Kora is One

 

Kora is…

… one year old.

… on the move; walking; nearly running.

… jealous of her brother.

… only 16 lb. 8 oz. and 27 inches tall.  She has to gain 4 more pounds before she can turn around in the car seat.  Oh, my favorite little shrimp.

…prone to ear infections but getting tubes on the 9th.

… starting to jabber; more than just repeating a single syllable. And she expects you to reply to her inquiries.

…still looking bald although she really does have hair.  It’s just pretty light and pretty thin.  I think we could get enough gathered to put in a barrette but it would just look silly.

…developing and expressing her personality.  She is going to be one funny kid.  (It is the Hole in her.)

…starting to sign. She uses “more” and “eat” mainly.

… a climber. She gets into the wooden shelf and onto Tuck’s little table then has to call for help.  She can get into and out of the toy baskets but it takes work and lots of grunting.

…finally sleeping through the night, just this week. I think the walking is wearing her out more.

… a favorite at Missy’s.  All the kids love her and they all call her “Kora Jane”.

… a bull dog. When she wants to get somewhere she makes a straight line no matter what is in her way.  She just crawls thru it or over it. There is no stopping this girl.

… a biter, right now.  She has 8 teeth and working on getting a molar in.

…the angel that blesses us each day.

We love you Kora and are so proud of you.

Mommy, Daddy and Tucker

Kora’s First Birthday Party

On Saturday we had Kora’s birthday party.  All the grandparents and local cousins made it. Nanny had the date wrong but that was fine since it had been snowing so bad she should not have been on the road anyway.  And Aunt Mary didn’t make it for weather reasons too.  Darn winter birthday’s anyway.

Kora loved reading the cards. Even upside down and backwards.

And she was such a diva with her new clothes.

We all sang Happy Birthday while she tried to grab the flame on the candle.

And Tuck showed her how to get started on eating her cake.

She shared some with Daddy…

and with Papaw…

and with Nanna…

and with Mommy.

And then she licked the platter clean. I just love this picture!!!

She was covered in pink frosting by the time she was done but she was having such fun. She really didn’t make much mess on the floor since she consumed 95% of the cake.

Then it was straight to the tub. No one even wanted to give her sugars as we passed.

After a change of wardrobe it was back out to play with the new toys.  After Papaw put together the stroller he took her for a spin while Tuck cabbaged onto the pink horse from Uncle Scott and fam.

This stroller had a front rail but Papaw had to take it off because Kora was adamant that SHE was going to ride in it, not just her dolly.

Here she is trying to get in it prior to rail removal.

Tucker also liked Kora’s new Beauty and the Beast movie. He sweet talked Papaw and Gamma Deb into watching with him. 

He talked his way thru the whole thing: when beast told Belle she would have to stay in the castle forever Tuck looked wide eyed at Gamma Deb and repeated “For-ev-er?!” and when Beast saves Belle from the wolves he yelled “Yeah!  Go Tiger!” He was so sad when he thought the wolves had killed him but smiled great big and told us “He’s o-k.” when Belle was cleaning his wounds in the next scene. (Can you tell I have watched this 6 times in 3 days?)

The birthday girl with Daddy…

with Uncle Scott…

and with Nanna.

My Dear Kora.  I am just so proud of the little girl you are becoming and I treasure you so much.  We are so fortunate to have such an angel among us.  Happy First Birthday my sweet.

Scar Face

My poor little Kora Belle is maimed for life.  She got a hold of Tucker’s shield (aka frying pan lid); he’s a pirate, you know.  And although she is getting more stable on her feet she is still a little wobbly.  As can be expected, she fell and caught the shield right across the bridge of her little nose. Oh how she cried.

 

It was enough to draw blood but not enough to drip.  And it was enough to make Mommy worry that we were going to have to make the inaugural trip to the ER. 

But after a bath and some Tylenol she was good to go.  The swelling has gone down now and we are hoping that she is little enough that she will outgrow it.

 

Daddy told me not to worry, that he had plenty of scars and was none the worse for ware.  But he is not a pretty little baby and his scars are not across his nose.  It’s hardly the same.

LiveJournal Tags: Kora,nose,scar

Such Good Intentions

For Thanksgiving we go to TJ’s Mom’s every year.  She is such a great cook and hostess.  This year she asked me to bring some brownies or cupcakes for the kids for dessert.  I had such big plans.  I was going to make brownies with a special marshmallow gooey center.  Oh wouldn’t they just be delicious.

Well, this is what they ended up looking like.  I call them my “Open Sore Brownies”.  TJ called them “Acne Brownies”.

I put half of the brownie mix in the pan, added a layer of mini marshmallows and poured the rest of the brownie mix on top.  But as I poured in the last of the mix, the marshmallows all floated to the top.  And then as they cooked they bubbled up and when they cooled they all popped open.

I still laugh every time I think of them. 

They looked disgusting but were still very tasty.  I will have to remember them for my next Halloween bash.  They will be perfect.

Foot Puppets

 

TJ and Tucker were playing foot puppets.  They had different voices for each foot and carried on a whole conversation with each other, laughing all the while.  

Funny funny boys.

LiveJournal Tags: Tuck,puppets

Children’s Museum with Grandma

Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jake got us tickets to the Children’s Museum in Indy for Christmas.  TJ was hunting so we invited Grandma to join us.  I have never been here and I was just as excited as Tucker was.  We talked about it for days before going, guessing what all we might see. And boy did we have fun.

After our 45 minute drive we decided to go to the Playscape to burn off a little steam.  Of course, Tuck had to try out the Indy car, what good Hoosier boy could pass that up?

He had fun with the water area.  There were fishing poles and a waterwheel that really caught his attention. And isn’t he just so cute in his little smock?  Tuck is all about pretending right now so he really got into playing puppy.  I couldn’t catch him with his tongue out. Kora loved playing in the garden.  She would pull all the vegetables out and another little boy would put them back in, over and over. 

LiveJournal Tags: Tuck,Kora,Adventure,Museum

She also liked playing in the Babyscape area with blocks and Grandma.

Isn’t she just the cutest.

He is such a fan of his sandbox at home that he knew just what to do here.

And after lunch we went to see “Da Bears”.  He just loved everything about this area.Kora loved the bears too. So much so that they wore her out and she napped for about 45 minutes.

The Penguin Slide was a big hit as well.

And then on to see the Dinosaurs.  Tuck made me hold his hand as we went down the ramp.  It was dark and kind of spooky but that didn’t hold him back for long.  Soon he was dragging me along and trying to get me to crawl into all of the kids caves to see what we could see.

Here is Tuck as Mr. Archeologist.  He was learning about casts of bones.

This is what he would look like with a T.Rex tooth in his head.

And we all loved the dress up areas.  Here he is as dinosaur.  He wanted to play with the dino eggs so badly but another little kid was hoarding them.  Tuck waited him out though.

And finally, we finished the day in the train section.  Here is Tuck inside the train exhibit where the kids can see the trains from their own little portals.

The kids slept the whole way home.  We sure did have fun at the museum.  Did I mention that Tuck and I learned to Rumba? I can’t wait to go again and see even more.     Especially once Kora is bigger and more interactive.

Tuck’s Vocabulary

Here is just another sampling of Tuck’s ever expanding vocabulary.

Alligator: agigator

Far away: Fa away, this is used to describe the stars as well as a toy that is out of reach

Big High: “push me big high” on the swing, and when we went golfing he told Papaw “that ball went big high”

M&Ms: emma emma, these are bait for using the potty; so far there is very little interest on his part, even with TJ’s bribe of a kitty.