The girls and I spent last week in Santa Cruz at Grandma Julie and Grandpa George's house. Cora's favorite activity was going to the duck pond to feed the ducks. She had so much fun -- she went to the pond at least twice a day with Grandma, sometimes more! Cora has specific methods for feeding the ducks, like sprinkling a little here, running to the next spot, sprinkling some more, running again, so that she has the ducks running all around looking for cracked corn. Sometimes she likes to try to hide it from them, like under a rock. Olivia seemed to like the ducks and would try to touch them, but she really liked the pond and headed for the water any chance she got!
The time in Santa Cruz started out with our trip down, along with Andrew. Daddy got to go with us and Grandma to the beach at Natural Bridges for a windy, but fun afternoon. Cora & Olivia both love the beach and the sand! Cora had been looking forward to going to the beach for some time. Then we headed up to San Francisco to Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Jay's house and met up with Uncle Marty, Aunt Ingrid, Dana, and Aunt CC. We all walked up to Bernal Heights for a great view of the city, Olivia even nursed there. We had hot chocolate and Cora & Olivia had a great time with cousin Dana.
Later in the week we met up with Aunt Shannon and Brynne at Grandma Julie's house. Brynne had been really excited to see Olivia, but we had to wait for Olivia to wake up from her nap. Cora loved seeing Brynne and they hugged a lot! We all went to the duck pond to feed the ducks, it was great fun to see the girls together and hearing Brynne talk so much!
Later in the week the weather got nicer and we had some nice sunny warm days. Cora & Olivia played in the backyard with water (water seems to be a HUGE favorite for both of them!). They splashed and got wet and had a great time. We went downtown a couple of times and discovered the toystore, the Treehouse, has a train set! Cora loves to play with trains!
Grandma pulled out Aunt CC's old cape for Cora to play with. Cora has so much fun pretending and dressing up. Well, there's a lot more to write about, but that's all I have time for right now. To be continued...
We had a very nice Easter celebration. We had our own little egg hunt in the backyard and then we traveled to Roseville for another egg hunt and get together with family. Cora had fun decorating eggs and dying her fingers in the process. Olivia found her first egg all by herself; she saw it, walked right up to it, pulled it out of its hole, and dropped it. It helped that no one else had started looking yet.
Olivia is taking after her sister and seems to be quite a climber already. Andrew called Cristina & I into the girls' room the other day to show us where she had ended up...on top of the little table by the window. She looked rather pleased with herself and was happily clapping and smiling. Cora likes to call her "mischief baby" sometimes, although I often wonder who gets into mischief more!
A recent Cora quote: "It says the sun is going down in half past May," April 7, 2004, while looking at her pretend watch.
We've been pretty busy lately... Last week Cora, Olivia, & I went down to Grandma Sandy & Grandpa Tim's house for a few days. My allergies are getting bad and I thought it might be nice to go outside without being bombarded by walnut pollen. While we were there we went to the neighborhood park, visited friends Caden & Cody Arthur (and their mom Christina), visited cousins Cianna & Piercen (and Aunt Christine), had dinner with Uncle Lance & Aunt Barbara (happy 5th anniversary!), and went out to dinner with Grandma & Grandpa. We had a very nice time and my allergies bothered me a little less than at home. Once we returned we had a visit from Uncle Steve Westrick & cousin Breanna, a visit from one of Andrew's former students, Wendy Durfee & family (all the way from Mississippi!), and dinner with Aunt CC and Dave.
Olivia had a great time at Grandma & Grandpa's and her favorite thing to do was to open and close cabinet doors! Most of our cabinets at home are locked at her level, although she can open some of them part way, but this kept her fascinated for great periods of time. Of course she was very frustrated when I kept taking her away from certain contents that were breakable. She can get very vocal when she doesn't get her way. Yikes! Her walking is progressing rapidly and she can now sometimes walk from one room to another, covering a good distance, without falling. She chooses to walk more often now, maybe even more than she crawls.
Cora is doing great, she loves to play with her barbies & her dolls, they have interesting conversations. Her voices are really fun, she uses a high pitch voice when she's talking for a princess, and a low pitch voice for the prince. Sharing with Olivia is still hard, but it is very sweet when she does the right thing. I recently came across a list of quotes, when Cora says something cute or funny I try to find a scrap of paper to write it down. Here are a few:
"Sometimes they're very tricky." -sometime last year
"Let's do it together, we're a good team." -sometime last year
"I had a good time playing at the park with you Mommy." -Sept 18, 2003
"It's hard to be brave when you're little." -Sept 24, 2003
I ask, "what are you doing?" Cora's response, "I'm hiding from you because I want to eat this salt behind here." -Sept 25, 2003
"I am going to hide." Daddy asks, "Why?" Cora responds, "Because I'm going to do something peculiar." -Jan, 2004, as she is about to eat chapstick.
"Peaches don't last forever. They get rotten." -Jan 22, 2004, while coloring.
"Goodness gracious, me oh my, what has happened?" -Mar 3, 2004, while coming back to painting in the kitchen.
"I'm done. I just have room for something frosted." -Mar 3, 2004, at the dinner table.
"Who loves me?" I answer, "I love you." Cora's response, "Daddy loves me the most." -sometime in March.
"I don't want to sleep with you because Daddy's nicer." -Mar 29, instead of sleeping with Mommy.
