Bathtime Fun!

We gave Violet and Cora their first bath together the other morning.

Cora is always helpful at Violet's bathtime, and she is washing her sister in these photos.

Violet loves splashing!

Around the house

Cora and Violet continue to enjoy one another...

Stace and I are so blessed to have girls who love each other so much, right from the start. I hope they always have such love for each other!


Cora's word of the week is "Yoop!" She uses it as one might use the word "Yippee!" As in, "Ave and Johnny are coming over?? YOOP!!!"

We recently acquired a set of the Little House on the Prairie books, as we were interested in reading aloud to Cora (and Violet!). We're starting with Little House in the Big Woods and are two chapters in.

Cora is enjoying it so far, though it's a new experience for her to not have pictures to look at on every page. We love the quiet evenings of reading together on the couch.

Cora is becoming a bit more of a "Daddy's girl" lately, and it's wonderful to watch. Stace has been stricter with her, and very consistent, and I think she is thriving within the boundaries.

She is talking more about Daddy when he's not home, as in, "I want to show Daddy my ladybug wings" (dress-up apparel) and "I'm making this picture for Daddy."

She likes to hide from Stace when he comes home, though her choice of hiding place is, um, the same most nights so it doesn't take him long to find her.

A big day out

We had a big day Saturday, starting with watching "Jack and the Beanstalk," Melanie's latest show, in Universal City. Above, we have Cora getting "Jack's" autograph. We have no photos from the show because photography wasn't allowed, but imagine happy, wide-eyed children laughing.
And here, Auntie Mel (the play's narrator) and the Giant, with Johnny. Our friends Genia, John, Ave and Johnny came to the play also. Johnny and Cora had a great time dancing on stage during one of the songs, and Cora was the lucky girl chosen by the narrator to hold onto the "magic beans" for part of the play. Violet was great during the show, and seemed to enjoy it.

Following the play we went to the Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex to have lunch. My cousin Elizabeth and her husband Jerry came out from Riverside to the show, and it was my parents' anniversary weekend, so we all went to the California Pizza Kitchen together. Above, we have Cora choosing to not pose for a photo with Grandpa. (You can just make out the Hollywood sign on the hill behind them, so it could have been a nice photo.)

She did smile when Daddy seized her for a huggle and a tickle.
Violet tried out water for the second time. She wasn't sure what to make of it at first, and it kind of spilled out of her mouth. That might have been because it was so cold, however.
We then made our way to Ikea, and Cora's lack of a nap caught up with her in the car.
At Ikea we looked at their kitchen selections, and looked at our kitchen layout on their computer screen. Cora entertained herself by coloring, a new favorite pasttime.

Violet entertained herself with toys, and flirting with other customers. She likes sticking her tongue out.

We didn't get home until almost 10 p.m., which is very late by our standards. Thankfully the timing worked out well - it was the night that our clocks were to fall back. The long day and spotty naps helped the girls adjust well on Sunday and Monday.

A good week

Back to normal life this week, after our Halloween craziness. Thank goodness for that!

This week we had an election on Tuesday, and Cora's preschool classroom was used as a polling place. So, we headed to Hart Park for a field trip!

We haven't been to see the animals for many months. I invited Colleen, Lucas and Liana to join us, so it was great to hang out with them, too.

Liana and Violet are interacting with each other more, which is really cute. They'll smile and coo and hold (and chew on) each other's hands.

In the middle of our trip, Cora was defiantly telling me "no" about sharing a rock with her friend Emily. I called her over to discuss it, and she took off the other way. Sigh.

I sent her to the "corner," or next to a tree, and she carried on for a long time. I think she secretly enjoyed having the attention of her classmates.

When she calmed down, she got to hold her friend Matthew's month-old baby brother, and then she held Violet.

This was a pretty normal week. We were able to go Stroller Strides twice, on Tuesday and Thursday, and we had Skipper Club on Wednesday night.

I had my church small group Tuesday night, and Stace got to play golf Thursday after work. On Friday night, Stace had the girls and I went out to dinner with some of my old Stroller Strides friends.

That all sounds busy, but since we had several days at home most of the day, all went smoothly.

Stace reports that his Friday night at home went brilliantly. After they ate, Violet played outside in her exersaucer while Cora and he played tennis and football. Then Cora watched a Thomas video and Stace played guitar for Violet. Then, they all read together. Good times!

Lombardi Ranch, 2010

Like 93.6% of all SClarita families, we made it over to Lombardi Ranch for pumpkin fun in the weeks before Halloween.

I've included a photo from Cora's first trip to Lombardi's. She was 8 1/2 months old, and Violet was almost 6 months when we went this year.

In one of the photos, we have Cora with her friend Libi - believe it or not, they're only a few weeks apart!

We ran into Libi, Ron and Heather and it was great to see them again! Heather isn't taking part in MOPS or Skipper Club this year, so, sadly, we haven't been able to see each other very often.

Also, Heather always organized our MOPS trip to Underwood Farm for pumpkin-picking, and without her, we didn't make it out to Underwood this year. Oh well, there's always next year.

I love the shot of Cora and Violet together on the pumpkins - we tried many times to get a nice photo of them together, and this was pretty much the best one.

Yep, the one with them sitting on a collapsing stack of pumpkins.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween was fun at our house this year, with lots of activities for Cora to wear her Jessie costume.

Violet was a beautiful tiger, though she was a little fussy while we trick-or-treated, and only happy in our arms.

Cora, Ave and Johnny made it up and down three small streets in our neighborhood this year, so one more than last year. And Cora wasn't so scared of the scary decorations, though it did take her a while to go to sleep.

(Come to think of it, it's taking her a while to go to sleep in general lately, with lots of whining and tears about various problems after we've said good-night. We seem to go through phases with bedtime being fine for months, and then difficult for months.

A new friend

It's funny how life and blogging are - I can have a week where it's so normal there seems to be little to mention here. And then there is a week with so much going on, I hardly have a moment to sit at the computer.

Anyway, at top we have photos from our fabulous evening Monday with Juliana, Maya, Daryl and brand-new-baby Natalia Marie!

They moved about a half-hour out of SClarita a month ago, and Juliana gave birth to Natalia last week. We were lucky enough to meet her on her fifth day of life! She is gorgeous and so tiny, making Violet look gigantic.

Cora and Maya had a great time together, and their new home is beautiful.

On our way home, Cora asked what freeway we had taken. She is very interested these days on where we are going and how we are getting there - she wants the names of roads, and pretty much exact directions.

I told her we took the freeway, and that people call it the 210 freeway - the "two-ten." I went further, for some reason, and said that it could be called the "two-hundred-ten freeway" but that people say "two-ten."
Cora then wanted to know what Daddy called it. "The two-ten," I said. She asked what Juliana called it, and I said "the two-ten."
Then, she declared. "I call it the fifty-eight."
Typical!

Other recent Coraisms: She was excited to put up a scarecrow in her window as an autumn decoration. She then said, "Can we decorate my room? With stickers? All over everything?!?!"
And, when she and Violet were together in the playroom, Violet started crying. I asked what was wrong, and Cora said, "I just hit her head with my bus. But I said 'Sorry.' "

And a last bit of Cora news - she is now wearing big-girl panties to bed! More than a year after being potty-trained during the day, our big girl is truly done with diapers. She has been dry most nights for a couple of months, and a few weeks ago we started giving her stickers in the morning for waking up dry. That seemed to spur her on to making sure she got up in the night when she needed the toilet.

In other news, we took Somer in last week for another steroid shot. The vet said that if the steroids work, they typically wear off after four weeks, so we were right on schedule with her needing another shot.

She is such a good kitty - Violet was wanting to pet her the other day, and obviously that means grabbing handfuls of skin and fur, and Somer stays put.

Violet's Half-Birthday!

Happy half-year birthday, Violet Mae!

Our little blue-eyed beauty has added so much joy to our lives, and we already can't imagine life without her sunny presence.

Violet loves playing with her sister and listening to Daddy play the guitar.

She sleeps well at home but doesn't nap longer than 20 minutes when we're out and about.

She likes her pacifier, though I'm trying to only use it for naptime, and random really-fussy-times. She still sleeps better swaddled, so I'm using large double-layer flannel blankets for the purpose. (Thanks, Michelle and Brooke!) Thankfully it's been cool enough to do so!

And, we've started using a white noise CD to help her sleep well. My thought is that the CD would be great to take when we go to England, and anywhere else we travel, so that Violet will sleep great when she isn't in her own bed.

Violet didn't quite make it to crawling by her half-birthday, but she sure is close. She rocks back and forth on her knees, and then can lunge forward to get a toy.

At a consignment sale last week, I bought a large baby gate to enclose the carpeted playroom. We want to keep her off our tile floors as much as possible until she's walking really well!

Though Violet can sit for 30 seconds or so, she prefers to be lying down so she can roll around, or rock on her knees.

Cora, Violet and I were having some quality time on my bed the other morning, and I was pulling Violet's arms up to try to help her sit. But no - she straightened both legs each time, so that I was bringing her to standing instead. She only needs help with balance, and she can basically stand.

Also, the other morning she was leaning over, propping herself on her elbow to reach up into her toy basket to get out her own toys. (See photos - sorry they're blurry, I had to hurry because they move so quickly!)

Everything goes in her mouth, but no signs of teeth yet. She is nursing four times a day, sometimes five if she's having a fussy evening. We haven't started any solids, as she has shown no interest yet in food.
(By this age, Cora was trying to grab our food and watching intently as we ate.)

I plan to follow Violet's lead in giving her solids, and when we saw Dr. Brockett this week, she agreed that there is no need to push food at this point.

At the doctor's office, Violet was 15 pounds, 3 ounces, dropping her down into the 34th percentile. She is 26 1/4 inches, or 70th percentile, and her head circumference of 16.9 inches ranks Vi in the 67th percentile.

Violet had one shot and one oral vaccine, which she gobbled up! You can see her here trying to guide the nurse's hand with the dropper.

I should mention at this point how thankful I am to everyone who took the time to vote on the black and white pictures of Violet last week!
Out of more than a dozen votes, Photo A was the winner (7 votes). Photo B received three votes, C received two votes, and two voters chose "all of the above."