Tidbits

Last weekend we went to see Melanie debut in her new children's theater show, The Ugly Duckling. She plays the title role, and it's very cute. She gets to sing a bit more, and I always love hearing her beautiful voice.
Maya, Natalia and Juliana made it as well, and Maya and Cora both had a great time. Cora, as she's getting older, was laughing hard at many of the jokes and funny scenes. It seems her sense of humor is getting better. Any of my local readers with kids, go see the show!

On Saturday night, Stace and I took Violet out to dinner and a walk around the mall. We stopped into Sears and did our dishwasher shopping, and then got tea samples at the new tea shop. Violet just had to have a drink too, so the guy working there pointed us to an herbal berry tea. As you can see, Violet isn't too skilled at open cups. Thankfully after a few different laundry treatments, you no longer can see the stain.

Violet has been doing pretty well in nursery lately, at church and at MOPS. The other day when we picked her up, we could hear her calling out as she stood at the gate. It was so cute! Moira, the very nice lady standing with her, used to care for Cora when she was in nursery.

It's great that it's staying light a bit later, and the clocks go forward this weekend. We took a short after-nap, before-dinner trip to our park yesterday. Both girls enjoyed the swings...
...and at least one girl enjoyed the slide.

Kitchen Update 3

Our kitchen cabinets arrived Wednesday!!!

After all of Stacey's hard work so far, it was a nice shot in the arm to see and touch these beauties.

Cora helped him inventory the 30-plus boxes, and then after careful inspection, he set up the cabinets in the garage similar to how they will look in the house.

The pantry unit is huge! At 30 inches wide, it's only six inches bigger than our current pantry cabinet, but it looks so much bigger to me.

All the shelves in the lower half - from which Stace is peeking - are the roll-out trays. (Can you see my big grin as I think about that?)

We also bought a new dishwasher this week. Sears was having a great sale when we did some looking over the weekend, so we took the plunge on a Kitchenaid.

It's waiting for pickup, so no photos, but you can click the above link if you want to see what we selected.

And we have pretty much made our decision on the backsplash tile. I went to a local tile store in Newhall - whoa, what a selection - if you can't find something you like there, it doesn't exist! I was able to take home four options, and we think we'll go with the 1x4-inch green/cream/brown mosaic in the bottom left sample. You can see it closer up by clicking here.

Money plays a role here, of course - I love the option on the bottom right, but it costs 3 times the one we're leaning towards! Since we need about 20 linear feet of backsplash, that makes a big difference.

As I type, Stace is preparing to install more drywall. Over the weekend, Keith came by to help him solder the copper pipes for the refrigerator. Stace also moved the gas pipe for the stove a couple of inches.

Sisters

Some more photos that have been hanging around in the computer, begging for public viewing.

Cora and Violet were having a great time playing the other afternoon, with Cora's pom pom from the dress-up set from Auntie Linda and Uncle John and their girls.

Next photo shows Cora playing with bubbles outside, with little sis enjoying the view.

And next, a great set of memories for me - Cora playing in her drawer at 12 months.

Violet now also loves playing in the drawer, where I keep all the kids' plates/cups/colorful plastic STUFF.

Violet is 9 1/2 months in these photos.

Now, really. Have you ever seen two baby girls as cute as these?

Come on.

Really.

Speaking of sisters, I'm tackling their clothes this week. I got out the bag of 12-18 month clothing, and found lots of treasures, including the outfit Cora is wearing in the drawer photos.

I got them organized in Violet's drawers yesterday, and today will organize her outgrown clothing into boxes.

Then, onto organizing the 2T and 3T bags from Cora that are also in Violet's closet.

I think it's a spring thing - I have this inner desire for much more organization.
(Those who know me best are sighing with relief to hear that, I know.)

A great week

What a nice week we've had!

Though we have our daily moments of frustration, in general my little family is in a nice groove. We are so blessed!

On Monday, Juliana and her girls came up, and we went to Kabuki for lunch.

Both girls enjoyed their (free) birthday lunch, and I especially enjoyed the large portions. No cooking for me, that night!

Cora did amazingly well with her chopsticks, on her first time using them. She didn't ask for or need a fork!

Violet also mastered taking food from the sticks.

We then walked over to the Undergrounds coffee house at our church, where coffee and pastries made for a nice dessert.

Undergrounds is a donation-only establishment, with some of the funds raised going to a local nonprofit.
All of our girls did great and had a nice time together.

Besides the chopsticks, Cora did something else that amazed me: When I was ordering our drinks, Cora was counting us, and counting the number of chairs at a table she wanted us to sit at.

It's a little thing, but such a grownup little thing to have done, and she did it all on her own.

On Tuesday, we had a MOPS leadership meeting, followed by school for Cora. Wednesday we went to a MOPS mom's house for a pizza-making playdate, followed by storytime at Castaic library.

On Thursday, Cora and I made muffins before she went to class; during class, Violet and I got my car's smog check completed. Violet was a sweetheart, affectionate and playful while we waited.

Today, Friday, after Stroller Strides the instructor brought a parachute for the kids. Cora was running around shrieking with laughter, and Violet was almost equally enthusiastic. We then met our friend Jaimie and her two, Mackenzie (pictured) and Luke, at a park for a picnic play date.

Good times! The kind we want to remember.

10 months

Violet is now 10 months old, and such a fun and affectionate addition to our home.

She loves us very much, and is pretty quick to give us her open-mouth kisses.

Her personality is generally happy, easy-going, upbeat. If every baby was this joyful, I'd love to have five more!

When she does something she shouldn't do - like touching the DVD player - and we firmly tell her "no," she is unhappy, but no tantrums yet. She definitely doesn't have the same strong-willed personality that Cora has. (Phew! I reread the blog and was writing about Cora's screaming fits at 9 and 10 months...)

Yet again, one negative (but kind of funny) thing I should note: I was out front with Genia and our kids, and handed Violet to her for a moment. Violet immediately started fussing, waved her arms at Genia's face, and then reached for me. The arm-waving looked a lot like hitting!

Violet pulls to standing easily, and climbs up on things like low storage boxes that slide under the bed.

She likes to put things in her mouth - everything she can reach! Still no teeth other than the bottom two, and her teething symptoms have lessened.

She generally goes to bed between 8 and 8:30, and sleeps until 7:30. She's still taking two naps, though the morning nap has shifted to 9:30ish instead of 9.

In the bottom photo, Violet had woken up at 6 and was so unhappy. I changed her diaper to find a lot of mess, which was making her bum very red and painful. No wonder! By 8:30, when she was having her breakfast, she was done!

Speaking of breakfast, Violet normally has oatmeal in the mornings, and whatever we're having for dinner, in the evenings. She especially likes yogurt, chicken, peas, corn and carrots, along with quesadillas and French toast. She ate an entire piece of French toast for lunch the other day, and the next night she nearly finished a chicken-and-cheese quesadilla by herself!
She also nurses four times a day - in the morning, upon waking from her naps, and before bed.

We also have a couple of other cute photos from the past few weeks. In the third one, she found my lipstick and knew just what to do with it. And next, she was very pleased with herself after pulling down onto herself a box of fun things.

Past the Point of No Return

An Open Letter

Dear Genia and John,

We love being your neighbors.

We love exchanging meals every other week and having that dependable friend from whom to borrow eggs, a ladder, or a weed whacker.

We love how our kids get so excited to play together. We love our quiet cul-de-sac where they all can ride their scooters/trikes/bikes together.

We love our little park we can quickly walk to for an easy picnic playdate.

It was fun having dinner and watching the Oscars with you!

We love how Ave is such a good friend to Cora, even though she's two years older and goes to the big school now. We love how Owen and Violet giggle at each other.

And we love how Johnny and Cora play together.

The other day, when Johnny asked me if he could have a date with Cora, I laughed inside, but also secretly hoped that these kids will grow up together, and reach dating age together.

So, from our family to yours, please don't ever move.
Sincerely,
Stace and Lisa

Editors' note: I asked Johnny what he meant when he asked me if he could have a date with Cora, and he said that she could come to his house and they could play. So I think he was meaning a "play date." And, for those of you wondering, "dating age" would be 23.

4-year well check

Cora went to her 4-year well check Thursday afternoon, and overall it went better than I had expected. I had been nervous because Cora knows about shots now, but when I told her about the appointment - on the way there - she wasn't upset.

She is 32 pounds - 25th percentile - and 38.5 inches, also 25th percentile.

Cora cooperated through the blood pressure check, and her blood pressure is good.

Cora also liked the hearing test, likening it to a game.

The cooperation came to a screeching halt when she was asked to raise the eye cover up and "read" the pictures on the eye chart. For whatever reason, she did not want to do this. Stace, the nurse and I all tried to convince her, persuade her, push her into doing it. Stace and I both took turns reading the chart holding the shield up over our eyes. I gave her a big hug (she asks for these when she is in trouble/not wanting to do what she's told).

Finally, she agreed to cooperate, and then would tell us the symbols in a voice barely over a whisper. It was pretty aggravating. (Excuse the blurry photo, but Stace has Violet in his arms and was already quite annoyed at this point in the visit.)
Dr. Brockett knows Cora well, of course. She calls her "feisty," and that is a great word for Cora. As she kept talking to Cora throughout the visit, Cora warmed up to her, and cooperated later with the physical examination.

Cora got just one shot, the MMR, and with me holding her arms firmly down, we survived. It would have been a lot worse had she needed a second or third jab, as the first one kind of took her by surprise and she wasn't in full freak-out mode when the nurse came in with the needle.

We had discussed vaccines in the morning, so she understands the "why," but obviously they still sting!

We went out to dinner after the doctor's, and here Cora is playing doctor by listening to Daddy's heartbeat with her chopstick.

As another post-doctor treat, we went to Target so Cora could pick out something fun with the gift card from Aunt Patty and Uncle Bill. She looked over just about every single toy in the store before deciding upon the Play-Doh cake-making station. Fitting, since she always makes cupcakes with Aunt Patty. We got it out today and Cora really loved it.

As a final treat, Cora got an icee as we left, for her bessert. Hence the red mouth/pink teeth in the photo! I'm hoping that next year, when it comes time for her checkup (and shots), Cora remembers the fun we had afterward!

A new park

We've had a nice couple of weeks with friends!

We hosted our MOPS table last week (I'm now a table leader), and on Monday we went to visit Juliana and her girls.

They now live a short walk from a big park with nice new play equipment. Cora and Maya were excited to see each other again, and held hands on the way to the park.

Since it was President's Day, the park was busy, and as soon as we got there, Cora was off and running.

Juliana packed a picnic lunch for us all, and Cora liked mustard for the first time.

Back at the house, Cora helped clear Juliana's back yard of extra lemons and oranges.

Yum! We'll be having lemon chicken Saturday with one of them.

And Violet learned how to get Cheerios out of a Snack Trap container.

My little baby is growing up!

The girls playing

I've had some cute photos and videos of Cora and Violet accumulating on the computer while I posted other entries here on the blog.

In the top ones, Violet really wants Cora to share her apple. She was practically crawling onto big sister's lap and making all sorts of hungry noises. I love the look on Cora's face in the second photo.

In the next photo and videos, Cora and Vi were playing together. It was a tea party, if you ask Cora, and a chance for Violet to bang plastic toys.

They don't play together every day, but when they do, it's super cute. I'm so glad and blessed by our girls' age difference. Cora thinks Violet is great, and the feeling is mutual.

And the other day, Stace was working on the kitchen and I was washing the dinner dishes. Violet can be fussy and a little clingy some evenings, especially as she's been teething.

I put her in the Jumperoo, which she hasn't played in too much lately. I put batteries in the lights-and-sounds toy (for the first time), and she loved it!

Cora bounced all over the room on her space hopper, so our house was filled with the sounds of laughter, happy shrieks, and toy music. The joys of family life!