Cora in a nutshell

Today Cora had her 3 year check-up!  She did a complete 180 from the last time we were at the Dr's.  She even gave the nurse a hug before we left!  No spitting, screeching or throwing furniture!  The best part is we had the same nurse, she said "looks like we are feeling a lot better than the last time you were here!"  You aren't kidding!  (If you haven't heard about our previous visit ask sometime.. it is fascinating!)

On to the good stuff!  Apparently our growth chart measuring is not accurate.  According to the Dr's when Cora was 2 she was 36lbs and 36 inches.  This visit she was 42lbs and 42 inches!  Talk about being square! they were quite impressed. But also lets talk about growing SIX inches in one year!  here I thought 4 was pretty amazing... 6?!  Wow!

And onto Cora tidbits...

The reason why she is such a grower might be the fact that she is the best eater in the house!  And she loves milk... if given free reign she'd probably drink a whole gallon each day.

Cora loves music.. particularly "Pop goes the weasel" and "The Nuthin' Song" (Zac Brown)

Cora loves to dance.. and not just at dance class.. she's always bopping around the house, showing us her spins and her "kips"  (skips)  she is very proud of her skips!  Even when I sing her songs she's shrugging her shoulders to the beat.

Cora LOVES her babies.. I thought having the ridiculous amount of dolls that she owns at least half if not more would be abandoned.. nope!  Every single doll has a place in this girls heart!  She makes a point to play with them all.

Finally potty training is compete.. #1 was easy peasy at 2 years old.. #2 was annoyingly difficult!.. but we are in the clear now.. and she is even trained at night!! Must be a girl thing.. poor Cole might wear a pull-up forever!

Cora is great for your self confidence.. she tells me daily that I am the best Mommy ever! and that I am her best friend.. aww!!  Thanks sweet girl!  She is my best baby girl ever too!

Except... now that she is slowly entering the terrible threes.. twos were not nearly as much of a problem for our kids..but now that she is three, she has learned to screech when she is mad. and spit.. and throw things.  So far ignoring and distraction have been the most effective ways to stop this new behaviour.

Cora has learned the art of dramatics... for example if someone else wins a game we are playing she immediately puts her head to the table and begins crying (fake tears of course).. she's playing us!  The boys don't know what to make of it.. they scramble to make it so that she wins to make her stop!! She's got them wrapped around her finger!

Cora likes to hit.. especially Cole.  She'll fall down in one room, walk into the other and hit Cole.  then they get into a "but she/he started it" match.. oh boy.

Speaking of clumsy.. Cora is the definition!  She falls off the kitchen table bench daily, she trip when walking.. I think I figure out why.. her feet are the same size as Cole's!!!

Cora loves Tinkerbell.. you can get her to do just about anything if you tell her Tinkerbell also does it.

She is currently obsessed with what day of the week it is.. she asks at least 5 times a day.. if she is not asking she is verifying that it is in fact 'X' day.

Apparently we've given her a big head.. when she gets dressed she now asks if she looks beautiful. 

Cora loves books, particularly books about babies and/or princesses.  She really loves "Ladybug Girl", the "Pinkalicious" books, and "Fancy Nancy"  apparently Nancy is great for the three year olds vocabulary because yesterday she told me something was 'gorgeous'.

Cora has entered the fake smile stage.. it is tough to get a picture without that crazy fake smile!

I could go on and on.. but while I find all of this fascinating.. I'm probably becoming boring.. so now for a few photos we tried to take the other day.. since I am part of her dance class I can't really take pictures very well.. so we tried to take some at home a couple of weeks ago.  We'll have to try again with real clothes soon.





Three years old going on thirteen!  This girl makes us smile!



Cora's Third Birth-DAY!

Good Morning Birthday Girl!!  Cora was the definition of an excited birthday girl!  It was so fun to watch.. she just gobbled up the attention from everyone!

Can you guess what she got?!

I guess after all the hard work (which explains my blogging absence) I didn't even really take a picture of it!  Cora's "Dollie house" has she refers to it as came in a box full of pieces.. I am not sure what possessed me to want to build her dollhouse myself.  I though it would be fun to build it and then decorate it with her with fun papers and flooring... Once I finally finish it I might agree with my previous thoughts :) but wow.. this was a lot more work than I thought!  I still need to install the windows and doors.. paint and cut the trim work and shingle the roof!  oh yeah and paint and assemble the porch railings. I've been doing more work on this house than our own!! And all huddled in the cold basement to hide it from Cora.

I am not sure what took me so long, but this is the first time I have had the kids pick their own presents for each other.  I always run out of time and just wrap something and put their name on it... but the boys were so proud of the items they chose for Cora.. things for her dollhouse of course! 

I am... three?!  Ya... holding three fingers up probably is the most difficult of the ages.

We dropped Cole off at preschool and set off to have our nails done!  Cora obviously picked purple, her favorite color.  It took a little bit of convincing, but we finally got her to sit in the chair and get her feet in the water.. look at those big feet!  I should mention that her and Cole can wear the same size now... my girl is going to be tall! 

All smiles!

And watching intently.  She sat so still the whole time and paid close attention.  I expect she'll be offering me pedicures soon!

The birthday girl also got to have her nails done...  I don't bother with mine since I did not get the good nails genes.. they just break no matter how hard I try!  Cora kept looking over at me and smiling.. but never taking her eye off of my nail technician.  I guess she looked suspect!

Wearing her brother's flip flops.. skulls.. the new princess!

Under the dryers!

Impatiently checking if they are dry yet.

Please can we be done?

Sitting pretty with her new paint job!

The final products!  Gray for me!  I love it! and yes.. my middle toes are randomly the shortest :)

Lucky Cora even got flowers!  The women at the nail salon loved her!

My pretty girl!  When did you get so big!  Please stay our sweet little girl forever!

Starting to get a bit tired from the birthday excitement...

Nothing a birthday lunch couldn't fix! We picked Cole up from school and headed up to Manchester to Ignite for lunch.  I told the kids they could have Shirley temples as a birthday treat.. but they would have nothing of the sort!  Cole insisted on lemonade, and Cora wanted chocolate milk.. OK FINE!  as a side note I got Mac 'n cheese with steak tips!! a heavenly combination :) 

I am not a total dork and didn't actually realize we matched until after we were out and about!

We made chocolate chip cookie "cake" with yummy Pinterest swirled frosting.. seriously I blame Pinterest any weight I have gained recently!

So in love with her birthday! (disclaimer.. I paid extra for a "special" filter to reduce light flare... clearly I got ripped off, none of my other cheap-O filters do this!)

Up close and personal to the fun rainbow swirls!

Daddy's Girl!

These two... this picture says a lot about their relationship.

Like I said Cora gobbled up all the attention.. birthday phone calls and skype-ing with Dundore and Poobah.. but she would always tell the other person "Happy Birthday!"  At one point she was carrying around the phone saying that she had to call Grammy so she could tell her Happy Birthday.. you can only imagine my amazement when literally 30 seconds later my Mom called to do just that! Sometimes I think she's a bit psychic.

The boys ask us if they can play with the dollhouse too.. this is what you get when boys play.. people on the roof... they "love" using it as a slide apparently.

Dogs attacking...

And this evening we had the dolls falling down the stairs and breaking their legs.  Also a burglar breaking in the window.. oh.. and Caden also really enjoys "ripping his beyblade" in the doll house... boys!

Clearly Cora takes after her Grammy here... "vacuuming" the walls of the house.  unfortunately I also did not inherit the clean genes.

Measuring time...

Seriously?!  4 inches in one year?!  What have we been feeding this girl?!  Thursday we go for her 3 year wellness visit.. stay tuned for all of Cora's factoids!

Happy Birthday to the Sweetest Little Girl in the world! at least our world :)

Pinewood Derby

Caden was very leery about joining Cub Scouts at the beginning of the school year, but since the very first meeting he loves it.  Something the kids get to look forward to every year is the Pinewood Derby.  They start with a block of wood and shape it into a race winning machine!  Caden chose the shape of a race car, but more seasoned Derby-goers had some very original "cars"!



Caden got to work with Rob down in the shop which he was very excited about.  I am sure the three guys will be disappearing together more often as they get older.  Here is Caden's car "up on blocks" as he does the initial paint job before they put on the wheels.  And I have no other photos of the getting ready stages because apparently I have the winter photo blues and barely take out my camera these days.

Race day!  Caden was so excited!! Here's a look down the track.

Look at all the cars!  Caden's is the first one (you can barely see the roof.. in front of  the pencil). We had a lot to do that morning so Rob was first in line to register so we could fit everything in, hence the #1 position.

Caden's "Volcano" car.. passed all the weight and size requirements so he was ready to go!

All the kids were really into it.

These boys are just too silly!

Caden's first race!!  He painted his car himself!  I offered to paint his flames, but he wanted to do it himself!  I was so proud of the final car!  Although next year I think we'll clear shellac it to make is shiny!  (among other things!)

Hmmm.. 3rd :(  Caden was disappointed, but not discouraged... yet.

3....2....1..... GOOOOoooooo!

Up again!  It's hard for a 6 year old to get 3rd place in all his races (I do think he managed a 2nd once though!!)  Even I was a bit sad!  But it was a great learning experience that we can't always win everything.  And while he was a bit glum.. I was happy with how he handled himself.. I can only imagine we could have been dealing with an all-out hissy fit, but he took it much better than expected.  Next year we'll have to do a bit of R&D to make the car at least a little faster! and actually use the tricks they give you... like graphite on the wheels?  who knew!

Tiger Cubs final standings.. Hooray for "friend Cole"!  He had a super speedy car!  And was a great sport about winning!

At the end they got a participation trophy.. Caden is very proud of it.

The whole group!

And Rob has since promised Caden to make his car fast.. I hear it involves fireworks.. we'll see!