Cora at 11 months

I like to play a little game called "This time last year..."  I remember doing this a lot the month before Jack's first birthday and I've already started doing it this month.  When you are pregnant, there is no way to fully appreciate what happens post-child birth.  This past year has been such a journey and definitely one to celebrate next month.

We have such a beautiful little girl over here.  We get lots of comments on how happy and social she is.  (Outside of her experiences at the church nursery where she is one sad puppy!)  She is a charmer with her southern "Heyyy" and accompanying wave which she generously shares with the world.  She recently added "Nuh-nuh-nuh" with a wagging finger to her list of words (mama, dada/dadee, ja-ja, and hi/hey).

The last one she picked up because we've started using NO a lot this past month.  At the toilet.  At outlets.  At nightlights and fans and wireless routers.  At stairs.  This has been her month for getting into everything.  If she's quiet, then you better go check.

She reminds us of a little puppy dog because she is always crawling around with something (stuffed animal, LEGO, coaster) gripped between her teeth.  She chews on everything (with her 8 teeth: 4 top/4 bottom).  She pulls up and can even stand unassisted (briefly) but she doesn't cruise.  Crawling is how she gets around.

She's very expressive and has a gasping "oh-oh" sound she makes.  Today she would do it every time a song ended on the CD player. Then when a new one would start, she'd start bopping to the beat.  She loves music :)

We still are all over the place with sleep.  She has been making some improvements with going down for naps.  She cries for shorter times and sometimes will just talk herself to sleep now.  But she still wakes frequently at night.  A handful of times I only nurse her one time in the middle of the night, but most of the time it's twice, with several nights of THREE night nursings.  This would be on nights where Jacob has tried for 15-20 minutes to get her back to sleep.  Enter another Cora characteristic: DETERMINATION.  Sometimes she just wants me and she's not going back to sleep until I come in.  As any nursing mother knows, night nursing can be a doubledged sword.  It's a magic potion that immediately induces sleep, but only you can administer it!

It may be true that I coordinate her sunhats with her clothes :)

Nursing is still going well and she still nurses a good bit every day.  I've been questioning the baby-led weaning a bit this month because I sometimes wonder how much she's really eating.  She picks up food, puts it in her mouth, chews it, but then it seems a lot of it comes back out and ends up on the floor (where a dog would come in handy.)  We do spoon feed her oatmeal some mornings (to limit the mess) but there are times when she doesn't want to be spoon fed or to feed herself.  I never nurse her before meals, but I could see how all her nighttime nursing leaves her not all that hungry.  It's a balance I'm going to pay more attention to over the next month.  I trust that she knows what she needs and we certainly offer her a wide range of healthy foods.  But there is a desire to know that she will ULTIMATELY eat more/nurse less :)

I had my first Cora-induced mother's guilt this month.  Our oven doesn't get hot on the outside, so I'm not overly concerned when Jack and Cora are near the oven when it's on.  Well it was on and Cora cried out.  She had her hand between the broiler drawer and the oven and I thought she just got her finger stuck.  I pulled her hand out and she crawled off, seeming fine.  Well the next day I notice she had a nasty burn on one finger.  Even then I didn't think too much of it, but it looked worse each successive day - to the point it looked like a chunk of her finger was missing.  AAHH!  Then I called my mom (the nurse) and her doctor but was told to just keep it clean and expect it to take some time to heal.  It is a bad feeling to think you let your precious child hurt themself.  :(

Pretty Cora - now with bangs long enough to warrant a bow!  We are in love and so lucky to know you!