Sunday, November 14, 2010

Some cute videos

We're training Cora to be a big sister already. She's a pretty thorough diaper changer, she uses wipes and diaper cream too. I think she changed Raggedy Ann, Minnie Mouse and her elephant's diapers for like an hour (this was last week, Sunday night.) The other videos are from this past week, just being silly. She still does the "Mana" dance (that's what Ryan and I call it, not Cora) with the signature Kaimana elbow.





This one is for you, Grandma Nielson! Cora's started walking around on her tippy toes lately - I think she got some of the Nielson dancing genes for sure.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween

Since I posted last we spent a weekend in Boise. Unfortunately we didn't take very many pictures while we were there - too busy having fun I guess! It's always fun to get all the cousins together, especially now that Cora just goes off and plays with them like a big girl and I don't have to worry about her. (Not that there's much to worry about, she has the best, sweetest cousins you could ask for.) She learned to call Eric and Jedd "uncle" like she calls CW, and Elise and Rachelle "auntie," and after we came home she started calling all men "uncle". However, most women are "mommy"s. We celebrated all of the fall birthdays that we had missed- Riggs, Jonah, Madelyn, Cora and Noelani.After we came back from Boise our lives have been fairly uneventful - I've been sewing and babysitting and suddenly getting super round and feeling very pregnant. I'm trying to do something I should probably have been doing since we've been married (or even before) - make a weekly meal plan, an organized shopping list, and just go grocery shopping once a week. So far, it's made my nights so much easier, being able to know what to make, and I've actually made some pretty decent meals again, because I've planned. Ryan has been working hard, as always, and I'm very proud of him. I can't believe we're almost done with this phase of our life, going to classes and studying and taking tests.

The picture below was taken before dinner one night - often Cora likes to pull up her chair and stand up to counter to see what I'm up to. Sometimes she likes to do more than see. I was nervous about letting her take a bite of the raw zucchini, since I'm pretty sure she hasn't really been a fan of broccoli since I let her taste it raw, and I didn't want her to be prejudiced against another veggie, but she really seemed to like the zucchini!Cora has been growing smarter before our eyes. We've been told that language really comes suddenly in an explosion and that is what we have been witnessing lately. It's so fun to watch her learning so much. She still takes a while to warm up to new people but around us, she's become quite a chatter box. It's always, "mommy, what's that?" and meal-times are filled with her labeling everyone's drink, food, and utensils. "mommy poon, daddy poon, Cowa poon!" (Mommy has a spoon, Daddy has a spoon, and Cora has a spoon.) or "mommy notche, cowa notche, daddy water!" (Mommy has milk, Cora has milk, Daddy has water.) My favorite thing is her labeling of herself, it's always "Cowa" this and "Cowa" that. She regularly uses 2 word sentences and sometimes even more. She's also getting so good at letting us know what she wants, whether it's water, more of some food, a certain toy or activity, or one of her favorite words "tweats!" (Treats). This is her being silly outside one night - if we don't lock the bolt she loves to open the door and play on the patio area, even if it's dark out and freezing cold! This is the face we see a lot when she knows she's being silly.Cora is now able to label most of the animals by their names, instead of just the sounds they make. One exception to that is a bunny - while she can say the word, she usually calls them "hop"s. She does like bunnies though, and loves the sleeping bunny song they sing in Nursery at church. Because of this, we decided, kind of last minute, to make her a bunny for Halloween. The fact that I had some perfect fuzzy white material already on hand from a previous project also helped us decide. So Cora was a "hop" for Halloween. I decided to sew her a warm jacket/coat for the costume, with a hood with bunny ears and a tail on the back. I worked on it during her naps on Friday and Saturday and managed to get it ready for the trunk-or-treat ward party on Saturday night. It's still missing a zipper or buttons to close it completely, but it was good enough for her to wear. We completed her outfit with a onesie, tights, pink tutu, her high tops, some make-up, and her bunny purse from Grandma Nielson last year.

I had to turn on the TV to get her to let me put the make-up on.Up-close shot of her make-up.Our decorated pumpkins - Ryan did the cat ("neow" as Cora calls it), and I did the owl and bat. (She can say those words.)At the trunk-or-treat. It was a little chilly, but not bad. The rain held off til after the activity. Cora was too shy to say trick or treat, or thank you, and she was clearly a little baffled by the whole process, but she accepted all the candy. With her good friend Breanna ("benana"). Originally they were going to both be black cats, which would've been super cute, but after looking the fabric I had, I changed Cora to a bunny.Tails shot.With Breanna and Daphne.With Savannah ("nana").We have been so lucky with our friends here - all of the little girls Cora took pictures with are the daughters of Ryan's PT classmates who live right by us and are in our ward. We are going to miss them all so much when we move away!