We Made It!

We made it!

We're here!

Hallelujah!

1526 miles. 2 days. 1 SUV. 4 adults. 1 baby. 37 tons (give or take) of stuff.

We arrived in Virginia late last night; well, really, it was early this morning. We are all happy to be out of the car. But, I dare say, Cora is the happiest! Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip. Cora was a Trooper with a capital T! She only really cried out of tired frustration once.

Here we are in, wait for it. . .Arkansas. I know you never would have guessed that! As John says, we were going to take a picture of Cora in her natural state, but thought better of it!

Here is Cora in Tennessee. I was trying to teach her "Go Vols!" But, it ended up looking like "Live long and prosper!" Oh well!

We are looking forward to a great week with Josh, Amy, Dawson, Audrey, Yia Yia and Dado. I think there is a trip to the zoo on the agenda and lots of other fun stuff. I'll keep you posted.

Pros and Cons

I just put Cora down for her nap. It seems that she has outgrown the need for two naps now that she is a toddler. I thought I would be upset about this, but I'm actually pretty excited. She usually sleeps for almost 3 hours now, and this will make running errands and going to playdates so much easier. We won't have to try to squeeze things in between naps. However, when am I supposed to shower and get myself presentable?! I know the obvious answer is to get off my lazy bum and get up early. But, I love the fact that my alarm clock is now sweet baby girl's voice on the baby monitor when she wakes up. How do you go back to that annoying beep or even the radio after that? I suppose I will regularly resort to using that convenient bathroom playpen (garden tub) at least until she is big enough and clever enough to climb out of it!

Wordless Wednesday

Stuck

Cora's quite the adept climber. That is, she's adept at climbing up or into things, but not so much with the climbing down or out. The other day, she was playing in the living play room. I was checking my e mail fastidiously watching my little one when I realized it had become eerily quiet. . . never a good sign. I turned around and found this. . .

She was pretty excited to be in the car seat all by herself. So, what would mom of the year do? Grab her camera, of course. And, then, rescue the stuck little one!

Honest Scrap Award

I've been tagged! Thanks to my bloggy friends Katrina and Megan for presenting me with this lovely award! Here are the rules:

First, tell your readers 10 things they may not know about you, but that have to be true! Second, tag ten people with the award and third, let them know about the award.Finally, make sure you link back to the person who awarded you.

1. I fancy myself a crafter even though most of my friends are way more creative and talented than me. . . Perhaps I'm just a great copy-cat!
2. I have traveled to almost half of the states in the U.S. This summer, I will be adding 4 more states to my total and next year, Alaska!
3. I am a total anglophile - so much so, that I usually end up embarrassing myself around actual Brits by unintentionally talking "British"
4. I love dishes. I have a collection of Wedgwood and really want to start collecting Blue Italian.
5. I love to sing. . . in the privacy of my own home or car.
6. My all time favorite movie is "The Princess Bride"
7. I have had a subscription to People magazine for about 10 years. I love my weekly dose of celebrity goings-on!
8. I detest coffee. I have tried to like it, but I would much rather get my caffeine fix from good 'ol Dr. Pepper.
9. I used to love cute, furry squirrels until the one in my backyard started teasing my dog making her bark like crazy and getting me in trouble with the neighbor.
10. I have trouble telling left from right. If I am giving you directions in the car, please obey the way I'm pointing not the direction that comes out of my mouth!
    

I tag, in no particular order, all of my bloggy friends! Be sure to let me know if you participate in the fun so I can also link back to you!

A Little Bit of This and That

Do you like my new background? I applied it myself. . .which is why the other background loads first and then the new one magically appears. . .annoying. . .I'll ask John to fix it later. I picked this one because I want to change to a 3 column blog. If anyone knows how to do that, can you leave me a comment, please and thank you!!

Today we met some friends at the park. It was the first time we had been to that particular neighborhood park, and I must say it was lovely. Cora had a really good time and got sufficiently filthy from picking up, throwing and eating (!) rocks. Considering her love of making poultry noises and the fact that she eats rocks, I'm thinking we may have some sort of chicken as a daughter, hah! After a much needed bath, my little chick is down for her afternoon nap.

Oh, and, she's getting her first molars. I kept thinking I saw something on those little gums, but as my fingers aren't as tasty as rocks, it was hard to get her to allow me to poke around in there. The other day, I was just fast enough to feel the sharp, poky truth. Speaking of sharp and poky witness a conversation that happened a few days ago.

DH's finger slips into Chicken Girl's mouth
DH: I wonder if she'll bi. . .OWWW!!

Ladies and gentlemen, please do not feed the chicken!!

Wordless Wednesday

Long Overdue Footage

Cora is a full-fledged toddler now. If I wanted to be in denial, babycenter.com took care of that for me when on her birthday, they abruptly switched my e mail from "your baby this week" to "your toddler this week." Sigh. . .

Here is some video of some of Cora's first steps.

(Don't mind Penny. She's a bit of a diva in front of the camera!)

This video is several weeks old. At this point, Cora spends about 50% of her time walking and the other half crawling. I have figured out that I need to keep her in shoes because when we are out and about, she wants to be out of the stroller exploring. The problem (and I know Anna and Miss Abby will appreciate this!) is her tiny feet. (Little missy still can wear size 1 shoes!) I found some shoes today that are labeled 0-3 months, but they are HUGE! I measured them against the bottom of Cora's feet, and she will have plenty of room to grow into them. The reason I chose them is because they have tread on the bottom. It is really hard to find shoes that are intended to be walked in that are size 1. The ones I found are not the most adorable shoes I've ever seen, but they are cute and more importantly, they serve the purpose. I just hope she'll keep them on her freakishly small feet!!

She Gets It From Her Momma!

As I type this post, Cora is wailing because she does not want to eat her lunch. She wants crackers for lunch. She has pizza and carrots. (Seriously, yum!! Double Dave's pizza?!! And, you'd rather eat crackers?!) I mean, not that I would feed my baby pizza. . . Anywho. . .we've been having some battles over meals as of late. My stubborn little burro doesn't realize that she's dealing with the queen donkey here as far as being headstrong. (If she's my little burro, wouldn't that be my burrito??!! Ba dum bum!! You're welcome, I'll be here all night!) In fact, as we speak, she's munching on her pizza - still wailing and snuffling - but eating nonetheless!

This post was not supposed to be about my sweet little burrito. So, don't mind the abrupt segue. We've been working on some sign language with Cora. So far, we've only introduced "more" and "all done." For about the past 2 weeks, she's had them backwards. But, today, she's really caught on and has been doing them correctly all day. In fact, when she woke up from her nap, I asked her if she wanted "more." Right away she did the sign for "more" and started saying "mo mo" which I believe is her attempt to say more. Ladies and gentlemen, that may have to go down in the baby book as the first word! Could that be any more like Cora to have her first word be something that gets her food! It was just so nice today to be able to know exactly what she wanted right at that time.

Since this post is filled with non-sequiters, I'll go ahead and throw this tidbit in. Cora's other favorite phrase is "bah bah." She says it all the time. So, we like to jokingly ask her, "What does a chicken say?" And, little missy will oblige with "bah bah." John and I both find it hilarious when she growls it. She gets her deepest voice and chatters. So, that's when we ask her what an angry chicken says! She'll get that deep, throaty voice and say "bah bah." It's so funny!

She Doesn't Get It From Her Mom

Cora has a little bouncy ball that she loves to play with. She will bounce it and then chase after it with her wonky crawl. If you bounce the ball to her, she many times is able to catch it and bounce it back to you. But, usually, she prefers to play her funny game of fetch solo.


Now, if only we could teach Penny to do the same!!

Mom in Training

One day, Cora will be a really good mom. She's been practicing with her baby and stroller. She pushes baby around the living room.She turns on the music for baby.
And, then, she throws the baby out of the stroller (literally!), so she can play with baby's toys.

Oh, well!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Love

I don't post that often, and perhaps I will improve on this in the future. My wife is such the story teller with such beautiful writing, I feel I would be tainting this masterpiece of documenting our daughters life. However, in putting together Cora's year of pictures video, I felt inspired to put what I was feeling into words.

How do I begin to explain

In words you won’t comprehend

Until you’re a little older,

And your time on hand and knee ends.

From the time I had a chance to view

The unborn portrait of you,

A love began to stir inside of me

Along with a lot of fear too.

How will our life change,

And who will this little girl be?

Will she learn to love Jesus,

And will she learn to love me?

One month, five months, nine months,

To where does the time disappear?

It gladdens (and saddens) my heart

To have loved God’s gift for this year.

But how do I tell you I love you,

In ears that hear but won’t understand.

I hold you and kiss you and hug you.

Place your delicate fingers in my hand.

And when you rest your head on my shoulder,

I’ll cherish that feeling as I grow older.

With conversation

that needs no interpretation.

With discipline, prayers, and touch,

I hope you hear, I love you so much.

12 Month Appointment

Today was Cora's 12 month well check. And, since it's Monday, John got to go with us. (Yes, I did ask him to hold her down for the shots!) Everything is going swimmingly with her developmental markers. She's walking, talking, eating, climbing, pooping (and how!), laughing, smiling, attituding. . . She's still a teeny little thing. She is 17 pounds and 26 3/4 inches. So, she remains off the chart, but she's desperately clawing her way back on. Hopefully, we'll reach that magic 20 pounds by her 15 month well check, so we can turn the carseat around!! (Sidenote: If anyone knows how to bottle metabolism, let me know! We could make a fortune selling Cora's. . .cupcakes, pancakes, and countless other foods later, yet we are still mon petit bébé.)

The truly disturbing thing was finding out that her head circumference is 18.2 inches. Just let that sink in a little. Her head circumference is about 2/3 the size of her body! She falls between the 50 and 75th percentile for head circumference! At 30 years of age, I can still wear some hats designed for children. She must get her head size from daddy! It must be full of big brains like her daddy, too!

Fine Motor Skills, Shmine Motor Skills!

Who needs to learn how to push buttons and flip switches when you can just slam it on the floor?!


Destructor lives!

Buttonhole, Thou Art My Nemesis!

Perhaps the sewing issues have been less of a machine issue and more of an operator issue!!

Okay, they weren't 100% operator issues. . .The hem on Cora's dress is much lovelier when done with the new machine.

HOWEVER. . .have you ever tried to remove buttonhole stitching? I have, twice now. Once because the feed dogs refused to take my fabric any further. In that scenario, I ended up with a giant knotted ball of thread on one side. Out came the seam ripper. An hour and a pair of sore eyes later, I tried again. . .only to be foiled by a bobbin that ran out of thread. AARRGGHH!! An hour and a pair of really sore eyes later, I was able to finish the buttonholes. People, they are not pretty, but they are DONE!!

The really frustrating part. . .I made 7, yes 7, really beautiful buttonholes on my practice fabric. GRRRR!!

So, please do me a favor. If you happen to see Cora in her cute little homemade dress, PLEASE do not look closely at the buttonholes!

Goodbye, Blue Friend!

Today, I said goodbye to a friend of ten years. Although, if I'm being completely honest, we've kind of had a falling out since I made a new friend 3 years ago. But, nevertheless, goodbyes are always sad.Goodbye, Blue Friend!

(My new friend is right above the old one.)

We sold her to John's uncle who needed a new (to him) car to knock around town in. So, we met John's parents at the half-way point to make the transfer. Half-way happens to be Cracker Barrel - yum!

Here's Cora looking like a big girl on the porch at Cracker Barrel.

In addition to snacking on Yia Yia's keys, Cora ate a cup of goldfish, two pancakes, and a kid-size orange juice by herself! She should succumb to that carb-coma any minute now!

Blog Hoppin'

***

An introduction. . .

I'm Melissa. I'm a stay-at-home mom to the love of my life, Cora and wife to the love of my life, John. (Oh, and, not to mention, the furry love of my life, Penny!)

I love to read, travel, shop, craft, blog, play, eat, laugh, love, talk. . .It's nice to meet you!

***

Wordless Wednesday

(My bloggy friend Katrina does something called Wordless Wednesday. I hope she doesn't mind me stealing her tradition!)

Ladies' Lunch

Today was a good day. No giant tantrums (from either of us)! I think we're both learning.

So today, as a reward for our good behavior, we had an outing. When my mom was here this weekend, we determined that there were many issues with my bottom-of-the-line sewing machine. This called for an upgrade! Cora and I headed to our local JoAnn's and found a much nicer, much fancier model. . .the Singer Confidence. I mean, with a name like that, how can you go wrong. I'm pretty excited to try it out. It boasts of an automatic needle threader. . .don't know how that can possibly work, but I'm pretty excited to find out! In fact, shortly after I publish this post, I have a date with my newfound Confidence!

As I was loading my machine and my baby into the car, I realized that I was oh-so close to one of my favorite restaurants, La Madeleine. John and I rarely go there. I guess it's not a very masculine place to lunch. . .I guess it is actually not very masculine "to lunch." But, I love to eat things I can't pronounce in a place that makes me feel like I'm back in the French countryside. Since Cora had already eaten lunch, I thought she would be content with a slice of bread and her sippy cup. Turns out, little missy would also prefer to eat things she can't pronounce. She ate about a quarter of my quiche and all the strawberries and mushrooms off of my spinach salad - or rather, "salade" according to the menu. I was not sad to give away the mushrooms, but I did kind of miss the strawberries! Then, as I slathered my slices of french bread with that delicious jam, she decided she needed some of that, too. So, we shared lunch and enjoyed each other's company and conversation. The conversation was a bit one-sided, but it was definitely enjoyable nonetheless. So, I've decide that La Madeleine will be our ladies' lunch spot. And, when we've been particularly good or find ourselves in need of some girl talk, we shall head to our little haven and have some mommy-daughter time. (And possibly some eclairs and croissants!)