Cora is 2!

Cora is 2!  Yesterday we celebrated 2 years with this little sweetheart.

Gotta love December in Kansas - sunshine and short sleeves!

Before Christmas, Cora's skin broke out in a rash, that quickly spread to cover both legs, as well as her hands, and a little bit on her arms. It had her feeling pretty miserable for a few days, but she rebounded quickly. The blisters eventually scabbed over, and she still has some faint red spots on her legs and hands - but she seems to have made a full recovery! We never got a definitive diagnosis, but the most likely cause was a skin infection (because of her scratching her eczema/dry skin) of coxsackievirus - the virus that causes Hand, Foot, Mouth. Only she never got the mouth sores, or blisters on her palms and feet. Jonah ended up getting a more traditional-looking case of Hand, Foot, Mouth....which we then passed along to several nieces/nephews who visited over Christmas :(

On the up-swing!

We had a GREAT time when (almost) all of the Strutt cousins visited Kansas over Christmas! (Another post, for another day....hopefully I get around to that soon!)  Cora loved playing with everyone else's new toys :) She also thinks it is hilarious to purposefully NOT smile for pictures. She has perfected a serious, I'm-not-going-to-smile face, haha!

Cora started her day yesterday with a birthday muffin - "wiff two candles!" - and got to open a gift from Mom and Dad. One perk of a birthday right after Christmas (at least at this age) - it was easy to pick a birthday gift after watching her play with all her cousins' toys. She was thrilled to get her very own drill, just like Patrick's :)  Thank you, Amazon Prime and two-day shipping.

Cora generally has very good fine-motor skills, but for some reason, she cannot master holding up two fingers. If you ask her how old she is, she'll show you....

Some other random facts:

• Hemangioma. Her hemangioma is about the size of a dime and no longer growing! It has even started to regress (recede? reabsorb?). You can't really see it much anymore, anyway, since it is covered by her hair.
• Eczema. Still bad :(  After her break-out, we saw a dermatologist, who gave us some suggestions about how to better control her eczema. We're giving it a try, and we'll see if it makes a difference. For now, we try to keep her skin covered at all times to minimize scratching. At naps, she wears over-sized leggings with the bottoms sewn shut (so she can't remove her socks) and a onesie snapped over top of the pants (so she can't remove her pants). At bedtime, she wears footie pj's, inside-out (so she can't unzip them!). We are still hopeful she will outgrow this eventually.
• Language. She is a talker! She has her own way of expressing thing: My hungry in my tummy! My wake up in my bed. Where is 'em? My wake up-ed! It fall oft. She has such a little personality - and is not shy about expressing her opinions.
• Sleep. She sleeps 10.5-11 hours at night, but would probably do better with 12. Her early-rising roommate makes that difficult. She consistently naps 75-90 minutes each afternoon, occasionally stretching beyond 2 hours when she's really tired.
• Eating. Finally, finally - Cora eats! A few months ago, a switch flipped, and Cora suddenly started eating food! She can still be picky, but her palate has expanded greatly. And she has finally grasped the concept of bribery....as in, Cora, if you eat this tomato, you can have a dried blueberry. I think she has gained about 4 pounds in the past two months....after staying around the same weight from July-November.
• Skills. Cora can dress (and undress - ugh) herself pretty well. Which is amazing to me, because Jonah only recently acquired this skill, haha. She can count! .....to 2. She also counts to five, but it usually goes something like this: 1, 2, 3, 5! She can recognize and name a few letters, but is much less interested in letters/books/reading than Jonah was/is. She likes to have a task and be helpful...but you have to make her think it was her idea.