Cora & Olivia both love to dance. It has become a bit of a ritual most nights to have an evening dance performance before getting ready for bed. We have a classical ballet music CD that we put on and the girls start dancing. Most nights it also requires a costume change as well. They really like to look the part after all! They both do quite well matching their movements to the type of music, and will do some rather good ballet moves. They have a few ballet DVD's so they have some idea what it should look like. Eventually it turns into a dizzy spinning, and they will both spin & spin until they fall down laughing! I think they both may have futures as performers.
We have a couple of play groups that we get together with. On Thursdays, usually when Cora is in Tiny Tots, Olivia and I get together with a couple of neighbors around her age, Donovan & Amanda, and Amanda's big sister, Natalie. Cora's Tiny Tots class was on break for awhile and she got to join in a few times, she really loves to play with 5 year old Natalie.
On Mondays we gather with some of our Tiny Tots friends, kids Cora's age. They've known each other since they were all in the Our Time Together class and they seem to get along real well. Cora always looks forward to seeing her friends. Trains are a big favorite among them and they love to run around outside. Olivia plays right along with the big kids, although there's at least one other little sister close to her age, Natalie, about 7 months younger. And we have 2 new baby sisters among the group as well, at 2 months and the newest at just a few days old (she hasn't attended playgroup yet!). Here's a picture of the gang having cake: Grant, Tyler, and Isaac in the back, Jacklyn and Cora in front.
Cora has a new saying that I've been hearing a lot lately. She says, "And now for the final touch..." She uses it appropriately, but it's sort of funny to hear her say it. She also really likes rhyming words and will sometimes make up words that rhyme that remind me of Dr. Seuss. She seems to like to make up words in general these days. Sometimes she will say a nonsense word and follow it with, "That means ---- in Spanish." She knows some Spanish words, mostly from "Dora" and likes to use them. We had started her on Italian with the "Muzzy" BBC language program when she was one, but she hasn't watched that for awhile. Since I know some Spanish and I get that confused with similar Italian words, we may have more success with Spanish. It's neat to see that Cora is interested in other languages and I hope that continues.
And now a catch-up on things I meant to write about earlier...
Early in December Cora, Olivia, and I drove to Lake Tahoe to visit my parents at their timeshare condo. Since they live in Georgia this is a great opportunity to visit with them, and we've gotten together there several times now over the last few years. Cora & Olivia had a wonderful time playing with Grandma & Grandpa Ford. We played in the snow, they played on the stairs, snowmen were built, and even sledded a little bit. The most fascinating thing about playing in the snow for the girls, every time we have done it, has been the eating of snow. They love to eat snow! Cora made "snow cookies" and even offered some to Grandpa saying, "They're really, really good!" Cora & Grandpa built a snowman together and had several snowball fights. Olivia mostly watched, although she was happy to just eat snow.
It snowed while we were there and the fresh new snow was beatiful and fun to play in. While we were there Great Grandma Ford, her sister Evelyn (Great-Great Aunt?), Great Aunts Marilyn & Marlene, and Great Uncle John arrived to visit as well. Cora took to calling all the women "the grandmas" and Grandpa's friend, Marty, became "older grandpa." It was great to see everyone and I wish we could have visited more. I thought we might have to extend our stay due to snow, but we made it over the pass in between storms.
The girls have been up to Forest Ranch to Aunt Cristina's house to play in the snow there a couple times now as well. It's great to have the snow so close and convenient, but not have to live in it for long periods of time. It's hard enough to get out the door on a regular basis with two little girls, I can't imagine doing it with all the extra clothing concerns!
Olivia has been noticing letters and words a lot lately. She likes to point them out whenever she sees them. She will often point to a letter and say something that sounds like "dee." This sometimes aggravates Cora, who will tell Olivia, "No, that's an A!" or whatever the letter might be. It is surprising at times how expressive Olivia can be with so few words. She manages to get her point across well most of the time. It occurred to me the other day that she can now say "mommy" very clearly now. She's had "daddy" down well for a long time, but "mommy" has been more recent. Cora & Olivia already have arguments, yikes! Their arguments usually consist of the word "me" being said back and forth over and over again. Here is a picture of Olivia's "look" that I've tried to explain before. She has this mischevious upward look that she gives and this is the closest I have come to capturing it. You really have to see it in person to get the full effect.
I think I can now successfully post pictures in the blog without help, at least I can see it on my computer! I just went back and added a few pictures to recent entries, so make sure to check some of my previous entries for December. Wow! It's 2005 already! I still haven't sent out my Christmas cards, I've been trying to get together pictures of Cora & Olivia first so that I can send pictures of them at the same time.
We had a very fun New Year's Day up at Aunt CC's house, playing in the snow with Aunt CC, Dave, Uncle Marty, Aunt Ingrid, and Dana. I have lots of fun pictures from the snow, it's hard to choose just a few. Andrew, Cora, and Olivia made a snowman with a tunnel (Andrew did most of the work, Cora & Olivia had fun playing on it). Then Andrew started pulling the girls on a sled, something they all enjoyed. Cora even went over a jump that sent her up in the air a bit!
