Cora "Got" Christmas this year

We had a lovely low key Christmas this year. After the blow out meal of Thanksgiving we opted for something a little different, but still fun. We started the weekend with Christmas Eve church services (Cora and I spent a significant portion of it in the lobby), then went and had a great evening at Linda's house. Christmas morning Sharon came over for gifts and breakfast.

Cora fully grasped the gift aspect of Christmas this year (especially after the recent practice with her birthday).

Matchbox cars are a particular favorite of Cora's and she was very excited opening them.

She ripped the next one open even faster thinking it would also contain cars ;) 

Watching video I had taken of her (see below) with Gram 

"Hi Mom" whatcha got over here? 

And here's Cora playing with her shopping cart from Aunt Norma...

For our "Christmas Dinner" we went to a fabulous Schezwan restaurant and Cora got right into it.  The oil poached fish was amazing although she loved the soup noodles...

And the dry cooked green beans that she dipped in the sauce from another dish (see the soup spoon on her plate). 

And probably most of all the candied peanuts they served as an amuse bouche, but which Cora had a 2nd dish of as a finale. 

Here she is ready to go to lunch in her red cord jumper dress. 

Spending the afternoon cuddled down in her pink Santa jammies reading with Gram

And on the 26th we went to Linden to spend the day with Great Gram Yolanda and Uncle Ernie...but I neglected to bring extra batteries so after the picture fest of Christmas I was low and this was all I got :( 

Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Wonderland at Tilden

We went for a wintery day to enjoy Tilden Park and the holiday wonderland they offer. We loved feeding the animals at the farm, but neglected to bring the camera with us so enjoyed the moment but didn't capture it for posterity.

But we rode the steam train...

And went to see the lights at the carousel...

And rode the carousel 2 at a time, so Cora got multiple rides, and everyone got to take a turn with her.  Look at those beautiful smiles!

Cora was waving at Papa! 

Although Sharon got the short end of the stick with the carousel because as bedtime approached Cora was less cooperative and just wanted mama to hold her.   While she got to ride, it wasn't with the smiling happy toddler shown in the above photos...and when Cora, in her flailing and crying, smacked her forehead on the carousel pole she had a real reason to be fussing.

Birthday Party!

Thanksgiving weekend we celebrated Cora's 2nd birthday, first with family in Pleasanton, then in Sacramento with friends. Here's a few pictures from the day of her bunch birthday party. 

Her birthday gift from mom and dad - her very own kitchen. We built it in the weeks leading up to her birthday and moved it into her room that weekend. 

Swinging at the pinata at her birthday party. Tony searched all over for the perfect pinata for her. 

The kids picking up the spoils after it disgorged all it's goodies. 

Cora enjoying all her new play food after the party (full immersion in the joy of chocolate mousse indicated a costume change was needed when the party ended). 

And enjoying a party balloon at the end of a busy day. 

Cora's turning 2!

Since we rarely get pictures with all of us for Cora's birthday we took family photos - here are some of our favorites.  Joel (who also took her 1 year pictures) did a great job and we remembered to color coordinate her toy this year :)

If you look back to photos from last November look how much shorter her hair was! I thought it was long then, but now when you stretch it out it's halfway down her back!

One Year, 364 days

In one more day our baby girl will be two!

Crazy and so hard to believe. But she's doing all kinds of new things and remembers so much!

Like when you want to leave, or go put on PJ's she says "five minutes"...evidently mommy says "I need 5 minutes,  Cora" more than she realizes :)

And she repeats and remembers things...like riding the train at the zoo with Papa 3 weeks ago...she still says "train with Papa" every time we drive by the zoo. And she knows when we are driving up to our house and says "home now."  Or who we've talked about seeing or doing things with. She amazes me.

Two years ago we were making our to do list for the few days before she arrived which included making some freezer meals, picking up the house, buying some baby items, and getting a baby name book to revisit our potentials list, going on one last nice dinner date...all those things we didn't get to before she showed up.

Details about her today:
Favorite foods include pomegranate seeds, blueberries,  "cheesy peas" which is mac n'cheese with peas stirred in, cauliflower, peas, apples, carrots, beans, crackers, oatmeal, smoothies...she's a good eater. :)

Still loves to play outside, go for walks, hold her baby doll, read books (and she's starting to "read" some of them to you), help cook, and is starting to figure out puzzles. She's a good sharer (knock on wood), and likes to play with her little friends.

And at 2 years Cora is 21.5 lbs (zero percentile), 33 inches tall (25th percentile), and her head is in the 50th percentile. 

Like Feeding a Horse

So Cora is evidently into foods high in anti-oxidants because her new fave is pomegranate seeds (although I'm not sure what would win in a head to head test, are blueberries still king?), and she can't eat them fast enough. She asked daddy to help her with "big bite" and here's the result which was too funny not to share.

He just had to keep his palm flat and fingers out of the way or she probably would have chomped down on them to in order to get the seeds. Just like feeding a horse...not that I'm comparing our child to a farm animal or anything ;)

Click the center of the video to play it.

Our little lion, or is she a bumblebee?

So what happens when mommy and daddy don't agree on what their lovely little one should be for Halloween? She gets TWO costumes! 

It actually worked out really well because the bumble bee was great for daytime/warmer weather and she wore it to the Spookamotive Train Ride in Old Sac, and then the fuzzy lion was great for trick or treating at night when it was cooler. 

We trick or treated about 5 houses in each direction and made her trade her candy with people, so we ended up with like 4 pieces at the end. Once she figured it out she took it very seriously, putting things in and out of her bucket. Then she passed out candy to other trick or treaters, or at least to the ones that slowed down enough for her to put it in (she wasn't super fast about it).

Our busy bee on the go!

Hi mom!

As big s a fire hydrant now!

Our little lion getting ready to go!

Next house! Catch up daddy!

Watching the other kids.

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Pumpkins pumpkins everywhere!

This fall was Cora's first visit to the pumpkin patch and she loved the hay ride out to the fields! We went twice in a couple weeks for lots of fall themed fun!

Just looking sweet before we headed out 

Sitting on a giant pumpkin out in the fields

Making faces and taking names

Contemplating the variety of choices 

What, this giant pumpkin? 

Enjoying the ride through the fields

Pumpkins all in rows

Apple Hill 2011

We headed out for a morning of organic apple picking, fresh donuts, apple cider, and general fall themed fun!