whoops 2 months later!!

Here are some lovely images from Cora's birthday and Halloween!

Preschool!!

Cora had her first few days of preschool this week!!

It didn't go great. She is having a hard time adjusting (me too!) but she looked adorable!!!!

My favorite!!

oooh maybe this is my favorite.

...or maybe this one.

Dress Up

Cora loves to play "dress up". She can't go anywhere without her at least two accessories - normally a purse and  lip gloss!!

And here is one that I just love! I was talking on the phone with my mom when I looked out in the back yard and saw this - 

They have so much fun together!

I know these posts are few and far between but watch for September because big things will be happening for Cora!

Happy Independence Day

Today we celebrate the second year of Cora being seizure free!!

Hug your family. Eat some Apple Pie. Enjoy the 4th of July!

June

The rain didn't seem to let up at all until last night. This was our sweet reward for it.

Rainy Days

Having a 2.5 year old inside all day is a pretty interesting task. So today Kris and I decided to take a little lesson from Nick Jr.'s "Ni Hao, Kai Lan". We put our rain gear on and took a little walk.

Here our some pictures of our short adventure! It was dry and consisted almost entirely of sniffing flowers.

Baby days are leaving.

I took this picture of Cora recently. When I saw it, it almost made me gasp. She looks so grown up.



The only saving grace is that she is not wearing a shirt. The fact that she refuses to wear clothes most of the time proves she is still a baby - right? right?!?

A little "Me" post!

I ran my first 1/2 Marathon yesterday!! I am still completely wiped out but am very happy I did it.

My little trophy at the end really made it all worth it.



That and when were standing in line to get my "Finisher Photo" taken she said - "Mommy, I so proud of you!" and gave me a big hug. Everyone around us went "awwwww". It was a little bit of a tearjerker!

Oh the drama.

Nooo my/I want/ I don't want ________ followed by throwing herself on the floor.

This is a frequent scene in our house. She is mostly just this hilarious little sweet thing and then all of the sudden drama drama drama out of no where.

It cracks me up...when it isn't making me want to run away from home.

New skills -
~Knows her alphabet (can point to and name all letters)
~Can count to 13
~Finally figured out the difference between "my" and "I"

Favorite books -
~Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
~Fancy Nancy
~Leonardo the Terrible Monster

Favorite Songs -
~What's This - Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack
~Let's Get Together - The Parent Trap Soundtrack (or as she calls it the "alligator song"
~Manah Manah - (The Cake version)

And in the shocking category she HATES cereal. Who on earth hates cereal? I would only eat cereal if there were no rules.

Piano Prodigy

Cora loves to play all sorts of instruments - the harmonica, the guitar and bass, the drums and, of course, the piano.

(I promise Ellen, we will have her painting and sewing too!)







And one for fun!

Winter time fun!

Here are a few recent pics of the winter time here at our house.

Cora watching the snow fall.

Getting ready to walk to Papa and Wawa's

Decked out in snow gear.

In her Christmas dress.

Her very first bike. Can you tell she is excited?

Doing the only cool thing there is at Jantzen Beach.

As Peaseblossom at Mikenzie's Graduation Party.

Talking....and talking.

Cora has obviously been talking for a while now, so the fact that she is talking isn't that impressive. But what she has been saying is so.much.fun.

Example A:
(holding hand out flat)
Cora : Riiiilleeeey eat the apple.
Me: Are you feeding Riley (Mom and Rick's horse)?
Cora: Mmm hmm Riley eats hay and apples.
Me: You are genius!

Example B:
Me (and Mom, she can't pretend like she wasn't part of this): Cora, I don't want you to ever say this again but can you show Ninny how you say Douche bag?
Cora: Doooose bad.
Ninny (my mom): Can you say putz?
Cora: Putz!
Me: Okay last one, can you say wiener.
Cora: wiiieeennnnerr!!.....pause.....DADDY'S WIENER!!!

Good thing we were at a stop light. We would have run off the road laughing.

Halloween at the Hoyts

So I decided to torture myself and make Cora an Alice costume. Luckily it went really smoothly and she kept it on the whole time!





We also had a great time at the pumpkin patch.




In other Cora news she has had what can only be called a language explosion. She even says sentences! Her current favorites are "Airplane in the clouds" and "Goodnight Moon". She is also into labeling everything - Daddy's pillow, Mommy's shirt, Coco's chair etc. We love it! It is so much fun to hear her chatter on about what ever she sees. It isn't even annoying yet!!

Bye Bye Poops.

Totally immature! Cora is going to hate us! Enjoy!!!!

Bad Bad Blogger

This summer has been insane. We have already been to 3 weddings and have one more left. Cora seems to be loving all the action around the house since she is talking and dancing like there is no tomorrow. All of this activity though has slowed potty training a little. We are still working on it and we now have a chart system but it her success really depends on our ability to stay on top of it. Sadly, that isn't always easy.

Her new favorite words are colors. Especially pink and yellow - or kink and wellwoah. She loves coloring and playing pretend.

Here is Cora chatting in the tub. Her voice is kinda scratchy because she has a cold but it was just too cute. Ignore the weird face that this is paused on. I promise she is much cuter than that ;)

Cora in Love

Cora has met Henry before but he seemed different this summer...more grown up, handsome, just one kiss...hee hee.

Potty training?

I think we have officially started active potty training. I decided to show her the potty a while ago. I bribed her to sit on it with cookies and had the potty chair in the living room. She has gone on it a few times after sitting there for several minutes. Until yesterday.

Yesterday she went into the bathroom, pointed at the potty chair, squatted and said "cookie". I though she wants a cookie and thinks she needs to sit there to get one but, alright. So I pulled the potty out super quick sat her on it and she went almost immediately!! She asked for it a couple more times during the day and always went when asked if she needed to.

I am so impressed. I love what a big girl she is becoming.

One Year

I find it fitting that my mom and I would see Rent so close to Cora's One Year Seizure Free Anniversary.

This year has taught us patience, appreciation, true love, and the importance of friends and family. We have also learned how much we can survive.

Cora surprises us everyday and while I am sure the complete astonishment at where she is versus where we thought she (and we) would be at this point in her life will slowly fade, and her daily routine and accomplishments, will simply become just those things and not miraculous feats of odds defiance, we have not yet had a single small step not warm our heart.

Happy Independence Day indeed.




For those of you who haven't seen Rent check out the song Seasons of Love.

The run!

Well I made it through the NW Epilepsy Foundation 5k. Only I don't think it was a 5k it was more like 4. I can't wait to do it next year. It was a really awesome community of people and it made me feel really lucky that we had such a happy ending to our story.

Like dorks we forgot our camera, but Kris took a picture of me at home.


Thanks for all of your support!!

Now on to Cora. She is singing!! She mostly sings "Don't bite your friends" only it goes like this -- Don't Don't Don't bibpodbow blah. Thank you Yo Gabba Gabba. Her Mimi (my mom) taught her "Old MacDonald" which goes -- EOOIEEAIOO. And she points to various parts of her body during "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". Her new favorite thing to do is "Tickle Tickle" anyone. She will drop what she is doing if you ask her to "tickle tickle __insert name here___". She thinks it is hilarious.

She is also now in her big girl room. Time is flying by.

Far too long

We have finally recovered from what can only be called the Mammoth Flu. Everyone was puking and sneezing and all other sorts of unpleasantness. Mother's Day was spent in Urgent Care (for me) and Same Day Services (for Cora). So.glad.it's.over.

I registered for the Epilepsy Foundation NW Run/Walk. If you are interested in joining me or are feeling donationy go here - Gretchen's Trying To Run A 5k Page. There are links to registering on the left. I thought about starting a team but, neh, maybe next year.

Cora is a talking fool. Her new favorites are: bubble, cracker, cookie, cock-a-doodle-do, ahh-ahh (monkey sound), and she says Teddy (Uncle Ted) really well. She loves to do the sign for bird. She does it all the time. She love all animals and is finally enjoying the zoo. She points at everything (not just the other kids) and says wow.

The weather has been great to us. Cora could play outside all day and I am happy to let her. Let's just hope this good weather lasts!

edited to change the link so it goes to the right page - duh!