Here are some of the activities that have been keeping Cora occupied recently:
- Screaming, "man, man, man" after she has spotted one. She is usually right and, luckily, hasn't offended any women yet. She looks out the window in the kitchen a lot hoping to see our next door neighbor (a man) letting his dogs out. Here she is showing him to me and saying, "MAN MAN MAN."
- Looking at photos. My mom recently left an old photo album at our house. Looking through it provides Cora endless entertainment. She insists that most of the men are dad; even the ones with awesome mustaches or 80s booty shorts. Whenever she sees an iPhone shaped device she starts chanting, "Be-be be-be be-be" which means "I know there are photos of baby Cora on there. Let's take a look."
- Repeats things. She says our names a lot! If you like to hear your name said twice in a row very quickly then you should come to our house!
- Taking it all in. If we are out of the house, there is a good chance that Cora goes will go into stare mode at some point. She loves watching everything that is going on around her. Cora is very interested in strangers who say hi or talk to her. And she will often wave back. But those strangers very rarely get a smile, just an intent stare or they get...
- Saying no and being a bit sassy. I am sad to say that I think the terrible twos are starting to kick in. My little sweetie baby is learning a little bit of a sassy streak. She loves the word "no" right now. Answering yes and no questions is her favorite. Ex.: Q: Do you eat dirt? A: [VERY EMPHATIC] NOOOOOOOO! Q: Do you eat avocado? A: [head nod]. Conversations get pretty interesting around these parts.
- Finding little nooks to hide in. The spot under our kitchen bar is exactly Cora's height and she LOVES to stand there!
- Walking backwards. That baby is a moon-walking machine. I constantly catch her Michael-Jackson-ing around the house and smiling to herself about it.
- Playing in her little kitchen is one of her favorite activities. When I eventually get to Part 2 of Christmas 2012 (here's Part 1) I will show you how happy Cora was to get her new kitchen. She loves playing with her plastic toy knife. She calls it "danj," which is how she says dangerous. She is always trying to put it in her mouth and I say, "no, Cora. Knives are dangerous. Don't put them in your mouth." This has made the play knife one of her favorite toys. She is always walking around the kitchen looking for it and saying, "danj, danj" (she loves to repeat things, as you learned earlier). The introduction of this kitchen into her life gave her another opportunity to share her food with her stuffed animals or animals in pictures on the wall (see below).
- Sharing food with her pals is quite possibly one of Cora's favorite things to do. She loves offering them everything she has to eat and drink. This results in a very regular schedule of stuffed animal washing. Pretty much since Cora has been eating solid foods she has been trying to share it to someone. When she was really little she liked to share it with me. If she is Skyping with a family member, she likes to offer it up. Sometimes she has to offer it to every single animal or person in the room before she eats it herself.
- Getting ahold of things that she shouldn't. She loves holding vitamin containers and spice containers. Empty ones don't seem to do the trick. I only let her hold them when I am right on top of her and I keep things like this out of her reach, but not out of her sight. Sometimes, I give in and let her hold things like this for a minute. I should have learned my lesson by now because taking things that she wants away from her is WAY harder than not giving her something in the first place.
And, there you have it, folks- that is what Cora was up to 2 months ago!
Tomorrow, stay tuned for some photos of her from almost a year ago. I am the absolute best about keeping up with things, aren't I?
