Locks of Love

Six years ago, I was talking to my friend's mother, Sally, as she was doing my hair for my wedding. We were discussing how long my hair was getting. I mentioned how one of these days I was just going to chop it. Then she asked if I had considered Locks of Love. It had never crossed my mind. She told me to come back and see her and she'd take care of everything. So I did.

About every other year since I've made another donation. Today was donation #4. It takes about 8-10 ponytails to make 1 wig for a child. I have a lot of hair so each time I donate 2 ponytails. It's kind of crazy that it's taken me 6 years to finally have donated the equivalent of 1 wig.

When you think of a child with permanent hair loss, you can imagine how they must feel. I'm hoping that my hair, which I must confess I sometimes curse, will be able to improve the way that some little girl thinks about herself.

Before:

(Yikes--with no hair products on a 100% humidity day...scary)

After:

There it is, folks, photos of this blog's author. I can't say that's a common occurrence :)

On The Move

With each new day, it seems like Cora has a new trick or makes a new discovery. There's always new things to climb, eat, or explore. Here is what she has been up to lately.

Riding a new rocking horse painted by Grandpa

Ride 'em cowgirl! Here she is in action. Let's hope she doesn't ask for a real pony for her birthday or Christmas.

(Yes, it looks like my house exploded in this video. That's life with a 3-yr old!)

Did I mention that there were always new things to eat? You were picturing different fruits, veggies, noodles, crackers, etc. Weren't you? No, she's thinking...grass, bugs, dirt...

Yummy stem!

And she's walking! I wouldn't call her a walker yet, but she can get around when she's feeling up to it. I find that she walks more in the afternoon and evening than in the morning.

While many kids don't like the feel of grass, she definitely doesn't fall into that category. She seems to prefer to be barefoot. I guess we'll have to take this girl to the country this summer to roam at Granny and P-pa's... maybe get a little dirt between the toes in their garden.

Does this camera case match my dress?

Every Child is Different

Everyone always says that every child is different. That kinda seems like a no-brainer, except sometimes I find myself expecting Cora to hit every milestone just when Reed did. I guess maybe because it is my only point of reference. Maybe part of it is they do look and act so much alike that I expect them to be alike in other ways too.

Cora can stand up in the middle of the room and take a few steps, something Reed couldn't do yet, but if he could pull up on some furniture then he could walk all over. She is and Reed was a very active baby. I thought Reed was a climber (http://erinandbob.blogspot.com/2009/05/no.html) but I think Cora might be even more of a monkey. Maybe we have just left her with harder challenges due to Reed's behavior. The coffee table in the referenced 5/2009 blog post is no longer in duty as a coffee table. We don't use one anymore. So what does Cora try to climb (besides the obvious staircase)? She can hitch one leg up to the top of the bathtub and she almost can get her leg to the top of Reed's twin bed on a standard bed frame. I couldn't quite get that documented on film this morning. Believe me, it was impressive.

Cora likes to try to dress and undress herself more than Reed. She loves to pull off socks, shoes, and hats especially and then fiddle around trying to put the sock or hat back on. She throws laundry over her head and I think she thinks she's putting it on, sometimes wrapping them around her shoulders like a kid leaving the pool in the summer.

Cora manages to circle her foot with any ring-like object you give her, regardless of the diameter of the ring. It is kind of amazing sometimes...at least to me.

All these things Cora can do; some impress me, some terrify me. My baby girl. Then I think back two years and I think of Reed as he approached his first birthday. I really thought he was a big boy. Now I look at Cora and I see a baby. It makes me remember back when one of Reed's friends turned one the month after him and the mom said that he seemed like a baby to her still but when his older sister (the first born) turned one they thought she seemed so grown up. I wonder if this is a birth order thing or a personality/ development thing. It doesn't really seem like Cora is behind where Reed was besides being a few teeth short. Could that make a difference or is it just a matter of perspective?

Is She Always This Happy?

I get this question a lot, mostly at the grocery store. It is usually someone waiting behind us in line or some walking down the aisle that she beckons either with her huge infectious smile or her other tactic of pointing directly at someone and yelling, what I believe is, "HI!" They also stop to admire her. She is a charmer and keeps them engaged with that smile that I spoke of, the one that takes up half her face and reveals two lone bottom teeth.

Then I get the question, "Is she always this happy?" There is a long answer and a short answer. Strangers, of course, always get the short answer. Yes, mostly. There are always the qualifiers that you don't mention. Well, sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night and screams bloody murder. Sometimes she really doesn't like it if Mommy is out of sight, or worse yet, if Mommy is in sight but someone else is trying to hold her while Mommy is busy. The list exceptions to Cora-always-being-happy could be pages long.

Saying that she is always happy seems disingenuous, as does dwelling on her fussy times that though numerous at times, they are brief. Sometimes saying that she's perfect makes my job as a mother seem too easy to outsiders. Not that I should care. But the truth is that I am very lucky to have such a sweet pleasant baby girl. I see other parents with children with special needs and I realize that I really do have it easy. Sometimes you just need someone at the grocery store to remind you.

Happy girl!

Birthday Training

I thought I'd document Cora's preparation for her big First Birthday Party coming up in two weeks. She didn't want to be unprepared with all eyes on her, so we started our training back in mid-April. I think you can see her progress.

Bob's Birthday Cake- No icing yet

Reed's Birthday-Her own mini-cupcake

Reed's Birthday Party- Her own piece of cake

Cora, I think you've got it down. With all this training, your birthday, it will be a piece of cake!

Reed's Super 3rd Birthday Party!

When Bob had his birthday back in mid-April, we starting talking about Reed's birthday coming up. He mentioned that he wanted Superheros on his birthday cake--ALL the Superheros, he emphasized.

That got the ball rolling on the Superhero theme for his 3rd Birthday Party. The more I started thinking about it, the more ideas I had and the more excited I got. Funny how parents have a way of doing that.

Here is a glimpse into the birthday festivities over the weekend. Our house was crowded, the weather was overcast, but we all managed to have a great time.

Let the party begin!

Each young party guest got their own cape and decorated their own mask to transform themselves into Superheros. From 3 months to 7 years, the kiddos all donned red capes and LOVED it.

Super-Reedy and Super-Porter

Super-Mason

Super-Babies: Kayleia, Max, Mathias, Eli, and Cora

Superheros travel by... wagon?

The Running of the Superheros

Let's eat!

Cake Time!
(Featuring Spiderman, Superman, Wolverine, Captain America, and Iron Man--I can't say that's all of them but that's a pretty good start)

I have to include a shot of these Super-suckers. They cracked me up, even when I was cursing those little masks as I was cutting them.

Changing Before Our Eyes

I'm assuming it is true for all babies, not just my own, but it seems like there are long stretches where they seem basically the same (a few new small tricks here and there) and then suddenly, they start changing in all sorts of ways. Daily. Hourly.

The last month has seemed like one of those periods of change.

She spend a lot of her time upright. She loves cruising and pushing carts around. Her playing is becoming more sophisticated. She stacks, puts objects in containers, push cars, plays with tools, and loves turning pages in books. When I take her to Reed's storytime program at the library, she dances to the Hokey Pokey and spins around in a circle on her bottom. She has the hugest and silliest grin. She scrunches her nose, puff her breath through her nose, and grin ear to ear revealing her prominent lower teeth. Yes, they are prominent only because her upper teeth have yet to make their grand appearance.

The two milestones that I wonder if she will reach before her first birthday is whether she will get those front upper teeth or if she will walk. She is standing independently much more than before. Just today, I am noticing a few short timid steps. Generally, she is not that timid of a girl (as evidenced by photo below,) so I wonder if she will just take off one of these days.
Cora is a climber. She would be happy to climb the stairs over and over. A couple of days ago when I was cooking dinner, I caught this. She climbed up my step stool! She can get up but not down so this is pretty dangerous... and she LOVES it.

Her eating has suddenly taken off. Some days she eats more than Reed. Her favorite is probably macaroni.

She is keeping me on my toes, but she continues to have a sweet personality. I can't believe she's approaching her first birthday.

Easter

Boy, I am behind on my postings. There's been so much going on so I'll have to catch up here with all the fun we have been having. Two weeks ago was Easter. This was the first year that Reed was really into it and he anxiously awaited the arrival of the Easter Bunny. (He started sleeping with his Easter basket several weeks before Easter.)

Reed decorated Easter eggs with his cousins over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They had a great time and I was thankful that the mess was over there instead of my house. :)

Egg Decorating

We attended an Easter Egg Hunt downtown Elgin the day before Easter. It was supposed to be in a grassy area, but it has been so rainy this Spring that they had to move it to a parking lot. How festive! It was unfortunate to have to collect eggs in a parking lot, but at least the weather was nice that day. We could have only wished that some of the other parents were as nice as the weather. I never cease to be amazed by the behavior of parents. What are we talking about...parents pushing children out of the way, encouraging their kids to hoard many more than the stated limit while other kids visibly had little or no eggs. This was just in the 0-3 Age Group. Ridiculous! Regardless, we managed to have a good time. Bob and I were the ones more shaken by the incident. Reed barely noticed.

Another thing that threw us off was why the life-size Easter Bunny was carrying a sword and shield. Is this normal?

Waiting for the cue to start

Easter morning we opened Easter baskets and went to church. Then we headed up to Lake Geneva, WI for a nice brunch. They had everything and the food was delicious. We met the Mihelich crew there. Afterwards, there were games, bubbles, and a little petting zoo set up for the kids outside. It was another nice day out so we took it in while we could. We took a scenic trip home and drove through some residential districts in a few of the small towns in between. We saw some gorgeous historic homes, so that was fun for us dorky architects.

Easter baskets

Happy belated Easter everyone!