Cora and Olivia

I'm doing a little experimenting with the pictures, trying to figure out how best to include them. These are from last week, Cora & Olivia playing in the backyard.

Olivia had her sixth month checkup today. She weighs 15 pounds 8 ounces and is 27 inches long. She also had two shots today, and big sister tried to help her feel better. I think Olivia took it pretty well, she needed to nurse for a little while and then she seemed her usual happy self. Olivia was ready to leave before Cora was, Cora found the toys and books at the doctor's office very fascinating.

A few days ago I bumped my knee on the kitchen table and Cora told me, "Don't worry, be happy." On Sunday we went down to Sacramento for Aunt Jenny's birthday party and on the return trip, at night, I was singing to Cora. She started singing as well, but then she started making up her own words, "I miss Daddy so much." She was eager to get home! When Cora is tired she will often twirl her fingers in her hair. Lately she has twirled it so well that she gets her finger stuck. She did this in the car on the trip home and was able to pull her finger out the first time. The second time she couldn't get it unstuck and she eventually fell asleep with her hand up against her head!

Yesterday morning Cora was watching cartoons when the character asked, "Do you have a best friend?" Cora's reply, "Olivia!"

This was Olivia with her first tastes of rice cereal (on Nov 10). She seems so interested in food, she will stare very intently at your food if you eat in front of her. But so far she doesn't really seem to like what I've given her. She has sampled sweet potatoes in addition to rice cereal and she made quite a face!

Olivia's primary activities consist of rolling around all over the place, raspberries, sucking on her fingers, nursing, chewing on toys or anything else she can get her hands on, sleeping, making happy wailing noises, and smiling. I know there are more, but that's what comes to mind right now. She is getting pretty good at maneuvering herself around on the floor, I suspect Olivia will be a crawling baby, unlike her sister who skipped that stage and went right to walking. Time will tell.



Cora & Olivia sure had a great time playing outside in the backyard on this clear, cool, autumn day last week. Cora did most of the playing, running around with Daddy and Aunt Cristina, while Olivia and Mommy watched and laughed.

I've noticed lately that Cora has been asking a lot of questions, including the endless "why?" She always wants to know why she needs to do something, why that happened, or why somebody did something. It is really fascinating what she chooses to ask about and how often I find myself answering, "I'm not really sure about that," or, "that's a good question." I think it's wonderful that she's so curious, I just wish I could answer more of them more completely!

Olivia is practicing her sitting up more now. She can sometimes keep herself steady for a few minutes, but she will eventually fall over. She is really great at holding onto things, and sometimes she doesn't want to let go! If she gets close to Cora she will sometimes pull her hair; Cora is getting better about not screaming indiscriminately when this happens. Olivia sure adores her big sister, her eyes get so big and she smiles a lot when she gets attention from Cora.

Olivia turned 6 months old today on Mommy's 35th birthday--how did I get so old? Cora helped me make a birthday cake, Andrew came home early from work, and Aunt Cristina joined us as well. Olivia sampled her first solid food, rice cereal. She was very excited about it! She immediately reached out to grab the spoon and pull it to her mouth! She knew she wanted that spoon in her mouth, but I'm not so sure she was very satisfied with what she got. We took pictures of course, but you'll have to wait until they're developed to see them since we don't have a digital camera. I will add the pictures later.

It's amazing how fast Cora & Olivia are growing, I'm reminded of that often. I was helping Cora brush her teeth when I noticed upon further inspection that she has 3 more molars than I thought she had! I knew that she had 4 total, but now she has 7! I have no idea when that happened or how I managed to miss it. The older I get, the faster time seems to go. I guess it's important to try to notice all the little things now and enjoy this time as much as we can.

The girls have had a nice weekend. poooiuytrewq` 1234567890]
/bvvbnnn,mm,,,../ Cora wanted to give her own input, I'm very impressed that she put the numbers in like that! One of Cora's funny expressions is when she uses the word "actually." When you call her sometimes she will respond, "Actually, I'm ....(a princess, Cora, Cora princess, sleeping beauty, snow white, tinkerbell, etc.)." The way she says it is really cute.

She has been doing a lot of dancing lately and she is getting quite good! She thinks she has to be wearing a dress to be a princess, so when she's not running around naked she's wearing a dress most times. She knows that she needs more appropriate clothes for playing outside, so she will change into pants if she wants to go outside. It has been raining and she has had a lot of fun playing with Daddy out in the rain.

Tomorrow Olivia will be 6 months old, we're planning to give her a first taste of rice cereal to celebrate.

Last night was Olivia's first Halloween, although she didn't particularly seem to notice. Cora went to a Halloween dress up birthday party and we trick or treated a few houses in the evening. Cora was excited about the prospect of giving out candy to kids who came to our house, but unfortunately we only had one set of trick or treaters. Because it had recently become very cold Cora's costume had to be modified to include warm tights and a long sleeve shirt so that little Tinkerbell didn't get too cold. It had rained off and on during the day, but it was clear for our visits around the neighborhood.

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Here's a picture of Olivia at 5 months old, happily reclining. Olivia does seem to be a pretty happy baby. She loves to be held looking out and around. When I carry her in the baby bjorn, she loves to face out and will grin and kick with delight.

Some of Cora's favorite things... Cora is really into princesses right now. She has a book of fairy tales that she loves to be read, sleeping beauty is a particular favorite. She likes to pretend to be asleep, so that we can kiss her and wake her up. Daddy's usual title these days is of course "handsome prince," something that Andrew doesn't discourage. Princesses dance a lot, and so does Cora. She loves to twirl around and has a pretty good sense of the type of dancing that goes with particular music. Cora loves to paint with watercolors and color in her coloring books. We still use only washable crayons because she has a tendency to color other things too. Building with blocks and books are another favorite right now. She can spend a lot of time alone building and pretending. Her stuffed animals and dolls participate quite a bit in these endeavors. It is really sweet to listen to her animals and dolls having conversations with one another. They are fairly well taken care of, as Doctor Cora gives them checkups regularly. Then of course jumping, running, and playing outside are still big favorites of Cora's. Cora likes to go to the "beach" in the backyard, a large sandy area with sand toys (where our above ground pool used to be). She and Daddy will sometimes play out there for hours, using water sometimes too. The play house that Aunt CC built is another huge favorite. I can't wait until Cora and Olivia can both play together out there, they are going to get a lot of use out of that! sand.jpeg