It's Her Party...

And, she'll cry if she wants to!

For anyone who wonders why we do not have friend birthday parties, here is your answer!  She's a pickle, that one!  

Nevertheless, we had a full day of celebrating for little miss three yesterday.  We started our day at the Build-a-Bear store (more on that to come).  We lunched with Cora's bestie, followed by a romp around the playground.  After naps, we watched the princess Belle (of course!) and finished our day with pizza, cupcakes, and presents.  

Cora selected chocolate cake, natch, with sparkles (sprinkles).

 

They were a big hit all around. 

 Someone may or may not have had a second one when Cora and John were outside playing.  

 Of course, Carys was nonplussed when she found out that she couldn't have one!

We finished the evening by opening up presents. (Hence, the crying picture at the beginning of this post.  Like I said, she's a pickle!)  Cora is now the proud owner of several dinosaur and princess themed toys.  What a combo!  Happy big three to my sweet baby little girl!

The Big Three

Cora, heavens to betsy, you're three!

What has our big girl been up to?

You are THE BEST big sister I have ever seen.  You are so sweet and kind to Carys.  Often, the first thing you say after waking up is "Where's Carys?"  You love to hug and kiss her.  You talk to her, tickle her, and entertain her all day.  We are so proud of you!

You recently went on your first sleepover with Yiayia and Dado.  You did fantastic - in fact, I'm pretty sure I had a harder time with it than you did.  You are so fortunate to have both sets of grandparents so close.  I foresee many more grandparent sleepovers in the future!

Your reasoning skills are pretty advanced.  You know how to guide a conversation to get what you want without directly asking for something.  You have a great future as a lawyer or politician! ;-)

You still adore dinos.  We can't wait to take you to the Smithsonian this fall to see the fossil bones there.

You have shown a knack for rhythm.  Out of the blue, you demonstrated a ta-ta-ti ti-ta rhythm to the beat of a song on daddy's phone.  You also love to sing, and more often than not, you hit the right notes even if you've only heard the song a couple of times.  (Your daddy is so excited about this!)

You are (finally) into princesses.  You will watch Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella all day every day if we would let you.  (Your mama is so excited about this!)

You have a beautiful imagination.  You love to pretend.  Some of your favorite toys are the ones that fuel your imagination the most (like sticks from the backyard).

You love to read.  The other evening, you 'read' an entire Clifford book for me word for word.  I am so excited to start school with you in the fall!

(More webcam photos...it's blurry, but she has such a cute smile!)

(Taking MY photo with her 'camera.')

I sure do love you, Cora!

Six

Carys, you're six months old today.  What's new with you?

The newborn hair that you lost is starting to grow back in. And...it has a hint of red!  Your eyes remain blue, and at this point, they do not appear to be changing.  You may be our  little Nancy Drew!

You are starting to demonstrate preferences.  You will decide you want a particular toy, and you will not be deterred by any other toy distractions.

You love to talk.  You have a pretty extensive repertoire of sounds from coos to shrieks to grunts - not to mention laughs and giggles.

You love people and attention.  You are not selective with whom you share your big, beautiful grins.

You are still really working to sit on your own.  You haven't quite mastered that skill, but I know you will very soon.

You have tried cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots.  Bless your pea-pickin' heart, none of them really seem to sit well in your tummy at night.  But, your poor daddy has to feed them to you because you refuse to take a bottle when mommy is teaching at night.  After mommy's class is over next week, you will be back to milk exclusively.

You still wake often at night.  But, you make up for it when you show me that big wide toothless grin when you wake up in the morning.  Mommy is keeping the faith that one day soon, you will sleep through the night.  (Though, even if you don't, I couldn't love you more!)

(I was playing around with my webcam to take this picture.  It's not the greatest quality, but she is still a cutie-pie!)

Baby girl, you make my heart swell!

She Has a Future in Contract Negotiation

Cora spent the past 3 days at her Yiayia and Dado's house.  Originally, we were all going to trek up there so that Cora could go to the zoo and so that John and I would have some babysitting to go to a wedding on Sunday evening.  But, after a full week of teaching VBS all morning and teaching future teachers all evening, not to mention Carys's well-timed sleeping strike, this mama was wiped out!  Instead of all of us going to San Antonio, I thought it was time for me to cut the cord and allow Cora to spend some time on her own with the grandparents.  (And, I thought it was time for me to GET SOME SLEEP!!)  We met Yiayia and Dado at the halfway point, and both of us went home with one kid in the car.

Y'all, all weekend, it was the Cora show over at Yiayia and Dado's house.  The agenda items included:

• blowing bubbles
• going to the zoo
• feeding the hungry birds
• playing in the sprinklers
• Chuck E. Cheese
• riding the train
• going to the zoo
• playing ball
• birthday cake and presents
• Chick-Fila
• art projects at the little art store
• princess movies
• the park
• not to mention, all the goldfish, nuggets, cookies, macaroni and cheese, and waffles a girl could eat

You will notice that the zoo is on the list twice.  Yes, my friends, Cora managed to con her grandparents into taking her to the zoo two times in two days!  As they were riding the train in Brackenridge Park (which happens to swing right by the San Antonio Zoo), Cora got super excited and suggested that she might like to go there that day, too.  Turns out, Cora's excited suggestions are akin to kryptonite for the grandparents.  They ended up taking her to the zoo, again, AND purchasing her a souvenir!  I am in awe of her amazing powers!  

Cora and Yiayia are coming back in a little while, and though I'd like to report that she'll be detoxing from all the excitement, we have a full week of birthday celebrating to do!  I've enjoyed the quiet (and the ease of grocery shopping with only one kiddo!), but I'm ready to see my big girl again!  Thanks Yiayia and Dado for a fun weekend for Cora!

VBS

This past week was Vacation Bible School at our church.  I have been teaching Pre-K during VBS for the past 3 years, but this is the first year that Cora has participated in the actual Bible school activities.  Any doubt that I may have ever had about how effective VBS can be as a teaching tool was totally dispelled after this week.  You guys, my almost 3 year old came home knowing 5 kid-friendly Bible verses.  She told me parts of the Bible story for each day, and she has been singing the songs, too!

Cora's lead teacher, Ms. Lauren, is amazing with kids.  She provided all kinds of age appropriate and fun activities in addition to the curriculum that our church provided.

Cora explored community helpers.

 She played with baby dolls...naturally, she prefers the naked ones...just like at home!

 She built with the legos,

 And, she observed the bunnies...from a safe distance!

In addition to the bunnies, the petting zoo also had a lamb, a calf, a young donkey, a foal, goats and pigs.  And, strangely enough, our little girl who is in love with animals of all shapes in sizes proved once again that she prefers the idea of the animals over the actual live critters!  She would pump herself up to go see the animals and then run out of the gate almost as soon as she got in.  She's a puzzle, that one!

Thank you, Ms. Lauren, Ms. Reina, Ms. Lindsey, Ms. Emily, and Amanda for all of your hard work in teaching these kids!

Lucky Seven

Today is John's and my seventh anniversary.

I know in the grand scheme of things, this is not terribly long.  Both of our parents are coming up on their 40th anniversaries.  My grandparents are coming up on 62 years!  Sometimes it seems like we've been married forever, but mostly it just seems like the time has flown by.

Seven years ago, I had no idea that I would have two sweet baby girls. I had no idea that we would travel across the US several times.  I had no idea that I would still be living in the house we moved into when we got married.   I had no idea that we would become more versed in home improvement than most DIYers.  I had no idea that we would get the best dog in the world.  I had no idea the absolute meaning of 'best friend.'

But, seven years ago, I did know that I was marrying my soulmate.  I did know that I was marrying the man that I wanted to do all of the above things with - though I may not have known we would do them!  I did know that I was marrying a man of honor, valor, and integrity - one who is not afraid to be chivalrous.

I love you, John!  Here's to 70 more!

At Least Three Reasons Why I Am Not Mom of the Year

Cora is suddenly into Disney princesses.  Her favorite by far is Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  You guys, I think we watched 'the princess Belle' about 37 times this week.  It's fascinating to me that suddenly the little girl  we joked of having baby ADD is able to sit, focus, and follow a longer more involved story line.  This new found passion of hers definitely helped me this week while I worked to get ready for my job.  I'm teaching in my certification program's institute.  It's basically a teaching boot camp for college graduates looking to become certified teachers.  (Interested?  Let me know!  You can become certified by the end of the year with our program!)

So, I plugged away with my teaching materials and my laptop while Cora spent more hours than any 2 almost 3 year old should with her pff (princess friend forever).  When I got up to fix dinner, Cora decided to help me prep for class.

I'm so glad I was using pencils to work and not sharpies!!

And, finally, the number one reason why I'm not mom of the year, witness Cora's prayer from tonight.

Dear God,
Thank you for baby Carys.
Thank you for Daddy's phone.
In Jesus name,
Amen

Gotta love that kid!

The Definition of Insanity

So apparently, we have fire ants.

Cora found them for us.

She found them for us 2 or 3 times in the same spot in the yard.

Poor feet!

Good Fences...

...Make good neighbors.  And, that would make us, umm, bad neighbors.  Our house turned 15 this year, and our fence is also that ripe old age.  And, in typical teenager style, our fence has been rebelling and causing all sorts of trouble.  In fact, last fall, one whole section threw a massive hissy fit and just plum fell over!  Poor John!  In the midst of trying to work on the girls' room and the guest room, as well as keep his preggie wife happy, he had to rig the fence to stay up.  Fortunately for us, this neighbor is practically family.  She did not mind the franken-fence.  Well, we finally got our acts together, and John and his dad began the process of helping us become good neighbors again.

Notice Penny in the background.  She is, of course, enjoying 'mega-yard'!  In fact, earlier this week, the girls and I went out to run some errands.  When I came back home, there was a message for me from Auntie Linda informing me that she and Penny were chilling out in her house.  Hah!  I think Linda may actually prefer for us to leave the fence down!  

Cora, naturally, wanted to be outside in all the hubbub.  Yiayia came up with the idea of letting her play in the water hose.  Y'all, that simple little activity would keep her occupied for an hour at a time!  Suh-weet!  When she started to get a little restless with just the hose, we gave her a big cup.  Ahh, to be young again!

Notice anything exciting in these pictures?  No swim diaper!!  That's right, folks, we are almost potty trained. She has one function down, and we are diligently working to get the other function under control.  But, for the past 2 (yes 2!!) weeks, she has been wearing big girl p@nties during the day with only a small handful of accidents.  Hallelujah!  

Carys, who also loves to be outside, snuggled with Yiayia and made cute faces like this:

And, this:

And, of course, this:

I could just pinch her!  (But, I won't!)

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

So, Carys wasn't really diggin' the rice cereal.  (Cannot imagine why!)  I had been reading up on homemade baby food, and most of the experts were suggesting that you don't have to start with cereal or even introduce it at all.  Fine by me!  We moved on to bananas.  As much as I had to coax Carys to eat the cereal, the opposite was true for the bananas.  She would actually reach for my hand to pull the spoon in her mouth!

Look at her little hand grasping mine!

Good stuff!

Next: sweet potatoes.

Thirty-Six

John, you're 36.  What's new?

Your knees are a little creakier.

Your hair is a little grayer.

You've learned to build a fence.  You got to use heavy equipment (2-man auger)  in the process!

You're now wrapped around 2 little girls' fingers!

Your wife is as gorgeous as ever! ;-)

Life is good!

John's birthday was Wednesday, and Cora was super excited to celebrate.  (Mostly because she now knows that birthdays involve birthday cake!)  We made Daddy a special meal, and his favorite cake.

(It appears that these may actually be some of the worst pictures I have ever taken!  Yeesh!  But, you get the idea!)

Instead of putting 36 candles on the cake, we decided on a group of three and a group of 6.  36 candles is a lot for one small cake!  

After cake, John got to open his presents.  The girls gave him a Superman t-shirt (cuz he's their superman, of course!)  And, I got him a Captain America tee since he's my American hero!

Happy birthday, John! I love you best of all!

Five

Carys, you're five months old today.  What's new?

I'm not sure your exact weight and height, but you have for the most part grown out of your 0-3 month clothes.  You can still wear clothes marked 3 months, but we're having fun dressing you in your 6 month summer wardrobe.

You have started going to the nursery at church where you have been charming all the workers.  Every week we get a report about how happy you have been.  You love people (and attention!)

We started you on rice cereal today.  I love your happy, smiley, charming self, but momma's tired!  You still wake up 2 to 5 times a night.  I'm hoping the cereal will help, but if it doesn't, I still wouldn't trade you for all the uninterrupted sleep in the world!

I think your face says it all!  I tasted that stuff.  It is not fine dining by any means!

You have learned to pass a toy from hand to hand.  (You have also learned to take the paci out of your mouth with your little hands.  But, much to my dismay, you have not learned to put it back in!!)

You can sit unsupported for a tiny while.  You soon tip forward, but you do manage to stay somewhat upright.  You love to do 'squats.'  I will hold you under your arms and you will use your strong legs to push your body from a squat to fully upright.  It appears that I have another athletic baby!

Every day I recount how blessed I am to be the mother of such a beautiful, healthy girl!

And, She Chooses to Play With Sticks

I have mentioned before my dismay at Cora's choice of toys.  It's not that I don't appreciate her active imagination.  Maybe it's that I wonder why I keep falling into the trap of buying her new toys.  Yiayia and Dado recently bought her some toys that she could keep outside.  (I was informed by one of Cora's older friends that her backyard was "way funner" than ours.  Apparently, a trike, a wagon, and some sad patio furniture do not a playground make!)  So, Yiayia and Dado graciously added golf clubs and a bowling set to our sad little play area.  And, she chooses to play with sticks...

(At least she loves them enough to name them!)

It's Been A While

So, it's been a while since I've posted.  This is mainly due to the fact that we are dwelling in the seventh circle of potty training hell.  I'd like to assume that we're already in the lowest of the low ninth circle, but I have this strange and sinking feeling that we haven't reached rock bottom just yet. sigh  And, really, I doubt that the internet universe really wants to know the details of my personal purgatory.  We have seen progress, though.  And, this progress, however small it may be, is the one thing keeping me clinging to a few small shreds of my sanity.  Anywho...I definitely wanted to share this little nugget of the bffs.

(Naturally, by the time we had the camera out and ready, the laughter wasn't nearly as enthusiastic.  But, it's still pretty darn cute!)

I cannot emphasize enough what a great big sister Cora is.  She cannot get enough of Carys.  In fact, earlier tonight, I told her she had to take a bath before she could hold Carys, and the poor thing burst into tears!  Cora loves her Sissy!  And, Carys can't get enough of Sister!

Mother's Day

Carys Anne - May 8, 2011

I am not unlike most little girls.  When I was young, I dearly wanted to become a mother.  I wanted to become a teacher also, but if God would have only granted me one of those dreams, I would have happily forgone my professional career in favor of having a family of my own.  Sometimes it seems surreal to me that I have any children, much less two happy healthy little girls.  Although I know I could never prove myself worthy of two such precious gifts, I am humbly in awe and unabashed in my thankfulness to God that for the rest of their lives, I will be their mommy.

This Mother's Day was especially meaningful to me because this morning Carys was dedicated at our church.  For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, it is somewhat similar to an infant baptism.  We brought Carys before our congregation  and pledged to do our best to raise her to be a Godly and God-fearing woman.  Our deepest and dearest desire as parents is that our girls will come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  This ceremony signified that John and I will do all that is within our power to raise Carys to know the Lord.  (We had a similar ceremony for Cora almost three years ago.)

Brother Danny's message this morning was about mothers and grandmothers, and he shared testimony from his life about how his mother raised him to be the man that he is today.  I felt like his message was a call to arms of sorts for me personally.  A child's relationship with her mother has such a huge effect on the person she becomes.  I know that I would not be the wife and mother that I am had I not been taught to be so by my mother.  And, conversely, John would not seek to be the caring provider that he is had he not been nurtured by his mother.  I can only pray that my imperfect example will still lead Cora and Carys to not only be Godly wives and mothers, but to seek out good and Godly husbands.  

Thank you Mema for your patience and persistence with your stubborn and hard-headed little girl.

And, thank you Yiayia for helping John to become a man of honor and integrity.

We are blessed by who you have been to us and by who you will be for our girls!