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.

Super Somer

Have we mentioned lately how absolutely wonderful our Somer is? She puts up with a lot from Cora, and seems to almost enjoy it. There are times when I'll be in one part of the house and I'll go off to find Cora, and there is Somer, right with her, watching her a) empty out my purse or b) empty out her kitchen drawer or c) empty out the cupboard under the microwave table.
In these photos and short clip, Somer is patiently letting Cora pet her and poke her in the face.

Cora is showing us more affection these days. Stace and I get hugs, with back pats!, and kisses. She leans into us and says, "mmm," mimicking the exaggerated sound we make when we give her kisses. She also has started using her pointing skills to identify things, in addition to signaling things she wants. I was very proud when, at Stroller Strides on Monday, another mom was talking to Cora and asked her where her mama was. Cora pointed at me! When I related the story to Stace that evening, he asked her the same question, and she pointed at me again.
Lastly, I'll mention that Cora is getting a lot better in dealing with being separated from me. Both the church nursery workers this weekend and the MOPS (kind of a moms' club) workers today said that she did brilliantly while we/I was away, and had lots of fun playing.

Sporting Saturday

Saturday was a dream for Stace and a great day for Santa Clarita sports fans - first, a big turnout and a fantastic finish at the Amgen Tour of California cycling race, a world-class event here in our backyard, and then a Major League Soccer game (for charity) here at College of the Canyons.
In the top picture, the man in yellow was the stage winner on Saturday, Luciano Pagliarini of Brazil, though he finished second to Brit Mark Cavendish (the rider on the right). Race officials gave the win to Pagliarini after deciding Cavendish got too much help from his team after a crash earlier in the race. You can read about it here.
We were very proud that our city was such a big part of such a major event, the biggest and best race in the U.S. and one which some riders said rivals the big cycling races in Europe. Thousands of fans lined the streets, and a big cycling expo between the mall and the Hyatt was fun to walk through. (Mike Mitchum, you woulda loved it!) Stace even bought the t-shirt, and plans to wear it when he rides his bike to work.
Cora cheered the cyclists too, when she wasn't too caught up in picking at the ivy growing on the wall and collecting sticks and leaves. Jumboton televisions in the street showed the cyclists' progress as they approached the city from the Santa Barbara area.
In the evening, we went to watch Chivas USA (who share the Home Depot Center with the Galaxy) take on the Columbus Crew in a match benefiting a local children's cancer charity, the Michael Hoefflin Foundation. Being that we had been out for so long, we weren't sure how Cora would handle watching a football match. She was outstanding! She was quiet on Stace's lap throughout the first half and through half-time, when two SClarita kids' teams played a short game. She started getting antsy maybe halfway through the second half - this was with the weather turning rainy and cold; I'm sure she was wondering why we were still sitting outside. After the game, we went to Chipotle for dinner, our first time eating out in a while. Cora did something there she hasn't done in many months - she slept through dinner, out in public! She fell asleep in the car and settled into a nap in my arms, and then on the seat next to me, and slept for nearly an hour.

Drawer fun

Every time Cora goes into the kitchen these days, she heads straight for her bottom drawer. She likes to take out lots of things to play with. The other night, she occupied herself for quite some time with the yellow cap (top photo) and a pink cup. She put the cap in the cup and shook it around, making her own rattle, until the cap would fly out and land a few feet away. Then she'd crawl over to the cap and start again.

This week I'm changing Cora's schedule a bit. She's been eating more food, so I'm trying to give her more at dinner and skip that nursing session. Then, she is ready for nursing around 8:30 and bed around 9, about an hour earlier than how we've been doing life for many months now. On Wednesday night she went down around 9, and amazingly was still asleep until about 8:45 Thursday morning!
At dinner tonight, Cora had some turkey, cheese, carrots and a WHOLE baby yogurt for dessert. She also had cow's milk for the first time, and seemed to enjoy it. That was her first non-water drink.

Here are a few more photos from Cora's birthday, courtesy of my dad. We have a kestrel, Cora taking in the animals, and an owl.

We haven't taken many photos in the last few days, but I'll catch you up on what we've been doing anyway. On Monday, Cora and I went up to the Antelope Valley for a "play date" of sorts with two moms and their little ones. The moms both use cloth diapers, and I interviewed them for a story I'll write on cloth diapering for the newspaper.
Cora had lots of fun, and was a very good girl. One of the ladies had a daughter a few days older than Cora, and she's been walking for FOUR months! She seemed a lot older than Cora since she was so steady on her feet, running around. The family had a little doggy that Cora loved. She says "doddy" quite a bit when she's excited to see a dog.
In the late afternoon, she and I walked out to meet Stace on his bike ride home from work. She gets very excited when she sees her daddy riding up.
Speaking of speaking, a few mornings ago, Cora greeted me with "Mummum" when I came in to get her. That made my day!
She also has pulled herself all the way to standing a few times recently.
Over the weekend, we cleaned out our shed on Saturday and enjoyed the afternoon in Torrance with John and Linda's family on Sunday, for Mikayla's birthday. We had a nice, relaxing time with our friends and their family.

Second Valentine's Day

Cora says, Happy Valentine's Day! And, thanks for the cute outfit, Auntie Linda and Uncle John! (To see Cora's Valentine's Day post a year ago, when she was five days old, click here.)

Here she is in her new Pooh chair, which matches the decor and our colors perfectly. She isn't quite able to get into it on her own, but she does like kneeling next to it. When we put her in it, she is getting a bit better with her exit from the chair. She basically falls out head first onto the floor, onto a pillow. Cora says, Thanks for the chair, Nan and Pop! Somer also loves the new chair. Today I found her curled up in it (no surprise!).

On Sunday while Stace played golf, Grandma took Cora to see Winnie the Pooh at the Canyon Theatre Guild. She loved it! She watched the whole show and pointed and was very interested, I'm told. Here she is getting up close and personal with Piglet, and below, with Rabbit.

Happy Birthday, Cora Rose!

Our darling baby girl is ONE.

"I would like that one, please!"
Cora liked her cake.

She had a lovely birthday celebration at Placerita Nature Center, where we watched the nature show before having a cake picnic. Besides a great daughter, God blessed us with stunning weather, warm enough for Cora to wear a pretty dress. (Recognize it, Mitchums?) After cake and presents, we took an hour-long hike down the trail and back, crossing the river several times.

Cora was tired out at the end.

In the morning, Cora was wished a very happy birthday from her Nan, Pop and Nanny on the Web cam, and she opened a few presents.

Happy birthday, Cora. You might be growing up, but you'll always be our baby. The one who turned us into parents, the one who continues to amaze us every day with the little things you're learning and trying. We love you!

The One-Year-Old

My present to Cora is her birthday cake. I followed a recipe from a parenting magazine, for first-birthday-cakes that are healthier but also yummy. This is an applesauce cake with apricot jam in between the layers, and a buttercream frosting for the adult cake. I also made petit fours, one of which will be decorated Saturday with a "1" candle for the birthday girl.

While I cleaned up from my LONG day in the kitchen, Cora played and pretended to drink from an empty canister.

Busy Girl

Cora really loved swinging today. She was giggling and bouncing up and down in the swing. We met Christy and William at the park, and a great time was had by all.
See how big Cora's front teeth look? They are really coming in. I
think they need some friends on either side, to make them look less ... big. She is using those teeth - we've noticed she is eating a lot more food in the last week or so. On Tuesday night for dinner, she ate all of a two-inch-by -two-inch (or bigger) portion of Cottage Pie, and then some yogurt for dessert. Earlier in the day, she had eaten maybe half of a carrot/apple/flax seed muffin. When eating cheerios, sometimes I'll see her take after me - she'll actually take three bites to eat one 'O.'
Cora found plenty to occupy herself with this afternoon while I cleaned up the kitchen. Here she is, in the middle of what she emptied out of her two lower dresser drawers. She was quite proud of herself. She also likes to empty the small trash can in the bathroom, and the bottom drawer in the kitchen where I keep her cups, bowls and (unused) bottles.
In the last photos, you see my attempt at keeping her content and still on the changing table. She likes playing peekaboo, and if I can get her to play along, she sometimes will let me change her without too much fuss. Other times... LOTS of fuss. This girl has got a will of her own, already. I feel like I'm having toddler battles with my infant.She wants to turn over, crawl off, and grab the wipes warmer. She screams bloody murder and gets rigid when I disagree. (sigh)
On Tuesday night, Stace got to experience the temper of Cora (not that he hadn't before). He gave her a bath, and they had a grand time. I was in the kitchen, and I could hear them playing and splashing. Then, Daddy got Cora out and apparently wanted to put her lotion and clothing on. Whoa! World War III, right here in Cora's bedroom. Screaming, crying - and that was just Stace. Cora is either super lovely - giving us hugs, dancing to make us laugh, talking and pointing and giggling - or she is very unlovely. But, of course, we love her either way.

On the sand

On Saturday we took Cora back to Ventura to check out the sand and sea. My parents came along, as my dad has been taking photos of Cora at three-month intervals, and it's time to get those one-year photos done.
Cora really had fun in the sand, and she only tried to eat it once. Impressive. She was sticking her finger in it and flicking it, and then tossing it in the air with the grains landing all over her hair. She enjoyed picking up little rocks, as you see in this photo, and little sticks. Later, Stace dug a hole in front of her, and that prompted a lot of stick-dropping into the hole.
After a bite to eat at our favorite American fish and chips shop, Andria's, we looked at the replica Tall Ships that were in the harbor on a special tour.
Though our weather was nice Monday through Saturday, it rained Saturday night and Sunday morning, just enough for Stace's golf to be canceled for the second week in a row. They'll try again next week.
To make up for it, we went to a neat Burbank model train shop. We all have our hobbies - I have cloth diapers, Stace has his model trains. Yeah, I guess Cora is destined to be a little weird.
We got home in time to watch the last quarter of the Super Bowl, pretty awesome game with an exciting finish.

(yes, another diaper post)

It's been a little while since I've shown off a new diaper, so here we go. This is the nicest diaper we've bought so far, a one-size super soft velour fitted Cuddlebuns diaper made by Anne Martin at Little Boppers. I now wish I had started out our diapering by buying more of these one-size diapers - they are more expensive to start out, but they last from tiny baby (eight pounds or so) through potty training based on how you do the snaps. Therefore they are cheaper in the long run, and made of wonderful soft, absorbent materials. Plus I'm buying from a work-at-home-mom who made it by hand.
TIME Magazine recently did an article on cloth diapering's come-back. Check it out by clicking here. I'm planning to write an article of my own for the newspaper's monthly magazine when they next do a "green living" issue.

Cora is more active these days, crawling a lot and pulling up and kneeling. She likes dropping food off her high chair tray, and dropping toys and various other things down between the changing table and the wall. I got the broom out today and found many items I hadn't seen for a while. The floor under her crib, by the wall, often becomes a sock graveyard.
She seems to be getting over her cold now. The runny nose is a lot better, and she's not coughing as much. Stace has a cold now, though.