I totally meant to do an update post for Cora at 18 months....but I'm so behind on blogging, now she's already 19 months! Oops.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this age. She is alternately goofy and sweet and hilarious. She also has some serious moments of sass and gets easily offended when she is scolded.
Words. Wow - Cora's vocabulary has taken off! A few weeks ago, Brandon asked me how many words I thought she knew. I had no idea, so one morning I grabbed a pad of paper and just started jotting down words as she said them. I got tired of this eventually, but in a few hours I recorded about 85 different words. Some of my favorites include tang-coo (thank you), found it! when she finds something she was looking for, hell-boo ("help you" ...which she says both when she wants to help me and when she wants me to help her), and after she dirties her diaper, she'll come tell me: "poop...'tinky....yuck....ghoss (gross)."
Cora was "helping" me cook dinner the other night. I was also prepping a breakfast casserole that had cottage cheese in it. At one point, I looked over at my "helper", and she was "helping" herself to big spoonfuls of cottage cheese. Goofball won't eat cottage cheese if I serve it to her - but I think the container looked enough like the sour cream container, and that she will gladly eat by the spoonful any time of day.
Eczema. Her skin is still pretty bad. Well, her skin looks much better, and she is not constantly ripping off her socks to scratch her feet - but she still has to wear pants all the time, and anytime she is without pants or socks, she can't stop scratching. We are still hopeful this is something she will grow out of. Her fabulous vocabulary also includes words like itch, 'cats (scratch), ouchie (what she calls all the scratches and scabs she gives herself) and ah-co (aquaphor) :(
Hemangioma. It seems to have stopped growing, and, in fact, it might have started to reabsorb! It's funny, I'm so used to it, I don't even notice it anymore. But other kids are often quite concerned about it and think it is the result of an injury. Adults probably notice it, too, but they don't usually ask about it :)
Climber. Cora is a bit of a climber. I discovered that she can climb into the van and up into her car seat by herself - no complaints from me! When we were on vacation with my family, my dad found her in the bathroom, standing on the toilet seat lid, diligently pulling out tissues one by one and tossing them on the floor. Also on vacation, I found her on the top bunk in our room more than once. She also likes to stand on tables and climb up the back of the couch in order to stand in the widow sill and look at the neighbor's dog. We are just waiting for the day she tries to climb out of her crib :/
Sleep. Thank goodness, the napping has finally started to sort itself out, and Cora will usually nap for 2-3 hours each afternoon. AND...she is (mostly) no longer waking up at 5:30 in the morning!! At least for the past week :) She's been waking between 7-8, and it makes for a much happier girl. Of course, we are traveling again this week, so that usually messes up everyone's sleep. Hopefully things will settle back down again quickly once we get back home.
Awareness. Cora is always listening. When I ask Jonah to do something, she will often respond before he does. If I mention that it's time to go some where, she'll run and bring each person his or her shoes. And she remembers everything! One day she was carrying around her white noise machine from her bedroom, and that night at bedtime it was no where to be found. I searched everywhere after the kids were in bed, but couldn't find it anywhere. The next morning, I told the kids I would give them a handful of chocolate chips if they could find it. This was highly motivating to Jonah, but he's terrible at looking for something (unless he already knows where it is). I asked Cora where her noise machine was, and she responded, "unner (under)", then toddled off to her bedroom. Seconds later, she and Jonah emerged, noise machine in hand. Jonah exclaimed, "Mom, it was under my bed!"
Siblings. She calls Jonah Jo-Jo. When I pick them up from the childcare at the gym, Cora always comes running when she sees me, while Jonah runs the other direction. But Cora will stop at the door and turn back for him, screaming, "Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo!!" as she looks for him. She doesn't want to do anything without him; what he does, she wants to do (the good and the bad!). They drive each other crazy sometimes, but they also have lots sweet moments together. Cora is getting more able to handle Jonah's, um, aggressive play. I try not to intervene, and usually they are able to work things out.
We had an incident the other day that highlighted their two personalities perfectly: The kids were playing in the play room, when Jonah asked if I knew where his water bottle was. I told him it was on the table next to the couch, and then gestured with my head towards the couch (in the living room). He turned around and walked back into the play room, wandering around aimlessly. (Like I said, he's not good at looking for things). I turned to Cora, who was playing nearby, and asked her, "Cora, where's Jonah's water?" She replied, "Table," very matter-of-fact, and walked right up to the end table to retrieve the water bottle. Our head-in-the-clouds, none-stop-motion boy and our notices-everything, misses-nothing, loves-to-help little girl. Quite a pair.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this age. She is alternately goofy and sweet and hilarious. She also has some serious moments of sass and gets easily offended when she is scolded.
Words. Wow - Cora's vocabulary has taken off! A few weeks ago, Brandon asked me how many words I thought she knew. I had no idea, so one morning I grabbed a pad of paper and just started jotting down words as she said them. I got tired of this eventually, but in a few hours I recorded about 85 different words. Some of my favorites include tang-coo (thank you), found it! when she finds something she was looking for, hell-boo ("help you" ...which she says both when she wants to help me and when she wants me to help her), and after she dirties her diaper, she'll come tell me: "poop...'tinky....yuck....ghoss (gross)."
Cora was "helping" me cook dinner the other night. I was also prepping a breakfast casserole that had cottage cheese in it. At one point, I looked over at my "helper", and she was "helping" herself to big spoonfuls of cottage cheese. Goofball won't eat cottage cheese if I serve it to her - but I think the container looked enough like the sour cream container, and that she will gladly eat by the spoonful any time of day.
Eczema. Her skin is still pretty bad. Well, her skin looks much better, and she is not constantly ripping off her socks to scratch her feet - but she still has to wear pants all the time, and anytime she is without pants or socks, she can't stop scratching. We are still hopeful this is something she will grow out of. Her fabulous vocabulary also includes words like itch, 'cats (scratch), ouchie (what she calls all the scratches and scabs she gives herself) and ah-co (aquaphor) :(
Hemangioma. It seems to have stopped growing, and, in fact, it might have started to reabsorb! It's funny, I'm so used to it, I don't even notice it anymore. But other kids are often quite concerned about it and think it is the result of an injury. Adults probably notice it, too, but they don't usually ask about it :)
Climber. Cora is a bit of a climber. I discovered that she can climb into the van and up into her car seat by herself - no complaints from me! When we were on vacation with my family, my dad found her in the bathroom, standing on the toilet seat lid, diligently pulling out tissues one by one and tossing them on the floor. Also on vacation, I found her on the top bunk in our room more than once. She also likes to stand on tables and climb up the back of the couch in order to stand in the widow sill and look at the neighbor's dog. We are just waiting for the day she tries to climb out of her crib :/
Sleep. Thank goodness, the napping has finally started to sort itself out, and Cora will usually nap for 2-3 hours each afternoon. AND...she is (mostly) no longer waking up at 5:30 in the morning!! At least for the past week :) She's been waking between 7-8, and it makes for a much happier girl. Of course, we are traveling again this week, so that usually messes up everyone's sleep. Hopefully things will settle back down again quickly once we get back home.
Awareness. Cora is always listening. When I ask Jonah to do something, she will often respond before he does. If I mention that it's time to go some where, she'll run and bring each person his or her shoes. And she remembers everything! One day she was carrying around her white noise machine from her bedroom, and that night at bedtime it was no where to be found. I searched everywhere after the kids were in bed, but couldn't find it anywhere. The next morning, I told the kids I would give them a handful of chocolate chips if they could find it. This was highly motivating to Jonah, but he's terrible at looking for something (unless he already knows where it is). I asked Cora where her noise machine was, and she responded, "unner (under)", then toddled off to her bedroom. Seconds later, she and Jonah emerged, noise machine in hand. Jonah exclaimed, "Mom, it was under my bed!"
Siblings. She calls Jonah Jo-Jo. When I pick them up from the childcare at the gym, Cora always comes running when she sees me, while Jonah runs the other direction. But Cora will stop at the door and turn back for him, screaming, "Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo!!" as she looks for him. She doesn't want to do anything without him; what he does, she wants to do (the good and the bad!). They drive each other crazy sometimes, but they also have lots sweet moments together. Cora is getting more able to handle Jonah's, um, aggressive play. I try not to intervene, and usually they are able to work things out.
We had an incident the other day that highlighted their two personalities perfectly: The kids were playing in the play room, when Jonah asked if I knew where his water bottle was. I told him it was on the table next to the couch, and then gestured with my head towards the couch (in the living room). He turned around and walked back into the play room, wandering around aimlessly. (Like I said, he's not good at looking for things). I turned to Cora, who was playing nearby, and asked her, "Cora, where's Jonah's water?" She replied, "Table," very matter-of-fact, and walked right up to the end table to retrieve the water bottle. Our head-in-the-clouds, none-stop-motion boy and our notices-everything, misses-nothing, loves-to-help little girl. Quite a pair.
2 comments:
Loved this update and pictures from the family gathering.
Love these stories! They are quite a pair!
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