One more, see below

Fare well to William!

Cora's first best mate, William, moved up to Northern California last week, so I thought I'd share some sweet photos of them over the past month. We will miss William, Christy and Mitch!

The dynamic duo shared the cart at Costco when we went at the end of February. Christy and I met in our Gymboree class last summer, when Cora was four months and William was two months.

They shared toys at William's house, and William helped show Cora how to get around. William is much more physical than Cora, and started walking at 10 months old. Christy tells us he is loving walking around his new back yard, pretending to water the plants.
Generally, when Cora and I would visit Christy and William, Cora would have a FANTASTIC time for about an hour, and then wear herself out and become cranky. Cora is much more melodramatic than the even-keel William.
On Easter weekend, we had grand plans to take a family bike ride with William and his parents. We got the babies all settled and started off, but William wasn't happy in the trailer. He didn't get happier as we rode, so we went back home and decided to walk to brunch instead. We walked to the Egg Plantation and had a great breakfast.

The walk and breakfast did the babies in!

Outdoor fun

On Friday, with Stacey blessed with the day off, we took a nice family bike ride with Cora riding in her trailer. After stopping at the park, where Cora played in the sand and practiced her walking (see video below), we continued on to Panera Bakery for lunch,where Cora hammed it up with her daddy's hat and her mama's sunglasses.
I wrapped up some of our leftovers, and we got back on the road. When we checked on Cora a mile or so down the road, we found that she wasn't quite finished with her lunch. She had dug through my bag and taken out the cream cheese to snack on. She was reading her doggy book at the same time - or was she using her doggy book to hide what she was doing? Hmmmm.
Sadly, Cora got an upset stomach on the way to lunch and shortly before we got home, and was in quite a mess. She looked pretty miserable too. She recovered quickly, thankfully, and was in fine spirits once we got her upstairs and cleaned up. That was the first time she's ever thrown up.

The week is going well. On Wednesday, we picked Stace up from work and went to Vasquez Rocks, where we had a nice pre-dinner hike.

Easter Sunday

Cora enjoyed her second Easter Sunday. We went to Real Life Church in the morning, where Cora played with some animals in the special petting zoo. She was very gentle to the bunnies, though she did try to crawl over one to get to another one. She wasn't very interested in trying to pet the goats, ducks or chickens, however. She tried to feed the bunnies carrots, but they must have been stuffed by previous carrot-feeders all morning long.
In the afternoon, after a nap, we spoke to Nan, Pop, Dean and Jenny on the Web cam. Cora entertained us by sorting out her diaper covers, similar to the sorting she did in the blog post below this one. In the evening, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where we had a nice steak dinner to celebrate both the Resurrection and my dad's birthday last week. Stace and my dad watched the Chelsea game, while Cora had her first splash-time in the spa with her auntie, while my mom and I finished making dinner. Cora entertained us during dinner by dancing. For dessert, we had chocolate-dipped strawberries and pineapple-upside-down cake I made earlier in the day. The pineapple cake was a specialty of my grandma's.
The last photo here is from the Stroller Strides Easter Egg hunt on Good Friday. Since Stace was off on Good Friday, Cora and I didn't go to Stroller Strides, but instead we rode our bikes to the meeting location to catch the tail end of the egg hunt. Cora is enjoying the little graham crackers that were inside the egg.
Don't forget, you can make any photo bigger by clicking it.
More on our weekend events, coming soon!

More Somer 'n Cora

Somer seems to like Cora more and more, and Cora is getting better about petting her gently, as we keep reminding her. This morning, I let Cora play with diapers fresh out of the dryer and Somer emerged from our bedroom and lay down right next to Cora. The cat could have chosen to hang out next to me, or jumped onto the chair or the spare bed. But no, she lay next to Cora and tolerated her petting. In the video clip, Cora was done petting Somer, but you can see her sorting out her diapers.
Cora is enjoying practicing walking these days, along with pushing her ride-on toys around the room. She doesn't push them while walking, however, but up on her knees. It's pretty funny to watch, and Cora is very proud of herself. She gets the biggest smile on her face while "motoring" around the room.
This afternoon, she occupied herself for quite awhile with her animal puzzle pieces. She played with them while knelt in front of her little chair in her room, and was having a great time. When it was time to get ready to go, and I picked her up, she threw a fit! She was not ready to stop her little game.

Zoo trip

We had a great family day Sunday at the Santa Barbara Zoo, with perfect weather. Cora was in a great mood and really enjoyed pointing out all the animals. She especially liked the birds, from the colorful tropical birds to the crows on the paths. This was our first time at a zoo since our trip in April to the Los Angeles Zoo with the Partridges.
The zoo's setting is gorgeous, with views of the mountains and the ocean and sand. My grandparents used to live very nearby, and I remember waking up to the sound of lions roaring.

Cora this weekend has started saying a new word, and it's one that melts our hearts: when we give her a bit of food, she has started saying "Thank you." This morning at Stroller Strides, I gave her some cheerios and another mom heard her say it and commented on it.
She also says "nana" for food, especially bananas, of course, and she seems to say "mummum" for me. Her favorite word right now is "sadu," which she says often, though we don't quite know what she means.

Catching up with photos

I present to you, dear reader, and especially for Chelsea, photos!

Cora was glad to see her daddy when he returned from a four-day trip to Montreal for work
this week. He brought her a moose as a coming-home gift. Stace got to experience real winter
on his trip - driving through lots of snow, as the city had 13 feet of snow and is approaching
its record for the most snow in a season.

We stayed busy while Stace was gone. Christy and William came over to play one afternoon.

They brought finger paints.

A photo of the garage sale last weekend.

Before Stace took his trip, we had tickets to see the L.A. Clippers basketball game.

In other news, on Friday Cora had fun taking part in filming for a local producer's project for an infant-stimulation video series. A friend from Stroller Strides worked in the entertainment industry and is friends with the producer, and she invited us to come along. We had a lot of fun (and were fed really well) and we're looking forward to seeing the finished product (a pilot) when it's done. And even though she had such a long day, Cora did very well Friday at a nice dinner for my sister's 20th birthday. We went to an Italian restaurant near Universal Studios, and sitting near us were the actors William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, with their daughter, who was also celebrating a birthday.

Tidbits

Well, with apologies to my regulars, I again am blogging without photos. The computer isn't recognizing the camera since Stace installed some stuff on it over the weekend.
Anyway, Cora is now doing much better. Christy and William came over to play today, and Cora was such a pleasant baby. What a change from last week! They again had a great time together. Christy brought finger paints so I could get Cora's handprint in her new handprint book. The getting ready and the cleaning up took a lot longer than the actual finger-painting - gotta love babies' attention spans.

Cora has a new - and extremely cute - habit. She is enjoying blowing her nose, or trying/pretending to. When she had her stuffy nose a month ago, Stace was diligent with showing her how to blow into the tissue. Yesterday, she found the toilet paper roll in the bathroom (yeah, uh oh), and pulled off a bit before I rescued the paper. She put the fragment up to her nose and blew! Today, she did the same thing with one of her papery diaper liners. And finally, on the changing table today, she has been very happy playing with this little stuffed beaver toy. Tonight, while getting changed for bed, she was pretending to blow her nose into its vinyl-like tail. I couldn't help but laugh.

In other Cora news, she is enjoying sorting things. She spent a good 20 minutes or half-hour on Sunday, while we spoke to Nan and Pop on the Web cam, moving her clean diapers around. She made piles, then threw the diapers, and then gathered them into more piles, and then threw them again. While doing this, she was making her "reading" noise of pure concentration.

She is getting better and better with standing up, and has even taken a few steps while holding onto her push toys.

Lastly, our garage sale went well this weekend. We "shifted" (as Stace would say) nearly $265 worth of stuff! Some of that will go to my parents, because a lot of the higher-value electronic stuff was actually theirs. But still, a nice amount of cash for us will go toward our anniversary this year - for number FIVE, we have to do something cool.
In other good news, we found out today we won a sweepstakes Stace entered at the Amgen Tour of California bike race! My father-in-law would love this - we won this Bissell vacuum cleaner. I only wish we had a greater need for a vacuum; the one we have isn't all that old. Still, how often do you actually win a prize like that?? Stace was disappointed it wasn't an awesome bike.

March Madness Sale!!!

Our condo complex is having a garage sale this weekend, and Stace and I are taking part in a big way. We've now been married long enough to have accumulated stuff we just no longer need. We had an early morning, Stace's morning a bit earlier than mine, with shoppers outside wanting to buy by 6:30. We did pretty well today and hope to sell a few more things tomorrow. It feels so good to get rid of stuff, and make a bit of money too. Our money will go towards a fifth-anniversary trip later this year.
Photos of today's festivities will have to be for another blog posting, as our computer isn't recognizing the camera right now and it's too late in the day to deal with it. Early morning today, another early morning coming up, and we also lose an hour of sleep because the time is changing. Not that I'm complaining about that, it's always great having that extra hour of daylight in the evening rather than in the morning (when I'm still not - um - OUTSIDE yet.)

For the Cora update - she has had a great evening, after a rough few days. Nothing too serious, but that measles shot last week made her an unhappy camper this week. She had a fever earlier in the week, and then on Thursday (one week after the shot) she broke out with tiny bumps all over her arms and midsection and a very red, blotchy face. All a normal reaction, but she also was very fussy/cranky, and her solid-food eating slowed to barely anything.
She also might be teething, as she has started chewing on her finger again a little bit. She hasn't sprouted any new teeth since Christmas, and in the last two months she hasn't shown any real signs of teething until now. I gave her some teething tablets today and she has been in better spirits. Tonight she was back to eating more again.
She is much more confident in her standing now, and even will take a few steps when you hold both her hands securely. Today, during the garage sale, we had her in the playpen down in the garage and she "cruised" the perimeter, taking steps while holding onto the sides.

New Toys

Here you see Cora playing with some of her birthday toys - the ride-on toy from Grandma and Grandpa, and the farm from Great Aunt Patty and Great Uncle Bill. She loves all her new toys!
Cora did a lot of sleeping today. She has a mild fever; I'm not sure if it's related to the measles vaccine she had last Thursday or if she's fighting something else. She's acting fairly normal, other than a little fussier and more tired.
I spent a lot of my day Tuesday in the kitchen. Stace was thrilled.
Lean ground beef was on sale, so I made a cottage pie for dinner Tuesday, and I also made a lasagna for dinner later in the week. Since the oven was on, I threw in a (super easy) peach crumble for dessert tonight.
On Monday, after Stroller Strides we spent the rest of the day at home, and I wrote my cloth diapering story for the magazine. It feels good having that done, and I can move on to some other projects. Like getting ready for our garage sale this weekend!

Cora's first bike ride

This morning we had our first-ever family bike ride. It was pretty cool, and the first time I've been on a bike since I got pregnant, so almost two years now.
For Christmas, my parents gave us a bike trailer to take Cora around in, and last weekend we put it together but it was a bit rainy. All week since then, the weather has been gorgeous (we even went in the pool!). Of course this morning for our ride it was a bit cold and cloudy again...
We rode along the paseos to the bike trail, and rewarded ourselves with breakfast at Dink's, a local bagel bakery.
Cora seemed to kind of enjoy her ride - well, she didn't intensely dislike her ride. It was good that we brought along a little bag of cheerios and her doggy book. She enjoyed meeting a few doggies along the way.
On Friday, we Stroller Striders were recipients of a complimentary kids play class at My Gym, which was something like the Gymboree classes we took over the summer. It was fun hanging out with the moms and babies we see several times a week, in a different environment. The class was fun, but just like Gymboree, I have a hard time justifying the cost. It's about $65 a month for four 45-minute classes (plus an additional "free play" time each week). Maybe we'll give it a try in the summer, when it's too hot to play outside.
And on Thursday, we had Cora's one-year well-check. She is well. Cora is now 19 pounds, 8 ounces, which is the 25th percentile - meaning 75% of girl babies her age are bigger than her, and 25% are smaller than her. She is 29 inches long, in the 48th percentile. Her head circumference remains in the 82nd percentile. She also had her measles vaccine. We decided to split the MMR vaccine into the M, M and R rather than getting the combo. There's all sorts of controversy about it, and every official study keeps saying it's safe, but there are so many anecdotal reports of people thinking it caused their child's autism. So, I figure splitting it up will let us rest easier.