Where's Waldo?

Cora is a daredevil. She is an adventure seeking, fearless little 16 month old girl. She is also very curious. Oh, and she is quite helpful. At least she likes to think she is. This is a little montage of a few pictures I have been wanting to share with everyone. Cora gets into everything. Mary Jo and Carol can agree. I know they can. She is really just trying to explore her world, but she gets herself into quite the little predicaments. I have a little story to tell with each set of pictures.

What in this picture doesn't quite belong? OH MY! Is that a baby's bum?

When Cora started crawling, she also started climbing. I guess she figured that if she could get around quite well on a horizontal plane, why not a vertical one too? I remember people telling me, just wait until she can walk. She'll be into everything. Hahaha. She already is into everything. Walking won't make any difference at all. It was true. What has made a difference is her getting taller. She can reach her little legs and arms up to much higher places getting herself into quite the interesting situations.

The above picture was taken when she was literally stuck in the bookshelf. Yep, this is why all parents should anchor their tall bookshelves. Kiddos actually do climb them. If you were to look from the side, her butt was flush with the edge of the cubby hole. A person would be none the wiser about there being a baby pretzeled into one of those cubbies. But, like any good mom, instead of instantly rescuing her...I ran downstairs to get my camera and capture the memory. :)


And then we get to see how helpful our wee little Cora can be. Oh boy! Words can not describe how helpful she is. She gets everything out of the bottom cupboards, brings them to me, and proudly declares, "Thank You!!".  She really isn't hurting anything, so I always play along.


Here is a look at the accumulation of cooking ingredients that Cora has so thoughtfully pulled out of the cupboard and brought to me. :) She is such a go-getter.


I now present Cora, the Escapee. We have the stairs blocked by the overturned bench. This blockade worked really well...for a while. Eventually she learned how to climb over, around, or under to escape into our almost green backyard. This is not OK considering our yard is not fenced!



This brings me to my final story of this post. It has taken me some time to be able to right this without my heart palpitating. You'll see why.

Cora was on the deck playing. To set the scene a bit, I can see Cora through the windows of the living room as well as through the sliding door from the kitchen/dining room. So, unless I go to the bathroom or run upstairs, she is always in my sight while she plays on the deck. Or so I thought. A couple of days ago, we hard some really, really hot weather. Seriously, it was in the low 80's. Cora was begging to go outside, so I slathered on the sunscreen and opened the door. She is able to open the screen door on her own, and she goes in and out as she wants. Grandma Jo and Aunt Carol had been putting a bunch of pots on the deck for water play with Cora. She loves this, so Lee and I have been following suit. Cora had just went outside, so I went to the kitchen to start filling up pots. I squatted down in the kitchen to pull out a few of my big kettles. When I stood up, I didn't see Cora. I was only ducked down for maybe 15 seconds. I go outside expecting to find her escaping down the steps (see above photo for a reference of what I was expecting to see). Nope, no Cora in sight. I jump the barricade and dashed out to the yard. No Cora. Hmmm, that's weird I thought to myself. There is no way she can move that fast. I start running down one direction of the back area behind all the townhouses. I was expecting to find Cora playing on another deck. No Cora. I run the other way thinking she had to be that way. No Cora. I then look around the sides of the houses. No Cora. OK, I'll admit it. I was starting to get upset. I run around to the front of our house because by now she has definitely had time to make it to the road. No Cora. (Note: It has only been maybe 1-1.5 minutes at this point). I start thinking maybe she never actually went outside. I tear into the house. I start yelling her name. I am sprinting through the house at this point. Reggie knows something is up because he is right on my heels. No Cora. I run back outside, leap over the barricade and start sprinting up and down the back area yelling her name. At this point, I am debating about going back to the house to the call the police. But, that would waste precious seconds searching for her. She has now had time to get quite far from the house. Somebody could have picked her up. Yes, the worst was going through my head. I decide to run back to the house to get Reggie who is barking at me. His nose is still good. He'll find her. ( I am shaking as I type this...lol). As I run back to the porch, a little movement catches my eyes. I see two tiny, pink sandals with chubby little toes wiggling from underneath the grill. I lift the fabric cover, and Cora is sitting there. She gets this huge grin and says "Bah-Boo". Yes, she said peek-a-boo to her frantic mother. I couldn't help but laugh. What a turd! Needless to say, Lee picked up TWO baby gates on his way home from work. :)