April 2017 Random Happenings.

Just a TON of random photos from April!

 Since she had lived by the beach until now, we never needed a floatie to swim. So we tried one and Cora LOVED IT.

 Favorite part of conference was the choir.

 Finally starting to sit and color.

 I brought the stroller to push Cora to my doctor's appointment... what was I thinking?

 Big girl.

 I totally botched Cora's stuffed rabbit, but she still loved it. She took it out as soon as I finished it.

 Not tired at all!

 Third trimester blues. A cute dress made it better!

 Brandon got to experience the magic of the zoo with Cora.

 Cora FINALLY got a big kid bed just before her second birthday.

We got to go on the trolley with our friends one day after story time. It was a hit!

Who is this kid?? It was so hilarious!

She loves bringing Dad to work every day.

Getting bigger! Us both.

Quarterly Report- 2 years old

I can't even believe it. Cora is TWO!

 (Us before church a few weeks ago.)

Cora turned 2 on Easter, which made it a doubly special day in our house. Well, triply with my parents' 30th anniversary then too. Big day!

Maybe it's the hormones and feelings of mother guilt as baby 2 prepares for his big debut, but I have been thinking of just how sweet of a 2 year old Cora is. People have been warning me about the "terrible 2's", and while she has her moments she is still the best "terrible 2" I've ever known. I can't remember the last time we had to take her out of church because she was throwing a fit. Except when I went up to speak, because she is VERY attached to mom. She isn't a hitter (or worse, biter), for which I am very grateful. We have been talking about how nice babies are to help reinforce positive feelings about baby brother, and so now she calls everything "so nice". Babies, blankets, cars, everything.

She LOVES animals. I'm currently working on making her an animal blanket since 1) I never made her a baby blanket and 2) it is going to be perfect for her. She is totally unafraid of animals, even if she probably should be. Like the barking dogs that we pass on walks. Even these dogs are "so nice".

When she wakes up in the morning, she usually talks to herself for a while and we get her when she starts whining. As soon as I open the door her whining stops and she says in this husky little voice "Hi. I take nap!" Every morning. It is so funny.

She is SUCH a good helper. She wants nothing more than to help sweep. mop. vacuum, or help collect the laundry to wash. If she spills, she automatically gets a towel from the kitchen and cleans it up. We are trying to heap praise on her for that, to see if that helps. The other day my belly was hurting (you can complain about feeling big after 30 weeks right??) and she grabbed a towel from the kitchen, spread it on my stomach, then got my water and gave me a hug. It melted my heart.

She talks SO much. It's kind of funny, she had a babbling stage then started putting together some words and then barely talked. Then she realized that she could communicate her thoughts, and now she is babbling a lot more mixed with her words because she just gets so excited to get her thoughts out. But there are lots of filler words that I still don't understand.

She loves her dad and as soon as we drop him off at work she says "Dad work? Dad home soon?" And then when we get him from work this is her face the entire time:

And then she plays with him all the way until bed time when she screams to get away from him because she just wants me.

Cora Faye, you're going to be the best big sister.

April 2017 Utah trip, Part 3.

The other thing I wanted to do was go to the Tulip Festival with Cora. We went with Aubry again, and Jaran came with us. It was beautiful!

 People loved seeing Cora sitting among the tulips.

 Jaran is so nice to chase Cora around so the two pregnant women didn't have to.

 She loved feeding the fish.

 The scents were amazing.

Oh my cute Cora!

 

 They have a permanent exhibit of statues representing different scenes from the Bible an early church history. It was amazing!

 Funny story- after we looked through the flowers we went to the food trucks and got some lunch. We were sitting on a hill, and Cora unlocked the stroller and pushed it down the hill. Well, that was the fastest I have moved in a long time! I caught the stroller before it ran over some teenagers sitting in front of us.

 Cora had a lot of fun and entertained Grandpa Myres. Here she is saying "Ta-da!"

 I'm glad we got this picture with Grandpa. It was just before we went to the airport, and he was about to go back to bed. Cora called Grandma Myres "My-ERS!" and Grandpa "Gih-Dapa My-ERS!" She was very sweet and talkative to them, even though she was pretty unintelligible. She ran around and danced and made everyone laugh. I know she won't remember it, but I will!

 Trying to convince a 2 year old to stay in her seat was rough.

It was worth all the stress of traveling at 30 weeks pregnant and dealing with a 2 year old on my own for 4 days. Oh yeah, and forgetting her favorite stuffed animal for the night. But we made it, and had a lot of fun!