Our Canadian Cuties: Double Deuce

Cora turned 22 months old on October 23. She is nearly 2 years old! Woah. I must say, a lot seems to have happened in the last month. How about we just dive straight in?

She seems to have grown about 18 feet in the last month. She is now only a hair shorter than her friend, Claire, who has almost a year on her. Her shoe size jumped up from a 5 to a 7!
No new teeth. We're still waiting on the last set of molars. I have to admit, I had forgotten about teething hell before posting this. Ugh. Four more to go. To the molars: Come quick, come painlessly. Please!
She is now trying to color within the lines. She is nowhere close to actually staying in the lines, but she's trying! I'll draw a shape and she'll color it. These sorts of things are amazing to me. She has also stopped eating her crayons. You're probably thinking, "Uhhh. OK. So, what's the big deal about that?" Now, I can leave her crayons out so she can color whenever her heart desires. She seems to really appreciate this.
Her conversation skills are starting to catch me off guard. She has been sleeping in our bed the 2nd half the night pretty consistently for the last month or so. One night, she came in and was snuggling down. She couldn't get the covers on just right. In a very annoyed and stern voice, she said, "COME ON!" Lee and I about died. When I get upset with her or Reggie, I almost always say, "Come on. Would you just work with me here?" I have to admit it, she used the phrase perfectly.
Another example happened only this last Sunday. I went to a friends house for a couple hours to sew. Cora came with me since Lee wasn't home from work yet. She watched and tried to help as much as she could. When we got home, I continued sewing since Lee was home to entertain. However, Cora had a different plan. She was constantly right in my way. She finally got frustrated. I had been frustrated for some time by this point. She was on the chair next to me whining/crying, "Want toe!! Waaaaant toe. Want tooooooooe." Lee and I were both standing over her telling her that her toes were fine. She still had all 10 of them. There were no scratches. Etc, etc, etc. Then it dawned on me. She was saying she wanted to sew. I asked her if she wanted to sew and she said in a huff, "Yes!!" Oh. Oops. I then felt like the biggest, stinkiest, largest pile of poo you could ever imagine. The whole time she had just wanted to sew. She wanted to help. So I handed her some fabric. She wasn't satisfied. She wanted the pins. I tried explaining to her that the pins were not safe for little girls. It was like trying to negotiate with a brick wall. What was I to do? I thought about it, and decided she could try to use the pins. I explained to her there was a pokey side that would hurt her. She should only touch the colored side. I constantly reminded her to pay attention to what she was doing and most of all to be careful. Guess what? She pinned fabric and organized the pins on the pin cushion without ever pricking her self. I was shocked. And quite excited to have a sewing partner.
She is also starting to understand the difference of plural and singular. When referring to one foot, she says feet. When she is talking about both feet, she says feets. She's learning to add the "s" to words.
She is on a first name basis the Lee and I. She calls Lee "Wee" nearly 100% of the time. As for me, she uses Sascha about 75% of the time. She uses Mommy (pronounced Mom-eye) when she is sad, just got hurt, or is in trouble.
She LOVES the color pink. At this point, everything in her life needs to be pink. We were at the store picking out a snowsuit. When buying things like a snowsuit, I prefer to buy unisex in case our next kid is a boy. Cuts down on clutter, yadda yadda yadda. I pull out a bright red snowsuit. I show it to her, and she says, "NO MOMEYE, PIIIIINK!" There are tears and belly aching, the whole works. I try to tell her that red is really just a dark pink. She doesn't like my explanation. We buy the pink snow suit. And pink snow boots. I was had by a 1.75 year old. Less than a week later the whole family was back at the store to buy a life jacket. Again, I like unisex colors. I pulled down the yellow one with blue trim. Again, she screamed bloody murder. Tears and hyperventilating shortly followed. Lee stood there in horror. He then pulled down the pink one. She grabbed it for dear life and wouldn't let go. So, our daughter was going on Lee's annual fishing trip in a pink snow suit, pink snow boots, and a pink life jacket. I'll have pictures when I make a post for that whole trip.
She is starting to read books to herself. She memorizes sections and will open the book and recite the sentence or two that she remember. Most recently, she opened The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. She started yelling, "NOISE NOISE NOISE" and "FEAST FEAST FEAST!" She loves her books.
She can jump! She is able to get both feet completely off the ground at the same time. She is quite happy with her new skill. At the airport, she walks through the metal detector on her own. On our flight to New York, she refused to walk through it. She had to jump! Lee and I couldn't stop laughing. Of course the security area was packed. I think most people thought she was pretty cute.

I am sure I am missing something huge that I swore to myself I wouldn't forget.

I knew I'd forget one! And, how could I have forgotten this. Cora's has a mantra that she lives by. If she is happy, she isn't just happy. She says, "HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!!" While drinking a glass of juice she'll say HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!! A walk to the park will have her saying HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!! There isn't anything better in this world when you are spending time with her and she looks up and says in a calm voice, "happy happy happy happy happy." Awwwww.

I took the couch pictures this morning. Today was picture day at school. I made her the dress she is wearing on Sunday. It was actually a pattern and material I bought about a year ago. I finally got around to making it. I don't know what I was waiting for because it was so easy! It is a reversible dress, but I like the brown side more. I feel like the lighter colored side needs a little embellishment. Maybe a pocket or something. It turns out she also had the flu today. She threw up at daycare right before she was supposed to get her photo taken. Poor girl. Last year she stuck out her tongue. This year she is going to have the sick look. Ha! I still got some cute photos on the couch despite her cranky mood. She did not want to get ready for daycare. Now we know why.