Cora's 18 Month Stats

Cora did a lot better at the doctor than I expected.  We went to Starbucks beforehand to fuel up and I think it worked quite well :)

Weight: 22 lbs 9.6 oz (49%)
Height:  2'7" (24%)

Nothing too exciting to report....Cora is on track and the Doctor was very pleased with her!  We will use the breathing treatments as needed, since her lung from the bronchilitis will be inflamed for at least 3 months.  The doctor said everything should get better once Spring comes ( is it really coming this year? )

Gotta love the nap in the car on the way to pick-up Sonoma :-/

Cora kept trying to get in my suitcase!

Color blocking at its finest ;)

Always putting on sunglasses

Welcome to the Family! {new pet!}

Yesterday, Marcus took the girls to get their very first pet fish.  He is a betta fish and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but he is purple/blue.  Marcus surprised the girls with this aquarium for Valentine's Day, and then let Sonoma pick out the fish yesterday.  Even though he is a boy, Sonoma decided on Dorothy for the name.  (Elmo's pet fish is also named Dorothy, so I'm pretty sure that's where she got the name!) The aquarium is pretty cool because plants will eventually grow up top, and then they will take care of cleaning the fish tank.

18 Months [Cora Brighton]

It's so hard to believe that it has been a year and a half since Cora was born.  On one hand, I can't imagine our lives without her, and on the other hand, I feel like just yesterday she was a tiny newborn and I was posting monthly baby updates.  We don't go to the doctor for her 18 month well visit until next week, so I don't have official stats, but here is some other info on what Miss Cora B is up to these days:

-Cora says new words almost every day.  One of my favorite words is "Thaaaank" for "thank you."  She has been saying this for a few months now, and always uses it in the right context.  It's amazing to me how quickly she picked that up.  We are still working on how to say please....

-Along with her new words, she loves to point out everyone in our family.  Every night at dinner she points to all of us and says "Dada, Mama, Sissy, Dixie!"  And then she claps her hands!  We are still working on her own name, but she can say "Coco."

-Cora is still very much attached to Coffee (the pink mouse hand-me-down from Sonoma) as well as her pacifiers.  The whole pacifier thing is new to us since Sonoma didn't take one.  We are trying to get her down to just using the pacis at naptime and bedtime, but it has been a bit of a struggle around the house.  She hardly ever wants one when we are out somewhere.

-Cora is still our sleeping beauty.  She is probably the only kid I know who you can bribe with sleep.  If she's having a rough moment, I can bribe her with nap if it is coming up.  Crazy, right?  She is down to 1 nap a day for anywhere around 2 hours, sometimes longer.  And she goes to sleep every night between 6:00 and 6:30, and sleeps in until 7:00 or 8:00 am.  This whole week she has slept past 8:00, which is putting her at 14 hours of sleep a night.  I'm guessing that is a growth spurt.  She's usually good for 13 hours a night.

-Cora throws food, milk, cups, utensils, bowls and plates.  She is still a wonderful eater, but terrible with table manners.  I stopped giving her utensils at meal time and only put a few things on her tray at once, or else I'm always cleaning the floors and the kitchen.

1st HAPPY MEAL!

-Cora started throwing temper tantrums.  She's at the stage where she knows what she wants, but is having trouble communicating it, since we still don't understand everything she is saying.  Just in the past week, she started throwing really bad tantrums on the floor and it's been sad to watch!  I don't remember Sonoma starting those this early.

-Cora is VERY attached to people.  She likes all of her family around, all the time.  She cries and cries when we drop off Sonoma at school, or when Dada is gone at work or traveling.  She wakes up from her nap or sleep and instantly starts screaming SISSY or DADA!!!  She hates when Sonoma is off playing and doing her own thing.  The sisterly bond has been AMAZING to watch.  Sonoma is Cora's world.

-Cora is quite the cuddler.  She LOVES cuddling with people, and is always dishing out hugs and kisses and snuggles.  I am obsessed with her snuggles!!

-Cora loves to read books all day long.  At the most random times, she will grab a book and plop down on my lap or Sonoma's lap.  She HAS to sit on your lap to read a book and it is so adorable.

-Every time you put a shirt on Cora or take it off and even if it gets stuck on her head and she cries, she always yells "BABOO" for "Peek a boo!"  It's funny because she is so predictable at certain moments.

-The second we go into Target or Trader Joes, she starts crying for stickers and pointing to her chest (You can get a Bullseye sticker at the Target check-out and Trader Joes food stickers at their check-out)  It's funny she knows all the stores we go to now and what to expect.

Fun at Target today

-Cora is a tornado.  Everywhere she goes, she leaves a HUGE mess.  Breaks things, rips things down, tears stuff apart.  You name it, she does it.  I'm constantly cleaning up behind her and can never keep up.  She's fast and destructive.

-Cora runs really fast!  Reminds me of Sonoma!

We love Cora so much and are proud of the little toddler she is!  Cora is sweet, funny, smart and always keeps us on our toes.  I'm still in shock that today she is 18 months old!

Snow Day Photo Shoot!

Another day snowed in....another day of plans being cancelled.  Hmmm...what to do??  A snow day photo shoot of course!  It was the perfect excuse to let Sonoma wear some of my jewelry, make-up, and feel like a little model!  She LOVED it.  By the end of the shoot, she wanted to be the photographer and was ordering me around to pose with Cora.  She's not that bad at taking pictures.  Maybe we will have to get her a camera of her own! 

I clearly had some issues lining everyone up with the self timer.  Not easy with two toddlers, but we tried :)

At this point, Sonoma is making ME pose....she is really into taking pictures!  This is pretty good, considering our camera is heavy!  

Mid-Week Check-In

What a week this has already been! And it is only Wednesday. Sonoma had back to back gymnastics on Monday and Tuesday night. After gymnastics on Monday, Marcus took her to Chick-fil-A for their annual Daddy-Daughter Date Night. They had a sweet evening together and were treated like royalty! They listened to live music and Sonoma even enjoyed her very first limo ride!






Sonoma has also been super tired lately. I am guessing she is going through a growth spurt? As you know, she hasn't napped in probably 6 months, but has napped the last few days! And come bedtime (her very early bedtime) she has told us this week she is just so tired.






Says she feels great though! Wish I could say the same. I'm sick yet again. I got a cold last week and I feel fine except for awful tooth and facial pain. Had to drag both girls to the doctor this morning because I knew I had a sinus infection. My colds usually turn into sinus infections :( We can't seem to catch a break over here!

Cora and I had to get out of the house yesterday and spent the day shopping at Oakbrook while Sonoma was at school. We had lunch at Nordstrom and it was a fun outing for just the two of us.



We are getting all geeked up for Valentine's Day!


Sonoma has made me some of the best homemade valentines. We have been putting up decorations, preparing for parties and baking yummy treats here at our house. Sonoma had her first valentine party at PDO yesterday and will have another one tomorrow. She's worked very hard on all of her valentines for her classmates as well as for her friends and family. Her writing is getting better and better.



We are planning on having a special family valentines breakfast and morning together on Friday. We have an afternoon valentines party at a friends house, followed by a sitter and a date night with friends on Saturday!

Cheers to love!
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The Queen Fell Asleep!

So...we were cleaning up dinner and this just happened:




Let me just say - I do not even remember the last time Sonoma took a nap! But I do know she has NEVER fallen asleep on the couch! I saw Cora climbing on her and going "shhhh!" I couldn't believe she was asleep. We carried her upstairs to get ready for bed and she was asleep by 615. I guess that's what happens when you spend your afternoon swimming with Daddy and then playing in the snow.


Cora and I spent a lot of time inside together today.


Sonoma got a new leotard she was showing off and is still loving gymnastics:


Sometimes even queens have to clean (I found a giant letter A inside my hall linen closet)


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Hello, February!

We sure do have high hopes for you!  We started off the day with more snow, but it was actually NOT below zero so Sonoma was able to bundle up and played outside for almost 2 hours!  She was happy.  I was happy.  The house was somewhat quiet.  I looked out my bedroom window at one point and saw Sonoma shoveling snow with Don Beebe.  It's not every day you get to say you shoveled a Super Bowl Champ's driveway ;)

Sonoma reached her star chart responsibility goal for the week and her prize was to see a movie with Daddy.  Of course, she picked Frozen again! This time though, she was going to the movies as Elsa.  Don't you dare call her Sonoma when she is in that costume!  Marcus told me that someone asked to take a picture with her at the movie, and that two other people wished her a happy birthday!  Ha!  

No big plans for the Super Bowl here.  Although, I suppose we should be preparing for some big snow system coming our way Tuesday.  Fun, fun fun!  Hey, at least it's February and we are *this* much closer to Spring!  :) 

Finally. . . a NEW month ~ Welcome, February!

We did it.  We made it through the tedious month of January.  Wish I could say this past week we went out with a bang, but it was quite the opposite.  Last weekend I came down with an AWFUL stomach bug that I can't even think about because it was so bad.  I was quarantined in the guest room for over 48 hours and thank God no one else got sick.  By Wednesday I had just enough energy to get out and take poor Cora to the doctor for broncholitis.  She really was in a pretty good mood, I just noticed some continual wheezing, so I figured I would take her in to be safe.  We ended up having to buy a nebulizer and we started breathing treatments at home.  *Piece of advice*  Don't take two toddlers to a LONG doctor's visit, followed by a stop at a pharmacy, followed by a stop at a home medical supply store.  It just won't work out.  Of course Daddy was off to Indy for work so he missed out on all of our exciting adventures.  I will say that Marcus was a trooper and took off work and took care of the girls and the house while I was sick.  Oh, wait, did I mention that we had Polar Vortex NUMBER 2 during all of this?

Here is a quick recap of our end of the month:

I surprised Sonoma with Sophia's amulet necklace.  It was something that she has been talking about non stop for over a month now.  She was super excited, especially because she knew the next day we were going to a Princess Sophia themed birthday party at the Ball Factory.

No, this is not a wedding cake.  Just your every day toddler birthday cake :)

Happy girl post birthday party

As soon as we arrived home her Sophia costume was back on

Royal Family Picture at the party

                                       

                                        Sonoma has been doing a great job at her swimming lessons:

If Sonoma isn't in her Sophia costume, she has her Queen Elsa costume on:

Our neighbors have a pretty sweet rock climbing wall in their basement:

Sonoma has been SUCH a HUGE help with everything going on this week.  I kept praising her over and over because I've never been so proud of her.  She's been really sweet to Cora and extremely helpful to me and with stuff around the house.  When I was giving Cora her breathing treatment one morning, Sonoma grabbed my phone out of my bag and said she was going to take a picture.  Sweet girl.

Not sure what I would do without my Mommy friends who helped me figure out how the heck to do a breathing treatment and hold a mask up to a 17 month old.  There have been lots of tears, but we are figuring it out.  So grateful for all the help and support this week from friends.

New legwarmers from Grandma!!  One of my friends made some for he daughter and as soon as I saw them I knew Sonoma had to have them too!  They are so fun and look super cute peeking out from her boots when she wears those.  

Museum play date with friends.  Chasing your 17 mo. old around is the best workout ever & I am so glad I can trust Sonoma to be good at these outings.  I was exhausted after this trip.  There was a total of 8 kids in our group and it was hard to keep track of everyone.

These sleeping bags have been the golden ticket to getting the girls to clean up and mind and get things done.  Wonderful reward!  

Goodbye January.  Until next year.