EXHAUSTED

I stayed up too late last night, baking cupcakes for a bake sale at work and folding clothes and packing diaper bags and cleaning the kitchen and working on Cora's yearbook. And watching DVRed stuff. By the time I rolled into bed, Cora was already waking up (midnight). And rather than going back to sleep as soon as I scooped her up and took her into the guest bed with me, she did the same thing she has been doing for the past 3 nights: fussing and kicking and hitting and climbing and crying and shrieking and telling me "No, no, no!" It took me 2.5 hours to get her to go back to sleep. Then I crept back upstairs, climbed into bed, and not 30 seconds later she was back up, bouncing and screaming in her crib (I had given up on the guest bed when she started pulling my hair). Which caused me to cry, from exhaustion and frustration. Luckily, Jay immediately came to my rescue and went downstairs so I could get a few hours of sleep. Even though she went right back to sleep for him, we both really needed our coffee this morning!

And again, luckily, it was Corps Day! So we didn't have to worry about focusing on work. Instead, we focused on our kids (Corps Day is "Take Your Family to Work Day"), and ended up expending FAR more energy than we usually do in a normal work day. We carted them all over station, tried to convince them to ride the pony, fought with them over jello and cheeseburgers, and chased Cora through the obstacle course over and over and OVER!

James refused to step foot in the obstacle course. He was scared of the "big slide". He didn't want to bounce in the bounce house. The pony was cool to look at, but there was no way he was going to touch it, let alone ride it. For some reason, our generally fun-loving and active boy was more interested in sitting today. And playing in the dirt. And following his routine of the past week or so of CONSTANT whining and clingyness. Honestly, this is the first week EVER that we have considered Cora to be our "easy" child.(At least part of his "playing" in the dirt was to tell us he was drawing shapes, which he actually did pretty well - circles, triangles, and pentagons, yes, PENTAGONS - we just taught him about pentagons this week, and he's obsessed!)

She got a LOT of compliments today. Folks were floored that she was willing to slide down that big slide all by herself. They loved her outfit, her hair bow (thank you Aunti T'in and Uncle Davey!), her shoes, her smile, and her dance. Oh my, did she ever dance today. There was a live band playing Dylan cover songs, and Cora got right down in front of them and shook her booty and head over and over, much to the amusement of our coworkers. And as usual, the other kids around all wanted to play with Cora. "What's her name?" "How old is she?" "Can I catch her?" "Can I play with her?" "Can we slide together?" She's famous I tell ya! This face says it all though:Not to be outdone by her big bro, Cora spent a good amount of time in the dirt as well. Collecting rocks and acorns. This girl has potential to be a hoarder, for sure...

I'll try to upload some video of her dancing tomorrow. My computer is acting up tonight, and I'm too exhausted to fight with it. Ni-Night!