Brand New Year, Same Old Fun

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here's our flashback and NY-12 for Bella

And here are the rest of our pictures from the holidays and the first couple weeks of January - CLICK HERE.  

Our holidays were good, but way too stressful.  Every year I'm closer to taking Mike up on his suggestion to spend Christmas in Hawaii.  ;)  Really I just need to start letting things go, but it's hard to do, you want so much for the holidays to be what they are in your mind!  This year we went a little crazy and next year we'll reign it back and focusing on simple!  The fun part as always is experiencing it through the kids' eyes.  This year was fun to see Cordelia - last year she was so young.  So far, she's not so into unwrapping presents but she LOVES the lit Christmas tree and she really likes all the activity.

The girls are fabulous.  We're deep into figuring out the girls' educational future.  I know I take it too seriously, but I can't seem to help myself.  I want to give them the best education I can.  I wish it was me!  I'm so jealous - I see those classrooms and I want to be there with them!  Actually, instead of them!  Ok, with them. 

Miss Lea will leave us this summer and it's time for Cordelia to have some more structure and start figuring out what to do with all the knowledge of the world she's absorbing!  I found this great little Montessori daycare called Rose Montessori like Miss Danielle's that is very close to our place.  It's a half day program 5 days a week with just 4 kids.  BUT, it's quite pricey and it sort of depends on where Bella goes to school.  

Bella will be kindergarten age (KINDERGARTEN!) in the fall.  We had originally planned to stay at Mapleton, but there is a public Montessori elementary (Community Montessori) in Boulder that we'd like to get Bella into.  The only other options for Montessori beyond kindergarten are private.  And, if  you haven't gathered this yet, Mike and I are really sold on Montessori.  And we want to keep both the girls in that environment as long as possible! If you're interested and don't already know, this is a pretty quick, very visual description of what Montessori is:

So, in Boulder, all the public schools are open enrollment, meaning we can attempt to get into any public school, but the selections are by lottery, so there's not a guarantee for our first choice.  We only put in for the public Montessori, for us there's not really a public backup.  But we're also, as much as we are committed to Montessori, having sticker shock on the price of private.  I honestly don't know what we'll do if she doesn't get in Community (assuming we like it - we tour it on Monday).  

For our backup, we toured a really awesome Toddler-6th grade private Montessori, Jarrow.  It's been open for 65 years!  It's very close and it's so amazing.  It has the community I really want to find in a school.  And if Bella doesn't get into Community Montessori, the girls can go to school together on the same campus!  We've been talking about the cost of private and that it's how we put our money where our mouths are.  If the theory (and many many studies) are right, that the most important and impactful time for learning and developing lifelong learning habits is under the age of 12, then we need to give the girls the best education we can up to that point and then afterwards, the difference in quality of education doesn't matter as much.  Granted, there's a difference in Stanford versus Arizona State for instance.  But there's really no difference between a college prep private high school and the best public high school.  And assuming that the learning habits have been established, the child can flourish anywhere and we focus on Scholarships, Grants and loans for college.  Plus, we have some pretty awesome grandparents contributing to the girls' 529.  So, that's our thinking on potentially going private until middle school.

If Bella makes it into Community, Cordelia will go to Rose Montessori until she is old enough for Community (she gets in automatically if Bella is in!).  I'm excited for them!  And, given their schedules are going to be changing this summer, so will mine.  I'm going to start working 5 days a week.  I'm sort of sad to see my Fridays off go, but financially and practically, it doesn't make sense to have a day off with no kids in the house.  Because the options for Cordelia are half day, I only need about an hour and a half to two hours of childcare in the afternoons (while she naps) as I finish up work.  I'll finish work at 2:30pm and have 1/2 hour at lunch to pick up Cordelia and do a handoff with a nanny.  

AND, we're counting down days til Disneyworld!!!!!  We are all (ok, forget Cordelia) SO excited!  Ok, listen, I'm not sure about Mike either.  But Bella and I are REALLY excited!  Sarah and Jerry are coming too!  It seemed like SO long ago we decided to go and started making plans, but now, wow, it's like 3 weeks away.  You are all now officially warned that Bella will not care about going to San Diego any longer, her future dream trips will all be Disneyworld.  Wait, why am I warning you?  It's Mike and I that are never going to hear the end of it.  ;)

Girls have been cracking us up and keeping us proud.  Bella's been taking piano lessons with Miss Lea.  20 minutes a week and she practices about 10 minutes a couple times a week.  It's been interesting to watch because she actually just memorizes the sounds more than she's learning to read music.  I gather being able to hear the melody and know that different keys make different sounds at this age is about as much as you could ask for.  Miss Lea is so great, she makes up words to the music that doesn't have any...like Au Claire de la Lune is known as "I love my Mommy" to Bella.  It's so cute.  Ask her to play for you - she knows about 6 songs pretty well.

I'm looking to get Cordelia back into swimming lessons.  She needs some activities too!  And she LOVES the water, I can't even tell you.  She doesn't flinch when you pour water over her head.  Instead, she asks for MORE!  I mean, seriously, it's awesome to watch her in the water.  The hardest part is finding the time.  Mike and I had to actually put together a very detailed schedule of what, when, how.  We're (hopefully) soon to becoming a finely tuned machine...and as long as there's no sick kids, etc, it'll all work out.  Right?  

Cordelia is gabbering away, in both English and German and of course baby language.  But I swear she will respond like she knows exactly what you said and is making the appropriate response.  I truly believe she understands both English and German very well.  But I keep telling myself her responses have to be coincidences...except they are too numerous.  I give credit to Lea that Cordelia always answers yes.  Well, it's actually "yah".  That's so much nicer to hear than "no" - although just two days ago she started shaking her head no!  Mostly when she doesn't want something she hits, so I'm actually glad to see the head shaking.  She's very adament about her negatives.  And her temper....well, she has one.  Explosive.  Sometimes it still surprises me.  The other day she was whining and I was carrying her up to her room teasing her - whining back and she looked at me like I'll never forget - it was a I'm dead serious and I'm about to hurt you look.  It was VERY obvious she was not happy about my behavior and was about to put an end to it.  Then she grabbed a handful of my hair as a warning.  She didn't pull, but she gave me a very clear threat.  Lea told me one day she was so angry being put down for a nap (clearly Cordelia wasn't ready) she paced in her crib like a caged lion.  And Miss Lea said if she goes up to try to put Cordelia down again, if she's not sleeping, she'll LAUGH at Miss Lea!  

Lest you think Cordelia is terrible, she's laid back 95% of the time.  She goes with the flow, puts up with the collective Clymer crap and is happy to hang out with whomever.  And this girl adores Bandit.  I find her giving him hugs and snuggles and seemingly more love than she ever gives to us!  It's so cute to see.  Maybe it's because he rarely pisses her off.  ;)  And, she's quite the Daddy's girl.  She's really happy to see Mike when he gets home and gives him such sweet face hugs.  

Cordelia had her 15 month checkup only to find she had shrunk.  I'm guessing we had some inaccurate past measurements, but I was pretty shocked because it wasn't a little bit, it was 1/2 inch.  So at 15 months, Cordelia weighs 21lbs 2.5oz and is 30 3/4 inches tall.  She's fallen to 55th percentile in height, 50th percentile in weight.  Her head circumference is 46.5 cm at 75th percentile.

We've concluded Cordelia is going through a growth spurt, but maybe it's wishful thinking.  She's been nursing like a newborn.  She constantly wants to nurse and one side isn't good enough.  She knows there's another and wants that side too.  I don't dare take my shirt off around her.  Her default is to want to nurse.  I've been trying to figure out if she's really thirsty or hungry or tired instead.  But her mind is usually made up and she will not be satisfied until she gets what she wants.  

Cordelia is making some really cool associations - we can see her putting things together and figuring out how everything works.  One day she had polka dots on her clothes and her socks.  So I pointed them out on each item and said polka dots.  Cordelia then started pointing at all the other polka dots in the room - on the blanket - on her bumper in her crib...on and on and getting so excited about it.  

We've been playing lots of games with Cordelia.  There's the Peek a Boo and "Where's Cordelia" game and Grandpa taught her the Patty Cake game that she was thrilled about.  We met Tom, Nana, Megan and Monica for an early dinner last weekend and Cordelia laughed so hard playing patty cake with Tom we were all laughing.  And then there's the "where's your" body part game.  Starting just with her facial features right now.  She's got her nose down.  And we're introducing her to art.  I did fingerpainting with her for the first time.  She enjoyed that.  Her signature fingerpainting move is to pat the paint on the paper.  When I got her a toothbrush to make designs in the paint, she figured out a better use...

Cordelia is also doing a lot of mimicking.  She pretends to put on lotion for example.  And this kid eats completely on her own.  As Mike has observed, Bella at this age was very verbal.  Cordelia is very physical - she has amazing dexterity and fine motor skills.  In the morning I give her a small cup with a handle full of baby cereal and fruit with a spoon and she will eat it all, with only minimal amounts on her face and hands and no spills on the tray.  And when I say minimal, I mean surprisingly little.  It's a trip to watch her eat.

I think I've mentioned before Cordelia's humor?  Well if you didn't believe me, she laughs hysterically at burps and toots.  I think that's a requirement for a good sense of humor, right?  She and Grady are starting to really play and interact with each other like never before.  Before they would be interested in what the other was doing and they would play next to each other and sometimes with the same toy.  But now, they are actually PLAYING together - Lea said they played hide and seek, without Lea at all, using the wood chest in the living room.  And they are also becoming their own individuals and "arguing" a bit too.  Cordelia is quick to show her displeasure by putting her hands on Grady - usually his face.  So we have to work with her on "gentle".  

All in all, the best word to describe Cordelia right now is BUSY.  She just GOES and is always doing something.  She walks in laps around the closet/buffet that acts as an island on the main level between the living, dining and kitchen.  The more tired she is, ironically, the more active she gets.  I always know when we've blown past bed time as I can't keep up with her and turning the chaos she leaves with order.

Cordelia and Bella play really nicely together.  They seem to enjoy reading books together.  They'll each find a book or sit in front of the book shelf and pull out books, each reading their own.  It was really cute the other day as Bella was teaching Cordelia how to play with dolls.  Bella pulled out several of the babies and showed Cordelia how some of them worked and how to dress them.  And Cordelia walked around the house carrying her baby, feeling proud of herself.  They play so well together that several times Bella's when needed to come eat snack or dinner and Cordelia would come to Bella at the table and pull on her arm trying to get her to come back to the living room to play.  You know what Bella does?  Shares her food.  ;)  Sissies!

A cute sissie story - one weekend Cordelia had been napping and the whole fam was home, so when she woke up, Bella and I went up to get her.  Bella was so happy to see her and so sweet and just gushing with her love and yells to Daddy who was on his way upstairs too, "Daddy, come up here and look at her, she's so beautiful!"  Where does that come from?  It would melt anyone's heart.

SO, Bella is doing great.  She's been home the last three days from school however.  She has a phantom illness - fever but really no other symptoms.  Except a crazy runny nose.  Wednesday, she was just feeling so bad - she had a very high fever and finally, to help her sleep, I gave her some tylenol and then all of a sudden she was like back to normal and I said to Lea, I shouldn't have given her that medicine, she feels fine now!  And she was driving me crazy - as I was trying to work and keep her occupied.  When she wasn't feeling well, it was easy, she'd just lay on the couch or the floor, but then bam!  I was expected to entertain her!  

Bella is as witty as usual.  She was in the kitchen with me and decided she was done hanging out with boring old me and told herself aloud as she went to play, "OK, get loose!" and then not 5 minutes later she's calling to me, "Mom, I can't find the card I got from Aunt Megan that sings footloose!"

When we celebrated Mike's birthday, I was preparing his cake and Bella yells, "He's old!  He needs more candles because old people have lots of candles on their cake!"  Poor Mike...and this morning she told Mike that he was stronger than Mommy, but that Mommy is smarter than him.  We thought that was pretty funny.

And Bella had a very interesting conversation with Mike about cannibalism of all things.  Here it goes (from my memory of when Mike told me from his memory of the conversation...so it's not exact):

I don't like drinking water

You need it for your body

Well, what about blood?

Well, actually, your blood is made up of water

Maybe I could drink blood.  I could eat people.  But you wouldn't want to eat a person who smokes because that's unhealthy.

When Mike told me about this conversation (ask him - I'm sure I've missed some parts in there and he's always better at telling stories), he said, "If the shit hits the fan and there's not enough food and people turn to cannibalism, I'm going to start smoking so Bella won't eat me."

But it doesn't stop there.  As I was working on this post, Bella has been playing with her dolls next to me and I heard this conversation between two of her dolls:

I'm a meat eater

Well, people are meat

So I'll eat you

Wait, there's a turkey!

Ok, I'll eat that.

We also continue to find humor in Bella's language overload.  I think she has so many words in her brain that she can't manage them efficiently.  For example, while she was home sick she was telling me about how she eats the "rhythm" like daddy when she's sick.  What she meant was broth.  And she couldn't quite make it stick, calling it rhythm all day long.   Lea has an Austrian friend Monica, who has two boys around the girls age.  The eldest is Johannes (pronounced yo-hannis) and the youngest is Georg (prounounced gehr-rig).  Bella calls Johannes "your highness" - it took us awhile to figure out what and who she was talking about!  

You all know Bella is a sweetheart, I wrote down some particularly sweet things she's said in the last month or so...

Momma to Bella:  Did you have a wonderful Christmas Eve?

Bella to Momma:  I have a wonderful always with you.

At the end of one especially long day as I was getting the girls ready for a bath I sighed and said, "ahhh", Bella says, "What happened mom?"  and I said, not sure why she assumed something happened said, "Nothing honey, why?"  Bella says, "You went ahhh".  So I responded tongue in cheek, "Oh, I have two girls who take my energy."  Bella immediately response, like seriously before I even finished, "You have two girls who love you and take your energy."

And it's worth every bit of it.  

Have a great weekend!

Night and Day

I had a short, cute and very descriptive anecdote from today.  Mike went to LA yesterday for work (he gets back tonight) so I have had a brief stint as a single mom.  And as single moms can do it all, I decided to take a walk on the wild side and actually take the girls to the gym.  They have childcare there and I've never taken them before, so I thought it was a good time to try it out and well, I need to get back into a fitness routine.  And I'm a short term single mom and single moms can do it all.

Anyhow, knowing how Bella is, I prep her on the way over.  We're going to the gym.  You and Cordelila are going to play in the play area we visited before while I exercise.  Will you be ok?  Sure?  Ok, good.  So we get there and I let them into the play area and off Cordelia goes.  She doesn't even give me a backward glance or a goodbye wave - she takes  off and makes a bee-line for the legos.  Bella stands next to me, not wanting to go in, but also I could tell, distraught that her little sister who SHE (thinks she has to, and often does) looks out for is already in and starting to play.  Wanting to avoid clinginess and tears, I have Bella a standing half-hug, rubbed her head and said see you in a bit and took off.  

As I walked away, (rushed away, desperately trying not to appear to be rushing away), I smiled to myself thinking about these two girls of mine and how different they are.  And how fun and amazing that is.  

Mike and I are very lucky.

"I've been patient for Thanksgiving...."

Here are the pictures for the last few weeks (CLICK HERE)

Things are going well here.  We went through a terrible bout of stomach flu, but hopefully that's in our past!  We had a quiet  Thanksgiving.  Bella coined the best quote ever, "I've been patient for Thanksgiving but I can't hold it any longer!"

Cordelia got her teeth - at least she got 4 of them.  The other two are still working through (molar mountain tips peeking through) so she's been much more pleasant!  Although I think she's also gone through a growth spurt if her sleeping habits of late are any indication - she went about a week sleeping like a champ and having a three hour nap several times smack in the middle of the day and (gasp!) sleeping in past 7am more than once!  We thought we finally made it to easy street.  But Cordelia is back to her old habits....except I will say, she does sleep completely through the night on a regular basis.  Between 6 and 7pm to 5:30 or 6:30 in the am.  I think sleeping through the night is a result of Cordelia finally achieving the milestone she's been working on for the last 4 months...WALKING.  Cordelia LOVES to walk (now that she's decided she likes to).  And the stairs, forgettaboutit, she's a pro.  She sits down, turns around and slides down on her tummy.  This kid gets around and she's getting quicker and more coordinated at it every day!  She'll be running SOON!

In other Cordelia news, she's learning to use utensils.  In fact, she INSISTS on it and if you're the one "feeding" her you have to be clever in how you "help" her so that she doesn't know you're helping - she's that independent and stubborn...she has Titus blood!  And also a family trait, she is chatty, super chatty.  She's particularly chatty with herself.  And she also sings to herself often.  If you want her to sing to you, just start, "Old McDonald had a farm..." and she'll respond E-I-E-I-O or something very close that is obviously her intent.

Miss Lea told me the funniest story about Cordelia and Grady the other day.  She said they sort of accidentally rammed heads and then looked at each other, smiled and started doing it over and over about 4 or 5 times, laughing.  Animals at heart, right?!

A final Cordelia story and a good transition to Bella stories since I know Bella was the influence.  A couple days ago, Cordelia found my chapstick and was walking around with it and Mike noticed she was carrying something and said, "What do you have, Bug?" Cordelia immediately hid her hand behind her back and initated evasion measures.  Every time she thought Mike wasn't watching she would swing her arm, look at the chapstick and then, the minute she would walk by him or she thought he was looking, she would stick her arm behind her back.  It was hilarious to watch.  She totally thought she was getting over on us!  We have to keep her thinking she's smarter than us (and she just might be).

Bella is doing well.  The thing I've noticed most recently about Bella is her love of art.  You can't leave a pen and paper lying around or you'll find it covered in doodles.  She literally can't help herself.  If you want to keep Bella busy, pull out some arts and crafts and she enters another world.  I have little talent in that area, and I am her mother, but I'm convinced Bella is talented.  How she comes up with her ideas and is able to put it into material is amazing.  I really started paying attention when I pulled out the collage materials and Bella created the most amazing thing I've ever seen.  It's like she knows exactly how to put things together - it's natural for her.  She has a vision and can translate it in the physical world.  So cool.  We've put her in some art classes and we'd like to keep that going to help her develop her talent as long as she's interested!

While I was overburdened carrying armfuls of items Bella says, "You're like a robot with 14 arms!" And then, one day after school Bella was telling me about a game she plays at school she calls "Eyeballs".  Surprised, I said, really?  How do you play that?  Bella gets on the ground and does a front roll and says, "it's called Eyeballs because we roll!" (she's artistic and still witty!)

One night as Mike was putting Bella to bed, while still leaving the main light on, he turns off the closet light and Bella says, "Dad, that's not how we do it.  You come check on me later and turn the light off."  Which is true.  We do.  

We have a rule that when I'm nursing Cordelia, Bella is supposed to leave her (and me) alone so Cordelia doesn't get distracted.  But it's often a challenge for Bella to follow the rule...one day she came in and said, "Mom, can I give Cordelia a quick little hug?" and then she hugs Cordelia's head and says, "I'm glad you were born my sweet darling."  Sometimes the interuption is worth it.

Have a wonderful week!  May you get all your holiday in for the holidays!

Melissa

When the teeth come marching in...

Pictures from the last few weeks click HERE.

It seems like Cordelia has about a dozen teeth coming in at once.  Ok, so a half dozen.  Seriously.  She just had her top right "lateral incisor" (or the one next to the front tooth) come in and therefore I believe the other side is working it's way through PLUS three molars (actually, I think they are called "premolar")- two top, one bottom AND I just noticed the bottom right lateral incisor has  also cut through.  The poor girl!

This on top of a week of chest and head cold.   I will be so thankful when the snot faucet stops!  Mike and I are both fighting off the same head cold.  Bella for her part, has been fighting a stomach virus.  I think the same one Mike and I had.  She's functioning well enough except for frequent bathroom breaks and it's drained her energy.  The poor girl asks to go to bed at night after dinner, often before dinner.  I'm hoping we're all recovered and healthy by Thanksgiving.

Halloween was a little mellow this year.  I feel like we've been too busy and things are always too hectic, I'm trying to scale back and not make everything such a big production.  Chill out has become my mantra.  We chilled out a bit by going to the pumpkin patch.  Unfortunately, Mike bent over to get a pumpkin and pulled his back.  Poor Mike sat in the car while I took the girls on a hay ride.  It took a good week for Mike to get back his back... ;)  When we carved the pumpkins, it was like deja vu with Cordelia's first experience with pumpkin....it looks so inviting, then a piece goes in the mouth and YYYUUUUCK!  Hilarious.  

We did have a chance to go to Boo at the Zoo in Colorado Springs with Sarah & Jerry and Dave & Jeanne the Friday before Halloween.  On Halloween itself, Bella's school had a costume parade, so Cordelia and I went to see Bella and her friends there and then we followed the Boulderites (I don't yet feel like a Boulderite) to Pearl Street and the munchkin masquerade where we met Lea, Renee, Bryan and Grady.  The kids trick or treat at the shops and booths set up on the mall.  Before we left, Lea taught me how to make Austrian-Hungarian Gulasch, so when we were done, Lea, her husband Christophe, Renee, Bryan and Grady joined us for dinner (and candy for dessert!).  It was a ton of fun to spend more social time with our small Boulder circle!  Anyhow, after dinner, no one had any energy to go back out to the neighborhood to trick or treat.  Next year we'll have to do that for sure since many of our neighbors were bummed we didn't come by with the girls.  

Anyway, I digress, all you really wanted to know was what the girls dressed up as, right?  Bella was a princess - Repunzel, and Cordelia, the little monkey she is!

Halloween was big in our house for another reason - Mike started his new job at Echostar!  So far he's enjoying it.  He says it's super busy as they have some major releases due Monday.  From my perspective, a software engineer ALWAYS has a major release coming!  That's the life.  

When we were in Colorado Springs, we met Lynnell for lunch - it was so much fun to see Cordelia's old nanny - she's pregnant (due in January) so we got to see her big ole belly!  And we also saw Eleanor, Cordelia's little buddy, who has forgotten us!  She kept close to Lynnell watching Bella and Cordelia play with all her toys while scowling anytime I tried to engage her.  But Cordelia had a great time!  She stayed with Eleanor (who did eventually warm up to us) and Lynnell while Bella and I visited The Giving Tree.  It was SO nice to be back there!  We really miss that school.  We wish we had a comparable place here.  We really do like Mapleton, but it's just not the same.  I'm realizing what a great community there of likeminded parents we had there.  We've found that Boulderites value Montessori as a superior educational philosophy, but they don't actually know much about it.  So they don't necessarily parent consistent with the Montessori philosophy which puts the school at a disadvantage and keeps the heart out of it.   Bella's come home with some behaviors and words that I'm not so thrilled about.  I'm not naive, I know I can't control everything and there is certainly a point where I can't continue to try, but she's 4, I thought I'd have a bit more time before I was faced with some of this.

Girls are doing great.  Bella is so witty she makes me laugh and so sweet she makes my heart smile.  And Cordelia...well, she's seriously the most engaging and adorable little pixie!  She's got mischief in her eyes, but also the most loving spirit.  And that girl is growing!  She's hit a developmental growth spurt!

She CAN walk...but she's not walking.  We thought she started a couple times, but then she stops.  In her own time.  She can do it and she loves to walk holding your hand, but she's not off walking on her own very often.  It'll come, though.  No rush!  

Cordelia loves to eat (at least she did, we've had an unusual couple of weeks where she's not eating regularly and when she does it consists mostly of only peanut butter, eggs, cheese, bananas and bread).  One day, she told us very clearly she was hungry (besides the "eat" sign) by crawling up to her high chair, trying to climb up into it and yelling.  We had to laugh about her directness!  

She is also communicating like crazy.  Using words and signs.  It's like an explosion happened!  Cordelia can now sign: eat, change, nurse, more.  Sometimes help, although it's a little messy.  Also "all done" but mostly she indicates that by tossing food onto the floor from her tray.  As for speaking, she says:  nurse (urse), Bella (bay-ya), uh-oh, hi, bye, bandit (bandi), thank you (tank you), more (mo, or mer), sissie, and she also says German words too, like danka.  She definitely understands German!  Lea told me the other day she was changing Cordelia's diaper and was speaking aloud to herself in German about whether she should have Cordelia have milk now or later when Cordelia immediately cued on the word, "milk" and did the sign for "nurse" telling Lea what SHE wanted!  ;)  She's been saying all sorts of other repeatable and consistent sounds but we haven't cued into what she's trying to say.

The other morning when Bella left for school, Bella said to Cordelia, "Goodbye Cordelia!" to which Cordelia replied, "B-bye Beya."

Cordelia has found her attitude - I'm chagrined to say she's throwing fits.  When something doesn't go her way, she will actually drop down on the floor and scream.  Or throw back her whole body and she'll even swat at you!  It's kind of funny just because she's so little and SO angry!  Usually, she's so mellow, but she has a fiery temper you wouldn't believe!  She truly is a Libra.  And, as Mike said, if Cordelia's not happy, NO ONE is happy.  She makes sure everyone shares in her misery.  She's going to be a handful.

We also think of her as our little engineer.  She's really interested in how things work and is amazing at manipulating things.  She can put a straw through a small hole across the table without much effort.  She can see shapes and sizes quickly and easily so that it's like she already knows before she tries that activity.  She mimicks actions she's seen like she's really studied them.  She could care less about dolls or stuffed animals or soft cuddly things (her monkey the exception, she's so attached to that it's weird).  She's all about books and activities, things she can move and manipulate.  Cordelia is really smart - you can truly see her think.  

A final and funny story about Cordelia before we move on to Bella...Cordelia loves her sissie's room.  She makes a b-line for it when she gets a chance.  One day she goes to one of her favorite places in Bella's room - the closet.  This is a great closet, I once found Bella asleep in there.  Kids love that closet.  Anyway, Cordelia was in there and was yelling, wanting something on the shelf.  Bella, trying to help her sissie out, thought she was wanting this rubber tarantula, so Bella took it off the shelf and put it on the ground next to Cordelia.  Cordelia reacted as if it were a real tarantula and that she knew exactly what that was.  She made a funny sound and backed herself quickly away from it into the corner of the closet and started crying.  Seriously.  We felt bad for her, but we also couldn't help laughing.  I'm seriously amazed.  Coincidentally, I recently heard a podcast where the subject was fear and whether it is inherited at some level.  Many studies have shown that certain fears, like water, spiders, snakes etc are actually inherited, that at some genetic level our ancestors passed on their fears of things that could end their lives - a way of ensuring future generations stay away from dangers lest they die off.  That Cordelia could be terrified of a toy tarantula (very life like) having never had an experience with one shows me there is definitely something to that!  Write this down and wait 15 years...see if Lala is afraid of spiders when she's older!

Here are some Bella-isms from the last few weeks:

I told Bella that she and Cordelia were so cute I could just EAT THEM UP.  To which Bella responded, "Eat chocolate, not us!"

Mike has grown a fu manchu for "M-ovember" and he told me the other morning that Bella said to him, "Hi, Scooby!   No, actually, you're Shaggy!"  

We went to Mike's cousin Anny's wedding several weeks ago and there was a Catholic mass.  Mike took Cordelia outside to walk and Bella was very good, sitting next to me, quiet and well behaved the entire time.  Although she made me laugh when, listening to the Priest Bella whispers to me, "he said 'chicken liar'".  I almost died.  I couldn't tell you what he really said, but I'm sure it was not that!

Bella:  I'm making my ba-ba stinky

Me:  Oh Bella, what would your ba-ba be if it wasn't stinky?

Bella:  Clean

Cordelia was acting up the other day and I said aloud, "Where's this attitude coming from this morning?"  To which Bella pipes up, "Probably from me."

Remember how I mentioned Bella has such a big vocabulary she gets her words mixed up?  She had a good one the other day...she was talking about a movie she had seen awhile ago, she said, "Downtown Stations" and when I didn't know what she was talking about she started to explain about all the dogs with spots and Cruella De Ville...then it hit me, you mean "101 Dalmations!"  And another - she saw I bought "Beanitos" and a couple days later she asked if she could have some, "R2D-toes."  The Star Wars reference made Daddy proud.

Also on the subject of Bella's vocabulary, the other day, she made a very obvious effort to speak properly when she said, "They'll be ridiculous...(pause)...ly mad at you." 

That's what's up with us.  Doing well, keeping afloat.  

Have a great week!

Melissa

Grab a bowl of popcorn...

Cause we got videos galore!

Been a long time since I uploaded videos and we've got lots of fun ones!  Oldest to newest! If you have only a minute, I highly recommend the "Coupla Cowgirls" video...

Bella's Birthday

Bella's First PB Sandwich

Cordelia's Raspberries

Cordelia Loves to Sing

The Girls are Enthralled and Amused

Sissies Play

Cordelia Plays Ball with Daddy

Cordelia's First Attempt at Stairs

A Coupla Cowgirls

The Girls in the Pool

Cordelia's Birthday