Silly Cora... This and That

Cora has been cracking me up regularly these days.  I swear, her cuteness seems to magnify exponentially, even though I am not sure how that could be possible.

And she's been exhausting me too.  I sure am glad she's walking now, and although it means I don't have to carry her everywhere anymore, I don't have a whole lot of say in where she wants to go.  And believe me, she can get where she wants fast.  So there's a lot of chasing her around going on.  Good thing she's still only 24 pounds. Today after getting her out of the car, in the time it took me to drop the diaper bag on the porch, she had run down the entire driveway in the rain and was just a few feet from the street by the time I caught up to her.  I guess I need to keep reminding myself that there's a first time for everything, and my former cautious little girl who had never walked down the driveway without holding a hand is learning to stretch her boundaries.    I imagine as my pregnancy with Cora's new little sister progresses, this is going to be more and more tiresome, not to mention possibly scarier, as I realize how very short the run to the street seems to be.  I know this is pretty much just me being welcomed to the world of parenting a true toddling "toddler," but it's still been quite the transition.

On a more fun note, Cora is now blowing kisses with a new "smooching" sound.  And she seems to know what an appeal it has, since she is sending her kisses all over the place.  Combined with a princess-wave and a handful of "bye-bye"s, it's pretty dang adorable.

She has recently started puckering her lips to ask for kisses.  Most of the time this looks like fish-lips.  And giving her a kiss is never enough.  If Daddy's home, she'll make sure I give him one too.

Whenever I come home from my once a week trip to the office or the occasional solo trip to the grocery store, she is so excited to see me.  She signs and yells "Mama," then runs up to me and hugs my leg until I can bend down and give her a real hug.  Daddy gets similar treatment most of the time, and he actually leaves the house on his own regularly.  Coming home to this little girl is quite a treat.

Her new favorite word is "Ow."  She's turning into quite a dramatic girl these days, always ready to tell you about her newest imaginary aches and pains.  When she is hurt for real, she doesn't tell you where she got hurt though, just has you kiss the fingers on her left hand when she is done crying.  Right now what must be her fourth black eye is now turning green and fading away.  With the introduction of walking also came the introduction of falling a lot, often head-first onto hard surfaces.  Thank goodness for our chiropractor!

She has dancing fever.  She'll yell out "tunes" and drag me into the living room to dance to her favorite music.  She loves to copy dance moves, but she's a bossy little thing, often pulling me down to sit on the floor with her and drum, or to stand up and stomp around the room with her.  Heaven forbid you walk away when she's still in the groove.

Let's see, I am sure there are many more fun little tidbits to share, but for now that's all I've got.  Hope you enjoyed your taste of Cora's antics for the day!

Kissy face.  What a good Mommy to baby Hopkins. 

Proud to be carrying Hopkins in her own little "Moby wrap."

Yep, she's a goofball.

Showing off her silliness and her floor length gown: AKA Mommy's old beat-up maternity swimsuit top.