Since we'll soon be without Internet for at least a day or so, and busy packing and moving, here's a video to keep you loyal readers entertained.

Cora's other favorite song (besides the beloved "Elmo's Song") is Old MacDonald Had a Farm. She's been good at saying E-I-E-I-O (or a pretty decent facsimile) for a while, and over the last few days has become able to sing the animal noises in the appropriate spot ("With a ... moo moo here" - etc.) She also likes to pick which animal we sing about next.
She has started to say her own name, but without the hard "c" sound (still can't make that sound). Her name, according to her, is "Doo-uh." I love it!
I decided that Cora really ought to be playing with her dolls now. So I got out the two dolls Nan and Pop got her, and her blanket and pillow, and suggested she put the dollies to bed. She picked up the concept right away, and had a lot of fun. Stace helped her get in "bed" with the doll.
She later decided the doll needed to go potty. Cora's other favorite toys lately have been the Fisher Price animal train Nanny got her for Christmas last year, and Auntie Melly's old cell phone, which she gifted to Cora. Cora loves pushing the buttons and making all sorts of noises with her "real" phone. She says she's calling Uncle Dean.As for our move, we got the keys and closed the deal Monday and have been moving boxes over since then. The garage is already half-full of boxes and stuff. On Wednesday after work we'll rent the moving truck again, and do the big move on Thursday. Stace has a four-day weekend for Thanksgiving, so we'll take advantage of that to be moved and settled by Friday afternoon. We'll do our family meal over the weekend. Exciting times!

Back to Ventura

We headed to our favorite coastal spot Saturday to see the sea, eat fish at Andria's and to check out the wood flooring options at Lumber Liquidators, a factory-direct warehouse. Cora enjoyed the fish, and she especially liked the rice pilaf. Rice is one of her favorite foods currently, and it's a word she can say well. (Other words she likes to say at the moment include "sit down" and "outside.") She also enjoyed riding in her car and pointing out the boats, another word Stace taught her to say. Later on, she insisted on pushing the car herself, and wouldn't get back in until Stace promised to push her really fast.

The Lumber Liquidators showroom had a mind-numbing number of options on display, all beautiful. We've picked out one we think will be a great choice for the bedrooms in our new house. The house has brown ceramic tile throughout the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallways, and horrible carpeting in the three bedrooms. We're looking for a wood or wood-like floor for the bedrooms that is light in color (the rooms are fairly small) with dark grain tones mixed in, so it looks OK next to the dark hallway tile.
Our mortgage on the new house funded Friday, so we should be set to close escrow and get the keys Monday! We are so blessed and thankful!

Parenting in public

Two interesting tidbits from the last week:
The first was highly annoying to me, the second so nice it more than made up for the first.
Last week, my friend Susan and I were walking near the mall when a woman pointed to Cora's monkey harness (visible here) and sniffed, "I must tell you, that is horrible."
Susan and I were both a bit stunned - Susan had already told me about the Elmo harness her daughters had used, so she fully understood why a parent might choose to use one; and in England they are common. Susan said to me, "What, she'd rather Cora run into the street and be hit by a car, or be forever strapped into her stroller?"
Later I thought of what I should have said to the woman: "Um, do you have children? Did you stay home with them? Did you breastfeed for the recommended one year? Did you use cloth diapers, or landfill-filling disposables?" Assuming one or more answers to the questions would be "no," I would then say, "Hmmm. See, I make different parenting choices than you. And I'm not criticizing yours."
The nerve of people!
Anyway, last night, a situation at dinner more than made up for it. Stace, Cora and I were at a sandwich shop when a woman with four small children sat near us. She had a baby and three that were, say, six years old and younger. She prayed with them before they ate, and the children were incredibly well-behaved. It made me think, here I am, sometimes feeling overwhelmed with just one toddler, and this woman is doing a fantastic job raising four! At some point during our dinner, Cora screamed about something or other, and Stace and I handled it as we thought best (NOT giving in, but remaining calm - in this instance at least!). When the family behind us got up to leave, the woman asked how old Cora was and complimented Stace and me on how well we are handling discipline with Cora. Wow! We were so touched, and we told her so, especially since she obviously is doing a great job with hers.

These photos show us today at the grocery store, taking advantage of the cheap turkey deals! We snagged a 15-pounder for $4! Cora is eating a sandwich - she already ate through her box of raisins. Going to run any sort of errands these days means being prepared. I have to have lots of snacks and books to attempt to keep Cora entertained and happy.

On the house front, we have signed our loan and expect to close on the deal Monday. We had been hoping to close this week and move in this weekend, but buying a foreclosure is a long, slow process. At least we should be able to get moved in and settled over Thanksgiving - and, we are thankful and blessed to have a home to move into. The fires last weekend really drive that point home, with hundreds of SoCal residents now homeless. The photo shows the smoke of the Sylmar fire visible from our apartment complex Saturday. About an hour after that photo, the fire crested the hill with huge flames. This time around, as opposed to last year, Santa Clarita wasn't too affected by the fires, other than having all the freeways shut because of the Sylmar fire.

funny girl

We lucked out and found Cora some new toys at a garage sale.
We got the slide and the car for $6, total! Now that we'll have room for such toys, I can see a lot of garage sales in our future.

Cora has been silly lately. Last night when I was doing dishes, she kept running behind me, back and forth from one side to the other, laughing like crazy when I'd look down and say "Boo!"
She also amused me (and annoyed me) by spending our entire car ride home from the store shouting, "Owie Dee! Owie Dee!!" It took me a few seconds to realize what she meant - apple juice. Earlier in the day, she had asked for apple juice, and called it "owie," her word for "apple." I encouraged her to call it "apple juice," which she translated into "owie dee."
Also tonight, she got hold of my hair comb and took turns going to Stace, to me, and to Somer, tapping/scratching our heads with it. She then went around the corner and came back with my contact solution, which she held to each of our cheeks, in turn. Then it was my body spray bottle - she held that up to each of our faces. Then it was time to "comb" everyone's hair again. Boy, it was hard to get off the floor and get anything done, she was so entertaining. And busy. She is a very busy girl.

She was running around Stace while he lay on the floor, back and forth, in a u-pattern around him, shouting "Hello" over and over. She changed the pattern up a bit when I started filming, of course.

New friends

Cora received these beautiful animals as a gift from my cousin Dara, who recently got married in Ohio. Dara comes from a very artistic family, and she designed them as part of her job, as a toy designer. Cora was very pleased with them!

Cora has decided that she LOVES Elmo, the Sesame Street character with the babyish voice. We don't even have cable, but we found on Youtube a clip of Elmo singing "Elmo's Song" with Big Bird and Snuffy, and she has fallen in love. You can see that by the above video; she asks for the video clip on the computer countless times each day. Below, you see Cora in heaven, watching the clip. We've decided to get a little Elmo doll and put it in Cora's room when we move into our new home, to welcome her into her new room. (And it won't be the singing, dancing, talking Elmo dolls you see so many places - we played with one today in the store and it scared Cora. After it ran through its spiel, Cora kept saying "All done! All done!")

Magical Day

We took Cora to Magic Mountain over the weekend, her first theme park visit since she has become old enough to enjoy it.
The yellow truck was her first ride - when we finished, she said, "More ta!"
Magic Mountain has been working on its image, trying to become more family-friendly and not simply a place for wild teenaged thrill-seekers. To that end, part of the children's area has been remade into "Thomas Town" with Thomas the Tank Engine featured prominently. Cora already likes Thomas - we've been watching a Thomas DVD this week - so she really enjoyed her ride on the train.
She also loved walking everywhere, and only fussed when we put her in the stroller when it was time to walk with speed back to the car.
Thanks, Grandma, for the tickets!

My, what big leaves you have

Cora found her Thomas the Tank Engine hat the other day and put it on her own head. Well done! We've been without cable television for over a month, but at the library last week we checked out two children's DVDs, including a Thomas DVD. She loves it. Stace and I, meanwhile, have been watching the World War II series by American documentarian Ken Burns. We've also enjoyed the movie Casablanca and the musical South Pacific, so you could say we've been on a WWII kick. It's heavy stuff, and very sobering. Makes you realize you have so little to worry about when you're just concerned with when you're going to close on your new house.
Anyway, back to Cora. The second photo shows her Thursday morning enjoying her cereal. It was a new-to-her cereal and she asked for seconds and thirds. The last photo and video show the joys of fall.
We had some excellent news this week. The bank that owns the house we're buying agreed to put in the appliances we need to for our sale to move forward. (Our lender required a furnace to be in place to give us a loan.) We hope to move in before Thanksgiving.
In other good news, I filled up my tank yesterday for under $30! The fall of the the price of gas has been amazing. From a high of $4.67 (at least that's the highest I paid) to $2.60 now, it's hard to believe.

Stroller Strides Party

On Friday we had a Halloween party for the kids (and us!) after our workout. Above, you have Cora the Doggy and Harvey, the cool 80s' kid. If I'm not mistaken, the shirt he's wearing is his dad's, so it's VINTAGE cool. Below, you see the kids playing with bubbles and eating cookies.

Cora enjoyed her cupcake, or at least she enjoyed the frosting.
After eating the icing off her cupcake, she then re-iced it.
Yum!