Laker Girls (and Bloke)

We took Cora to her - and our - first L.A. Lakers game Sunday, watching them fall to the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs. What a great atmosphere, such a cool experience! I've always wanted to go to a Lakers game, but not badly enough to pay the high prices. (And, of course, we're baseball and footie people more than any other sport...)
On Friday, after a very long work week, Stace was given tickets to the game from his boss. His work's seats are really good, in a section with a special entrance, special parking and waiters taking your food orders and serving you.
It was cool seeing Kobe Bryant in person - along with former Laker greats Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who were there for the game, and stars Jack Black, Jeremy Piven and Jack Nicholson. Nicholson, who's been a season ticket holder forever, can be (barely) seen in the action photo in the front row, to the right of the purple advertising board/table, with the dark shades.
We think Cora enjoyed it - she wore a purple gingham dress, so she looked the part of a little fan, and she definitely liked looking at all the lights. She also managed to take a nap on Grandpa's lap.

Cora 'n Kelsie

My friends from Pepperdine, Mark and Lylia, moved to Santa Clarita a few years ago and had their first daughter three weeks before Cora came along.

We took our labor/birth classes at the hospital together, and it's been great having Lylia nearby to discuss pregnancy/birth/new babies. Since our girls were three and six weeks old, we've been getting together about once a week to walk off our pregnancy pounds and compare notes. It's already fun watching our girls get bigger and reach those little milestones, like reaching for things and giggling.

Here you can see how they've changed already - the first photo is from the first time we four got together, when Cora was three weeks and Kelsie was six weeks. The second photo is from Wednesday - Kelsie is nearly 14 weeks, and Cora is nearly 11 weeks. (They both had Friday birthdays.)

Getting stronger

Cora seems to be getting bigger and more grown up each day. We notice she is talking more now, and sometimes we can have a little conversation with her, with her cooing in response to our speech.
She still is enthralled with her bouncer, the blue fish-covered thing above. She can kick some attached, hanging toys and make the bouncer make noise, which she loves. I know if I need to put her down to do something, I can put her in the bouncer and she will happily entertain herself.

I gave her some tummy time in her crib this morning, and she lifted herself up on her

forearms really well. She then rolled over onto her side! That was a first. Then I grabbed the camera to try to recreate the magic - no such luck. She was DONE with tummy time, thank you very much.

When I turned her over and turned on her Pooh mobile, all was better.

Other tidbits: she is keeping her hands open more often. While she formerly kept them clenched into fists at all times, now she will have them open at times, and she sometimes won't grip a finger when placed in her hand. She also will stay awake a lot more often in her stroller when we go for walks. Even when I think it's naptime, and she falls off to sleep in her stroller, we'll often peek in and see her eyes wide open 20 minutes later. And, she is gaining better neck control all the time. It's easier to pick her up, as she can support herself better.

Oh! The Pain

Cora is on the verge of outgrowing her bassinet, as you can see. She also seems to be outgrowing the need to be swaddled - after a recent nap I found her like this, with a free arm and leg.
Stace and I took her to her two-month doctor's appointment on Wednesday, where she had her first set of shots. Poor kid started crying as soon as we were in the exam room, and only stopped here and there. As you would expect, she didn't like her shots. She was sleepy and a bit fussy that night and through today.
As for the numbers: weight, 10 lbs, 10 oz - 30th percentile. Height, 22 3/4 inches, 54th percentile. Head circumference, 15 3/4 inches, 73rd percentile. With the head, she so far seems to be taking after Grandpa Wahla and Aunt Melanie. Today (Thursday) we walked to Hart Park with the Partridges, had lunch there and saw the new baby bison that was born to the herd living on the property.

Searching for Vidal Sassoon

Where has all of Cora's hair gone?

It falls off as she sleeps (the blanket in her bassinet has quite a bit of her hair on it) and we also find it on her clothes. She has an interesting style at the moment, long on the bottom and balding in the middle. A bit of a monk mullet, you could call it.

We had a big weekend with the Partridges here - after the zoo/Dodger game Friday, we went to Hollywood and CityWalk on Saturday and to Santa Monica on Sunday. In a coffee shop in CityWalk, we actually met a married couple with kids named Stacy and Lisa. We both thought we were the only sets of Stacy/Stacey and Lisas in the world. This Stacy also has English parents, who lived in the British Virgin Islands, though he was born in the U.S.

Friday the 13th..........

......No sign of Jason.

On Friday we all went to the LA Zoo. I am now officially a family man.

Just look at Duncan and me. A right couple of .......old men.

After the zoo trip we headed over to Dodger Stadium to watch the Dodgers open up a can of whoop ass on the San Diego Padres, winning 9-1. The 3C's (Connor, Chelsea and Cora) were all kitted out in there Dodger colours.

Cora's first Dodger game. She was fine but a bit jumpy when the crowd cheered loudly.

Cora in her frogs

At the suggestion of my college friend Sophia, we have been using cloth diapers since Cora's umbilical cord stump fell off. We made the decision based on the environmental reasons and the cost - since we can reuse them with a second baby, we're only buying diapers for one kid. I wash them myself, which is a bit of extra work, but not too bad since with a baby you end up doing laundry seemingly every day anyway.
There are many, many types of cloth diapers, which can be a bit overwhelming. We're using two types - a simple system from a company called diaperaps (www.diaperaps.com), and fitted diapers from www.clothdiaper.com. The fitted diapers are just that - they have elastic around the legs and look similar to a disposable diaper. Both types require covers - like the cute frogs Cora is modeling here.
There are fancier cloth diapers just like disposables, only washable - no covers required.

Our friends the Partridges are visiting now from England. They have a 14-month-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. We went to the park today, which we'll probably do frequently. We also plan to go to the zoo and to a Dodger game...

Happy Easter!

Cora wishes everyone a happy Easter!

She was very good for her first time at church - slept nearly the whole time, and never made a sound.

Stace was off on Good Friday, so we took a short one-night trip to San Diego County, our first time away with Cora. She slept in a little travel bed and did very well.

Inside, outside

Cora will be two months old on Monday, so I thought it would be fun to look back on how Cora and I looked just over two months ago, and how we looked a few days ago. Thanks to my dad for taking these shots...

Cora continues to amaze us with her sleeping ability. For the past three nights, she's gone down between 10:30 and 11, and woken up between 7:45 and 8:30.

Mega walk

We're starting to see Cora's beautiful smile more often.
And in the last two days, she has really fallen in love with her mobile. She gets excited watching it, kicking her legs, waving her arms and making her "monkey noises," breathing really fast and loud. We can wind it up over and over and she seems so happy there.

The other photo is from our long walk on Saturday. Stace and I used our new pedometer for the first time, so we now can finally see how far we're going on these mammoth excursions we've been taking. On Saturday, we walked five miles, all the way to the mall, mostly using Valencia's fantastic paseo system. The paseos (well-lit and well-manicured walking paths that go through the neighborhoods) and the city's bike trail are two of our favorite things about living here. We stopped once on our walk for a nursing session, eventually had lunch at Subway near the mall, and then nursed again in the "family room" in the mall. The family room is great, too - several curtained booths for privacy while feeding baby; couches and toys with Sesame Street on the television; and numerous changing stations with diaper wipe warmers and bottle warmers. There's a microwave and child-sized toilet and sink. I have a feeling we'll be using the room a lot over the next few years!
After our day out, we took the city bus back home - my first time using public transportation in town! It was only a dollar per adult, pretty outstanding.