JUST CORA

This girl makes me smile so :-)

(And yes, that is a pull-up. We were shopping the other day on the baby aisle and Cora saw the Cars pull-ups and wanted them. The Queen always gets what she wants, you know. Don't ask me why she flipped her shirt over her head and strutted around in my flip-flops. We don't keep our house warm enough in the winter for "beach" attire...)

"WE'RE SWIMMING!"

SILOUETTE

To celebrate James learning the alphabet song, I made him an ABC shirt using my Silouette (a birthday present from my mom that I finally had time to sit down and learn to use - and it's very cool!)

I see many fun projects in my future!

EASEL DOES IT

The kids finally had a chance to use their easel for painting today (though they've been enjoying the chalkboard side plenty). It was cool and breezy outside, but nice and sunny, so we spent the afternoon playing outdoors. It was a quiet, relaxing, yet still productive day, and the kids were in great moods all day (which is always a bonus). The painting kept James' attention for about 10-15 minutes. Cora lasted another 5-10 minutes. They did great sharing the paints and space, and we have plans to turn their artwork into something sweet to send their GG at the hospital.

After the painting, we decided to move a couple of our bird feeders from the back of the house up to the front, since we rarely spend time out back in the winter (it gets dark too early). This way, we can watch the goldfinches and chickadees and titmice and woodpeckers and cardinals from the kitchen and living room.

The kids were good helpers, as always.

(Don't mind the helmet, he'd been biking up and down the driveway.)

Once the feeders were moved, we decided to take a ride around the neighborhood. Or the neighbor-bushes as James called it today. Don't ask. The kid is full of weird sayings these days. Including "You're freaking me out!" and "What in the world?!" We're pretty sure he says half the things he does lately just to freak us out...

Happy Saturday y'all!

DUAL PURPOSE

We've been wanting to make a Lego table for a while now and finally got around to ordering a few more Duplo building plates for the project. Rather than build a table specifically for Legos, Jay simply flipped the train table boards over and glued the plates directly to them. Easy and awesome. And the kiddos approve.

(Both kids like to use the table as a tunnel as well. If you look up you can see the untouched painted boards of the train table, ready to be flipped over as soon as the kids request that the train tracks be set up again. See? Easy.)

"ELEHLENOHPEE"

This week James finally stopped yelling at me to stop singing whenever I started the alphabet song (no idea why he's never liked this song, but he never has). So why has he quit telling me to "Stop singing!"? Because he's decided it's not so bad. And he's learning to sing it himself!

HELPER-HELPERTON & GO-FER GIRL

Cora's new nickname at daycare is "Go-fer Girl", because she is always quick to help out and fetch something. She does it at home too, and it's awesome. She is always running off to find something that I'm looking for, or retrieving it from exactly where she knew it would be (she has a great memory). She takes stuff to the trash for me. She puts away everyone's shoes. She cleans up toys far better and more consistently (and without complaint) than the almost-3-year-old. She always helps me with putting away the dishes or transferring over the laundry from the washer to the dryer. She LIKES to help, and we think it's adorable and extremely time-saving (most of the time).

Then there's James, who also always wants to be right there with us doing exactly as we do, helping us. Sure, he helps with dishes and laundry too, but he's even more interested in helping Daddy build something or helping Mama stir something in the kitchen."I gotta help you!" is a phrase we hear pretty often, and it's not just directed at us. It is so CUTE and so sweet when he helps Cora. It's not always a good idea, since he's recently taught her how to get up on the couches and to run back-and-forth and jump between them, but for the most part we're loving it. He hands her things that are out of her reach, he shares his toys and food and drink with her (often without being asked), he gives her a boost by pushing her bottom up when she's trying to climb up on a chair or riding toy or the guest bed, and he entertains her by constantly asking her to "Come play with me!" Last night I even caught him trying to potty train her. If only he could figure out how to get those snaps open on her diaper, Jay and I might be able to just sit this next training session out...

NEW TRUCKS

'Thanks Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa! We finally took our Christmas giftcards out of Mama's purse and went shopping. We picked out some cool new trucks to keep in the car for our trips to the park. Daddy was really glad we found a Tonka truck, but we like the garbage truck from Toy Story just as much. It has an alien in it.'

BIONIC GG

Jay's 96-year-old grandmother (James and Cora's GGmama, or just "GG" as they call her) fell last Friday and broke her hip. In the "best possible place" according to the doctors. She went to the hospital via ambulance and was scheduled for surgery (to put in a pin, not replace the hip) on Sunday.

By Monday she was already up and walking a bit.

On Wednesday she was making baskets, attending both PT and OT each day.

I tell ya, Jay has some GOOD genes, and we are so glad that GG is recovering well and keeping her spirits (and her infamous wit) strong. We love you GG!

"OWIE"

(CLASSIC Cora face here. This was pre-"owie" and she was scolding James...)

Oh Cora. Always the adventurous, fear-nothing, I-can-do-it-too, second child. The poor girl has had far more bumps and bruises and cuts (mostly on her head...) than James ever had as a toddler. For that matter, her overall tally is probably higher than his even though he's been on this earth 15 months longer than her. Today was just one more for the record books. But it was a bad one...

After riding bikes around the track, the kids retreated to the van for drinks and snacks while I changed into my workout clothes. Cora sat in her car seat, James sat at the door ledge, legs dangling. When I was ready, I told them to climb down so we could go inside. James hopped down. Cora carefully climbed out of her car seat, onto the 2nd row seat, down into the base of the van. Then for some unknown reason she just launched herself out the door, with one hand holding her box of raisins and the other holding her sippy cup. And I was parked next to a curb.

At first I panicked, because she cried a different cry and it IMMEDIATELY swelled and bruised. And James was whining about the spilled raisins, so I was surrounded by chaos. She really only cried for about a minute and a half, but I was still worried. I checked inside her mouth - no chipped teeth, no bit tongue or cheek, no blood anywhere. Everything looked OK. But oh, her poor CHEEK...

We iced it some (until it got too cold and made her furious). We refilled the sippy cup with cold water. We ate some crackers that our little pal Alex shared while I hung out with her in the YMCA daycare room. And then that was that. She calmed down and I went to work out. And when her Daddy came home and saw that red, scraped cheek, all he could do was pout and not kiss her too much or squeeze her too tight. Because as she says, she has an "owie!"

PRE-BIKE PRE-BIRHTDAY PRESENT

James and his best friend Manu spend a lot of time together these days. They are now in the same class at school, we get together most afternoons after school to play at a park or go for a run, and we do playdates on the weekends. So although we had been planning to get James a balance bike (AKA pre-bike) for his 3rd birthday (and have had one on his WishList for over a year), we decided to go ahead and get it for him early. Because Manu has a balance bike, and James can only run so fast to keep up with him!

So last night the highly anticipated box arrived, Daddy put it together, and James had a little practice session in the house (since it was already dark outside, and raining). He was super excited when we opened the box!

And even more so once he climbed on:

But the kitchen and hallway are not good places to practice bike riding. So he resorted to just sitting with his new bike, spending some quality bonding time, while reading about vehicles.

Today was beautiful though. Warm and sunny. So we hit the track!

(We picked the crazy green color on purpose - easier for drivers to see. And even though we originally wanted a Skuut or similar brand wooden balance bike, the reviews we read about heat and humidity warping the wood convinced us to get a metal bike, since we live in the Deep South. We figured one with less spokes would be a little safer, and an adjustable seat was a must, since he's tall. Hopefully he'll be able to ride it for a couple years, or until he's ready for a real bike with pedals.)

We brought the Fropper for Cora, a highly used and much loved riding toy at our house for the past 2 years, so that she wouldn't feel left out. Though she ended up making me push her halfway around the track while she relaxed with her feet up on the front wheels. And she ran a quarter of it while holding one handle of her "bike" and dragging it along with her, silly girl.

I like my new view:

Getting brave and riding fast away from Mama:

Our little Biker Dude is pretty darn cute, eh?

BAD SLEEPER?

As I've mentioned before, whenever I complain about Cora not sleeping through the night or not napping well, my mom is quick to remind me that I NEVER slept as an infant or toddler, not for naps and not at night, until I was over 2-years-old. She says this to crush my hopes and dreams. I'm sure of it. Payback's a B, right? Then the other day she tells me about a study she read that said that 10% of babies are bad sleepers, and that those that are, usually don't start sleeping well until 2.5-3 years old. Then she said, "So, only 18 months to go!" And then she typed a little winking smiley face. Thanks mom.

(Don't worry, I'm just teasing her here, not being a defiant daughter.)

Anyway, it got me thinking. Is Cora really a bad sleeper?

And my answer is no. She is not. She is just a particular...

As a newborn, she slept well (for a newborn who was still nursing 3 times per night) and was basically asleep during the nighttime hours, even while nursing. (It still amazes me how well babies can eat in their sleep. And for that matter, how mama's can sleep through nursing sessions too. And for that matter, how much I still think about nursing. And how much I miss it.) At 3-months-old, she started sleeping through the night (10+ hours, coinciding with the introduction of the Miracle Blanket, and hence the reason I now recommend that thing to all new parents), and it lasted an entire month. Just long enough to fool us into thinking Cora was beating her brother's record (since he didn't start STTN until 4-months-old, though he never regressed after that milestone, unlike SOME babies...)

Then she had a delayed growth spurt (perhaps because she was born a few weeks early?) and went back to eating once or twice per night. At 5-months-old we weaned her of the swaddle (not because we wanted to give up the Miracle, but because we were worried about her turning over in her sleep and getting stuck, since she'd started rolling), and her sleep patterns started to get rocky. By 6-months-old she was no longer sleeping by herself in her crib for longer than an hour or two at a time, and by 7-months-old she refused to be put in her crib at all. That's when we introduced the pacifier (because she had started using ME as pacifier) and moved her into our bed full-time. It was the only way any of us got to sleep in stretches long enough to hit good REM cycles. And you know what? Even though she then continued to nurse once per night until she was 11-months-old (hard to pass up a snack when you're sleeping snuggled up next to it all night long), she also slept through the night most nights (eating in her sleep and not really waking either of us).

She became a "bad" sleeper again when we decided to try and move her back to her crib for the start of the night (because this mama had chores to do in the evenings that couldn't be done with our light sleeper snoozing at the top of the stairs, where everything echos, and daddy needed to study). After a lot of effort on our part, we finally convinced her to sleep from 8:00pm-1:00am/3:00am in her crib, in her new room (downstairs, and with a new white noise player, an iPod speaker system that allowed us to loop RockabyeBaby music all night long). When she woke, we'd take turns going down and sleeping with her in the guest bed for the remainder of the night (so that ever other night, we each got a full night of sleep in our own bed - score!). And if she was having a bad night (teething or sick) and woke up before we went to bed ourselves, we'd just sleep all night with her. And on those nights, she'd then sleep the rest of the night through, without wake-ups, comfortable and safe with mama or daddy by her side. Sure, there were nights when she'd be up for hours for no reason, but those were actually pretty few and far between.

And then there's the most recent development, with her sleeping in her crib in James' room. Sleeping through the night consistently (until we messed up her schedule with vacation, at least). Occasionally she even naps in his bed with him, or ends up there in the middle of the night (only very recently) when mama and daddy don't want to sleep in the guest bed (because we're still awake doing other things). The kids really like sharing a room, and they are so young still that it doesn't matter. Anything that gets us all more sleep is what we roll with. We are unwilling to let our daughter cry (or scream like a banshee, as is more apt). She wakes James, she stresses our nerves, and she quickly works herself into a frenzy that then has her awake and upset for hours. So our pediatrician can save her CIO advice for some other family, 'cause the Lindsay's aren't listening!

So basically, what it boils down to, is as long as she's not alone, she sleeps. Just because she doesn't want to sleep by herself in her own room does not make her a bad sleeper. She's always been a baby that thrives on skin-to-skin contact (she will literally push your sleeve aside or lift your shirt to lay her cheek on your upper arm or belly while snuggling), so we've simply accepted the fact that Cora is a clingy, lovey-dovey, physical-touch-needing child, and as long as we give her what she wants (NEEDS!), then she is happy. And thus we are happy.

And maybe in another year or so Miss Independent (in respects other than sleeping) will decide that sleeping alone in her room is cool...

But we're not holding our breath!