Five years later

Cora has a new friend. Introducing Monkey, who likes to give her a big hug, as you can see. Walmart had a choice of Monkey or Dog, and she picked Monkey. When we attach Monkey's tail, Cora and Mummy or
Daddy can hold on to the end. It's been very handy already, as Cora loves walking and staying out of strollers and shopping carts.
The second photo shows Cora after Stroller Strides, borrowing her little friend's sunglasses. I thought the way she stuck them on her head looked really cute.
The next photo is from the date Stace and I had to celebrate our 5th anniversary. A year ago, I had high hopes of going away for the night on our own for the occasion, but moving and hoping to buy a house put a wrench in that plan. Plus, Cora hasn't been sleeping well so it wouldn't work for her to keep anyone else up all night! We had a very nice afternoon, going to a new shopping center in Glendale called The Americana at Brand. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and meandered through the stores, something we don't get to do when we have Cora.

Speaking of Cora not sleeping, we might have cracked the problem. The last photo shows Cora helping Stace - she's getting really good at climbing. He is taping up cardboard to divert the air conditioning vent, so it no longer blasts her during the night. She slept through the night the following two nights, and we're crossing our fingers that it continues on. We were getting to that short-tempered point of fatigue, and that's a very bad combination when you're with a tantrum-prone, strong-willed little girl all day.
On the housing front, we have put in an offer on the house we looked at Friday. I think we're both at the point where we'll get excited about a particular house when we actually have a sale agreed. This will be the fourth house we've bid on, counting a couple from when we were in escrow in April. The video (and top photo) is from a walk we took around the neighborhood on the paseos.

Getting bigger

Here is our little graffiti artist. She found a crayon in my purse while we were playing in the park after Stroller Strides, and went to town on the bench. Obviously she got the idea from using chalk on the bench last week. (If you click the photo, you can get a closer look at her artwork.)
We had Cora's 18-month check-up yesterday, and she is developmentally right on track. The doctor gave me some advice on how to handle her tantrums, her hitting, and her night-waking. She had two shots. Size-wise, she is 21 1/2 pounds, which puts our slender toddler down to the 11th percentile. She is 31 1/2 inches tall, in the 40th percentile, and her head circumference was in the 87th percentile. After the appointment, we went up to Palmdale to visit some of our Valley Press friends, and I was thrilled with how well Cora behaved.
On the house front, we did not get the four-bedroom house we had the offer in on. Another foreclosure has come on the market today, which we'll take a look at. I'll blog about it, if it's worth mentioning again.
The final photo shows a recent naptime - too cute to not post! Cora is taking one long afternoon nap these days, usually lasting 90 minutes to over two hours. In other Cora news, she is getting so good at feeding herself. The other day I shared with her some rice I was eating, and fed her - it struck me that it's been months since I've actually spoonfed her dinner. She uses a little fork, too.

Non-Laboring Day

We had a relaxing weekend for Labor Day, and enjoyed the rest - until early this morning. More on that in a minute.
On Saturday, my friend Elisabeth (a former AV Presser) was in town from Texas, and we spent a great morning together. In the afternoon, Stace, Cora and I went to a Sheriff's Department Chili Cookoff where Cora petted a horse, admired other petting zoo animals and a department helicopter. Then the day went downhill, with Cora breaking into tantrum mode when we got back to the car. The screaming lasted a good 15 minutes. It seems that the move has caught up with her. We resolved to spend a lot more quality time with her, giving her lots of hugs and attention. It's funny to think that a kid who has mom around all the time could suffer a lack of attention, but I admit that has happened here with the busyness of the last few months with the house and moving goings-on.
On Sunday, after church and nap we went to the Aquatic Center, and Cora loved it. On Monday we looked at the house in the post below, finalized our offer, and then enjoyed the afternoon at Hurricane Harbor. After the Harbor, we stopped for frozen yogurt at Golden Spoon, our favorite. Stace ordered the cappucino flavor, and shared it with Cora. Big mistake. Who knew there was actual caffeine in the yogurt? Cora had trouble going to sleep Monday, and then woke up at 2:30 Tuesday morning and never went back to sleep. Neither did we. I finally got Cora out of bed at 5, and Stace got up for work. She went back to sleep around 7:30, and I just put her down for her afternoon nap here at 1:30. I'm hoping to rest up while she's asleep.
The last photo here shows how curly Cora's hair gets when she's hot. Cute, huh?

Househunt

Here are some photos of a house we looked at today that we really like, a four-bedroom near a great park and the paseos. We're going to put in an offer. However, we wouldn't be surprised if it goes for a lot more than we can afford. So we'll see.Kitchen, from rear corner. Big living room is just visible from the doorway.
Kitchen, from front corner
Side patio, with child safety gate blocking off pool in the back yard
Master bedroom
Master bedroom, with walk in closet and bath

master bath

secondary bedrooms


secondary bath

*Note* I'm receiving reports that my Friday evening entry looks like gibberish. I'm reposting the text here.

We're getting used to being in our apartment, and it's just fine and dandy. Hopefully we won't be here too long, but in the meantime we are comfortable here and enjoying a few little things - no more three stair flights, and a direct-access garage! Also, we have a walk-in closet and a walk-in pantry, so there is a decent amount of storage for a small space. Plus, the unit has a washer and dryer, something I definitely appreciate. And we have a good-sized patio and a lot of greenery out front, so Cora has space to run around.
Besides getting unpacked, this week Cora and I went to our first MOPS get-together of the new year. The top photo shows Cora playing with her friend Jordyn, who is a year older than her and helped her with the chalk.
The next photos show Cora rearranging her clothing drawers. She decided her socks should go into my tennis shoes.
Cora seems to be happy in our apartment, though she's been waking up at 5 the past few mornings and she's had trouble going back to sleep. She's also been screaming a lot lately when she wants something. Today at Stroller Strides she decided she wanted to walk while we were exercising, and proceeded to have a big shrieking fit.
In other news, a big congratulations to my sister Melanie are in order. She auditioned for her college's fall production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, and won the leading role of Nellie Forbush! I'm so proud of her, and can't wait to see her shine onstage.

Settling in...

...to our new life post-condo-ownership.
We're getting used to being in our apartment, and it's just fine and dandy. Hopefully we won't be here too long, but in the meantime we are comfortable here and enjoying a few little things - no more three stair flights, and a direct-access garage! Also, we have a walk-in closet and a walk-in pantry, so there is a decent amount of storage for a small space. Plus, the unit has a washer and dryer, something I definitely appreciate. And we have a good-sized patio and a lot of greenery out front, so Cora has space to run around.
Besides getting unpacked, this week Cora and I went to our first MOPS get-together of the new year. The top photo shows Cora playing with her friend Jordyn, who is a year older than her and helped her with the chalk.
The next photos show Cora rearranging her clothing drawers. She decided her socks should go into my tennis shoes.
Cora seems to be happy in our apartment, though she's been waking up at 5 the past few mornings and she's had trouble going back to sleep. She's also been screaming a lot lately when she wants something. Today at Stroller Strides she decided she wanted to walk while we were exercising, and proceeded to have a big shrieking fit.
In other news, a big congratulations to my sister Melanie are in order. She auditioned for her college's fall production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, and won the leading role of Nellie Forbush! I'm so proud of her, and can't wait to see her shine onstage.

Moved In

Well, we packed up, moved out and moved in.

Moving all the little things and cleaning the condo took twice as long as moving all the big heavy items. I was very suprised.

It was a sad day for me. On top of moving out of our first home, I threw away my surfboard. For some strange reason I had kept the two halves after they were smashed to pieces during our last move.

We are now living in an appartment in Newhall, just down the road from the condo.

Cora and Somer have both settled in well. Cora has slept through both nights we have been there. We had a nice lazy day yesterday, did some shopping and generally took it easy.

The complex we are staying at is on top of a hill and has great views of the Santa Clarita Valley.

There are three swimming pools and a play area that we went to yesterday.

In the evening Cora and I installed a toilet lock on the lid to stop her from chucking stuff in the water.

Packing up...

Stace and I are excited to say, we are selling our condo! May the house-hunt begin! You might remember, we were in escrow initially in April, but that fell through. Our new buyers came to look in July, and we are set to close tomorrow (Friday). We have been busy all week, packing and moving loads of boxes to my parents' "storage facility," the lean-to on the side of their garage. Thanks, Mom and Dad! We will be moving into a small apartment Friday and Saturday, which hopefully will be a brief stay until we find the right house. We are really looking forward to having a third bedroom, a back yard (garden) and a garage where Stace can set up a workbench.
As you can see from the photos, Cora and Somer are helping a lot with the packing. In the second photo, Cora took it upon herself to move all the toiletries we've set aside in boxes into a suitcase. She's also (tried to) pack the cornstarch and baking powder into a box Stace was putting the VCR and DVD player into, and she's removed all my shoes from my shoe storage unit. We noticed Wednesday she was much more affectionate and huggy than she has been recently - a welcome change, but most likely evidence that she's a bit unsure of what's going on. I have told her that we'll be saying "bye bye" to the house, and she will look around and wave.
The last photo shows our treat the other night after an evening of moving activity - ice cream at McDonalds. It was Cora's first time, and she of course enjoyed it greatly.

Last L.A. Hurrah

Nan and Pop are now back in England, and we've been busy packing for our upcoming move out of our condo. More on that in a post in the near future.
Here, I give you photos of our trip Thursday night to Dodger Stadium, or 'Blue Heaven on Earth,' as Tommy Lasorda and I like to call it. My dad called Thursday morning with the gift of great tickets (and a parking pass, worth a small fortune these days) from a co-worker of his. As it was Sue and Gord's last night in Southern California, he was thoughtful to share them with us.
Believe it or not, it was our first trip to the Dodgers this season. Cora was a very good girl, and made it through very well for the seven full innings we watched in person. She ate some of our Dodger Dogs, enjoyed doing the wave, and cheered for the new fan favorite Manny Ramirez (even though he went hitless). The Dodgers won, sweeping the Phillies, making the night even more enjoyable.

Days at the Lake

We've just returned from a two-night stay in the local mountains (Crestline to be exact), where we spent several hours around Lake Arrowhead (top photo) and half a day playing at Lake Gregory (second photo). We played in the water and took some nice walks through the trees, up at 5,000 feet above sea level.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. Cora has not always been a great traveler, but overall she did very well. She slept great the first night, to our relief. She didn't do very well the second night, but since we were operating on a full night's sleep, it wasn't so bad.
We stayed in a little cabin in the woods, which worked very well and saved us a lot of money on food. The front deck had a low wall around it, so it made a perfect playground for Cora to practice her running (bottom photo). She managed to feed herself without a high chair, too. She has begun saying "More, ta," when she wants more of something to eat. "Ta" or "ta ta" is Cora-speak (and England English) for "thank you." Today, she also was saying, "Hi."
Back in Santa Clarita tonight, we went out to dinner. Cora, as per her new normal, did well for about half the meal and then decided she was done. We took turns with her outside. She is not the easiest little girl these days when she decides she is "done" with whatever it is she is done with! In addition, she still seems to be cutting several teeth, and often has a finger in her mouth while she fusses.

SClarita Summer Fun

We been having a very nice time with Nan and Pop here, soaking in the SClarita culture. This week, we went to the mall Tuesday evening, where Sue made a furry friend to take home at Build a Bear, and Cora took a ride on the fire engine. We had dinner at Souplantation, and took in a free concert outside the mall.
We had more free music Saturday, at the Concert in the Park. We took a picnic lunch, and Cora gave her daddy some love.
On Sunday, Sue and I watched Grease at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center. Afterwards, we went back and met the cast, and the lovely young woman who played "Marty" was nice enough to sign our program and pose for a photo.
Also Sunday, we had a snack at McDonalds, where Cora had her first experience at the on-site playground. She absolutely loved it, shrieking with laughter.
In other Cora news, she is getting good at making various animal noises. Besides cat and dog, she can do a mean horse impression, along with lion, tiger and bear (yes, they do sound similar, but if you listen carefully there are differences), and mouse, and sometimes, cow.
This evening at dinner, she also was trying to say, "Whoopsadaisy!" She's been having a great time in the pool the last few days, and we took a nice trip to the SClarita Aquatic Center Thursday.
Cora also is getting 2-4 teeth right now, and she's been quite cranky off and on.

98 Red Balloons

Nan and Pop are here! They arrived Thursday night and are enjoying the heat. On Friday evening we went to the mall to hear the live music across the street at the Hyatt, where someone gave us a balloon for Cora.
You can see the progression of photos - she was playing with it, and then it popped. She immediately turned to hug Stace for comfort - that was her first balloon popping and it frightened her. Then she began to cry, and cry.
At the moment, Cora is asleep and Sue, Gord and Stace are up at the pool. This evening we'll have a picnic at the Concert in the Park (with a $5 Walmart sub that is big enough to feed all of us!). On Sunday we'll look at some houses for sale with our realtor, and in the afternoon Sue and I will see my sister in the Santa Clarita production of Grease. (She's playing Marty).