An Evening of Fun

Cori and i went to our friend Emily's house last evening. Cori to play with Myah and Jack and Jack and (yes, 2 Jacks) and Tori, and Mommy to have a wine tasting and Tastefully Simple party. Tori, who is Emily's eldest daughter was in charge of the children and she did such a wonderful job. I can't wait until she is a little older and i can hire her to babysit Cori when Mommy and Daddy want a night out.

I gotta just say that Cori's growing up is starting to be pretty hard on me. While i was upstairs with the other adults, the kids were in the basement (which is a toy paradise, i must say) I hope Emily didn't take any offense, but the last thing i said to her as i left Cori watching Peter Pan was, "She will be ok down here, right?" It is so hard for me to leave her out of my sight. We are together all day long and she is my little Pumpkin. But of course she was FINE, and she had a super time playing with the kids and the toys. And i got to enjoy the wine tasting and the great food and have some adult conversation which didn't involve anyone asking me to read a book, or sound like an elephant. LOL

So thanks Em, for the Adult fun and thanks Tori for watching the kids!

And Even more Pictures

Pictures Continued

Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures

Finally the awaited pictures. Some are of the Celtic festival, Some of the County Fair, Some from Booneshoft museum, the Park and random other photos. Enjoy!

MILK??

Last night Adam and Cori were playing on the floor. Cori had her alphabet blocks scattered everywhere as usual. Cori started to be a little whiny and fussy and Adam asked her what she wanted, not really expecting an answer that we could understand of course. Cori went over and grabbed two of her alphabet blocks and then two more and brought them to Adam. He set them down in front of him and said, "You need to take a look at this." She had brought him blocks K I L M. Rearrange the lettes and they spell MILK!! Now i don't think my daughter intended for this to happen (at least i don't think so) but we gave her some milk and all was well.

Some kids learn sign language to get what they want before they can actually speak. Mine just spells out what she wants with her alphabet blocks! LOL

Just a Little Update...

Thursday, Cori and i met Teresa and Emily for lunch at the Troy park. We packed a nice little picnic lunch and enjoyed the time with our friends. Emily brought her daughter Myah who is 19 months old. Cori and Myah had a great time playing and i have some really cute pictures which i will download as soon as possible. While Cori had fun on the tunnel and the jungle gym and the slide, Mommy was basically having coronary after coronary. This was Cori's first time to a jungle gym. She had no fear whatsoever and wanted to climb everything and do it HERSELF. I on the other hand wanted to hold onto her as tight as possible and never let her get more than an inch off the ground. But then i remembered the important advice of Dory to Marlin in the movie "Finding Nemo", "You can't promise to never let ANYTHING happen to them, because then NOTHING will ever happen to them." In other words, sometimes you just gotta let them go. So i sucked in a huge breath and stayed a safe distance behind and let her climb up the steps to the high level of the jungle gym and Cori had a ball! She smiled and waved and i could tell she was very proud of her accomplishment. After that we went and poked ants with a stick. Wait til you see that picture!

Saturday, grandma came over to play with Cori and as always Cori and Grandma enjoyed their visit together. Sunday, we went to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa at El Sombrero. Luckily, they have grilled cheese for little tots and Cori wasn't forced to share my spicy enchilada.

Sunday night, while i had church, Cori and Daddy got to spend some quality time together. those two are nuts when they get together and both of my puddin heads were in great spirits when i finally came home. Adam is really the greatest Dad. AND he changes poopy diapers without one word of protest, well, other than a really loud P-U!! when Cori is really stinky, but hey, you'll have that.

A Day in the Life of Cori

This is a typical day for Cori:

6:30 am Rise and shine with a smile on her little pumpkin face (Mommy not so smiley)
6:45 am Breakfast of Cheerios and some sort of fruit with a big glass of milk (Mommy still not so smiley)
7:10 am Cori watches the Disney Channel and pulls out half of her toys (Mommy thanks God for the Disney Channel)
8:30 am Cori reminds Mommy that it has been a couple hours since breakfast and a snack would really hit the spot about now (Mommy is on her second cup of coffee and looking for the IV hookup since it is really faster than drinking the coffee)
9:00 am Cori brings Mommy the Where's Spot book to be read for the 18th time (Mommy is finally able to focus on the words)
10:00 am Cori's fussing reminds Mommy that We have both been up since 6:30 and it is probably a good time for us Both to take a nap!
11:30 am Cori is awake with a smile again (This time Mommy is smiling too :) )
11:45 am LUNCH!!
12:30 pm Cori builds towers with her blocks and knocks them everywhere and then wants Mommy to pick them up..... hmmmmm, this doesn't seem quite fair now does it??
1:30 pm Cori finds the place where Mommy hid the Where's Spot book and asks that it be read AGAIN (Mommy reads the book while thinking of a better hiding place
2:00 pm Cori lets mommy now that a graham cracker would be much appreciated, along with a cup of water
2:01 pm hanford and Shelby scour the living room rug for graham cracker crumbs (Mommy thanks God for dogs as they make running the vacuum cleaner unnecessary)
3:30 pm Cori twirls in circles making herself dizzy (This is Mommy's cue that it is time for another nap!)
5:00 pm Cori is awake with yet another smile on her face. What a happy baby!
5:01 pm Max and Ruby!!!!
5:30 pm Dinner
6:00 pm Chants of "Daddy, where are you" begin from Cori (Mommy starts to wonder when Daddy will be home so she can start dinner)
7:00 pm Daddy is home and now Mommy no longer exists..... I think Cori may be a Daddy's Girl (But then again, so was Mommy)
7:10 Daddy and Cori play "Chase me" Daddy is helping wear out Cori for bed time (YAY Daddy)
9:00 pm Lights are low, TV is soft, Mommy rocks baby Cori to sleep while singing to her softly. Cori rubs Mommy's arm, and then drifts off to sleep with only the sound of a happy baby sucking on her pacifier.

Yes, THIS is why i quit my job and stay at home. It really doesn't get any better.

Mommy!

Cori finally called me Mommy. I was so excited, i kissed her to pieces!!! She not only called me Mommy, she was calling for her Mommy while Grandma was watching her on Sunday. Today it has just been Maa Maa. But i am still so happy to hear her call me SOMETHING other than Daddy!!

Hearing her say Mommy was certainly worth the wait!

Just Hanging Out

Today Cori and i are just hanging out. We filled Hanford and Shelby's swimming pool and they have been having a ball jumping in and out. Shelby will get in and lay down and submerge her whole self up to her chin. She is most certainly a water dog. Hanford just gets his feet wet and then out he goes. Big Chicken!

We have been working on building towers with blocks. Cori can build it 4 blocks high before she decides to just knock it over and laugh herself to death! Of course we have read about 500 books today, ok that might be an exaggeration but not much of one. She loves to either have me read to her or she reads to me. Adorable stuff i gotta tell ya!

Adam and i have been giving her more and more of our dinner foods. Yesterday she had Italian chicken with rice and broccoli. She loved all of it! My goal is to start making only one dinner. Not one for Cori and one for us. But then that means Adam and i have to eat healthier because i won't feed her some of the junk we eat! Oh the sacrifice!

County Fair and "Treeeaaaaaashure"

I took Cori to the Miami County fair yesterday and she had a great time! Kerry went with her kids Erin and Molly and both of them were a big help entertaining Cori!

In the sheep barn, Cori just kept saying "Baaaaa baaaaaa" over and over again as she walked down the isles and pet the sheep. It was pretty darn cute! At the cow barn, i parked Cori's stroller right next to a very large cow. I asked Cori, "what does a cow say?" and she of course answered "Moo". Next thing i know the cow is mooing at Cori and she claps her hands and says Yaaaaay!! It's the little things that make her happy!

There was a petting zoo at the fair and Cori had a blast feeding the baby goats and the baby cow and the sheep. She also like the baby kangaroo and the camel. However, while she was flattening out her hand to feed the baby cow some pellets (just like her mommy showed her) this grey African goose came over and attacked her hand! Mommy wanted to drop kick the goose back to Africa! Cori cried and cried and she has a little bruise on her finger. However, you can't keep this kid down for long. Shortly thereafter she wanted to feed the cow again, but when she saw the goose coming she said "NO" and backed away. Catches on quickly doesn't she?

Today we were watching some sort of Dora show and Dora and Boots were looking for lost treasure. After Dora said "treasure" about 500 times, Cori looked at me and said "Treeeeaaaaaashure" i am not sure she knows what a treasure is, but she can say it. She also can now say "elephant" which i think is pretty cool. Although, she is conviced that the elephant and the giraffe on her pop up toy are one and the same. She calls them both "elephant". I guess we need Dora to do a giraffe episode so we can learn to say giraffe as well.

All is super here in the Haines house and Cori and i are having fun being silly, learning new words and trying new foods. It would seem that chick peas are better tasting than i thought.

The Terrible Two's??

I am wondering if it is possible, at 16 months to start the Terrible Two's. If it is, i think we are headed there now. Everything from Cori is "No" and not just "No" but "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!" and she wants everything RIGHT NOW!!!! I wonder where she gets her lack of patience from? (Hee hee)

Tantrums are now part of our daily routine. She throws her plate and fork when she is done with her meal and hollars "Down" until you get her out of her high chair. She fights naps and bedtime tooth and nail. Speaking of nails, she won't let me clip them anymore and if she doesn't get her way exactly, she has a throw herself on the floor stomping screaming meltdown. Fun Fun Fun for the whole family!

I love that Cori is independent and wants to do many things herself. I actually encourage it most of the time. But i have a feeling this is just the beginning and the worst is yet to come. Will it be Mommy vs. Cori? Will youth outlast old age? Who will totally run out of patience first? Tune in next time... Same bat time, same bat channel!

What a slacker Blogger i am!

Actually, i am not a slacker blogger but the last two blogs i wrote were somehow "lost" in the blogging system so i just got mad and didn't redo them. But my temper tantrum is over and here we go again.

Cori and i went to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery last week. It was a blast. Cori and i went first to the tidal pool where after petting a purple starfish we were asked to leave the area. Apparently you aren't supposed to let your kids splash in the water of the tidal pool. I guess they are trying to raise sissy starfish because you KNOW the ocean is a lot more dangerous than a couple of splashes by Cori! :) Off we then went to see the animals of Ohio. Cori saw an opossum, a fox, some groundhogs, a bobcat and a raven. Which started me thinking that maybe Mom and Dad should start charging $7.50 a head to come out to their house. Ok, well maybe only $6.50 since i am pretty sure they haven't had a bobcat on the property anytime recently.

Cori dressed up like a fireman, bought asparagus in the kids general store, gave a lecture to an elderly man about stuffed animals, danced in the electro light room, and rode a petrified turtle. She will have even more fun when she is older but we had a great time!!

Vaccinations and well baby check:
Cori had her 15 month check up on Friday. (even though she will be 16 months in a few days) She is in the %25 for height and the %50 for weight. The doctor still wants me to fatten her up some as she has only gained a pound since her 1 year check. She has grown a half an inch since then as well. Verbally, she is off the charts. And her hand-eye coordination is also above average. Adam and i were also above average at this stage in our lives and you can see where that has gotten us, so we aren't calling Harvard and making a reservation just yet! She is a perfectly healthy, wonderful, smart little girl. (shameless brag) I just hope she makes enough money someday to support her parents in their old age.

Pool Party:
Sunday night the family went to the pool party that my curch sponsors every year. It was at the Dolphin Swim Club. They have a really nice baby pool. I was trying to convince Adam to construct one in our back yard just like it. Needless to say, he didn't go for it. (Although it would be way cool!) Cori and i had fun swimming and Daddy watched from the edge. Cori has no fear of swimming or water. She fell down in the baby pool about 4 times and went completely under each time. When i grabbed her up she was all smiles and sputters and wanted right back down in the water. "Down" is another new word for Cori, along with "Please", "Shoes", "Ocks" (for socks), "Eyes", "Nose" and "Ut" for up. The verbal explosion is just coming right along.

Sorry it took so long to update. I have pictures to post as well, just as soon as i get them back from Kroger.