Fish Points

Lee recently came up with an amazing idea in terms of rewarding Cora for good behavior. One random afternoon, he showed up at the house with a 10 gallon fist tank for Cora. I "gently" reminded him Easter was still a few weeks away. He said the fish tank was better than an Easter present. This fish tank was for Fish Points. She had to earn 5 fish points in order to get her first fish. For her first 5 points, she had to sleep in her own bed for 5 nights. It all seemed easy enough. We set the tank up while Cora was taking a nap. As soon as she woke, we showed her the tank and explained how she could earn Fish Points. She was super excited. She slept in her bed with a little bit of help but no fussing! It was great. Lee and I have been the only things Cora has ever been attached to. She has no blanket, no binkie, no stuffed animal, nothing that can soothe her. Only Lee or me. Sleeping by herself in her bed is a pretty big deal and she has been doing way better than I expected. After only 3 nights (read: 3 fish points), Lee took her to the fish store and came home with a Red Platinum Guppy as a "scout" fish. I think he may be the most excited about this tank.

Cora has since "earned" a total of 9 guppies. I am not convinced she has actually earned them, but I do think she has deserved them. I am currently working on a Fish Point Chart for Cora. We are going to incorporate small tasks and chores (brushing teeth, brushing hair, helping pick up her room, etc) into this Fish Point reward system. Not all rewards will be fish, but instead things like $1, a special movie night, candy, etc. I think it will really help her to be able to visualize the point system with a chart.

These are pictures of Cora bringing home her first guppy.

Mommy! Look!! It's a fish!

30 minutes floating the bag in the tank. Cora was having a hard time not touching the bag.

Mommy! NO more pictures of fish!!

Mixing the water for 15 minutes. Such a tedious job bringing home a guppy.

The fish is officially in the tank. And, Cora hates wearing clothes when we are home.

Hi Fishy!

Hugging the fish.

We have since added fake plants and 8 more guppies to the tank.

Kisses for the fish.

Unfortunately, we have a problem with Cora's guppies committing fish suicide. This one tragically jumped out of his cage and was eaten by Reggie. Another guppy jumped out right in front of Lee today. Lee was able to throw him back in the tank before he died. We've also been catching Cora elbow deep in the tank trying to catch the fish so she could pet them. Of course, now we've noticed that there are at least 3 with white spots that look like some sort of fungus. Off to the fish store tomorrow for medication. Hopefully it works. If not, it's going to take a while for this tank to withstand a 3 year old. We may have to switch to goldfish.

Little Boy Beau

Little Boy Beau seems to be quite happy incubating away in my stomach. I am 34 and a bit weeks along and quickly entering my 8th month of pregnancy. Beau is still a kicker. I can feel almost every single body part, as can Lee. We could certainly feel Cora, but not quite as well. Beau likes to maximize the amount of space he has by pushing on every corner of my body. I actually have no idea how large he is, but my stomach is measuring barely a week ahead. I am guessing he'll weigh 7.5 to 8 pounds when he is born...pretty average.

It is fun trying to predict the future, even if it is just baby weight. Just check out this post from way back. Little did I know how much "future predicting" was going on. There are two parts of this blog that I would like to draw attention to.

#1
"Hopefully Cora faces the way she should during labor and we can avoid this situation (the situation being proper tailbone massage given by partner to relieve pain) because we'll fail miserably."

Well, Cora ended up facing the wrong way. I had excruciating back labor with her. It turns out, that we (read: Lee) DID fail miserably at helping massage my tailbone because he didn't listen during our class. It is super funny now, but D-Day was a bit of a gong show.

#2
"Should be an interesting day when I go into labor. But, if he ("he" being Lee) can stay in his funny ways, we should be fine."

I should have emphasized the if part of that sentence because Lee froze on D-Day. He was NOT funny, and it wasn't because he was trying to be. It was because he was terrified. Thinking back, I should probably have been terrified, too.

December 22 and December 23, 2008 were by far the scariest and happiest days of our lives. Lee and I were reading the blog together a few nights ago and were literally in tears from laughing so hard. What an eventful end of the year we had.

Flash forward to 3 years later and Lee and I are back in the classroom setting preparing for our second bundle of joy. We didn't take the prenatal course this time. We only signed up for the hospital tour and a refresher course on breastfeeding. Last night we had a tour of our hospital. We are giving birth in the same hospital as we did with Cora, but they added a brand new wing called the Lois Hole Hospital for Women. Labour & Delivery and Postpartum recovery are in the new building. Holy smokes, is the new center a lot nicer. It is all the same equipment as I had before, just prettier. It also has windows!! I really enjoyed the care I received with Cora and I was hoping that the rules had not changed since 2008. They haven't!! If the delivery goes well, I can leave the hospital in 12-24 hours. When I had Cora I left approximately 16 hours after she was born. She was born at 6:30pm and I was home before lunch time the next day. A nurse then does a house call. She actually shows up at our house with her little black medical bag and does an exam on both me and baby in the comfort of my bedroom. It is wonderful. With Cora, the nurse came out on Christmas Day. I was very happy to hear these procedures are still used.

During the tour, we were shown the doors that we would go through in the event that I would need a c-section. Lee leaned over and said to me, "I am going to try really hard to redeem myself, but I WILL pass out if they wheel you through those doors". I told him I would warn the nurses for him. :) In all honesty, I don't want to be wheeled through those doors either. Not at all. No, thank you. And, I am happy to report that Lee still had his sense of humor last night. The nurse asked the tour if anyone was on their 2nd, 3rd, or 56th baby. Yes, she was very funny, too. We and one other couple raised our hands. She said that the second babies come a lot faster and that we needed to head to the hospital when my contractions were 10 minutes apart for an hour. Lee said, "That's awesome because last time it took 9 months"! I smirked, but Lee about fell out of his chair laughing. He was also the only person in the room laughing. A bit of Lee I love the most is the fact that he always laughs at his own jokes the hardest.  On a side note, first time moms are supposed to go in when their contractions are 5 minutes apart. I waited until mine were 2 minutes apart with Cora, but it didn't seem to matter. I'll probably ignore the rules again and end up having to deliver Beau in the 4-Runner. Now that would be exciting!

As you may have noticed from the title, Lee and I have settled on a a first name for Baby Jeffers #2. Beau. Beau was incredibly easy for us to choose. Lee proposed at the base of Medicine Bow Peak. While living in Wyoming, we spent a huge portion of our time in Medicine Bow National Forest which includes the Snowy Range and Vedauwoo. This part of the world will forever have a very special place in our hearts.

The Snowies from Sugar Loaf before starting to hike Medicine Bow Peak.

Hiking up Medicine Bow Peak and looking down at Lake Marie.

Lee and I at the top.

 

Nautilus at Vedauwoo. This was our favorite rock formation out there.

We haven't settled on a middle name, but the picture below is a preview of the name that is currently the top runner. You may or may not know where we are. When the name is set in stone, I'll reveal it. :)

CATS

A couple weeks ago, we took Cora to her first traveling Broadway show. We saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, CATS. Considering Cora's adoration of felines, we thought she would thoroughly enjoy this show. I'd say we were right...mostly.

 Cora and me trying to burn off a little energy before entering the theatre. You can see she was having a hard time standing still. 

 Cora and Lee. Cora posing like a maniac with her dragon. It is pretty funny seeing a little girl with a giant bow carrying around this ferocious looking dragon. She gets a lot of side glances.

 Lee trying to explain a little bit about what is going to happen before the show starts.

The Jeffers Family Trio.

Cora was as good as I expected for a three year old. As soon as she saw the cats walking down the aisles and onto the stage, she immediately became a cat herself. She laughed, really loudly, at all the wrong times. She hissed and meowed and asked questions non stop. It took every bit of energy I had to get her to sit still and be quiet. It was impossibly to be upset with her because she was thoroughly enjoying herself. Besides, it was a Sunday matinee and the show even allowed babes-in-arms. Needless to say, Cora was not the only kid I heard. :)

At intermission, Old Deuteronomy stayed on stage hissing and cleaning himself. Lee took Cora up to the front to get a better look at him. He also showed her where the orchestra played. She thought it was so neat that she sprinted back and insisted that I go up there to see. It was really neat they kept a main character on stage through the intermission for all the kids.

Act I and intermission must have been too much for Cora to handle. She fell sound asleep as soon as Act II started. It was at this time I realized I had no idea what was going on in the musical. I didn't realize the whole musical was poems by T.S. Eliot. I love T.S. Eliot, but his stuff is hard to grasp if you aren't concentrating on every single word. Thankfully, Lee has seen the play before and quickly caught me up to speed. With Cora snoring, Lee and I were able to sit back and enjoy the last 45 minutes of the show. The dancing was by far my favorite part. Overall, it was fantastic. My only recommendation is to read up on it a bit before seeing it to fully appreciate the storyline and literature the musical has to offer. 

Something tells me Cora might want to be a cat for Halloween. :)