A new day

Today is a new day and I thank the Lord for seeing the three of us to it.  Cora is doing much better today.  Her fever finally broke. Praise God!  I'm continuing to give her meds right now to keep the fever down and to ease the pain.  I think she may have a sore throat, too, as she doesn't have much of an appetite today.  Hopefully, this too will pass.  Thank you, Holly, for your prayer and to others I know have been praying for Cora AND us as well. 

 

And on a side note for those who are curious, we found out how much Cora weighs now--my mom said she's a little piglet.  Ready??  19 pounds!  We go back to the doctor when Cora finishes her Amoxycillin.  We'll find out then whether he thinks she's just right for her height or whether she really is a piglet.  Either way, we love our plump little biscuit!

"My ear hurts" and other things I wish babies could say

Why can't babies come out talking?  Crying is so hard to decipher.  Cora has so many different cries.

 

1. The mad cry----means "Someone has wet my diaper again!"

                                            "Get me out of this swing!"

                                            "The boy who picks his nose is trying to hold me again!"

2.  The hungry cry---who are we kidding-its obvious what this one means

3.  The tired cry---means "Yes I know I was supposed to go to sleep about three hours ago, but you all took me out again and broke my schedule.  Please put me down and let me go to sleep."

4.  The awake at 4 a.m. and noone will play with me cry

5.  The pain cry

 

Unfortunately, the last one isn't so easily decipherable.  (so what if I just invented a word.)  Cora was steaming hot yesterday and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.  We checked her temp and it was 103.  She's never been over 101 as far as I can remember.  G went to the store and bought extra thermometers just to be sure ours was working.  103 was correct.  So, we headed to the e.r.  Turns out Cora has an ear infection.  I was afraid she was going to leave this world on the way to the hospital.  How I long for her to be able to tell me what hurts when she's so upset.  While I might not be able to fix it i could at least know that things aren,t as extreme as her cry makes them sound and I can have a better idea of how to get help.  When we know she's in pain our hearts hurt. 

 

So right now , our little baby girl with the beautiful personality is feeling blue.  Today she has slept and cried, slept and cried.  She's taken her bottle and eaten her solids, but there's no spunk in her little body today.  Please pray with us for our little angel.   I know there are parents in this world who have to deal with much worse and I am thankful that the Lord has been faithful to give us only what we can bear.  I'll post some more when miss Cora's get-up-and-go comes back.

growing way too fast!

If you aren't a parent already, you will find that once you become one people tell you all the time to enjoy your baby because they grow up way too fast.  They are not kidding!!  Cora has gotten sooooooo big! She just turned 5 months old this week and is weighing in at a hefty 16 lbs easily.  Just yesterday it seems she was just a tiny little ball rolled up on my chest.  I want to push the slo-mo button on her, but I can't find one anywhere. 

These days Cora is learning new things.  She has FINALLY rolled over and has been working on sitting up for a few weeks now.  She can sit up for almost a minute with no support.  Who knew I would ever be excited about watching someone just sit...babies are amazing little people!  She is starting to laugh out loud now, too, and let me tell you JOY---there is nothing like the high you get from hearing your little one laugh.  I know tomorrow she will be crawling, or so it will seem like tomorrow. 

 

As for personality, Cora is a charmer! She is soo sweet and friendly.  She will let pretty much anyone hold her and is perfectly content as long as she is dry and fed.  As much as it kills me to admit it, she is definitely a daddy's girl.  You should see how her face lights up when he walks in the room.  I can leave her at the sitter's all day and walk in to pick her up and she justs looks at me like "Oh, hey, mom.  Did you come to watch me play with my friends?"  Geron walks in and she kicks her legs and grins like "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"  She wants to know exactly what's going on at all times.  And sometimes that means 4 a.m.  I remember the first month when she slept through the night---it was nice.  Nowadays she wakes up around 3 and wants to giggle and play.  Of course, we don't---and it breaks her heart, but eventually she accepts the fact and goes back to sleep.  The girl, who has acquired several nicknames---Daddy's latest being "Pookie Bear" and Mommy's favorite "Biscuit"--is a talker, too.  If anyone can translate baby please come visit and help us out.  I think I get the jist of what she's saying most of the time, but I haven't quite figured out "ya ah eeee ah ah" yet. 

 

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of some new friends, two due in February and one coming around her birthday in August.  We also look forward to hearing news from afar---Kate Alvis, let us know when you've arrived!  Josie and Seth have made it into this world healthy and beautiful, praise the Lord for that! We trust He is taking care of our soon-to-be friends as well.  As for little Miss Cora, she is the oldest and youngest baby in our church.  Please hurry and get here,  new little friends! 

 

So, things are good and exciting here, but are progressing way too fast for Mommy!  New mommies and daddies, enjoy these days--they don't last forever!

New Year Greeting

She grows and grows and grows

Our little pumpkin seems to be getting rounder and more curious every day. She's up to about 15 lbs now, I'm just sure of it, maybe fatter. I like to call her the stay-puff marshmallow baby. If you saw the rolls on her fat little legs, you'd understand why. Her hair is finally starting to grow back in, too. No real signs of curl yet, pretty much stick up straight fuzzy kind of stuff right now.

Cora's starting to show real interest in her surroundings now. She loves ceiling fans and blinking lights. Her newest favorite thing is her "exersaucer", the modern-day walker, but stationary type thing. Geron put it together for her last night and we put her in. She went crazy over it. There are several different toys on it that spin, bend, rattle, etc. I think her favorite thing was a blue elephant that can bob back and forth from side to side. I think she's waiting for it to talk to her. She gave it the Stare down--I think it won. I imagine she was thinking something like "What are you? Why don't you talk to me? Why does your nose look like that?" I'm surprised she didn't start talking to it as much as she's been jabbering lately.

Yesterday, Cora demonstrated her conversational skills to our church choir. About 5 ladies were standing in front of us, mingling before practice, and Cora and I were sitting in a chair. She looked up at them, clasped her hands in front of her, and began jibber jabbering. She was very serious about what she was saying and everyone was listening closely, showing her that they believed what she said was important. Don't you wonder what babies are thinking of when they're cooing and gabbing at you? I would guess it was something like "Ladies, I'm glad you could gather here today. Its wonderful to see you and I would like you to know that you are dear dear friends. Would you like to play with me and my rattle? I'll shake it for you, if you like and you can grin and laugh. Then, you can feed me and I'll give you a present in my diaper. What do you say?"

Cora has a sense of humor, too. This morning, as the choir was warming up for the cantata, Cora got a little fussy, so Geron picked her up and continued to direct. At one point, he started singing quite loud and Cora put her hand over his mouth. The whole choir got a kick out of it. I always thought she'd do that to me, but apparently she can handle my quiet singing okay. Daddy, on the other hand, needs to back down a little bit. Ha!

Anyway, thats the latest in the world of Cora. She's a beaut!

Cora's talk with Santa

 

Granny  wants to know what Cora asked of Santa for Christmas.  I'm still learning baby talk, but I think she was asking for Granny to stay through the rest of December.  Mom left this morning and I don't know what we're going to do--we've been spoiled rotten!  Cora and Granny have been playing together all week--kicking, dancing, playing with lovies.  And Granny has really been great to get up in the middle of the night and feed and change Miss Co (as she likes to call her.)  They've talked and smiled and had tons of fun together.  Cora can't wait til Granny comes back to visit at Christmas.  Thanks, Mom, for being such a huge help this week.  We appreciate you so much!! Cora misses you allready!

 

As for Cora and Christmas, what do you get a three-month-old?  She's learning how to hold things right now and has four super soft lovies that she hugs and kisses and drools all over, so she doesn't need any of those.  Maybe a new rattle? Board books? I personally think she would go crazy over a puppy, but that's not going to happen this year! I think she;ll be satisfied just having people play and sing with her.  And of course she enjoys staring at the Christmas tree lights.  She's a great Christmas present for us!

Is That Beard Real?

So Cora is doing a lot better, her appetite has returned with a vengeance and the cough is gradually going away. She is in a new phase where she is really doing good at recognizing voices and faces. and she is starting to really grin a lot. We took her out tonight for the first time since her overnight stay in the hospital last week. Granny has been here all week, and has been a HUGE help. Tonight after a dinner we did a little shopping at the mall. We bought our first christmas gift of the season, and who knows, it may be for one of you. We bought a new dress for Cora, and few other odds and ends. I Pushed the stroller most of the night, and everyone kept telling me what a beautiful baby she was. Several people saw Cora drinking from her podee and wanted to know where they could get one. We just couldn't pass up taking a picture with Santa when we saw that there was no one in line waiting. Cora was pretty tired and didn't give us her best grin, but overall she did a pretty good job.

Thanks for all your prayers for the little one. We are blessed to have good friends like you guys.