We got a kick out of Cora's interest in climbing the ladder up and down. But after mastering that skill she took it one step further to sliding herself out the other side. I'm glad we didn't splurge for some $150 toddler slide when she's just as thrilled with the step ladder! :)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Saturday's Springtime Adventures
Brad and I went mountain biking today! The last time we went together was 2 years ago - after that I was pregnant with Cora and biking is a "no-no" and then we had Cora and the demands of nursing her seemed to takeover. So it was fun to get out again today. I'm definitely no adrenaline junky so we stuck to a beginner's single-track just outside of town. It was a perfect day for it! The trail goes right along some cliffs overlooking the Colorado River and with everything bursting with green it was spectacularly beautiful. Cora stayed with some friends of ours so we could enjoy some time together.
Later that afternoon the three of us took the double kayak out on one of the lakes here in town. We've never taken Cora on the kayak before so we weren't sure how she would do. She handled the bulky life jacket like a pro and sat on my lap for the first half while Brad paddled us around. She did well sitting in the boat, although wanted to stand at times (probably because the life jacket was pushing up against her chin).
We switched for a while and I tried paddling...it was a big boat with a big load for me to paddle by myself so it didn't last too long! We ended up being out for almost an hour - we never thought Cora would last that long! 
Friday night
Brad, Cora and I spent Friday afternoon and evening with Mom and Dad Bierma. It was a beautiful day - hot actually - and we just had a great time together! Mom and I took Cora to the park and to visit some nearby horses while Brad and Dad went shooting. We had a wonderful evening hanging out at the house. Click here for some pictures.
We had ice cream and strawberries for dessert. Normally Brad and I eat dinner with Cora, put her to bed and then we enjoy some sort of treat - usually ice cream. So Cora has never really had much in the way of desserts...until last night! We gave her some strawberries to eat, which she was mildly interested in. Then Grandpa gave her a bite of his ice cream! You could almost see the addiction taking hold! Cora's eyes got this wild little glint and suddenly she was stretching as far out of her booster seat leaning towards Grandpa's bowl, declaring "DAT! DAT! DAT!" It was as if she'd been waiting for this kind of rich, delightful food her whole life!
Grandpa graciously and selflessly shared his ice cream with Cora and when it was all gone she still hadn't had enough. Here's what happened:
We had ice cream and strawberries for dessert. Normally Brad and I eat dinner with Cora, put her to bed and then we enjoy some sort of treat - usually ice cream. So Cora has never really had much in the way of desserts...until last night! We gave her some strawberries to eat, which she was mildly interested in. Then Grandpa gave her a bite of his ice cream! You could almost see the addiction taking hold! Cora's eyes got this wild little glint and suddenly she was stretching as far out of her booster seat leaning towards Grandpa's bowl, declaring "DAT! DAT! DAT!" It was as if she'd been waiting for this kind of rich, delightful food her whole life!
Grandpa graciously and selflessly shared his ice cream with Cora and when it was all gone she still hadn't had enough. Here's what happened:
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Scribbles
Cora made her first scribble art today. We've tried markers and crayons before but she didn't seem interested in anything but eating them. Today we tried again and she was all over it! Now we get to find out if marker washes out of clothes...
Wow! Markers write on the table AND paper! (And thankfully wipes right off the table!)
And still the markers made it to the mouth a time or two.
Monday, April 14, 2008
A mind of her own
Cora is starting to come into her own ideas of what she likes or doesn't like. If I choose a book to read that she doesn't want to, she'll push it away or sign "all done". So I've started giving her a choice. "Do you want to read 'Clifford's bedtime' or 'I went walking'?" I ask. She points to one and then we happily read it together!
She has also become more picky about what she eats. Where two months ago she ravenously ate anything we put in front of her she now turns up her nose at some foods (even ones she eagerly ate a few days earlier). It doesn't seem to make sense to turn meal times into battles at this age so we don't worry about it. What does worry me a little bit is when she seems totally disinterested in a dinner. Thursday was the first night that she just didn't want to eat anything. I, being worried she'd wake up at 2 am hungry, tried to find something that would please her. But she just wasn't hungry, I guess. She kept refusing food and saying she was "all done". She wasn't upset so I decided to just see what happened if she went to bed with out dinner. She slept the whole night through and ate a hearty breakfast the next morning.
Sunday night she was taking her bath and suddenly looked at me and signed "all done" and started getting out of the tub! She usually loves bath time and has never fought it before so I was surprised at this response. We'd already finished the washing part and I was just letting her enjoy playing in the water. So how could I argue when she said it was time to get out?
She has also become more picky about what she eats. Where two months ago she ravenously ate anything we put in front of her she now turns up her nose at some foods (even ones she eagerly ate a few days earlier). It doesn't seem to make sense to turn meal times into battles at this age so we don't worry about it. What does worry me a little bit is when she seems totally disinterested in a dinner. Thursday was the first night that she just didn't want to eat anything. I, being worried she'd wake up at 2 am hungry, tried to find something that would please her. But she just wasn't hungry, I guess. She kept refusing food and saying she was "all done". She wasn't upset so I decided to just see what happened if she went to bed with out dinner. She slept the whole night through and ate a hearty breakfast the next morning.
Sunday night she was taking her bath and suddenly looked at me and signed "all done" and started getting out of the tub! She usually loves bath time and has never fought it before so I was surprised at this response. We'd already finished the washing part and I was just letting her enjoy playing in the water. So how could I argue when she said it was time to get out?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Schippers
Here's a cute video of Grandpa trying to feed Cora and instead getting it turned back on him.
What a wonderful time we had with my parents here last week. The took an adventure on AmTrak and after about 30-some hours on the train they arrived in GJ.
Unfortunately on Friday Brad came down with a nasty flu-type bug that wiped him out. I didn't document his sickness on camera so imagine for yourself. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." I think it's true. He spent most of the weekend knocked out by either the bug or some medicine that was treating the bug. We missed his company sorely.
We had a couple days of great spring weather and enjoyed playing outside with Cora. (Dad's camera has all these pictures.) Then on Monday it rained in the morning so we had fun inside.
The weather cleared up for just enough time in the afternoon for Mom, Dad, Cora and I to visit the Wild Horse Range in the Bookcliff Mountains. It's a short drive from GJ and an easy-to-follow trail. However after all the rain it was quite muddy.
We didn't have to walk very far at all before we saw 6 of the wild horses grazing in the valley. It was pretty cool to see them. The range is huge and there are only about 100 horses in the herd, so to see any was pretty spectacular.
We also enjoyed taking walks together to visit some horses in our neighborhood. Cora wanted to get right in on feeding them and was very brave to hold out tufts of grass to their huge chomping teeth! She is learning some more sign language like "cat" and "dog" so maybe I should find out what "horse" is, too!
Dad did a few projects around the house for us, too. Thank you so much, Dad! It was really fun to see Cora get more and more comfortable with Grandma and Grandpa . She was hesitant at first to sit on their laps, but after the couple of days she was giving kisses and cuddling to read books before bedtime. It was good for my heart to see. Thank you for coming to visit us!
(Sorry about the whacky pictures...I thought I'd try changing it up a bit, but I'm not happy with how it turned out so I'll stick with center aligned pics from now on!)
What a wonderful time we had with my parents here last week. The took an adventure on AmTrak and after about 30-some hours on the train they arrived in GJ.
Unfortunately on Friday Brad came down with a nasty flu-type bug that wiped him out. I didn't document his sickness on camera so imagine for yourself. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." I think it's true. He spent most of the weekend knocked out by either the bug or some medicine that was treating the bug. We missed his company sorely.
We had a couple days of great spring weather and enjoyed playing outside with Cora. (Dad's camera has all these pictures.) Then on Monday it rained in the morning so we had fun inside.
The weather cleared up for just enough time in the afternoon for Mom, Dad, Cora and I to visit the Wild Horse Range in the Bookcliff Mountains. It's a short drive from GJ and an easy-to-follow trail. However after all the rain it was quite muddy.
We didn't have to walk very far at all before we saw 6 of the wild horses grazing in the valley. It was pretty cool to see them. The range is huge and there are only about 100 horses in the herd, so to see any was pretty spectacular.
We also enjoyed taking walks together to visit some horses in our neighborhood. Cora wanted to get right in on feeding them and was very brave to hold out tufts of grass to their huge chomping teeth! She is learning some more sign language like "cat" and "dog" so maybe I should find out what "horse" is, too!
Dad did a few projects around the house for us, too. Thank you so much, Dad! It was really fun to see Cora get more and more comfortable with Grandma and Grandpa . She was hesitant at first to sit on their laps, but after the couple of days she was giving kisses and cuddling to read books before bedtime. It was good for my heart to see. Thank you for coming to visit us!
(Sorry about the whacky pictures...I thought I'd try changing it up a bit, but I'm not happy with how it turned out so I'll stick with center aligned pics from now on!)
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