Here's a few pictures of what's been going on in Cora's world lately.
Eating spaghetti...yum. She's trying out for a spot in "The Lady and the Tramp".
This is an adorable dress that was given to her. I just loved it on her and took a ton of pictures. I'd post more but our computer is being quite sluggish tonight. Cora recently recovered from a cold but then developed this rash on her back. We ended up taking her to the doctor's office to check it out. They said that it was connected to her cold - a viral infection. It doesn't seem to bother Cora, so we're thankful for that. And it shouldn't leave any scars and should start clearing up on it's own in a few weeks. So far it's mostly on her back, a couple spot on her arms/shoulders and belly.
This was on Easter. We had a great day! We had a big dinner with our small group and some other friends. It was about 60 degrees and sunny so it felt even warmer. We didn't do anything else besides church and dinner for Easter. Maybe we'll have fun hiding and finding Easter eggs this week in the yard...
It's funny how God provides for us. He always provides for our needs. We have never been even close to being with out food, shelter, clothing or transportation. And we often remember to thank him for his goodness in this matter. However, we usually forget to thank him for the times he gives us things that go way beyond the "needs" category.
Back in January another youth pastor in the area (Chick - isnt that quite a name!?) and his family moved out of town. Brad helped him load his moving van and in the process Chick offered everything that he didn't want to Brad. He said, "it's either going with you or going to the dump." It's amazing to me how some people so easily thow stuff away...I should learn to do that a little better.
Among this "garbage" was a child-sized picnic table, a child's play house, a little toddler scooter, a set of patio furniture and an above-ground 16' diameter pool - all of which was in good condition with no problems! It kind felt like we were stealing but we spared the landfill and took it all to our house. So our modest, dull little patio and yard turned into a playground for Cora and I! Cora loves her little playhouse. For now it thrills her just to open and close the door and the windows and go in and out. She doesn't understand the concept of the picnic table yet - she thinks it's fun to climb on, though. And she LOVES the scooter. It doesn't have pedals so she can just sit on it and use her feet to scoot around. Mostly she sits on it and rings the little bell or reads a book. It's the perfect size for her.
The patio furniture is a small set - a round table and four chairs. That's perfect for us though, our patio is too small for anything bigger. And the pool ended up having a few holes in it (from being left up all winter, I think) so we bought a patch kit and went to town. Hopefully everything else will come together for the pool. Our summers here stay in the 90's or above much of the time and water is always a welcome refreshment. Cora loves the water, too, so I think we will really enjoy it during the hot days.
Last summer Brad and I often felt frustrated because after Cora would go to bed at 7 we felt like the rest of the summer evening was lost since we couldn't go anywhere and it was really still too warm to just sit outside. So I think we'll really enjoy going for a swim in the evenings after she is in bed.
So, thank you, Chick, for not wanting to move all this stuff. God provides for our needs, but he blesses us abundantly beyond our needs, too.
We've had some awesome spring weather this week. Brad has been on a lake with the kayak and we've been spending lots of time outside walking or at the park. It's amazing how warm 50 degrees and sunshine feels in the spring!
This year we had a full compliment at the cabin for the winter retreat. We had ten students, Brad and I and another couple that works with the youth regularly, Dan and Marian. It was so fun to be able to spend the weekend together. A visit to the cabin isn't always a "walk in the park", especially in the winter, but it's always an adventure and refreshing. This year there was so much snow that we had to park two miles away from the cabin, load up our gear in back packs and on sleds, and snowshoe up to the cabin. Brad had come up a week earlier with his dad, so the trail was already packed down a little bit which helped a lot. Once or twice I turned to look behind me and stepped off the trail a little bit. Instead of sinking only a couple inches into the snow, I was suddenly a foot or more deep in snow, even with snowshoes on!
It took us about 2 hours to get the whole gang up to the cabin. Once we arrived there was not a minute to spare - we had to open up the cabin, get dinner going, get a fire going, clear a path to the outhouse, clear off the deck, melt snow for water and unload the gear. Everybody pitched in in some way or another and it was truly awesome to see all the students working together and being cheerful about it!
We spent a lot of the weekend having fun - playing a variety of games, sledding, hiking, cooking, cleaning, and laughing. There was a little bit of harmonica playing in there, too. Don't ask. The focus for the weekend was Spiritual Gifts so we learned about what our individual gifts are and how they can be used to benefit the body of Christ. It was really interesting to learn who had what gifts! We really encouraged the students to use their gifts in our church somehow.
It was a great weekend. I was so impressed with our students - how they interacted with each other, how willing they were to serve each other and do the jobs that need to be done like collecting snow, stoking the fire, washing dishes, etc. They're awesome! Here's a link to some pictures on Facebook.
Cora has a few words that she says...or perhaps we should call them sounds that she consistently says for the same things and we recognize what she means.
"Hi" is pretty easy to understand. She usually says it when she holds up her play phone to her ear, or sometimes just her hand if she sees me talking on the phone. She has also started waving and saying "hi" to strangers when we're running errands. It's so cute!
"Mama", "Mom", "Dada" are pretty regular sounds we hear.
"Da-dee" seems to be doggie, or perhaps any animal...
"Buh" is book (sounds like book with out the "k" sound)
"Ba" is ball or blanket, whichever she is pointing or looking at.
"Up" seems to refer to wanting help with something, and often when she wants to be lifted up to turn the light on and off. She loves to play with the light switches - good cause and effect learning.
"Aahh-da" is "all done" when she's done eating. She signs the ASL sign for all done when she says it, too. It is just so sweet!
"Aaahh-meh" is amen. We've been folding Cora's hands and saying a quick prayer with her before meals. Now when we say "let's pray" she folds her hands (well, clasps them) and sometimes bows her head...we didn't try to teach her that! Then when we say amen she says "aahh-meh". So cute.
"Brrr" when it's cold out.
"Jz" is juice.
"Ba-ba" is her attempt at saying bye-bye which she's just started doing.
She also says a couple animal sounds if we do it first: monkey ("ah" with her mouth wide open - it's supposed to be "oo-oo-oo-ah-ah" but she only says "ah" - there is a picture of Curious George on her shampoo bottle which she loves to look at and will say "Ah" on her own when I ask what a monkey says), elephant (brrr, kinda like a trumpet, but it sounds just like when she says "brr" as in "it's cold out") and bear (rauw, rauw) sounds.
Here's a quick Youtube clip of Cora saying juice. It wasn't one of the clearest times, but you get the idea.
On the walking front: Cora is done crawling as of a week ago! She walks very well all over the place and when she falls over she can stand back up on her own. It's really fun to see her walking all over the place and I feel better that she's up off the ground and it's cleaner than crawling!
Last weekend's retreat was awesome and I promise I'll post some pictures from that soon. Cora stayed at Brad's parents' house for the weekend and everything went wonderfully. She is obviously comfortable and happy with them and we've spent the night a number of times at their house so I think that helped it go smoothly. It also helped keep my mind at ease while we were away. I missed her, but it was wonderful to be able to focus on the students during the retreat and not be running after Cora, keeping her out of their games, feeding her and trying to get nap times and bedtimes in the midst of a dozen teenagers in the cabin! I was really able to BE with the students and give them my full attention. I really enjoyed that! More about the retreat later.
