Our Canadian Cuties: A Full Blue Moon

Cora has reached the Blue Moon mile marker in her life career. She has now surpassed 2.5 years old. When I look at her, I certainly don't see a toddler. I now see a little girl. She is far from a little girl though. Her speech is coming along but still not stellar. She still wears a diaper while she sleeps. She has no concept of time leading to many meltdowns. While she is getting tall and lanky and looking more and more like a little girl, I constantly have to remind myself that she is still every bit toddler.

MILESTONES and UPDATES!!

She can hold her breath underwater for 6 whole seconds. She loves all things water- the pool, the bathtub, the rain. Some days I wonder if she is going to grow gills and a tail fin.

Her speech development is coming along at a pretty steady pace. She has been talking so much better since Grandma Jo and Aunt Carol came. We are still working with her everyday though. While she talks as much as her peers, her words are not near as clear as theirs. I don't really know what to gauge as being "behind" in speech development per say, but the clarity is slow coming. I know what she is saying but nobody else does. She doesn't talk at daycare at all, but I think that is more of a stubborn/independent trait.
Cora is still stubborn and incredibly independent. I think that is one of her character that I love the most. Her independence sometimes makes her extremely difficult to parent, but I am so proud to see her excel on her own. Our friend, Corey, explained Cora perfectly to me the other day. He said (from his perspective) he works his butt off with her just to get into her world but she doesn't hesitate in the least to kick him right back out and slam the door when she is done. Yep, that is our Cora.
On the flip side, Cora really loves to cuddle still. She'd let me hold her all day if I wanted. She gives the best hugs and kisses. I couldn't ask for a sweeter daughter. Lee took the photo below with his iTouch a couple weeks ago.

She loves animals! Especially butterflies, kitty cats, doggies, and horses. In the picture below, she is pretending to be a cat by grooming herself.

She loves jewelry and dress. She was really excited to find that I had a turquoise butterfly ring that my dad had given me when I was little. It is now hers and she loves it. She is wearing it on her right hand in the picture above. I also found an old butterfly hair clip that has been worn a lot in the recent weeks. She is wearing it in all of the pictures with her purple dress.
She is getting in her last set of molars. I thought they had come in a few months back, but I was wrong. They are definitely coming in now. She chews on all of her fingers at once. Four fingers from each hand shoved all the way to the back of her mouth. Poor thing. I am so over this teething thing.
Cora calls me "her honey". She gets out of anything with the simple two words. "awwww honey".
She is not as interested in colors, numbers, and letters as I had thought. While I thought that red was her favorite color, it seems that she prefers anything red, pink, and purple. Should I be surprised?
Anything that "fart-toots" is hilarious.
A song that she can't get enough of is Raffi's Mr. Sun.
She is 38" tall (grown 2.5" since March!!) and is 31 lbs. This puts her in approximately the 90th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. She's a tall girl!
Her hair is slowly but surely growing out since her barber shop episode a few months back. You can still tell in pictures that she is missing a chunk of bangs. I try to brush them to the side to disguise the bad haircut, but sometime I just can't seem to hide it. Note picture below. The missing chunk is on right side. The left side of her forehead is the bangs that are brushed to the side.

Enjoy the official couch pictures! They were a lot of fun to take this time. She is once again coming around to posing for the camera.

We went to Whitefish, MT a couple of weeks ago to see Lee's dad and hang out with Chris and Vicki. Cora was especially smitten with their 2 year old pup, Rain.

Riding the carousel with Grandpa Bob. Cora prefers to wear her sunglasses upside down.

We went for a nice short hike on the outskirts of Missoula. It was a lovely day.

Hanging out in the wildflowers. Wouldn't it be great if flowers were as tall as you?

These are a few photos I took of her that I think are adorable. I found her taking a nap all rolled up in my quilt. I had to unwrap the blanket to find her face. Since the summer sun is up so late here, Cora has resorted to sleeping with the blankets over her head. She likes it dark for sleeping- just like her Dad.