say something like this:  Should I eat some fruit snacks?  which naturally means, I want some fruit snacks.

Her current favorite book is From Head to Toe by Eric Carle.  She has the book memorized and will 'read' it when she's by herself.  (She even tries to point to the words!!)  When we read it before bed, she wants to read the kids' part herself.  It always comes out a little like this I CAN DOOOOO EEEEETTTTT! (I can do it).

And finally, may I present a joke by Cora:
Cora: Daddy, where's my head?
Daddy:  I don't know.  Where is your head?
Cora:  I think it's gone! (followed by peals of 3 year old laughter)
Clearly she gets her sense of humor from her father!

Weeping With Electronic Joy

To soften the wound of having to sell the Audi, John decided to outfit his truck with a better sound system.  To put it plainly, John is a bit of a sound snob.  His Isuzu had a sound system that would make any frat boy jealous. And, after some careful research and fabrication, his truck will at least sound awesome even if it doesn't have a 333 horsepower, 3.0 liter supercharged engine.  So, as 'E' says his car "entertainment system will weep with electronic joy" once the process is complete.

This weekend, John spent time fabricating and installing the speakers.  It was a bit time consuming, but I can tell that John was enjoying himself - 100+ degrees outside, and I only saw him when it was mealtime!  When it was cooler out, Cora decided she wanted to go out and visit with him for a while.  He had the stereo on, and little miss decided she wanted to sit in the truck.  When I went out to check on her 30 minutes later, she was still sitting in the truck listening to music.  Her comment to me was "Uhh, Mommy, should I put my seatbelt on?" Her "should I's" are more of a suggestion rather than a question, incidentally!  So, I obliged her safety nature and belted her in.

Whoa!  I just saw a glimpse of the future!  I sure am glad she can't yet see over the steering wheel!

Seven

Carys, you're seven months old today.  Holy guacamole!  You're closer to one year than to birth!?!  What's new?

I don't know how much you weigh or how tall you are, but you are still wearing 6 month clothes.  Even though you and Sister were born in different seasons, you are able to wear many of her clothes.  But, I think we will end up with an entirely new shoe wardrobe since, like her, your feet are wee little things.

Your eyes are as blue as ever.  I look at them daily for any sign of change.  So far, they remain a pretty cerulean.  And, after your bath last night, we discovered your first little curl.  Maybe you'll be our little Shirley Temple!

You love your octopus.  Who would have thought you would get attached to a plush, primary colored mollusk?

You are a handy little thing.  You constantly demonstrate your dexterity.  We are extra careful to watch what is within your reach.

You are officially done being swaddled.  You had to stop cold turkey when one night while swaddled you flipped yourself onto your tummy.  Boy, were you angry!

You love to watch Tangled almost as much as Sister does.  You will crane your neck and move your body to try to see around any obstacles in your way.  Perhaps you will be my little girly princess?

We figure that your tummy is still too sensitive and immature for solids.  Whenever I feed you anything (other than prunes) you have a very rough time sleeping until the food is out of your system.  I'm not sure what we're going to do about that, so I'm just going to enjoy our sweet times of bonding while they last.

I can't believe it has been seven months!  Baby girl, you still make my heart swell!

The Zoo or a (Not So) Reasonable Facsimile

Every evening at dinner, we discuss our day with Daddy.  Every evening, it goes a little something like this:

Me: Cora, tell Daddy what you did today.

Cora: We went to the zoo!

Folks, that is almost never true.  We don't even live anywhere near a zoo.  It's a case of wishful thinking, I suppose.  Nevertheless, that is virtually always her response.  Fortunately for me, I have stumbled upon the next best thing (in the mind of my little three year old):  the pet store.  We discovered today that the pet store by our house has child sized shopping carts - much to the utter joy and delight of a certain pint-sized shopper.  After laying down the law in regards to the proper care and use of such vehicle, much exuberant shopping/observing did occur.  We first headed over to the reptile/amphibian section.  

Her favorites are the fire-bellied toads (which she insists are tree frogs) and the iguanas.  These two happy fellas were almost as interested in Cora as she was in them.  (They're not nearly as grumpy as they look!)

We then sidled over to the fish where you will be relieved to know that we did, in fact, find Nemo.  He was lurking among the anemone, natch.  We found some parakeets and conures before heading over to the mammals.  That's where we observed a funny little ferret as well as some guinea pigs and playful mice.  

She had a blast watching the mice scurrying around the cage.  This momma was so tempted to add a little pet mouse to our brood until I remembered what goes into caring for one.  I'm not sure that adding one more living creature to my household would be prudent - even if it is only a little mouse!

We finished our zoo visit pet shop jaunt in the dog treats section.  For some strange reason, I thought it would be fun for her to have something to tote around in her shopping cart.  What was I thinking?!  That suggestion was met with a resounding "NOOOOO!"  I mean, really, why on earth would she want something in her shopping cart?!

Flash forward to this evening.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me:  Cora, tell Daddy where we went today.

Cora:  Daddy, we went to the pet store!

Score!  A (not so) reasonable facsimile!

Wordless Wednesday

Things I Could and Couldn't Get Used To

I'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret...

I'm a huge (HUGE) Harry Potter fan.  I am one of the geeks who waited in line at midnight every time a new book was released.  Since they always came out in the summer, I would then spend the next day reading the book from cover to cover.  I'm not as big a fan of the movie versions because I feel like they take way too many liberties with the plot, but I feel it is my duty to go see them...even if I spend half of the movie shaking my head at the inconsistencies.  Since they released the finale on Friday, John took me to the fancy-pants theater for the last hurrah.  Y'all!  I could totally get used to it!  It was pricey, but the experience was totally worth it.  Each theater seats only about 40 people.  We paid a little extra for the premium plus tickets, and we had fully reclining soft, cushy chairs.  We had blankets and could request pillows if we wanted them.  AND, we had a waiter bringing us yummy food off of their menu in addition to the free gourmet popcorn.  John and I both ordered Angus beef sliders, and we split a basket of sweet potato fries and a piece of peanut butter pie. Yumm-o!  Happy early birthday to me!

Auntie Linda was gracious enough to watch the girlies for us.  When we got home from the theater, Cora was a little sluggish.  She's still fighting off this virus.  After another dose of ibuprofen, she was feeling much better. She even felt well enough to go down to the mailbox with me and to play outside while Daddy polished the truck.  When it was time to put her jammies on for bed, I sent her outside to tell John she was ready to go to bed.  What I didn't remember was that the step ladder was outside as well.  There is something magnetic about that step ladder.  Or maybe there is something addictive about it.  Cora cannot (CANNOT) resist climbing it.  We always remind her that she has to hold on to the arm rails and she has to be supervised - both of which she was complying with - when she flipped right over the top of it.  Yes, my friends, my little monkey flipped over the top of the step ladder and tumbled head first onto our composite driveway.  Watching that was such a helpless feeling!  I was holding Carys, and there was no way I could get to her.  John was there in the blink of an eye, but I still felt so helpless just watching it all.  John whisked her inside, and I put Carys down and readied an ice pack.  Pobre cita was inconsolable.  Thankfully, she allowed us to hold the ice to her head, and after a consult with Dr. Mema, we had a medically verified course of action.

After about 45 minutes, Cora was acting perfectly normal.  She had some juice and some fruit snacks and half of a sandwich.  Other than the ugly battle scar on her head, she seemed to be her perfectly jolly old self.  It will be interesting to see the looks we get at the supermarket tomorrow.  Definitely something I don't want to get used to!

Sick and Tired

Those two adjectives are how I describe my girls this weekend.  It appears that Cora has acquired a shiny new virus of some sort.  This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that she scarfed down a rogue animal cracker from off the floor of the car inspection shop.  (Believe you, me, this momma was screaming for her not to eat that cracker!)   Regardless, little missy has been pretty puny since Saturday afternoon.

See what I mean?  I took this pic during her second viewing of Tangled of the day.  I've said it many times before, but I always know that Cora is sick when I can take multiple pictures of her staying still.  Being sick is especially hard on Sister because all she wants to do is love on her baby Sissy.  I reminded her several times that she should not touch Sissy, but all Cora wants to do is share the love.  At one point, she came to me in a panic wanting to wash her hands.  After I helped her in the bathroom, she breathed a sigh of relief and told me, "Now I can touch Carys."  It broke this momma's heart!  Hopefully, she'll be feeling back to normal soon.  She did pray about getting better.  I think her exact words may have been something like the following:

Dear God,

Please help me feel better from my fever 'cuz it makes me mad!

In Jesus' name,

Amen

I had to giggle after I heard that.  This is the first time I've ever heard her use the word mad when she's talking about herself.  I know God will honor her three year old transparency.

Carys is my tired little one...or maybe I'm the tired little one!  She has been undergoing some sleep training for the past few nights.  Thursday night was pretty intense.  But, it has gotten better each night.  I've all but given up hope that sleeping through the night will happen any time soon.  I just want her to go at least three hours between snacks as opposed to the one hour intervals that she has been trying for the past six weeks.  

It's amazing to me that after a rough night, she still wakes up full of joy in the morning.  I certainly do not wake up full of joy on any morning, much less when I've had a rough night before.  Clearly, she gets this trait from her father! The neat thing to me is that Carys Anne means 'full of grace and love,' and so far, she seems to be the epitome of that.  She is such a happy and engaging baby.  It's pretty hard to be upset about a poor night's sleep when those beautiful, joyful blue eyes are looking up at you!  Besides, one day I'll miss these sweet and non-so-sweet times.  Even if the girls and I are a little sick and a little tired.

Trucks and Such

Well, it has been an eventful weekend around here.  John got his new (to us) truck on Thursday, and for the past few days, life has revolved around it.  Since the truck needed an inspection sticker from our county as well as a toll tag, John took my car to work on Friday leaving the Tundra with us to take care of the necessities.  I have to admit that I did enjoy driving the truck.  It has the same engine and basically the same interior as my Sequioa, but since the back end is so much lighter, it has a lot more 'get-up-and-go.'  I had to keep reminding myself that I was not driving my car and that I needed a lighter touch on the gas.   That is, until Cora brought me back to reality with her comment, "Everyone!  Hold on tight!"  (It's a good thing I never learned to drive the Audi!)

Cora, also, seems to be quite in love with the new truck.  Several times on Friday I commented about going back to Daddy's car to which she immediately responded, "No, Momma, it's a truck!"  (She's pretty much a black and white kind of girl!)  And, now, whenever we go somewhere, she always wants to know if we get to ride in the truck.  Sadly for her, usually we don't since the carseats reside in momma's car.  But, not to worry, I'm sure there will be many a trip in the truck to come!

Best Laid Plans

Recently, Cora and Carys were invited to join a research panel of young children at one of the local universities.  The language lab researches language acquisition in young children.  This morning we traipsed downtown to the lab so Cora could be a part of shaping the future of language research.  Or so we thought...

After navigating the craziness surrounding the university in between classes, we found the lab, unloaded and proceeded to the study. Everything went swimmingly until they pulled out the puppets.  I mean, we all know how menacing puppets can be, right?!?  My brave and fun loving little girl immediately retreated to the safety of the IKEA chairs far away from the dangers of the furry little woodland creature puppets.  The poor research assistants weren't exactly sure what to do at that point.  I'm not sure that they expected to have this much difficulty just getting the process started!  We all tried various methods of trickery and reverse psychology, but Cora was not to be persuaded that those creatures were anything but horrible and scary.  Epic fail!  The research assistants were extremely good-natured about it and assured me that it was fine for her not to participate this time.  They even let her select a book to take home.  Maybe Carys will be more cooperative when it's her turn!

Four Generations

This past weekend, we trekked to San Angelo for a long overdue visit with my parents.  It had been Thanksgiving since we had been to their house, so it was definitely time to make the journey.  One of the objectives of the trip was for my grandparents to meet this little missy.

She was joyous as usual and proved to be very cooperative for pictures...

Unlike a certain other someone...

I just don't know where she gets her flair for drama!

Since my parents were on vacation on Cora's actual birthday, we also had a third 3rd birthday party.  (It's too bad no one gives my girls any attention...three birthday parties, lol!)

She got many fun gifts, but the dinosaurs and the dvd of Rapunzel (Tangled) are by far her favorites.  Naturally, her birthday party would not be complete without some chocolate cake.  She chose pink sparkles, but was much less interested in blinging out the cake than eating it.

I mean, when faced with this much deliciousness, I can totally understand how suddenly sprinkles would become a non-issue!

After cake, we attempted some four generation pictures.  As you imagine, this was a bit of a feat considering the three and under set are always wild cards when it comes to photography.  But, I think we had some measure of success.

Well, at least the grown-ups are looking at the camera!

If the HOA Only Knew!

Our fence is still only half complete.  I think neither Linda nor we really want to close it up.  But, I have a feeling the HOA would have something to say about that. So, between car shopping (!) and all the other craziness at our house, John is steadily closing it off.  But, in the meantime...

we porch crash!

It just so happens that Linda's plant watering time coincides with our outside play time.  So, more often than not, the adults end up on Linda's porch while Cora and Penny run around mega-yard.

It also happens that in addition to having her own set of supplies for Penny, Linda also recently acquired a child-sized cup "in case Cora needs something to drink."  Seems like Tinymight has a certain 'Auntie' wrapped around her little finger, too!  In fact, the other night while we porch crashed, Cora informed Auntie Linda that she needed something to drink.  She proceeded to walk Auntie Linda into her house and then informed me that I should stay outside.  Well, okay then, little missy!  (It seems that three may be the age of attitude and bossiness...lovely!)

Thank goodness Auntie Linda is so patient and sweet!

It looks like this little girl may be working her magic on Auntie Linda as well. I'm discovering this voodoo my girls (and dog) possess is pretty powerful!

John and Mistew Wick (Rick) like to chat about cars and man stuff while Linda and I talk about family and school (since we are both former elementary teachers).  

Some evenings, we while away the time chit-chatting until we can't handle the mosquitoes anymore.  It feels like what neighborhoods should be like.  All we need is an ice cold cherry coke and a six string!

Stats

Last Thursday, the girls had their well checks at the pediatrician.  When Cora was Carys's age, these check-ups were huge sources of anxiety for me since Cora seemed to have so much trouble putting on weight.  Just one look at Carys's gorgeous chunky thighs reassures me that I don't have to worry about it with our little chubilla!  Here's our starting line-up

At 3 ft, 1/4 inches and 28 pounds, Cora!  (25th percentile for weight and height)

At 2 ft, 1 1/4 inches and 15 pounds, 12 oz, Carys!  (25th percentile height, 40th percentile weight)

Carys has started sitting up on her own.  Although, she would much rather just roll around on the floor than  remain upright.  One of her favorite things to do is to flop over and put her feet in her mouth.  Her other favorite thing is to sing.  Girlfriend loves the sound of her own voice!

"You talkin' about me?!"

 
"Haha!  That's what I thought!"

Cora is also progressing right along.  Lately she has become very interested in other people.  A little of her shyness is starting to melt away though she still prefers to court the attention rather than it being thrust upon her.

 Cora's two sides:  goofball!

The Thinker!

Thank you, God, for these two happy, healthy girls!

Changing the Ticker and a Bit About Patasha

The other day I was reading my blog.  (Yes, I am ego-centric like that!)  And, I realized it was time to change Cora's birthday ticker.  I popped on over to lilypie where I was rudely awakened to reality.  My 'baby' is creeping quickly toward age 4.  When I taught at my church's preschool, I taught 4 year olds.  How can it be that my 'baby' is going to be one of those kids?  Impossible!

But, if that weren't proof enough that she is growing up, I can always look to the fact that she is mostly potty trained and no longer requires a paci when she sleeps to slap reality in my face.  Like I mentioned in her birthday post, last Friday we headed to Build-a-Bear Workshop in one of the local malls.  I was on a mission.  Cora, naturally, was more interested in the train that periodically chug-a-chugged by and the angry bird plushies.  I, however, was determined for her to pick out an animal in which to place her last remaining paci.  After refocusing her attention approximately 783 times, she finally selected a bright pink bear.  I was able to convince her to put the paci in the bear, and the bear got stuffed and closed up.

I had feared that putting the paci in the bear would be the easy part.  I was petrified that naptime and nighttime would be the end of me.  I feared that I would go in to get Cora up from her nap or in the morning and find a headless bear, a pile of stuffing, and a smiling Cora with a paci in her mouth.  But, much to my shock and surprise, she did amazingly!  She asked for her paci once at naptime, and only fussed a little after being reminded it was in the bear.  It has been smooth sailing since then!  Hallelujah!

Incidentally, she named the bear Patasha.

So proud of my big girl!