More Fun with Friends...

...and with Dad!

Top photo shows the results of Cora's first big purchase. We went to a consignment sale today, and beforehand we counted out Cora's spending money. She had $8 and some change, and this Melissa and Doug "Happy Birthday" cake was $8. I checked and re-checked with Cora to be sure she wanted to spend nearly all her money on this one toy, and she was certain. It goes with all her other M&D wooden play food, and she's enjoyed it all afternoon.


It's been super hot this week, our hottest spell of the summer. We had pool playdates Monday and Wednesday, and today (Friday), we went to the Aquatic Center after Stace got off work. Cora did much better with her swimming!

Perhaps before long she can take off the vest in our neighborhood pool.

Our Monday pool fun was with Jaimie and her kids, Mackenzie and Luke.

It was a great time, and all the little ones got along so well. Cora even was happy to let Jaimie French braid her hair - maybe I can learn to do it too, it looked so pretty!

On Tuesday, Juliana, Maya and Natalia came over to play, and Juliana had all four while I went to an annual physical appointment. She reported that all went very well, and I appreciated her help!

And the photos - Juliana sent me the ones from our time together, and Jaimie shared her photos of the water babies. Our little camera has died, so I'm not doing too well with documenting our life at the moment!

A Coraism from the week that is very appropriate for "Cora at 4":

She said hello to our neighbor, and told Stace, "I said 'Hello' to Chris."

"Oh, good. But that's John," Stace said.

"Well, I call him 'Chris.' "

Cora is very right these days. It's fitting - she has two firstborn parents who also are always right. (Please hear the sarcasm... I remember my mom joking that she didn't know what she did before she had me to "help" her out.)

In line with that, we're hearing "I knew that," "I know that," "I knew you were going to say that," etc. quite a bit. Really Cora? You know Dad's preferred gate-painting technique before he even shows you?

But in general, Cora has been really well-behaved lately. We have a lot of easy, fun days together, and she seems to be growing up so quickly. She is pretty emotional, and we deal with crying outbursts and attitude sometimes. But overall, she's in a good phase and a is fun to be around.