Our Christmas holiday is winding down, as we fly home New Year's Day. Monday is that awkward day of washing and packing and visiting and trying to enjoy the time here while dealing with the sadness of leaving. For my part, I am dreading the flight home, and praying that Cora gets on track when we return home with her sleeping. She hasn't adjusted at all to the time difference, and therefore has been sleepy and a bit cranky a lot of the time. I suppose if/when she gets back to sleeping at night, I will appreciate it a lot more.
Anyhow - top photo is from our night out in the pub Sunday night, with two sets of brothers and their wives. With Cora having no schedule whatsoever, it was nice because we could go out and not worry so much about rushing home to feed her and put her down for bed at "bedtime."
Next photo is Duncan getting reacquainted with Cora, at the Pizza Hut he manages.

Then we have Dunc and Lindsey's daughter Chelsea, who is absolutely adorable. She will be two in February, right after Cora turns one. She chattered away (mostly unintelligibly) and loves playing with her baby dolls. Then you see Stace with Chelsea and big brother Connor.
Finally, Cora with the Richards clan. It was great to see them and see how their two are growing up so well.

First Christmas Fun

Cora enjoyed her Christmas meal - she had bits of turkey and carrot,

and spoonfuls of mashed potato and parsnip.

She did very well in the gift-opening part of the day. Here, she is playing with her new animal train from Nanny (Stace's nan). She got some great toys that move and make noise that she can crawl after, along with some very nice bears and clothes. And, in proper English Christmas tradition, Cora is wearing the paper crown that came out of a Christmas cracker. For dessert, she liked the jello part of the fruit/custard/jello trifle.

On Boxing Day, the holiday the day after Christmas, we went to Dean and Jenny's and checked out their new conservatory (what Americans might call a sunroom). It's beautiful, a very nice addition to their beautiful home.
Today, we took a walk down to Martock's shops to get Cora some saline drops for her runny nose. She was awake several times last (Thursday) night, but slept better than any night since we arrived. While we've been here, she's improved her waving and dancing abilities.

Nightmare Before Christmas

Cora wants to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!! She is looking forward to opening presents later in the day, after our big Christmas Day feast. At the moment, it is early afternoon and she is taking a nap. That is a GOOD thing. But more about that later.

Here are three generations of Howards at the Kingsbury Episcopi church, where Stace was christened as a baby. We went with Gord's sister and her adult daughters and grandson for the Christmas Eve service. It was neat attending such a traditional service in a beautiful old church, very different from what we are used to.
Before the service started, Cora and Ben played with Sue and Gord. Ben is 2 1/2, and the son of Stace's cousin Karen and her husband, Martin.
The children were given special oranges with glo-sticks, since candles have been outlawed by Health and Safety. Lovely!
And back to the sleeping - and the title of this blog entry. Our dear sweet baby has been body-snatched and taken over by Monster Cora. She is wide awake every night for several hours, and last night spent several hours screaming. Literally, screaming, without console. Dean and Jenny had spent the night, so there were six adults kept awake all night with her. We're getting close to our wit's end with her. Advice, tips? We're open! Stace and I figure it's our due, since she's been such an easy baby for so long. She is tired enough in the day that she quickly becomes cranky and screams in the daytime, too. I've been trying hard to put her on her normal daytime eating/sleeping schedule, in hopes that she would then go to bed easier. She is going to bed fine, but then wakes up and starts screaming. Today I think I'll allow her to nap much more than normal, and perhaps she'll catch up on sleep and be better able to sleep tonight.

Oh, on a sidenote, while we're in England we're not downsizing the photos before putting them up. Please leave a comment if this is a problem. (If it's not a problem, maybe I'll stop spending the time to downsize them when we get home too.)

Return to England

We've arrived back in England for Christmas, safe and sound. It's great to be back, seeing family and friends and getting some real Christmas-y weather.
As for the flight, the best thing I can say is that it's over. While she slept nearly the whole time on her first trip to England, at three months, this time around she screamed for much of the first five hours. It was pretty miserable for us all. We got off to a late start, with the plane not leaving until 10 at night, and the lights were on until probably midnight (California time). Cora wouldn't think of sleeping while there was so much to see, and by the time the plane was dark, she was far too overtired to go to sleep. We even gave her two doses of baby Benadryl, to little avail. She finally did go to sleep, thankfully.
Our friend Andy was kind enough to make the drive out and pick us up. We got back into Martock around 9 at night (England time), and got to bed around 11. Obviously Cora wasn't sleepy then, and she played in bed and "read" her books for a long while. Today, Friday, I'm trying hard to get her onto her normal nap/eating schedule, and hopefully that will pay off with her resting better tonight.

Cora is enjoying the attention from her Nan and Pop, and she's loving seeing all of Sue's stuffed animals.
Today, we bundled up and went for a walk through the village, delivering a few Christmas cards. The temperature was in the upper 30s, so we had Cora in her sleeper, a long-sleeved shirt and fleece pants, a thick vest, mittens and a hat, and her warm bear coat.

We picked up lunch and ate at Stace's Nan's home.
She gave Cora a lovely Christmas card, which she played with for a while.

Sparkle

In Santa Clarita, we may not have white Christmases, but we do have bright, twinkly ones. It's a big thing here to go around looking at streets where residents go all out in decorating with lights, animatronic reindeer and assorted seasonal eye candy. On Sunday evening we showed Cora (shown here in our new carrier, which also works as a backpack carrier). She loved it!

Since we're leaving this week for England, we exchanged gifts with my parents and sister on Saturday.





Cora liked her new toys, and today entertained herself (and me) by throwing the rings nearly out of her reach, then getting them and throwing them again. She also is enjoying her newfound creeping/crawling ability. We've put Somer's food bowls up on the counter, as Cora kept going straight for the water bowl. She also likes playing with doors and drawers. She can spend many minutes swinging the doors to her room open, shut, open, shut.
Just a couple of days before we board the big plane! We're all getting very excited, and I have a mental list a mile long of things to remember to do.

Creepy!

Here you can see Cora's latest method of getting around...

10 Months!

Cora is 10 months old! She is chattering all the time still, making noises that sound like "mama" and "dada"; I'm sure some parents might even say she is speaking. It's hard to say that she means what she's saying, though. She has begun making a forward motion when on the ground - a creeping more than a crawling, as she kind of drags her legs forward by pulling on the ground with her arms. She also is now enjoying pulling up to a standing position. She does this at our suggestion or guidance, and isn't yet at the phase of doing it all the time, on her own. Cora also has become very vocal. As in, besides chatting, she likes to scream. She screams out of boredom, to hear her own voice, or to express anger or frustration. I can lift her onto the changing table and she'll start screaming right away, for no real reason. This is fun! I do hope it's a phase that goes away... Any tips, for the parents reading this????
Stace rewarded himself for surviving a painful mouth surgery this week by getting this new Raleigh racing bike. He's been riding his mountain bike to work consistently since late October, and has been looking into getting a new racer for a while. Monday will be his first day riding it to work. As for the surgery, he had it Tuesday in the area where he broke that tooth in late November. The operation is in preparation for crown. The recovery wasn't great, and that was mostly because he found out that he and Vicodin do NOT get along.
And since we can hardly have a blog entry without a pic of Cora, here is a photo of she and I with our new baby carrier, a Hiphugger. It's a pretty simple pouch that makes it easier to carry baby on your hip. As Cora is soon to outgrow the two front carriers we have (a Snuggli and a Baby Bjorn), we bought this one and a Baby Trekker, which works for front or back carries, of kids up to 40 pounds. Photos of that one coming soon!
In other news, we went to the HR Textron Christmas dinner dance on Saturday night. It was nice to get dressed up and to go out as adults, without Cora. Aunt Melanie babysat and had fun with her niece.

Day in the life

When Cora was about a month old, I wrote about a typical "day in the life of Cora."
Here goes again - this is Monday, Dec. 3:
8 a.m. I get Cora up - she is barely awake when I go in. Cora eats until about 8:20. We then get a new diaper and warm outfit on and head to the park for Stroller Strides.
8:50 We Stroller Striders march off on our workout. Cora seems tired and a bit dazed today, at least for the first hour. She then wakes up a bit more and starts chatting.
10:00 Back at the park, we stretch and work our abs.
10:30 We get home. Cora plays on the floor for a few minutes after a diaper change, before going down for a nap at 10:45. I get some laundry going and then go shower.
11:10 I get out of shower and check on Cora - she's asleep! (Sometimes she doesn't go to sleep and she's screaming when I get out of the shower.
11:45 Cora wakes up, and she eats from noon until about 12:20.

12:20 Cora plays on floor with her books, turning the pages and talking to them
12:35 - Cora turns her attention to a box of new shoes
12:50 I put Cora into her Exersaucer and do some more housework
1:10 - Diaper and clothing change, then a few more chores and I finish getting ready to leave. Cora is past ready to go by 1:25, and starts shrieking in boredom.
1:30 - We stop to pick up a prescription, then go to the post office and grocery store. Cora does pretty well through the errands, only fussing a bit (well, screaming REALLY loudly) in line at the grocery store.
2:15 - back at home, time for diaper change and nap. She's asleep by 2:45
4:00 - Somer wakes up Cora by meowing. Time for more milk.
4:30 - Cora plays on the floor of her room.
4:40 - Daddy's home! Cora smiles and giggles when she hears his "Hello!" and then plays with Stace and gets another new diaper.
6 - Dinner time for mom and dad, with some banana and cereal for Cora.
6:45 - More milk
7:30 - Diaper change, and we get ready to go for a walk. Cora needs to get out of the house, she is getting fussy. Dad puts her on his bed while he gets himself ready, and Cora spits up a lot on our comforter.
Dad puts Cora in the car seat while he gets out her stroller. Doesn't she look bundled up?
8:00 - We all leave on our walk, and Cora falls asleep. She wakes up in Starbucks at 8:45
9:00 - Back home, time for nighttime diaper, bed clothes and more milk.
9:35 - Cora's in bed, and sleeps through to about 8:30 Tuesday.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We are in Christmas mode now! On Friday night, we took photos with Santa. Cora didn't love it, as you can see by the photos on the photographer's Web site. Click that link and then use the arrow keys to see the other photos of Cora; there are six altogether.

On Sunday we went to Mountasia for the HR Textron children's Christmas party. Whatta deal, for $2 for each adult, we had In-n-Out lunches, pizza for Cora (she had a tiny bite, we finished the rest), ice cream, game tokens and a present for Cora and another chance to see Santa. In the photo above, Cora is making rattles out of our bags of chips (which we didn't eat, though we did have cheeseburgers and a shared ice cream). It was fun seeing a lot of Stacey's co-workers with their children, including Keith, who was there with his mother, in town from England, and his adult daughter and grandson.
Later in the day, we went to the city Christmas tree lighting at the hospital. Stace jogged there, pushing Cora in her stroller, while I used my rollerblades. Cora had a nap. Before the tree-lighting ceremony, a local high school choir performed, and there were booths with hot chocolate and cookies and crafts for the kids. The hot cocoa was needed - it was quite chilly, by our standards, with temps in the lower 50s.

Stace and Cora in front of the big tree.

In the evening, we opened our Advent calendar chocolates. Yum! Also, I baked a pumpkin pudding with real pumpkin. It's smelling really good, as I write this.

Lastly, for anyone interested in seeing me and Cora on TV, our local cable access channel has a weekly magazine-style show about Santa Clarita. They did a story on Stroller Strides, and I, knowing what reporters are looking for, volunteered to be interviewed when no one else seemed willing. You can watch it by clicking this link. Unless you want to watch the whole half-hour show, speed ahead to about 22:30 minutes into the program.

Holiday spirit

Just to give you faithful readers a chuckle - Here is Cora showing off her new hairdo. Again, you can probably guess that this was a Daddy bath.
A mommy would not do this, remembering how it felt as a small child to have an adult try to comb through tangled hair. You also can see Cora's teeth here - they bottom ones are getting bigger. No top teeth yet but I have to think they'll be along very soon. She has been bothered by them this week, and we've been doing ice cubes and baby Tylenol to help with the pain.





We had a nice surprise package this week from Nan and Pop - Cora's first advent calendar, plus chocolates to go in the pockets. It is a gorgeous calendar and will help make our home look festive when we get it together this weekend. We have several Christmas things planned for this weekend - Friday night will be photos with Santa at the church where my MOPS group meets; Saturday is the children's Christmas parade through old Newhall; and on Sunday we have Stace's work's children's Christmas party, plus the lighting of the big Christmas tree at the hospital, if we're up for it.
And lastly for this blog posting, a cute photo of Daddy and his girls. Well, two of his girls.

Holiday weekend

First of all, I want to highlight a great article on cloth diapers my friend Sophia wrote on her all-things-health blog, www.healthtakenseriously.com. You can read it by clicking here.
She has lots of other really interesting articles on her site, so it's worth a look even if you don't have kids diapering age.

We had a great four-day weekend off together, and we are trying to extend it in a way, in that I'm picking Stace up from work at his getting-off time of 3:45 so we can do something fun.
These photos are from our Saturday trip to Knott's Berry Farm, a theme park not far from Disneyland. My dad, as a deputy, had the ability to get super-cheap tickets as a "thank you" to law enforcement, so we all went along with our friends John and Linda and their girls. With so many willing babysitters around, Stace and I got to go on a couple of rides, which was fun. During one of the rides, Linda managed to put Cora to sleep by singing to her. Very impressive work, Linda! Much to my amazement, Cora stayed asleep for a full nap, despite all the noise.
In typical SoCal November weather, it warmed up in the day to a warm enough temp for Cora to be dressed in just a onesie, but then cooled off to the extent that I wished I had stuffed my jacket into the stroller.
On Sunday Stace installed some of our new babyproofing gadgets, such as these cabinet locks that use magnets. Very high-tech.

We are Thankful

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a wonderful meal - my mom outdid herself with a fabulous turkey this year. Also on the menu - green beans, mushrooms, two types of potatoes, cranberry sauce and sprouts, for Stace. Pumpkin pie and apple crisp for dessert. Yum! Cora enjoyed a bit of turkey, some green beans and rice krispies. She likes picking them up.

While the women got the dinner finished up, Cora got up close and personal with Luke. Luke is aging and calm, and therefore is a perfect dog for Cora to get to know.

After dinner the adults played Cranium, and Cora played with some plastic cookie cutters,
and Aunt Melly's phone.

Here, Cora is dropping her bowl of cookie cutters on her aunt's face.
We have so much to be thankful for this year. For Cora of course, and for Stacey's Nan
returning to her home after a few weeks of medical treatment.

Stace also was thankful he could eat the roast dinner. He was able to get his broken tooth filed down Wednesday morning as a temporary fix. He'll need surgery to implant a post, so that he can have a crown put in, as this was a tooth he previously had a root canal on.
Can everyone say, "cha-ching!"

On Friday, we had a nice lazy morning at home, allowing Cora to get a good nap in. We're concentrating on her getting decent naps in hopes of her sleeping better at night. Thursday night she slept all night, so that was good, but lately I'd say she's been waking up maybe 1/3 of the time. Later Friday we hit a few shops, including Home Depot for some babyproofing gear and a look at new toilets. We have a couple of rebate vouchers from the water district allowing us to get $75 for each new (low-flow) toilet we install. In the evening, we took a walk, and I wore Cora in her wrap. She was adorable, dressed in her fuzzy brown bear coat (complete with ears on the hood) that Andy and Jen bought her while they were here. She spent much of the walk chattering. "Memmm Memmm Memmm" was the main refrain (which sounds a bit like Mama!), with a few "ble ble ble"s for good measure.

Empty the Box

Here you see Cora engaging in one of her new all-time-favorite activities - emptying out one of her little toy boxes, by picking out each toy, one by one.
It's a game that keeps her busy for hours. Well, for half-hours at least.
She's getting more interested in her board books lately, and will flip the pages in addition to chewing on them.
She also has been making adorable baby noises the last week - not just the "aaaahhh aaaahhhh aaaaahhh" sounds she's made for months now, but "bla bla" and "de de de." She claps on command, but seems to have forgotten how to wave.

In other news, Stace chipped a tooth pretty badly tonight and will need to see a dentist Wednesday. Let's hope he can get it handled so he can have lots of turkey on Thanksgiving!