I absolutely love watching Grace and Cora's budding sibling relationship. They have their moments of sibling squabbles, especially Cora grabbing Grace's hair and Grace yanking toys out of Cora's hands, but for the most part, they really really love each other. When one cries, the other often cries too. Nothing gets Cora happier faster than Grace laughing. When Grace is playing alone, she often asks me to bring Cora over to play with her.
Here are two especially sweet interactions I don't want to forget:
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After listening to a children's song that references being a best friend:
Michael: "Grace, who's your best friend?"
Grace: silence
Michael: Do you have a best friend?
Grace: thinks for a second "Cora!"
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Cora's first word is "Grace." Her saying it usually goes down like this.
Cora hasn't seen Grace for a few minutes when suddenly Grace walks into the room where Cora is playing. Cora lights up and exclaims: "Grah, Gah, Gah!" i.e. "Grace, Grace, Grace!"
My petite, blonde haired, brown eyed girl is eight months old. What words best describe Cora? Tiny, curious, mellow, and independent.
Tiny. Cora is slightly below average in the height department and quite a bit below average in the weight department.
Curious. She has mastered the army crawl/baby scooch and spends her days exploring everything from the flowers on Grace's shoes to the underside of her exersaucer to the holes in her knitted baby blanket.
Mellow. Cora is a pretty even-keeled baby and is usually happy and content.
Independent. But, you've got to give her space to do what she wants to do. Especially with eating. So much for neatly spoon-feeding purees. Cora insists on feeding herself and does a very messy job of it.
Cora used to be practically silent all day, but in the last month, she has now found her voice and has started babbling. She also understands a lot. If I say, "Cora, where's Grace?" She looks all around for her until she spots her. If Michael is holding her and she gets fussy from hunger, all he has to say is, "Are you hungry for mommy?" And she calms right down because she knows he's gotten the message. If we repeat a word, she will copy it. i.e. "Cora, this is a banana. Banana! Can you say banana?" "BUH-NUH." "Good job!" And this of course leads me to think my child must be a brilliant genius. :)
In the last couple months she also got her first little teeth. Woop, woop!
Cora's favorite things
- Water. Drinking it, splashing it, bathing in it.
- Playing with mommy's hair, daddy's hair, and Grace's hair. There have been many exclamations of "Cora! No grab Grace's hair!" around our house these days.
- Cora continues to be absolutely enamored with her older sister.
- Nursing. Cora would probably nurse every hour during the day and three times a night if I let her. She loves snuggling, playing with my hair, grabbing fistfuls of my lips, etc. It's very sweet.
- Cora has a magnetic attraction toward things babies aren't supposed to play with like wires, strings, and plastic bags.
Every night, she sleeps from about 7:45-7:15 with one wake up to nurse sometime between 4am and 6am. She takes two naps a day ranging anywhere from 40 minutes to 2.5 hours. She nurses seven times a day and eats three extremely messy meals of solids.
Here's Cora at her baby dedication at church.
Here's Grace getting a temporary princess tattoo from my parents with Cora intently watching.
Here are a few things I learned in April...
Three questions to determine success. I have begun to adopt Emily Freeman's three questions to determine success as my own: (1) Am I depending on God in ways I haven't had to depend on Him before? (2) Am I bringing every care into the presence of Christ. (3) Am I becoming more fully myself? (By the way, it's Emily's blog that first gave me the idea of writing about the things I learn. It's a great blog.)
Tap water can kill fish. Woops.
Regardless of the size of their homes, most families spend most of their time in a space of about 400 square feet. Which begs the question, why do we crave an abundance of space in our homes when we end up spending time in so little? Read this article for more.
I hate being treated as second class because I am a woman. A couple of weeks ago, Michael got preferential treatment over me because he is the husband in our relationship. I felt hurt, belittled, second class, unimportant, and unseen. In short, it sucked. I'm grateful that Michael was as offended as I was.
I've learned a few things when it comes to baby care and baby products. And it's gratifying to be able to share that knowledge with others.
My hair is beginning to gray. Bums.
If I'm ever in need of a laugh, all I need to do is look through old family photos. Like that one time my whole family fed chips to wild birds and one ate a cookie off my head.
I get bored easily and need lots of variety in my life. I get tired of making the same old dinners, doing the same old exercises to keep in shape, etc. But, give me a new recipe or a new workout and I suddenly feel inspired.
Babies can feed themselves from the get go. 98% of the time, Cora will refuse to open her mouth for a spoon wielded by Michael or me. But, if we put chunks of food on her tray, she will shred them, gum them, chuck them, smear them, and manage to consume some. Fascinating to watch.
What a capsule wardrobe is. I'm super intrigued by this idea of wearing the same thing every day.
Even though I've been a Christian since childhood, I don't know much about prayer. But, Tim Keller's book on prayer is rocking my world. I'm excited to grow in intimacy with God.
