She's 22 m....scratch that..."She'll be 2 in June"

At this point, I think it's only for my benefit to count out how many months Cora is....(that would be 22 months).  When you're this close to two, I think it makes the most sense to start referencing that big upcoming milestone.

In some ways, it seems impossible.  And in other ways, it seems like she's already two.  Not that I buy into stereotypes (entirely), but she definitely puts on her big girl shoes (and 'tude) more and more lately.

Cora Awesomeness this past month

- "Bire Truck!" became a frequent part of her vocabulary thus allowing her and Jack to communicate on all kinds of levels.  She'll find a picture of a Bire Truck! (always with that exclamation mark) in a book and turn to show Jack "Jack, bire truck!  Bire truck! Jack!"

 
- "One more mama" with a serious expression and 1 finger held up is also very cute and frequent
- She cackles, chuckles, squints her eyes, throws her head back, and does lots of other dramatic silliness
- She's peed on many public toilets, her own little potty, and was gifted some very cute new undies by her Grammy
- She loves to listen to the Vacation Bible School music DVD (her first real TV experience) and has quickly picked up some of the dance moves as Jack and I are learning them
- She cares for her baby dolls and had a big thrill holding her friend Liam's baby sister and having her own 8 month old cousin Billy visit

Cora Difficulties this past month

- "NO! MINE!" is heard a lot around here
- She is still INTENTIONALLY beating up her brother (with hands, feet, sippy cup, books, toys, etc.) but at least now she's pretty willing to go say "I torry" and show him her "gentle hands" afterward
- She throws mini tantrums when she doesn't get immediate gratification.  Rationalization is not effective in these moments (i.e. explaining that she will get a snack AFTER she puts on her shoes 90% of the time is no motivation/solace to her)
- She's peed on our carpet, in every pair of undies she owns, and refused to pee on many public toilets and her own potty
- We've had several battle of wills this past month with no clear winner at this point

Jacob and I just marvel at how precious, beautiful, personable, joyful, spirited, and hilarious Cora is.  She is winsome and sweet but also at a demanding and stubborn stage.

 
Potty training continues to be interesting.  I'd say we're at a similar spot to last month except now we are very clear that Cora knows how to potty, but just doesn't always feel like participating.  Some days, she's motivated pretty easily to pee and definitely responds well to attention, role models (someone else peeing first) and spectators (she performed happily for visiting Grammy and Aunt Kristen), but more than half the time it's "NO pee-pee poppee NO!"  It seems pretty clear to me that the right path is to not push her when she doesn't want to go .....BUT then there are those times (usually at least once a day) when she is dry after several hours but won't go potty.  Those are the times where I feel it's worth an effort and we've gotten into a few stand-offs when she just wasn't interested in peeing in a potty.  It was helpful to have my mom here for the last few days to get her advice.  She says to just relax and follow Cora's lead.  I'm going to....but I also plan on stringing up those cute new undies (which Cora loves) as motivation to pee.  She's not allowed (for obvious reasons) to wear undies unless she's just peed in the potty.

Nursing is another area where her strong personality has shown through.  Jack followed a really gentle weaning process over his second year and was down to just one feeding at this age without either of us having any difficulty with the process.  With Cora, we've been working on dropping from three to two feedings for several months, but baby girl has fought it hard.  It got to the point of her crying nightly starting at bath time because she knew there was not going to be any "mama mih."  From what I know and have read about toddler weaning, it's best to follow their cues and if they're overly anxious about giving up a certain feeding, then put the pause button on and try again in a few weeks.  We did press pause, but recently tried again and this method seems to have worked because she's only nursed twice a day for the last week or so.

A Nice Array of Cora's Sweet and Sassy Sides!