ALL ABOUT CORA: 8-MONTHS-OLD

MEASURES: 18.0 lbs and 26.5 in. And she's still holding at 2 teeth (the bottom center incisors), despite all the hand gnawing and toy chomping and drooling going on. She has some fuzzy blonde hair, but only about an inch all around (no Mississippi Mudflap for this girl).

SLEEPS: In our bed, with us, all night long. When she isn't awake or semi-awake to nurse, that is. I haven't been able to lay her into her crib in her room successfully for almost 2 weeks now, so I've given up trying. Perhaps we'll be moving our mattress to the floor. Or installing bed rails. Or even buying another twin mattress to place on the floor in our room, just for her. We shall see. We certainly don't want Baby Doll rolling or crawling off our bed. Not that she rolls. Or crawls. She still sleeps in one spot, on her back, all night long. The most movement I've seen is when she gets furious that she wakes up alone and scoots herself up toward the headboard (like a little upside-down inch worm). She's back to napping in her swing, when she's not napping with me. I admit I kinda like the excuse to nap with her (at least at the start) though. She slept for over 3 hours that way each day this weekend, so I really can't complain.EATS: Lots. She nurses 7+ times per day/night. She very rarely sleeps through the night these days, and will wake anywhere from 1-3 times/night to scoot close to me and grab (literally) a sleepy snack. During the day, she eats 2-3 solids meals. Always dinner, and usually lunch. On occasion we give her some breakfast too. She's a big fan of Cheerios right now, and will demand them if she sees them sitting on the table. Bossy!

(Check out that double chin!)

SAYS: Not much, but she's definitely getting more talkative. I catch her babbling to herself now when she plays alone, or when she's in the car (which is much more entertaining than the crying she used to do in the car)! She can put a few consonants together with her vowels, including 'c/k', 'g', 'y', 'w', 'n', and most recently 'd'. Her first word is 'car'. Yup, you heard that right. Car. All you have to do is ask her "Cora, what do you want for your birthday?" and she'll answer with "cah". And yes, I'm serious. We know she doesn't understand what she's saying, but she still says it. And it's hilarious, considering the car is one of her least favorite places. So maybe she learned it because it's one of James' favorite words (and favorite toys). Of course, Jay and Grambot swear they heard her say 'Dada' while Skyping today. I'll have to double my efforts with teaching her "Mama' I suppose...

DOES: Assisted situps and standups. She's trying to pull up on her own now too. She sits great and can bend completely forward or sideways to grab a toy, then get herself back into a sitting position. She can now sit in a restuarant highchair and grocery cart. She likes to stand or kneel in your lap. She's a great dancer (bouncing and arm flapping and head banging). She can spin herself in a circle to "chase" you or grab a toy if you've stranded her on her tummy, and she can scoot backwards (but not too far).

DOES NOT: Play on her tummy (long). Or sleep on her tummy. Or enjoy anything that has to do with laying on her tummy. I swear this girl is going to skip crawling all together!

HOLD ME!

A Valentine's Day preview...

KISSES AND ZERBERTS

LIFE IS GOOD

Lounging around... And practicing standing...

And talking to Mama...Can sure wear a girl out!Baby Doll had a GOOD nap day. I don't know whether it's just that she's sick (still getting over her ear infection) or that she's finally learning to nap better, but she slept for 2.5 hours all by herself today. After I nursed her to sleep, I snuck out of bed and stuck a pillow in my place (just like I do at bedtime), and it worked (for the first time ever, longer than 20 minutes anyway). I checked on her a million times because I just couldn't believe she was still sleeping. At 4:00 PM I went upstairs again and found her wide awake, just laying there looking around the room. I don't know about this girl...

SICKY POO

When James wouldn't eat yesterday, we knew something was up. We checked his temp when we got home from dinner (low-grade fever) and peeked into his mouth (swollen and splotchy throat). A call to Dr. Mom assured us that we needed to monitor his temp and see how the night would go, and take him in if the condition worsened. We dosed him with ibuprofen, coaxed him into eating a bit of yogurt, and got him into bed. All was well until 3:45 AM when he woke with a nasty cough. NASTY. And he still had a bit of a fever. So off to the on-call morning clinic he went with Jay as soon as they opened. Turns out he has croup again (this makes #5 - he gets it every single time the season changes, or the weather drastically changes, like with our recent snowfall and cold snap) and a likely case of strep throat (the on-call doc was our pediatrician, and she didn't want to wait on cultures before prescribing something). So he's on antibiotics again. Something to knock out both illnesses. His fever spiked to 102 shortly after they got home. He slept for over 3 hours this afternoon though, and seems to be feeling a bit better. I tell ya, this kid really, truly, can't catch a break. I hope that what they say, that frequency of illness in kids starts to subside at 2-years-old, is true. Between him and Cora, the house is full of sicky poo's, and Jay and I are just hoping we don't catch it. Because the only thing worse than 2 sick kids is a pair of sick parents to go along with them. Boo.

Oh yeah, and his hair looked AWESOME after his nap.

SITTING HIGH

Cora took her first ride in the grocery cart today. And she liked it. Until she got tired at the end of the trip. Good thing I had the Beco under the cart. She made lots of friends today, smiling at all the patrons who smiled at her. Good times!

DINING OUT

Fridays are great days to go out for dinner after work. At least, they are in my opinion. Rather than make another trip to The Hat, we decided to hit up McAllisters for a change, where they serve yummy mac-n-cheese that James normally loves. His teacher had reported that he ate nothing for breakfast (which was grits, so we weren't surprised, since he doesn't like them - and thus we try to feed him breakfast at home on days we know they are serving them) and nothing but applesauce for lunch (which concerned us, because he likes spagetti). We wanted to be sure he ate a good dinner. And just for fun, we decided to let Cora join us at the table in a highchair of her very own (she usually just sits in my lap):

I know, she looks teeny tiny. And she is. Though the tables there are a bit higher than the norm.

James didn't want anything to do with the mac-n-cheese. Or his pizza.

But SOMEBODY enjoyed the mac-n-cheese...

SNOW MUCH FUN

It's our THIRD snow day (read: daycare being closed due to a 'winter storm') in the 'Burg, and we finally have some actual snow! Not much (not enough to build even a mini snowman), but enough that we could teach James to say 'pretty snow'. We haven't bothered going outside, since the temperature most of the morning was "22 degrees, feels like 8". Yeah. No thanks. Besides, we have a sick Baby Doll here, and she certainly doesn't need to be exposed to such harsh conditions. At least I had an excuse to dress her in her winter/snow shirt one more time...

She is feeling better though. Her fever spiked to 101.2 at 5:00 AM this morning, and had been hanging around 99ish until after her nap (which required me laying with her through most of it to keep her asleep), when it went back to normal and has stayed there, even without Tylenol/Ibuprofen. Hopefully the meds are doing their thing now and she'll be well soon.

FULL OF CRAZY, REPRISE

He's still got it...

PERFECT MATCH

Cora's new booties arrived just in time for our latest winter storm - a perfect match to her bear hat.

INFECTED

So bummed! Cora has had a mild fever (barely hitting the mark her pediatrician uses of 100.5 to designate a fever) for over 24 hours, so Jay took her in to get checked out this morning. Turns out she's getting another ear infection, in her left ear (again). We caught it early. We knew something was up (more than teething) when she was picky about her bottles yesterday (drinking slower than usual and not finishing them), and especially when she fussed while nursing at lunch. As you all know, nursing is what Cora does best, so I was understandably concerned to have a fussy baby at my breast. Obviously, she's on antibiotics again.

On the upside, we got to find out how much The Chunk weighs. She's at 17 lbs 14 oz. That's only about a half pound less than James was at 8-months. So no, she didn't gain 10 pounds this month. Or even 2. She'll have gained right at 1 pound from 7-8 months, which is exactly what James did at that age. Of course, she's about an inch and a half shorter than him, so I suppose that explains why she looks thicker to us. Love those rolls Baby Doll. LOVE them!

CAMPING OUT?

Yup, that's our baby boy, sleeping with his booty in the air and his head under a pillow tent. I don't even want to know how (or why) he did that...

SUPER CUTIES

I begged mom to take some photos of my niece and nephew at their Superbowl party, and she came through with flying colors. Miss Addisyn just turned 4-weeks-old and Big Bro Eli is closing in on 2-years, just like James. It's been so long since we've seen Eli, and we can't wait to meet Addy. Until then, we'll be thankful for text message photos, Snapfish uploads, funny stories, and Skyping. We love these kiddos!And if this isn't enough cuteness for ya, D&T have actually been updating their blog, so hop on over to see more from The Bacons!

"C" IS FOR...

"C" is for Cora.

And "C" is for Chunk.

We need to weigh this girl. Seriously. I swear she's gained 2 pounds this week. Or maybe it's 10. At least, that's how it feels to pick her up and cart her around all day.

(She's definitely a "thicker" baby than James was at this age. Hmmm, could it be because she doesn't move? At all? She prefers to just sit around and look pretty...)

"C" also stands for Creepy.

Her Grambot says we're not allowed to give her the nickname Creepy Cora, but one of her habits has recently been giving her daycare ladies the creeps. See, Cora is the silent type (unless she's mad, obviously). If she's happy and content, she's just going to sit there (or lay there) and look around, taking things in. And watch you. Watch your every move. Last week, her daycare teachers mentioned to me that they think it's so odd that she can be sleeping in her swing, and they'll go about fixing a bottle for another baby or cleaning up a mess, then turn around to find Cora staring them down. Not making a peep. Just keeping her eyes on them. All I could do was laugh, since she's been doing that to us for as long as I can remember. In fact, I recall that when we first moved her into her crib, I was watching her on her monitor. To save battery life, the screen turns off after a minute or two. Being the paranoid mama that I am, with my baby girl in her own bed in her own room for the first time, I immediately clicked that screen back on. And I almost screamed because she scared me so bad. My baby who had been fast asleep 10 seconds before, was staring directly at the camera. Crrreeeee-ppy!

SISSYFUSS

Cora has a new nickname. She may still be our Baby Doll, Stinkerbell, and The Queen, but she is now also Sissyfuss. Jay started calling her that a few weeks ago, and it's really stuck. Really. In fact, we call her that more often than Cora these days. Why? Because it's so true. SO true! She fusses like no other baby we've ever known.

(And on a side note, check out how long those teeth are getting!)

WHO TO ROOT FOR?...

Since we're neither Steelers nor Packers fans, we dressed the kiddos in their Gator gear. Minus the tutu, because it no longer fits.

Their Grandma said the attire was appropriate though, since both teams have ex-Gators playing for them now.

By the way, I must record for posterity that James has been particularly interested and sweet with his Sissy today. In fact, I have 4 quick stories to write down...

1) Cora was jumping in her jumperoo. James walks over and stands beside her, then starts jumping along with her. She squeals with delight, then stops to stare at him. At which point he leans in toward her and demands "Dance! Dance!" So she starts bouncing away again, and he goes back to jumping along with her. Repeat twice. SO cute!

2) James is playing chase on the king-size bed with Jay. When he gets to the edge closest to Cora, he leans over and yells at her "Hey! Hey! Hey baby!" Over and over, until she looks up at him and smiles, then he crawls away. Repeat and repeat and repeat.

3) James has started playing peekaboo with Cora. Once he sees me do it to her, he jumps right in. Though his peekaboo sounds more like "bee-boo!"

4) Jay set Cora down in the sunlight on the carpet in our bedroom this afternoon. As she's sitting there playing with the shadows that the blinds are making on the floor, James walks over with her paci (which he grabbed off my nightstand) and says to her "Hey baby. Boo boo?", and shows her the paci. Apparently asking her if she wants it. No idea where he got 'boo boo' from (since we call it a paci), but it's cute. Maybe one of his daycare buddies calls their paci a boo boo. Anyway, when Cora doesn't respond, he simply sticks it in her mouth and walks away. Well, prances away. This kid is always prancing around, so happy with himself and the state of his world...

SING?

So, after Skyping with their grandparents this morning, I decided to keep the kids in James' room where they would (theoretically) make less noise and be less of a disturbance to Jay (who was trying to take a quiz). James knows that my laptop is another gateway to Dinosaur Train. Games, video clips, and species info. He loves it, and has started asking for it almost as much as he asks to watch it on TV. One of the current clips available (on PBSkids.org, if you're interested - link located on the right-hand side of the blog for convenience) is the Christmas Special, which has a very catchy tune that I've been singing all week (well, honestly, since before Christmas) because let's face it, kids' song have the uncanny ability to get in your head and STAY there. And since James thinks I have an awesome voice (he wouldn't make a very good critic...), he requests it ALL THE TIME. "Sing? Sing?" That's what he asks me, over and over. So when we found the clip online today, I'm pretty sure we watched it 243 times before Jay came looking for us at lunchtime.

"It's the season, for train rides and snowing. The reason, that everybody's going. To the great, big dinosaur holiday in the snow. Whoa whoa whoa."

BLS: YOGURT, CHEESE, AND APPLES

Cora had some plain Greek yogurt for breakfast this morning. She didn't like it much. It wasn't the flavor, it was that she wasn't able to feed herself. I tried handing her a loaded spoon (while holding onto the other end for support), and it worked, but she became more interested in taking the spoon and playing with it. When I tried to spoon-feed her myself (a BLS 'no-no'), she was none too happy with me encroaching on her space. So we gave up the yogurt and moved on to Cheerios.

Last night, at the party, she sampled some cheese and apples. They were cut into hors d'oeuvre size chunks/slices, so I just held them up to her lips and let her suck/chew/scrape off what she wanted. She ended up eating 2 cubes of colby-jack cheese and half an apple slice.

I'M A PARTY GIRL, IN A PARTY WORLD

Come on mommy, let's go party

NOODLE, DON'T NOODLE.

Nap, Don't Nap.

Since I couldn't convince Cora to nap this afternoon for longer than 10 minutes, even while snuggling her in bed AND being her pacifier, we played quietly and watched the boys sleep on the monitor. And I tried not to be too jealous. I mean, I DID have this little cutie to keep me company:

HAT'S OFF TO YOU

BLS: GREEN BEANS AND PEACHES

Green beans were another hit. She eats them easily. Of course, I often see her squeeze the bean out of the casing, then dump the casing. She's mighty crafty, this one.Peaches were a much-loved flavor, but another food that was difficult for her to eat. She could handle them well enough (though they were awfully slippery), but they didn't mush as well as her other foods. She ate some, but most of each piece just seemed to fall into her lap repeatedly.Or into her new catch-all bib:I like that it keeps some of the mess out of her lap, and she likes fishing around in the pocket for more to eat. Especially if I'm not handing over new pieces fast enough!

Finally, here is a video (since we haven't posted one in a while) to demonstrate how far she's come over the past month and a half. She's definitely eating 1/2-3/4 of what we serve her, losing less and less to the abyss that is her highchair. She hardly ever gags anymore, and is really good about spitting out bites when she gets more than she can chew. And her pincher grip is almost there already! (Here she is eating butternut squash and Puffs)

CIRCLES

Running and spinning in them, that is.

What's the best way to tire James before bed? Encourage him to run in circles (literally) for 20 minutes!

Then the next night, teach him to spin in circles. We didn't intend to teach him the dramatic dizzy fall at the end, but you know how it goes. Monkey see, monkey do.

GET UP, STAND UP

Our big girl has graduated from assisted situps to assisted "standups". I don't know about you, but she looks awfully little to me to be standing up like that...

Of course, we had to get video as well. Mixed in with some good ol' Baby Doll giggles, since we don't post them often enough. Well, maybe "chuckles" is a better way to describe her laugh...

THE NEWEST FAD?

Watching Dinosaur Train in a little toybox!

Little stinker emptied that box TWICE today to make room for his booty!

ELMO BUTT

He's had this for a while, but the thing is HUGE (the WAHM's weight estimate is way off, in my opinion) and he's just now starting to fit in it.

(This is a pocket diaper made by ZunyBaby)

(And yes, he is doing yoga is the last 2 photos. Upward dog and downward dog. I really need to get video because the first time Jay taught him upward dog, Jay groaned - being out of practice and whatnot, and now every single time James does it, he groans. Careful what you say/do around your 23-month-old... EVERYTHING sticks!)

PINK AND BLUE

She still has pink cheeks and blue eyes, and we just LOVE them!

50 WORDS?

I’ve been getting weekly updates from Babycenter for well over a month now telling me that 2-year-olds, on average, have a working vocabulary of 50 words. Out of curiosity, we decided to count up all James’ words last month (since we had a lot of time to kill in the car on our road trip to Florida), then kept the list going until we posted it today (only one month to go until our little man turns 2-years-old). This is (we think) a comprehensive list of all the words James can say and use correctly. The ones that he commonly uses (daily, or at least a few times per week, and without prompting) are marked in bold. There are plenty that he only uses when we use them first though (he's a great mimic), or are only used occasionally. And there are many other words he knows and understands, but doesn’t speak yet (for example: lips and mouth, which he can correctly point out when we name them, or vacuum, which he will go to if we mention it – he loves the vacuum). He can put up to four words together in a sentence, but usually uses just one or two words at a time.

Not all his words are said perfectly. He has trouble with his R’s, for example, and will say his colors as “wed” and “geen” (or "guh-ween"). 'Ears' sounds like “ee-uhs”, while 'more' sounds like “moh” - man, we’re going to miss that cute little “moh? moh?” when he learns his R’s! Most of his words that end in an “n” he will add an “a” to as well, so that 'fun' sounds like “funa” and 'moon' sounds like “moona” (i love to singa, about the moona and the juna and the springa - hee hee). Adorable, eh? Another cute thing he does is add an "s" to something that shouldn't have it, for instance "sorry's" and "happy's". Some words he shortens, like when dinosaur becomes “saurs”, giraffe becomes “waff”, and elephant becomes "el-phint". But we can understand him easily (usually), and most people who hear him speak can understand most of what he says.

We’ve listed his words into categories to help us remember them better.

Names/nicknames:
Mama/Denise and Dada/Daddy/Jay (he doesn’t use our names, but he repeats us when we’re talking to each other), Baby/Sissy, Jude, Mouton, Ampa , Ma-maw/Mi-maw, Eli, Mamie, Mo (his girlfriend at school, Morgan), Jack (one of his pen pals), Elmo, Buddy, Tiny, Shiny, Don, Ernie, Homie

Body parts:
nose, eyes, belly, belly button, ears, teeth, mouth, toes, feet, knee, butt, penis

Bathroom words:
pee-pee, poo-poo, potty, bath, soap, boogers

Action/descriptive words/phrases:
more, mine, go, boom, owie, peekaboo, please, thank you, welcome, and, up, down, on, off, open, shut, bite, no, all gone, all done, belly full, bye-bye, yes, yummy, yucky, uh-oh, bad, this, that, whoa/wow, race, slide, sit, get down now, eat, hungry, cheers, fun, happy, hi/hey, yay, hot, cold, brr, stuck, help, walk, swing, push, squeeze, blow, excuse you, I love you, oh no, okay, I'm okay, go with daddy, mess, ride, rain, I do, I got it, alright, I'll be alright, be back, cool, color, night, dark, where are you, ready, run, away, sing, sorry, read, morning, home, I don't know, run, help me, night-night, play

Toys, animals, and objects:
boat, bird, ball, light, car, truck, book, bubble, cat/kitty, dog/puppy, giraffe, dinosaur, choo-choo, train, wheel, bus, door, rock, leaf, tree, moon, sun, star, sky, dirt, octopus, bee, bug, balloon, fish, whale, shark, flower, dragon, spider, mouse/mice, shoe, sock, clock, keys, man, fan, rainbow, block, box, airplane, helicopter, lemur, button, owl, stick, caboose, bear, monkey, turtle, wolf, hat, smoke, elephant, lava, zipper, sleep, rubber, trash, digger, motorcycle, duck, sheep

Colors, numbers, and shapes:
red, blue, green, purple, yellow, white, black, one, two, three, five, six, seven, nine, ten, many, circle, oval, diamond, square

Food and drinks:
meat, milk, juice, water, cup, spoon, fork, broccoli, apple, pear, banana, pizza, cheese, dip, snack, cracker, Puffs, bowl, ice

So, his grand total is around 150 words that are used regularly. Pretty cool! I suppose that makes him on the upper end of average as far as vocabulary goes, but I know quite a few Marchies who speak very clearly and in full sentences on a full-time basis, so he's not that ahead of the game. He has some great influences at daycare (his buddy Coltin is 3 months older and speaks really well, and his buddy Gabriel who is 1.5 months younger knows LOTS of words and pronounces them all perfectly), so we're sure that helps. Other than that, all we do is talk to him constantly (but not in baby talk, ever), read with him (letting him interrupt and turn pages at will), question him (but not quiz him), and keep the TV off as much as possible (and watch educational shows as much as possible when it is on). We've found that James learns best when he initiates "learning time" himself, so that's what we go with. And we're all loving it!

CORA 1:MAMA 0

Cora has won this round. I am no longer going to fight with her to sleep alone in her crib. It just isn't worth it. Cry-it-out and sleep training at daycare worked for all of 5 days. The new battle has been raging for well over a week now, and it hasn't been pretty. We had 5 whole nights where she went to sleep in her crib and stayed there until 4:30/5:30am. But since then, her hour of waking has been sneaking slowly forward... 3:30, then 2:30, then 2:00, then 1:00, then 12:30, then 11:30, and last night 9:30 (JUST as I was settling into bed to try and catch up on missed sleep). How is that possible? Just like she's always ready to nurse the second my dinner fork heads to my lips, or she yells for a diaper change the second I head to the restroom for my own potty break. (Babies have impeccable timing, obviously). You know, I read somewhere that a baby can smell her mama's milk from 20-30 ft away. Isn't that wild? Maybe that's why Cora wakes up most often when I head upstairs at night...

So, my plan is to continue nursing her to sleep, placing her in her crib, and hoping that she sleeps there comfortably for as long as possible. Because she DOES still go to sleep easily at bedtime. But when she wakes, no matter what time, whether to eat or just for comfort, I am not going to fight with her to get her back into her crib. She won't go anyway. No matter how limp-noodled, passed-out she is, she KNOWS when Mama is no longer holding her or touching her. Maybe she has an aversion to the prison-like crib rails. Or maybe it's just separation anxiety. She screams like a banshee the moment she realizes you are leaving (or trying to leave) her there. And Cora's screams are like no other baby I've ever known. And they never end (until she gets her way, and even then she holds a grudge for a while and will let you know in no uncertain terms that she's mad at you, before she'll calm down). It is emotionally draining for me, and for Jay, and thus it must certainly be so for Cora. So it just isn't worth it. Even her ultra-determined daycare teacher has now given up. Cora is just TOO strong-willed to be forced into doing something that she doesn't want to do. We're sure this will serve her well in her life, to be so independent and opinionated, but it sure makes it difficult on us parents! So, if she wants to nap in the swing, so be it. If she wants to sleep with her Mama, so be it. If she wants to nurse off-and-on during the night, so be it. If she's satisfied with the paci (so long as she's snuggled up next to me), so be it. I am not going to fight with her anymore. Not on this issue. Hopefully someday she'll go back to sleeping in her crib all night long (since she used to, consistently, back when she was 3-4 months old, which I think is why we've fought her on it for so long lately - because we know she CAN). Until then, if she's willing to sleep all night long peacefully in my arms, then that is how I'm going to spend my nights. Sore back and cold belly be darned. I love my fiesty little girl.