Ketchup

Last weekend, Cora's Yia Yia and Dado stopped by for a little visit.  Cora turned on the charm for them.  She is a bit of a performer, and she has never lacked for an audience.  While they were here, Dado taught her a new word ('ready' for when we play catch), and Yia Yia taught her to recognize the letter 'a'.  Awesome!

On Sunday morning, they took care of Cora while John and I went to church.  They took her to breakfast at Jack in the Box and were amazed that she ate so much.  She had a waffle before she left, and then polished off a grilled cheese sandwich, orange juice, and some fries.  Her metabolism is every woman's dream!  So, Sunday night she got to have the rest of the fries with some ketchup.  She was pretty ambivalent about the ketchup at first.  She was much more interested in the fries.

When she did finally try the ketchup, it was priceless!  She puckered up like she had eaten a lemon, gave a full body shudder and giggled.  So funny!

Did I get a picture of the scene?  Of course not!  You'll just have to believe me when I say it was adorably hilarious.  We tried barbecue sauce the next day, and she was not at all interested in that either.  I'm thinking she's just going to be a plain jane kind of eater which suits me!  Less clean up!

Little Monkey

This afternoon Cora pushed her little monkey chair up against the couch.  Not unusual.  She used her monkey chair to climb up onto the seat of the couch.  Pretty normal for our house.  She then proceeded to wriggle up on top of the cushions. . . okay, mom's a little wary.

She then scrambled up on to the back of the couch. . . umm, yikes?!

Then, she got up on her tippy toes. . .mom's jumping up to her feet!! (But, she doesn't put down the camera!!)

She decides she wants to get up on the pass through.  Mom intervenes. . . finally!

She gets stuck behind the cushions.

No problem.  She just tosses (a la the Incredible Hulk) the giant couch cushion to the floor.

And what do we have behind cushion number two??!!

Paci! Score!!

Words, Words, Words

She's a sponge, I tell you!

It seems that Cora's vocabulary is really exploding. Admittedly, she's learned a lot of food words. Weird! ; )

On a whim, I decided to teach her to answer when someone asks her name. She had a little trouble with the r in Cora, so I taught her to say Coco. I'm not really sure why, but hearing her say 'Coco!' tickles me to no end! (I've called her Coco since she was a teeny babe.) She can also count to 2. Which coincidentally, is usually the amount of crackers I give her at a time. Hmm, odd!

Here are some more of her new expressions:

cookie

cake

faffle (waffle)

petz (pretzel)

moke (milk)

wawer (water)

block
book

sock

coat

diapey (diaper)

'side (outside)
down
out (for when we turn the light out at bedtime)

I know!/I know it! (methinks, I may say this phrase too much?!?)

Coos (Blue's Clues)

puppy (though her preference remains 'BIDEY!')

Maggie (our friends' dog)

Cujo (another of our friends' dog. . . notice a pattern?!)

Rocco (Roscoe Ram)

monkey

Whee!

fas (fast)

agie (again)

And, here she is showing off some of her new vocabulary.

We Are Those Parents

Y'all, I love tv!

Is there such a thing as genetic predisposition to tv? If so, I have it! I'm thinking Cora may have it, too. At least that's what I'm telling myself!

So, may I just say how much I love tv on demand. I stumbled upon preschool on demand sometime last year. (Contrary to its advertising, it is NOT 'like preschool on tv.' But, it is age appropriate and commercial free!) We tried several options, but the winner by far is Blue's Clues. And, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the main character is a cute, blue BIDEY! (For those of you who may be new to ye olde blog, 'bidey' is Cora's way of saying dog. Nope, not really sure why! We've just come to accept it!) So, bless her little heart, whether it is nature or nurture, she will walk up to our tv, tap it gently, and ask for 'Coos?' I wish to report that when I gently tell her no, she accepts such answer with grace and dignity. But, alas, such is not always (or maybe it is never) the case. Fortunately, until she learns to operate the remote control, I still have the upper hand, ha ha!

It's Just About Time for Our March Resolutions

As a family, we don't really make New Year's resolutions.  My philosophy is if you have a goal why wait until an arbitrary date to start working on it.  So, I set goals throughout the year.  Supposedly, most people are successful at keeping up a New Year's resolution for about two and a half weeks.  That tradition we do actively participate in!  

Anyway, though we don't tend to specify goals at the start of the new year, we do tend to fall into a goal setting frenzy as March approaches.  Generally, it is the same goal every March:  

Get in shape, by golly!

(Excuse the obvious irony of us canceling our gym membership a couple of weeks ago!)  John and I have been very diligent about going for a walk as often as weather will permit.  Admittedly, John is much more diligent about it than me, but I have even surprised myself at my level of commitment.  Now that John has some fancy-dancy apps on his brand new phone (afforded in part by our canceled gym membership - tee hee!), we can track our caloric intake, mileage (including our estimated miles per hour), and calories burned.  How did we ever get along before?!

Cora and Penny are both loving our new commitment to the sidewalks of the neighborhood.  (This is especially good for our little birthday pup. . .gotta work off that cake somewhere!)  Cora loves when we get out the stroller.  She'll run up to it and say "up? up?" with her cute little hands up in the air.  When you get her strapped in, she looks up at you with the biggest grin.  As we walk around, Cora will chatter to us, to Penny, or to herself.  She comments on all the cats and kids and commotion she sees in the neighborhood.  Her favorite thing is when we break into a run.  She likes to giggle and says "WHEEEE!!"  When we stop, she pleads with us to "Go fas?!"  She's a good little personal trainer!  And, as long as the weather stays bright and sunny, you know we'll be wearing out the sidewalks.  It's hard to say no to that sweet little face!

It's Someone's Birthday!

Someone turned 28 today!

It's not me. . .

I'm only 25. . .

Don't I wish!

Okay, so 28 is a bit of an overstatement, but it is someone's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Penny-dog!

Four years ago, John and I were praying about getting a dog.  And, four years ago, you were born!  We think you may be the best and smartest dog ever. . .but, I'm not biased!

I hope you enjoyed your doggie cake!

It's Impossible to Hide M & M's From Yourself

I have a problem with our potty reward.  I told myself I had willpower, but it turns out that I lied.  I was pretty successful at hiding them from John, but it has recently occurred to me that you can't hide them from yourself!  I have been rewarding myself for my excellent bathrooming habits for a few days now. . . I think I need a  plan b.

On the flip side, I have a child who is very happy about sitting on the potty.  She will follow me into the bathroom and sit on her little throne fully clothed.  With her cute little voice, she looks up at me and says, "Please?" Apparently, she also inherited my sweet tooth!

So, we've been practicing our little potty routine at every bath time with only minimal levels of success.  (Success being defined as her tinkling next to the potty rather than running into the bedroom or closet.)  I know you are not as excited about this as I am.  Believe me, I never got excited about tinkle . . . especially not tinkle in my closet.  BUT, as of tonight, we have tinkle in the potty!  (Feel free to jump up and down, clap and cheer! You can believe that we made big, silly fools of ourselves dancing around.)  I don't think she caught on right away as to why we were suddenly so happy and being so, umm, liberal with the M & M's.  And, not once in my life did I picture myself clapping and singing "You tee-teed in the potty!!" while I showed my child a urine filled potty cup.  Ahh, good times!  We still have a few M & M's left, so hopefully, we can have a repeat performance tomorrow night. . .And, then, plan b. . .

Yay For Me!

Look what I got in the mail the other day!

Woo Hoo!  I won a contest held by J over at Smile, Laugh or Die.  J is a preschool teacher with tons of experience and a great sense of humor.  Check out her funny take on day to day life with a passel of 2 year olds!  Thanks, J! 

BONK!

This makes me smile!

She was practically guffawing, but as soon as I grabbed the camera, she mellowed out. Typical, right?

(Sorry about the quality! I took this video with one of our still cameras.)

For In the Meantime

We've hit a little dry spell here.  Nothing much that interesting going on.  I do have some fun video to post, but I need to have John compress it before I can upload.  So, in the meantime, please enjoy this little drop of sweetness.

John usually reads Cora her bedtime story.  Eight Silly Monkeys has been one of her favorites as of late. Just wait 'til you see the footage of John reading it to her!

A Little Bit of This and That

Cora is at the age where she should starting putting a couple of words together.  Cora's buddy Tyler just recently said his first sentence.  So, we were on the lookout for when Cora would string some words into a sentence.  And, I am happy to report that true to her Baylor bloodline, her first sentence was "Go Bears!"  It is hilarious to hear her say it because she does so with some sort of mid western accent.  It comes out more like "go bey-uhs!"  Suffice to say, John has tried very hard to get her to give a shout out to A&M, but "Gig 'em, Aggies!" is a bit of a mouthful for little missy.  He can be reassured by the fact that this proclivity to Baylor will be short-lived.  My little dog lover would never choose a bear mascot over Reveille!

Here are some of the other new words Cora says:

• milk
• book
• 'side (outside)
• diaper

And, because I haven't posted a picture in a few days, and I don't like to be cruel to the grandparents, please enjoy!

Love that bedhead!

Am I Teaching Her? Or, Is She Teaching Me?!

Well, we had some measure of success with the little potty last night.  She did sit on it.  She did not cry.  She enjoyed the m&m's.  She tinkled on the bedroom floor. sigh  Thank goodness for wood floors!

BUT, I do consider it a small victory.  She sat on the potty without screaming. . .progress!  And, I have a new theory to test out tonight.  We shall see!

Toileting Updated, Part 2

A bribe.

(Because we are those parents.)

Toileting Updated

My kid has a mind of her own.  'Nough said. ..

'Cept it's never 'nough said with me. . .I tend to be, umm, verbose.

I let Cora 'play' with her potty all afternoon.  She sat on it; she opened and closed the lid; she used it as a step stool to climb on the couch; she pushed it around the living room. Awesome!

At bath time, I ceremoniously carted it to the bathroom and placed it in its special spot by the tub.  I stripped little missy and put her on her new potty.

Oy!

You would have thought I was beating the poor kid.  She screamed; she cried (real tears); she tried to get up.  I tried to comfort her and encourage her, but when the crying reached ear-splitting decibels, I relented.  She got up, promptly ran into my closet and started tinkling on the floor.

Sigh

New Toy?

Look what Cora got today.

Yep, this little treasure found a new home at our house.  You will notice I went for the very utilitarian version of the toddler potty.  I was unaware that there were other options available until I found myself in the toddler toileting aisle at the big box store.  In actuality, I could have purchased a "princess" potty with a cushy seat that sings when sweet baby girl tinkles.  Fortunately, I turned on my John filter this morning (that is, John, my husband, not John, the slang word for toilet, tee hee hee.)  I did not want to face up to him with a bright pink singing toilet.  (But, I digress. . .and, how!)

Cora has been showing some signs of being ready.  She usually has a big tinkle right at bath time.  So, I thought, why not just have her sit on the potty for a little bit before we take a bath.  (In theory, this will also keep me from having to clean the large puddle on the bathroom floor every night!! Score!)  I certainly have no expectations that she will be potty trained in a week or two.  We're just going to leisurely stroll down toileting lane and hope that at some point we discover diaper freedom-ville.  I hear it's a very long and winding road anyway.  But, maybe by starting now we can avoid the rush hour traffic! ; )

Cora Loves Her Sunglasses

Daddy's Sunglasses

Now that Cora is tall enough to reach things, she has discovered John's 'valet' box.  Recently, she decided to pull out these sunglasses.  John is VERY particular about his sunglasses, so he must love baby girl a whole lot if he let her have them!  So, now she will frequently be found following you around with the glasses in hand.  When you turn to look at her, she will thrust them at you while she says and signs 'please' for you to put them on her.

She looks pretty self-satisfied, huh?!  She likes to walk around while wearing them, but she's not that great at it yet.  So, generally within a few seconds she will walk into a wall or trip over a reducer.  Funny!

Peek-a-boo!

Cora's Toys of Choice

Please see Cora's toybox full of fun and educational toys.

(Note:  These are her living room toys.  More toys live in her room.)

Now, please see the 'toys' that Cora chooses to play with.

In no particular order, we have:

plastic hangers

random empty boxes

dog leash

dog toys

the string from her block wagon

the step ladder

random packaging materials

and, of course,

a dish towel.

sigh

Eating with a Spoon

sure is messy!

But, it sure is fun!