Long Weekend

Long weekends are great, but extra long seems to mean extra exhausting around here.

That could be because Cora's sleeping has been shifting again.  She was wide awake and ready to play much more than she was asleep over the weekend.  Thank goodness for Grammie and Grampie wanting their early morning Cora love, or we would have been walking zombies.

Yes, Cora got some wonderful quality time with her family, and was as happy as could be.  She visited Folklife at the Seattle Center to hear music onstage, watch some mesmerizing street performers, refuse to nap, and be packed in like sardines.  Oh yeah, and she got to watch her favorite fountain yet again, all while rocking the beautiful new hat her Grammie made her.

Checking out a jazz band, in lieu of napping.

She also went on a long stroll by the Green River, spent an evening getting spoiled by the grandfolks and Auntie Mira while we were out at a wedding, and laughed and played. She even permitted a little bit of crawl play, which is apparently way more fun with Auntie and Grammie than it is with Mum and Dad.

Now we're getting ready for a fun week preparing for the NWDSA Reciprocal Learning Community event, "Joy of Literacy", an informational session for parents of children with Ds, ages 0-5.  This will be our 2nd RLC to attend, and the first one that I am volunteering to help set up.  Cora will be partying in the childcare room while we get new ideas for supporting her literacy.  We are also excited to get to visit with some friends that we've been missing.

Oh, and a fun developmental progress report:  Cora has figured out how to suck the puree from food pouches.  Last week at a playdate we watched her 10 month old friend Gia suck down 3 of them in no time flat with barely a spot escaping her mouth.  Meanwhile I was squirting Cora's pack into her open and waiting mouth, with about half of it getting all over the place.  Gia just made it look so easy.  So I decided to try yet again to teach Cora this fun trick.  Well, she's finally got it figured out and is quite proud of herself.  In fact, today she managed to accomplish another major feat:  she drank a little over 2 oz out of her straw cup (which is the most she has drank out of any kind of cup/bottle since she was 3 months old).  She's been able to suck from a straw for months, but mostly refuses to do it, although she will occasionally deign to take a tiny sip or two.  Today I introduced her to kefir, and after practicing her skills with a food pouch, she was ready to drink from the straw.  I am quite pleased with this new development, since so far Cora gets all her liquids via breastfeeding.  Even though I don't intend to wean anytime soon, knowing she has another way to drink will definitely open up her horizons, and will possibly even offer me a little more freedom.  But I better not go ahead and plan too far ahead, since in the 16 months she's graced my life so far, I have learned that there is often a difference between what she can and will do.  But I figured it's safe to say that she may have reached a new level.  These skills can be a challenge for children with low tone, but are important to help achieve necessary skills on the way to speech.  So this development is a definite win-win.

Well, I am off to be productive, while my girlie naps.  It took almost an hour and two parents to get her to sleep for this one.  I'm thinking there may be a shift to 1 nap per day in her future....