Merriments

Brad, Cora and I are in Michigan for the holidays this year. It's pretty exciting, not only because we have Cora this year, but because I think it's been at least three years since we've spent Christmas with my family. And who knows when the next time will be seeing as how flying becomes more and more expensive and it's not so easy to drive all the way here in the winter. So we're really enjoying this time together.

A note about flying during this time of year...never do it unless absolutely necessary. We were supposed to leave GJ on Thursday at 8 am and arrive in Grand Rapids at 2:41 pm (12:41 in CO) - about 5 hours with a stop over in Denver. Instead here's what happened: mechanical problems in GJ cause the plane to stay grounded until 10:30. Arrive in Denver around 11:30, one hour after our flight to GR left. There are no more flights until Sunday. Ouch. All flights to Chicago were full, so they sent us to Dallas/Fort Worth and then Chicago, arriving at 8 pm. Our luggage went to GR - how??? So after standing in two different lines for 2 hours (one for an airline credit and one to find out where our luggage was) my parents drove us to Holland, arriving at 1:30 am. Brad spent 40 minutes on the phone with United and was able to get our luggage delivered to my parents' house at 3 am. Unfortunately someone had to sign for it!

Anyway, we are thankful we didn't have to spend the night anywhere and that my parents were able and willing to drive all the way to Chicago to get us. It's not a great time of year to hang out in Chicago - and now knowing we wouldn't have had any luggage I'm glad we didn't decide to just spend a day touring the city. Brad's never been there and we've talked about spending some time there sometime, but this would not have been too pleasant!

Thankfully, Cora was a trooper the whole day! She had a 3 minute melt-down on the last flight, and she was so overly exhausted by the time we got in the car that she had a hard time unwinding and falling asleep, but otherwise she was a perfect traveler! We feel very thankful for that, because adding a stressed out baby to two stressed parents would not have helped things!

11 months old!

I can't believe Cora is 11 months old today! One month till she's a whole year old. It's amazing to think back a year ago and remember all that was going on, and how unprepared I was for the incredible, intense joy that was about to enter our lives at Cora's birth! I'm continually in awe at the deep love and frequent laughs that touch my heart each day with Cora.

Today, in celebration of her 11 month birthday, Cora stood on her own and by her own initiative for about 20 seconds! And I just happened to be video taping her at the time. Unfortunately it's on our actual video recorder and I haven't figured out how to post those videos, yet. But it was so cute to see her stand there effortlessly, steady as can be, and then realize that she was standing on her own and carefully reach her hand out to safeguard against the wobbles. She's so amazing!

Cora suffered her first bout with a stomach bug this week. Monday early-evening she was acting tired - normally doesn't take a nap then - but I put her down for a nap and she fell right asleep. Brad went in to get her when we heard her wake up and he found her vomiting in her crib. It is so sad to see such a little girl vomiting! Well, after lots more of that, and some of the other, it only seemed to last for 24 hours. However, it seemed to wear her out for another 2 days! She slept so much it almost worried me! And she was so subdued and mellow. Normally she's expressive, squealing as high as she can, giving us tons of BIG smiles and constantly exploring around the house. Instead, she would play for a few minutes and then lay her head down on the ground and just lay there for a few minutes. It was very strange to see. She seems to be back to her happy self today! Her appetite isn't quite the same yet; hopefully it will return to normal. She is generally at very good eater, accepting anything we offer her and eating heartily until she's full. Today she was very picky, even gagging and spitting food out of her mouth which she's almost never done before! It was kind of funny, and yet absolutely disgusting at the same time. Hopefully that goes back to normal, and soon!

As for the bug, she wasn't the only one to suffer from it. I got it Wednesday morning, and now Brad has had it today! All day Wednesday I kept thinking "this is what Cora was feeling? Oh I feel so bad for her!" Today, while he was sick, Brad said to me "Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?" I just laughed, and brought him some more saltine crackers. He should be feeling better tomorrow!

Wish list

Some people have requested a wish list for Cora for Christmas/birthday so I've made a wish list on Amazon.com. There is a "button" on the right side bar and if you click on it, it should take you right there. The items are more starter ideas, not specifics; nor do they need to come from Amazon. If it's not specific enough for you, let me know! Happy shopping!

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So, it's been so long, I almost forgot my password to log on! Please accept my humble apologies...
Well, Cora is growing so fast! She's a total cruiser now, pulling up and walking along furniture. She's pretty adept at using her little toy walker, even turning it sometimes if she heads up against a wall. Her balance is a little weak, still. When we hold her hands to help her walk she starts doing the hula dance, if yo know what I mean, but she can take quite a few steps with out help. Crawling is still her forte.

Cora also started signing!!! This is a very exciting development for us. The last few weeks we've really felt like she wanted to communicate an idea to us but had no other form than to whine and bounce her legs or arms and stare at what she wanted. This usually happened during meal times when she wanted more food. So now she claps for "more", signs "thankyou" which is the same as when she blows kisses. That's all we've got so far, but what a joy! If she starts to whine during a meal we say "what do you want?" and that usually prompts her to sign more, then we give her more food and everyone's happy! It's very funny at times because she sometimes confuses the different signals she does with her hands and will wave bye-bye, blow a kiss, and then clap her hands (sign more) one right after the other. It kind of reminds me of a dog that is waiting for a treat and is too excited to listen to the command so he just sits, lays down, rolls over, and plays dead, knowing that one of these tricks will get him what he wants! Also, it can be a little confusing because at random times during the day Cora claps her hands, I think just because she can, but then it makes me wonder if she wants more of something...but what?


This is Cora's favorite little ducky. It seems to be the perfect size and softness for her mouth!

Exploring the cabin...

and doing Baby-roebics: and 1, and 2...


Cora has a new Christmas bib from Grandma. She was very curious about what was on it!

She loved it!