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.

Fun with Friends

Now that normal life is upon us again, after three great weeks of having family in town, we've been busy reconnecting with friends.

We spent Monday morning with Genia and her kids (top two photos); Tuesday with a MOPS friend and her two girls; Wednesday with a Stroller Strides friend and her toddler Ezra (bottom two photos); Thursday at Stroller Strides; and Friday we had a playdate at the park with another MOPS friend. Fun stuff!

And that's not all - this upcoming week, we have plans with friends Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I figure we better enjoy these last couple of weeks of summer, as real "normal" life will be upon us soon enough when Cora (and many of these friends we're seeing now) goes back to preschool.

Violet

Oh, Violet. You silly girl. Already posing for self-portraits!

At the church nursery Sunday, the lady said that Vi spent her time walking around carrying a purse, and saying "hello" into the pretend cell phone. Now, I've seen her using pretend (and real) phones before, but I've not seen the purse-carrying.
Violet loves the kitties just as much as Cora does. She still makes her "meow" noise often when she wants to find one to cuddle or play with, especially when she gets up from her crib. She actually is quite gentle with them, more so than I would have guessed.
And, Violet really loves her sister! When they are apart, she often says Cora's name, as if she's looking for her. She also likes playing with Cora, although sometimes she doesn't understand the intricate imaginary world Cora has created, and messes up Cora's play.


This video shows a snippet of Violet singing a song she used to sing all the time, but recently has stopped. I wish I had a better video of it when she used to sing it in full force.:"Hello, lo, lo! Hello, lo, lo!" Stace and I pushed her around Ikea a couple of months back with her singing it over and over as loud as she could.

Now, Violet has many other songs, many with "la, la, la, la" as the main words. She loves to sing. She also started saying "Mummy" over the past few weeks - that makes my day!

Help at Home

Nan helped Cora make some little chocolate cakes, and she also read to Cora almost every night while she was here.



Violet likes taking part in storytime on Cora's big bed, too. (Look at that little wave! I love it!)
















Nan and Pop graciously bought us a new set of pots and pans as an early anniversary gift - our kitchen is complete! I'm so happy with them!



And, as a birthday gift for Stace, they and Stace's Nan funded Stace's continuing rock-n-roll music career. We went to the new Guitar Center in town, and Stace picked out a Washburn electric guitar and amp. It's beautiful, and he loves it!




Violet had so much fun with Nan and Pop, she tried to sneak into their suitcase when they were packing.

We had a great two weeks together, and look forward to seeing you again at Christmas, Nan and Pop! Until then, we'll see you each wee via the Web camera.

Aquatic Center

On Thursday afternoon, we made a family trip the Aquatic Center, with both sets of grandparents and me and Stace.

It was a lot of fun, of course! Here's the photographic evidence...

Wildlife, Then and Now

Nan and Pop have returned to England, but while they were here, we checked out some local wildlife attractions. Above, we visited with a little friend at the Wildlife Learning Center in Sylmar.
It was my first trip to the Learning Center, which is small but sweet, and worth an hour or two.

We also went down to L.A. to the new dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Juliana, Maya and Natalia met us there. We all had a great time and learned a lot - what a great exhibit! Cora has been interested in dinosaurs the last couple of months, so I knew she would like to see the museum for the first time.
Stace suggested I bring Cora's color pencils and paper, so she could draw the skeletons she was seeing. Great idea. Cora and Maya both enjoyed their little art project.
Here we are in front of three T. Rexes of varying ages. Cora now can tell you a lot about dinosaurs; it's hard to believe how much she remembers and understands. How is it that we're going to a grownup museum together and she's as interested as I am? She loved listening to me read the blurbs in front of the fossils.

Last night, Cora told me she sometimes dreams about spiders, and sometimes dreams about a T. Rex eating a duckbill dinosaur. She said that she wakes up when he roars. (Thankfully, since she hasn't been exposed to any media with scary dino images, she hasn't had any nightmares.)
The weather for Nan and Pop's second week here was predicted to be really hot, around 100 degrees. Thankfully, it ended up much cooler, and we were able to go out and about during the day. On Wednesday, we went to the Placerita Nature Center.
After the nature center, we went over to Hart Park and ate our picnic lunch before checking out the farm animals. That's the great thing about having family in town - it spurs me to actually go out and do the fun local things with the girls that I don't always make time for.

More growing-up milestones

John and Linda gave us more than a good day out on Saturday - they gave us their girls' beautiful set of bunk beds and mattresses. Wow.

Cora suggested that she and Violet share a room and have bunk beds many months ago, and we've agreed that it would be a good idea, someday.

Cora had been happy enough in her toddler bed, so we weren't actively looking for a true "big girl" bed for her. It doesn't seem all that long ago that we moved Cora into the "big girl" toddler bed.
But when our friends replaced all their beds, and offered the bunks to us, it seemed the time to move up in bed was now!

Cora has slept in a twin bed at Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's house, and really liked it, and she was very excited to help put her new bed together Sunday.
She then couldn't wait until bedtime, to slip in between her new sheets! And she woke up Monday with a smile on her face, saying she was very comfortable and had slept well.

The only person I can see being unhappy about this change (for now) is Violet, as she had been able to easily crawl onto and off of Cora's toddler bed.
Many thanks, John, Linda, Noelle and Mikayla!

And, speaking of Violet, our 15-month-old had a well-check on Friday. She remains very healthy, and Dr. Brockett said we've been doing a good job keeping Violet covered up and free of bad sunburns.
When she asked about Violet's speech, I listed off some of her words, and then asked Violet, "What else do you say?"
She (seemingly) answered, "Daddy."

For the numbers - Violet has gotten heavier! She's 21 pounds, 1 ounce, putting her in the 46th percentile! Must be the growth spurt that was making her wake up hungry a week or so ago.
And for length, she was 30 inches, in the 23rd percentile.

When we got home, I looked up our infant car seat's guidelines, and Violet has outgrown it! It's only for babies under 29 inches. So, Cora now is in the Britax Boulevard full-time in my car, and Violet gets the Britax Roundabout. For now, Stacey's car will be car-seat-free.
What this means for me is, no more using the easy-peasy snap-n-go stroller frame. Sad day for me...

Day in Torrance

We spent Saturday with our dear friends in Torrance, Cora's godparents John and Linda, and their daughters. And Nan and Pop, of course!

We had a great day together, and the few hours we spent at Torrance Beach were divine. Especially for me - with so many grownup eyes, and the help from 12-year-old Mikayla, I could actually flip through a magazine!

Mikayla has a heart for children, and she and Cora love to see each other. She also was great with Violet. Violet especially loved it when Mikayla gave her a ride on the boogie board.

The men were the only ones to get in the water - it wasn't especially warm, and it was very rough.

Thanks, Linda and John, for a great day and for lunch! And, thanks for the special present you gave us!

Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Nan and Pop are back with us, and we decided to take them up to the California mountains. We rented a house in a little town called Badger, which was close to both Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. We last were in the area nearly four years ago; you can read about that trip here and here.
On Monday, on our way to see the giant trees of Sequoia, we stopped by the Kaweah River for lunch.
Here we are in front of the largest living organism in the world, the General Sherman tree.
And here is the tree from top to bottom.

Our rental house had a deck with beautiful views of a pond and tree-covered hill. We had all our meals outside. It was a big place, with two big bedrooms. We took the larger bedroom, so Violet could be hidden away. Both girls slept well, so we did too!Stace took this pretty shot of the pond on our last morning in Badger.
We spent Tuesday in Kings Canyon. Here is the Kings River...
...and here is gorgeous Zumwalt Meadow. When we last tried to see this meadow, we ran across a mama bear and two cubs, and decided to turn around!Nan and Cora in front of a big waterfall in Kings Canyon...
... and Nan and Pop, still crazy after all these years! Cora took this photo.