Cora and Olivia

I've put together a collection of quotations from Cora & Olivia from over the summer.

July 13 Cora: “I pressed the not here button,” said to Olivia when she didn’t want to be bothered.


















July 14 “It’s Okay. You can give me a kiss tomorrow. Are you fine with that?” Cora said this to me after telling me that I couldn’t kiss her.

Aug 1 “I’m not hungry. I’m not going to be hungry until afer dinner,” Cora says at the dinner table (on a regular basis). Later she says, “I meant I WAS hungry. That’s how I say I’m hungry in Spanish.” She ate 2 small pieces of pizza, a bowl of blueberries, 1/4 an avocado, and a glass of carrot juice.


Aug 15 Olivia says to Cora after throwing a brush, “Ha Ha Ha! No back!”

Aug 26 Cora: “That’s all the nutrients that goes through your tummy. The nutrients is very good for you. It’s nice that you grow up healthy,” said while describing a picture that she had drawn (to the left, Olivia later added the green crayon).

Aug 29 Cora (as Daphne) says to Olivia (Scooby Doo), “Wait Scooby! That’s deep water! Something tells me there are undertows!”

Aug 29 Cora to Olivia, “How many times have I told you to stop jumping on me?!” Where have I heard that before?

Sept 1 Cora decided to wear her dress-up shoes outside on the driveway, “Because after all they’re mine and I get to make my own decisions.”

Sept 6 Olivia is holding 2 pairs of craft scissors, Olivia makes the large one say, “Me work, me work.” The little scissors then replies, “Yeah Daddy.”

Sept 6 Olivia: “Mommy, you boo me!” Said after I startled her.

Sept 16 Cora: “I’m so tired, I could sleep on an elephant!”

Sept 18 Cora: “You’re the best mommy I ever had and I want you to be healthy,” while giving me a carrot in exchange for a frozen fudge bar.

Sept 21 Olivia: “Mommy, you blue eyes. Me dark eyes, Daddy too.”

Sept 21 Cora: “Call me the queen of grape nuts, cause I like grape nuts!”

Sept 25 Cora and I were sitting at the dinner table while she finished her dinner (she often takes a long time to eat). I showed her a picture from the newspaper of a kid holding a carrot he had grown in a garden at school. Cora remarked that we should grow carrots in our garden too. I told her that we couldn’t because we have too many gophers and they would eat them. Cora said we could build a brick wall and when they try to climb up then we could catch them. When I asked her what we would do with them she replied, “We could take them to the humane society. They could give them to people who don’t want their carrots!”



These pictures are from a trip to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk in July.

Olivia has a stuffed "Diego" doll (he's Dora the Explorer's cousin) that has become an almost constant companion. She adores Diego; Dora has been her favorite thing to watch on TV and she gets really excited if Diego is on the show. We have Dora books as well, and one of her favorites is "Meet Diego" of course. Just recently Diego got his own TV show, Go Diego Go, and Olivia is just thrilled! Diego's family runs an animal rescue center in the rainforest, so he saves animals. Cora will often say she doesn't like Dora or Diego, but if the show is on she ends up watching and gets into it just as much as Olivia does. Dora & Diego are bilingual so they use Spanish sometimes and the girls seem to be picking up quite a few Spanish words from them. They can often be heard shouting out Spanish words to help Dora or Diego and get quite involved in the show. It's funny to hear Olivia say "go Diego," "packpack" (her version of backpack), "map," "abre," or other things from the show when she won't even attempt to say her own name!

I was cleaning up around the house this morning (Wed, I guess I should say yesterday morning) when I came across a lock of hair on the floor. I didn't think much of it at first, but then I found more here and there around the room. I collected a handfull and began to wonder where it had come from. When Cora got up I asked her about it, had she cut her own hair? She told me that she had not. I told her that I had found some hair and she then asked me if it was Olivia's. I didn't know if it was Olivia's or Cora's, but I had assumed it was Cora's because of the color. She told me very matter of factly that she had cut Olivia's hair and that Olivia had liked it! Later I took a look at Olivia and noticed that there was an area on the right side of her head that definitely looked as if it had been cut, Cora gave Olivia her first haircut! Luckily it's not too noticeable. Cora still hasn't ever had her own hair cut, except to cut out really stubborn knots. Maybe Olivia should do the honors...

Cora asked me to help her make a sign this evening. She told me exactly what to write on it and she set about hanging it on the wall, setting a box in front of it, covering the box with a blanket, and putting a toy inside. It was a trap meant to catch Olivia. After some coaxing from Cora, Olivia was in fact captured, Cora said she might like to catch some more "beasties."

Cora's big news these days is that she is sleeping in her own room in her own bed, instead of in our room. We took the crib and changing table out of their room and now Cora & Olivia sleep in the trundle bed, Cora on top and Olivia on the bottom. They've been doing a great job, despite the fact that Cora doesn't really want to be there. I think it's been more than a week now, with Cora pretty much sleeping through the night and waking up happy. She has been rewarded for her efforts with a new barbie doll (Princess Anneliese has rarely left Cora's side since she got her), and going to the movies for the first time with Daddy. Andrew took her to see "Valiant," a G movie, although apparently not very memorable in itself; Andrew said it was pretty boring. But it was a fun experience, Cora had popcorn and they even went out for rootbeer and french fries afterwards.

I have to try and gather up my Cora & Olivia quotes that I have been collecting, written here and there on any little scraps of paper I can find at the time. I think I have quite a few to share from the last couple of months.

I have the hardest time blogging in the summer for some reason. I guess we get busy and we don't follow normal routines and now it's hard to get going again. We just had a very nice, very relaxing, yet very productive weekend. I took some pictures of the girls that I just love, and that has motivated me to get blogging again. It's easier to get pictures of Cora most of the time because she likes the attention and will cooperate more often than Olivia.



















Now I seem to be having a problem aligning my pictures for some reason... oh well, at least they're loading. The weather has been great, gentle breezes on warm days that haven't been too hot, perfect for spending lots of time outdoors. The girls played with an umbrella while Andrew sprayed them with the hose, we went to play at Caper Acres in Bidwell park, and just had a nice time overall.














Here you can see Olivia got herself all ready for working in the yard. She said to us, "Bye, me go work," and then she headed off to the front yard! She didn't want to take off the sunglasses or headphones either. Andrew was able to get her to trade his sunglasses for some of her own and she didn't take off the headphones at all for a long time. I finally got them off her in the bathroom when she was distracted with washing her hands.

I have so much more to write about, I've been saving Cora quotes, and there's so much to say about our summer. The girls are growing up so much and I have lots to share. Now I just have to find the time...