Isn't It Sew Cute?!

(Couldn't resist the pun!!)  Eliana's talented mom, Susy, surprised Cora with this adorable shirt for her birthday.

Cora doing her sportswear catalog shot!

Work!  Turn to the left!  

I think that Cora has a little Heidi Klum in her.  She's not much of a portrait, smiley picture girl.  She'd rather give you a supermodel pout or an action shot.  Ha!

When John came home from work to see Cora in her outfit, he actually commented on how cute she looks.  I would say that's pretty high praise for my "guy's guy" to compliment a cutesy pink swing top.  If you like this top as much as we do, you can support a talented stay at home mom by getting your little sweetie a shirt or other cute item at Susy's etsy shop - Sew Susy Sew.  Thanks, Susy!

House Guest

We have a house guest!  Cora is beside herself with joy.  I think we will have one sad little girl when he has to leave.  Do you wanna see him?

It's Miles, our dog nephew!  He's staying with us for a couple of months while his family (my brother's family) moves back to Texas from Alaska. It's a little different having a 70 pound dog around considering our usual underfoot companion is less than 15 pounds!  But, so far, he's been a model house guest.  Very quiet (unless someone comes to the door).  Very obedient.  Very sweet.  I think Penny may be picking up some of his good habits!  (I just hope her bad habits don't rub off on him!)

Penny seems to be adjusting pretty well to having her cousin here.  Miles was here a couple of years ago while his family rode out Hurricane Ike.  He was younger and more playful then.  Penny seems to be a little confused as to why he won't chase her.  But, they get along great. We're glad you're here Miles!

Bubbles!

In addition to the kitchen goodies, Cora got some bubble toys from Mema and P-pa.  Big hit!  Cora's daddy happens to be a really good bubble blower.  Naturally, much bubble joy has ensued!

Look at his amazing bubble form!

Bubble amazement.

Bubble head

Bubble fun!

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Party - Finally!

So, it turns out blogger and picasa were actually playing nicely when I accused them of having a schoolyard tussle.  The (shocking) truth is that John had changed the setting on our camera and blogger did not like pictures in that format.  Apparently, I'm not the technological wizard that I've been claiming to be!  So, it was really no surprise (although it was still aggravating) that I had trouble getting the photos my dad took of Cora's birthday from online picasa to my laptop picasa.  (After the 27th time of attempting the transfer, I finally got the goods about 42 seconds ago.)  There is probably a way to put pictures from online picasa into blogger, but see previous technological wizardry statement!  So, for anyone who is still reading after that scandalously boring anecdote, may I present Cora's 2nd birthday party.

This year Cora helped prepare the cake.  I made the mistake of telling her that we were making cake.  I say mistake because child has no concept of time.  She did not understand why we could not have cake at that moment.  Imagine her tears when I had to bodily wrestle the batter laden whisk away from her before she ate the yummy albeit probably salmonella ridden gooey batter goodness.  So, here is my little baker.

I asked John what kind of cake he thought I should make for Cora.  His response, "I don't know.  Why don't you make the kind of cake you like?"  I could not love that man more!  Yellow cake with chocolate frosting coming up!  Cora helped Mema put the sprinkles on the cake.  (Well, really, Cora helped Mema put the sprinkles all over the kitchen!  Penny was pretty pumped about that!)

We opened presents first and then ate cake.  Her main present from John and me was a play kitchen.  Mema, P-pa, Yiayia and Dado accessorized it for her.  So, Cora has a kitchen, plenty of food, shopping carts, dishes, and pots and pans.  

Much cooking mayhem ensued.  Not sure where she learned to be so messy when she cooks!  That's her boiling bread.  She must be making bagels.  ; )  After cooking, we ate some cake.

What do you think of mommy's favorite cake, little girl?

Mmm, mmm,

good!

2 Year Well Check

Cora had her 2 year well check this past week.  sigh  Now, when people ask how old Cora is, I no longer say a certain number of months.  It's just plain old 2.  And, besides that, Cora knows how to answer how old she is by herself.  sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset  Anywho, please forgive my moment of melancholy.  The two year check-up went great.  Cora weighs a little over 25 pounds and is 33 3/4 inches tall.  She has more than quadrupled in weight and almost doubled in height since birth.  Amazing!!  Everything seems to be checking out great.  There were no issues to report.  We did, however, learn that Cora is getting PLENTY of grains and fruit - as if we didn't know that. ; )  She's a fruit and cracker kind of girl.  We need to try to get more protein and vegetables in her.  We offer both to her, but she just doesn't really care for most meats and vegetables.  I think she gets the meat thing from her mother.  Not sure why she doesn't like vegetables, though.  Anyway, we are so thankful for a good report.  (And, for no more vaccines until age 4!!)

Best Seat in the House

The other night, John and Cora were playing in the living room while I finished up the dinner dishes.  When I peeked into the living room, this is what I saw.

Cora and Daddy chillaxin'.  So cute!  I took the opportunity to take some closeups while she was relatively still and contained.

Her thoughtful face.

A smiley face - sort of!

We were working on smiling for the pictures.  You can see we are not quite there, yet.  But, we'll keep practicing.  I love how wacky her hair looks in these pics.  Like mother, like daughter!

Fourth (of July) Festivities

Can I admit something right here? In all of Cora's 3 Independence Days ('08, '09, and '10), we had never taken her to see fireworks.  When Eliana invited us to celebrate the 4th with her family, we decided to take the plunge. Susy and JW were great hosts.  They fed us burgers and had everything planned out for a fun outing.  We got to the park around 6.  Though it was a bit hot, it wasn't crowded yet.  That meant free reign at the bounce house!!  Cora was unsure at first, but soon enough, she was jumping and bouncing like a little kangaroo.

It was still quite a while until the fireworks started.  So, we filled the evening with dancing.  Sweet Eli likes to dance with her baby.

We ate lots of snacks.

Thanks for sharing your goldfish and blackberries, Eliana!

We took family portraits.

Yes, we are rocking the Old Navy t-shirts!  Can't beat $5.  Cora made my shirt a little more colorful with an Icee pop.  Thanks, darling!

And, finally, we watched the fireworks.

Cora was not impressed by the fireworks.  She dropped like a marine in artillery fire.  I tried to hold her, but she wanted to be flat on the ground!  She did eye the fireworks a little out of the corner of her eye (from the safety of the ground).  But, overall, she would give them a thumbs down.

Miraculously, both girls lasted the entire evening.  Although, by the time we got back to the car, Cora had climbed into her carseat by herself and was begging to "go nigh-nigh!"  Thanks Smith family for a great 4th of July!

Wordless Wednesday

The Post I Will Delete When My Technology Woes Go Away

Okay, y'all, I have posts, lovely posts that I would like to, well, post.  The problem is picasa and blogger seem to be having a bit of an ugly tiff. Right now, they are in the not speaking to each other phase of the argument.  I'm hoping with some counseling and prayer, I can get them back to their wonderful, productive friendship. But in the meantime, I cannot seem to get any pictures uploaded to my posts.  So, I will either need a miracle or John to fix this.  And, when it is fixed, I promise to bore you without ceasing with the fun we've been having.  Stay tuned. . .please?!

Puddles

It's NOT Genetic

I love Sonic beverages.  Mostly, I love Sonic ice.  Can I tell you how let down I've been the half-dozen or so times I've gotten a drink with regular ice.  Geez, it's almost too horrible to type!  After we took the little brown mermaid to the pool on Monday, John and I decided that the perfect treat would be something cold from Sonic. Cora had never had anything more than a juice box, so now that she had turned two, we thought it was time to let her behold the wonder that is a Sonic drink.  One small apple juice slush please!  (Oh, and a sparkling lemonade and a vanilla cone.  Sparkling lemonade is a bit of false advertising by the way.  I would hardly call a sprite with a couple of lemon wedges a sparkling lemonade. . .But, I digress!)

See little missy with her apple juice slush.

Notice she is not drinking her apple juice slush.  She took two sips and refused to drink any more.  She cannot possibly be my child!

A Conservationist at Heart

Since my background is early childhood education and primarily English language learning, I'm trying really hard to remember to seize those teachable moments to help Cora learn to speak well.  The beach presented some great opportunities to introduce lots of new vocabulary.  Cora learned seagull, beach, ocean (though the way she says it is not exactly for polite company), seaweed, and shells among other words.  It was so funny to watch her because John and I would scrounge around in the surf to find something we thought would be interesting to her.  But, when we showed little missy our treasure (i.e. seaweed or shells), she would tell us "no!" and throw it back into the ocean.  It actually became a game.  We would scrounge around to find something while she yelled "more shells!"  And then, she would take what we found and throw it back in the ocean.  Funny how she has us wrapped around those sweet little fingers!
Shell captured. . .

Shell released!

Kites

One of John's favorite things to do at the beach is fly kites.  Our kites are somewhere in the labyrinth that is our garage.  (Ten years of my teaching materials has made our garage a little bit of a, umm, mess.)  But, John found this cute little kite for Cora to fly.  It's a purple fairy kite - how sweet is that for little missy?!  Daddy got the kite all ready for her.

And, Cora flew it like a pro.

Fun times at the beach!