Day at the Farm

On Thursday, Elissa and I took Harvey and Cora to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark for a day of picking fruit and vegetables, playing, and seeing the animals. I think we'll be going back to this fantastic place many times in the coming years. For just $3, you can pick many types of fruit, vegetables and flowers; admire and pet various farm animals; have a picnic lunch under the trees on a grassy playground with play equipment and a sandbox; and even ride on a hay wagon, little train or ponies. We paid an additional $3 for the strawberries, raspberries, beans and snap peas we picked.

Cora and Harvey ready to go picking, with their water bottles.

Sharing blackberries

Cora spotted a raspberry, and picked and ate it herself

Yummy strawberries

First Steps!!!

At 15 1/2 months, Cora took her first steps. On Sunday we were playing at the mall's playground, and Cora was walking with Stace. He stopped, steadied her and withdrew his hand, and she took about four steps into his arms. She did the same thing twice more before we left. Hooray!
We took this video on Monday while we played at the park.

Catching up

So, the days just before our computer died were hot as Hades, over 100 degrees. We went to the beach and played in the pool to stay cool. Also, Cora had her first smoothie, which she really liked. She drank just about the whole thing over the course of an hour. She's getting good at drinking out of a straw now, and I've bought her two kiddie cups with flexible silicone straws instead of spouts. They look a lot more grownup, though she still uses her spout cups too.
For Christmas, Cora's Nanny got her an animal train. This is the little wagon the train pulls along. Cora has taken to using it as a walker toy, even though it's very low to the ground. She also likes to push around boxes of all sizes, our corner table and her high chair. All this practice will hopefully be paying off in a few weeks, when Cora has been asked to serve as flower girl in my cousin Elizabeth's wedding!
Cora continues to love playing with Somer. She likes to share her toys and books with the cat, showing them to her by hitting the cat on the head with whatever toy/book she is playing with. Yesterday I caught Cora tapping her animal cracker into Somer's head. In the above photo, she is emptying her small box of little toys onto Somer, and then picking the toys up and putting them back in the box, before returning them to the chair. This is what I found her doing when I realized the house was too quiet.
And in another instance when we found the house too quiet, Stace found Cora rearranging our pantry. She had managed to crawl in behind the trash can, and obviously doesn't seem too happy about being found.
Cora definitely has her own mind these days. She is not above throwing fits when we don't go along with what she wants to do. Over the weekend we went to visit our friends David and Melanie, and Cora was playing with my cell phone. As I was awaiting a call from a realtor who was taking clients to look at our condo the next day, I took the phone away from her. Whoa!!! What a fit, her worst yet. Always nice to share those moments with your (as yet) childless friends! She also has been pinching my arms when I'm changing her diaper. Lovely! On the other hand, she also can be very affectionate, and likes to sit in my lap for stories. She brings books for me to read and then settles in. She gives hugs and kisses, and has recently been kissing the phone when she speaks to Nan and Nanny in England.

New Computer

Here is the new setup, with our Toshiba laptop up where the monitor used to be. This will be the daily-use setup, with the old mouse and keyboard still in action. They're both a lot easier to use than the laptop's mouse and keyboard. But, as soon as we get the router working, we will be able to work out in the living room when Cora is sleeping. I plan to make use of the new computer today - our congressman is having a press conference in town, and I'm going to cover it for my old newspaper. I'll take the laptop and get the story written "on the road" while my mom has Cora, so when we both come home I will be ready to file.
Our old computer lasted 4 1/2 years, not bad for a $350 package deal that included a printer! This computer, WITH getting the stuff off our (dead) old hard drive installed, cost about twice that. We were very tempted to go Mac, but that would have been another grand. We want to be conservative since we hope to be buying a house this year and probably will then have lots of things to spend money on!

The horror!

Bad news - our computer has died. 

More updates will come when we are online (at home) again!

Hot, hot, hot!

Summer has arrived in Southern California. While it was in the 60s and cloudy on Monday, on Thursday it was nearly 100! Today and this weekend promise more of the same. That means hanging out at the pool, which Cora and I will be doing Friday afternoon, and playing at the mall's indoor playground.
Cora has played there several times in the last week, including this trip with Daddy last week. We also met a friend there Thursday morning with her two-year-old daughter. Cora gets excited and points when she sees the play area coming into view.
This week, we had our last MOPS meeting of the semester. Today we're having a lunch date with the moms and kids from our table at one of the mom's homes. She has a pool, perfect for today's heat. Cora is going to have a great time. She really loves the water, and points and gets excited whenever shes sees a pool. Earlier in the week, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day, and Cora played in the spa. She loved that.
Cora has been very affectionate with me the last couple of days. She climbs in my lap and gives me kisses and hugs. She also is very affectionate with Somer. We just wish she'd show more love to her daddy. She loves playing with him, but at this point, obviously sees Stace as the parent she can be more rough-and-tumble with. He doesn't really get kisses. More like, scratches and face-yanking. Not very nice.
In other news, our househunt has been put on hold. The person who was going to buy our condo has pulled out because she couldn't get her financing together. We're back on the market, and having to keep the place tidy in case a prospective buyer wants to come through.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, we spent the afternoon together at Bridgeport. We played at the park, walked around the lake and then crossed the street to check out the progress on the new Bridgeport Marketplace shopping center. It was a very nice day.

We saw ducklings and goslings.

The new shopping center is looking beautiful, with lots of water - a small lake, waterfalls and fountains, with artsy sculptures in the lake. One business is already open, a frozen yogurt place that gave out free yogurt to moms. It was yummy! We'll have to go back Saturday for their official grand opening (and more free yogurt).
In the clip below, you can see how Cora's walking is progressing. She now will walk while holding only one of our hands. Listen for her panting at the end.

Special treat

Cora is 15 months old!
She is enjoying the park in these photos, taken Friday morning after Stroller Strides. Shelly, our Stroller Strides leader, had a pre-Mother's Day celebration for all of us after class, so most of the moms stayed for the fun and the little ones played together on the playground and in the grass.
Shelly gave us all roses, which Cora enjoyed smelling (and then trying to eat).
The last photo shows Shelly setting out the breakfast she brought for us, and our surprise - free massages! In the photo, Elissa is getting her massage.
We also celebrated some new pregnancies at Stroller Strides today. It's a definite baby boom. My friend Sarah, Thomas's mom, is due in mid-November; Jill is due in early December; and Jamie is due in late December. Thomas turned one in April, Jill's daughter Mary will be two in July, and Jamie's daughter Gabriella is a week younger than Cora.
Sarah is the second of my new "mommy friends" to become pregnant again; Christy, William's mom, is due in October. Mother's Day this weekend will be even more special for these mothers!

I'm trying to be a good mommy and let Cora feed herself more often. She really enjoys it, and lately has been balking at being fed by us.

Here she is eating her yogurt, dipping the spoon into the bowl.

In the mouth! (And around the mouth...)

And sometimes, it's just easier to use your hands.

Housing news

Sorry for the sporadic updates now that we're home from England. While unpacking and recovering from jet lag, we've also been busy looking at houses. With prices falling so much around here, it seems possible for us to get into a house. We put our condo up on the market while we were overseas, and it's now in escrow. We've looked at a few houses we like and have made offers on two. One is now a "no" because of some bad stuff we found out in the mandatory disclosures, and we haven't heard back on the other one yet.
So many things to be thinking about, discussing, and praying about!

Kitties and Rabbits

We are home and slowly getting back to normal. Cora has been waking up at 5 the last three days, so beyond the jet lag fatigue it's tiring being up so early each day. I think today, Wednesday, I will try to get a nap in.
Our flight home went fairly well. Cora wasn't as good as she was on the way over, but she was better than she was for our flights at Christmas.
Cora is very happy to see her best friend Somer again, and Somer seems to like having Cora back home, too. This morning I found Cora invading Somer's space again. This was the first time I've seen Cora in Somer's bed, though in England she did get in the dog's bed at Uncle Pete and Aunt Doreen's house.
Somer resigned herself to bed-sharing, though she refused to show interest in the Virgin Atlantic wet wipes that Cora found so fascinating.
A couple of shots from Saturday, when we had a barbecue at Dean and Jenny's house (Dean is Stace's brother). The weather was great, maybe even breaking the 60s, and sunny.
Cora enjoyed petting the rabbit, though she then grabbed its ear and yanked. No wonder the rabbit kept hopping away from Cora (see video).

Cast free!

Cora is back to toddling around (with help) and pulling herself up to standing. She had her cast removed Friday morning, and a specialist felt around her ankle and gave her a clean bill of health. She began bearing weight on it in the doctor's office, and he said she looks good to go. We have a copy of the doctor's notes and her x-rays to show her pediatrician in Santa Clarita on her next visit.
On Friday afternoon, we went to the Willow and Wetlands museum, which gives a great overview of the environment and ecology of the Somerset Levels and the willow trade. The levels are low-lying areas subject to flooding, which have only become suitable for farming and commercial/residential building since channels and pumping stations were built in the last couple of hundred years. The photo of Sue and Gord with Cora is from a walk we took out on the levels a couple of nights ago. Decades ago, 9,000 acres of the levels were used for growing willows, or withies, which were harvested and processed for making baskets and furniture. Gord spent a number of years working in this cottage industry when he was younger. The museum was really interesting, and we enjoyed hearing Gord tell us about the work.
On Friday night, Cora stayed with Sue and Gord and Stace and I went out to a very nice Italian meal in Yeovil with Dean and Jenny. This afternoon, we'll go to their home for a barbecue for Gord's birthday today. We're also getting ready for our trip to Heathrow on Sunday, when we fly back to Santa Clarita.
The last photo is from our visit the other evening with Jane and Matthew Gould. Cora had fun crawling around their home, and impressed us by saying "Thank you" when Jane handed her a remote control. On the speaking front, Gord has taught Cora to say "Ta" when he hands her something; that's English shorthand for "thank you."She's also started saying "What's that?" when pointing to things. Lastly, Sue has taught her to raise her glass when we all say "Cheers!"

What we've been up to...

Here are a few shots from recent days...
We met Charlie, the beautiful new daughter of our friends Dunc and Lindsey. Not surprisingly, Cora was more interested in playing with Chelsea, their older daughter, who is nearly exactly one year older than Cora.
On Sunday, we had a nice family meal at the Crown and Victoria pub, where Cora gave a "Cheers!" to Nanny by lifting her cup.
Later on Sunday, we went for a long walk up Ham Hill with Nan, Pop, Dean and Jenny.
The last photo shows Gord reading to Cora and Ben, the son of Stace's cousin Karen and her husband Martin. Next to Gord is Auntie Doreen, Gord's sister. We visited with them on Saturday night.

On Tuesday, we had our best-weather day of our trip, and so we went to the park so Cora could play. Nan, Nanny and JT went along and we all had a great time. I didn't have our camera with us, as Stace had taken it to capture his golf game with Andy.

London

On Thursday we took a train ride into London to spend the day. Stace and I hadn't spent any time in the city in four years, and Sue is always up for a trip to London. We took an 8:20 train and got in just before 11. After having a picnic lunch in Hyde Park, we did a bit of shopping in Harrods, where the old actor Tony Curtis was having a press event to publicize his new art exhibit in the giant department store. We then took the Tube to Covent Garden, before heading to the revitalized Docklands area in the East End of the city. There, we saw an awesome new museum about the Docklands and London in general. We'd like to go back and see it again, as we got in just an hour before closing and had to rush. The upside was, they didn't charge us for entering since we came in so late. We then took the Tube back, stopping for a quick walk around the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, before going back to Waterloo to catch the 7:20 train back to Yeovil. A great day out, all went well and it didn't rain (though the wind was freezing).

Cora update

Our appointment went well today. The specialist said that it's a very small break, and Cora will heal quickly because of her age. He asked us to come back in two weeks, so we mentioned our travel plans. He then said for us to come in next Friday (two weeks after the injury) to have the cast removed. They'll take an x-ray again, but it sounds like she should be OK then to leave the cast off. Thank the Lord! Maybe she'll be taking those first steps before her Aunt Melanie walked, after all. (Mel was 17 months before she walked unassisted.)

Uh Oh!!

In her first 14 months of life, we have been so blessed to have a very healthy little girl. She has had just one cold! That luck ran out this past weekend, however. In one hard step down, as she was practicing coming down the stairs, Cora suffered a hairline fracture to her ankle. We took her in to the hospital in Yeovil on Monday since she still wasn't bearing any weight on the leg. The doctor was able to manipulate her ankle just fine, with Cora apparently in no pain, but the x-ray showed the tiny break. We will go back in for a recheck on Wednesday morning, when we hope to find out how long Cora might be wearing her new leg-warmer; the nurse estimated three to four weeks on Monday.
As you can see, the cast goes up her leg quite a way, so that it didn't slip down and cover her toes. And, as you can see, it's not affecting her mobility too much. She's back to crawling full-time, but she is standing more again, now that the weight is falling onto the cast instead of her ankle.
Today, Stace and I spent the morning in Glastonbury, a beautiful ancient town. We walked up to the top of Glastonbury Tor (hill), which you can see behind Cora here.
Here Cora is helping Stace smell a flower. She was loving picking the flowers, and she also got to see cows, sheep and ponies very nearby in the fields.
En guard! I love this photo. Click it to make it (or any other photo) appear bigger.