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.

Family Visit, and Car Visit

Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty rolled into town this week, on the last leg of an extended road trip from Washington.

It was great to spend time together, as always. Spending time with them grew even better for Stace when Bill let him drive his new car.
Sure, flying is quicker, but why be quick when you have something as fun to drive as a Mercedes convertible?

Uncle Bill and my mom went to visit their other brother in San Pedro this week, and needed a more roomy car. Stace was more than willing to let them take his CR-V, especially since it meant he could take the SL500 to work. Wow. He couldn't stop talking about it!

We hosted a family barbecue this week, which was a lot of fun, and tried to go to the Aquatic Center.

But I forgot that our favorite water park was closed because of a special event. So, Aunt Patty and the girls and I went to get a new water toy at Walmart, which we played with at Grandpa's house.

Violet loves Jake and Pepper, the doggies, and shows no fear of them at all.

Now, Uncle and Aunt are back on the road, and Nan and Pop are on their way here!

Gotta love spending time with family in the summer - such a blessing.

My little princess

Hard to believe that two years ago, Cora was a tomboy who preferred trains and cars! She often dresses up during nap/rest time, wearing either her princess outfits or her own dressy dresses. Here, she said she put on her knitted gloves because princesses wear gloves.

Some recent Coraisms: "Mum, does God have nipples?" and "Someone took my braveness" (when explaining why she performed poorly at her swimming lesson).

And, a story/Coraism: A friend on Facebook posted that her son Harvey was horrified to learn that the chicken on his plate came from a real, well, chicken. He was had tears in his eyes, threw down his fork, and said, "Let's go."
Since I was with Cora when I read this, I asked her if it made her sad that the meat we eat comes from animals. She said no, it didn't make her sad. She then asked how they kill the chickens - "With a gun? Or do they break their heads off?"

I guess we won't have a Cora-the-vegetarian phase at our house!