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. :)

Cora Long Legs

Two months later, I am finally getting around to blogging about Cora's 3 year stats. The couch pictures were taken pretty close to her actual birthday, so it is just the blogging that is behind. But, first, I have to add a couple of bath pictures. Lee bought me a new camera for Christmas. Cora and I were experimenting with just how fast it is. Holy Mackerel! You can see every water droplet that she was spitting from her mouth. We were laughing so hard while taking these pictures. My mission in 2012 is to learn how to actually use this camera. It is a Canon Rebel T3i dslr. It's super nice, and we are getting way better pictures now. I love my husband!!

On to the 3 year stats.
Cora weighs in at 34.5 lbs and stands 38.5 in tall. She is a tall, tall kid. She is by no means a giant, but tall enough. :)

Milestones:

• She can count to 10. She sometimes forgets 9, but she's learning. She loves counting.
• She can "sing" her entire ABC's. I put sing in quotes because all the letters aren't necessarily clear and she sometimes will repeat a middle part over and over again. 
• She knows her colors. We practice a lot by having her pick what color of cup she wants her milk in or what color of shirt she would like to wear for the day. It seems to have really helped, especially with colors that often look similar like orange and yellow or blue and purple. It is a lot of fun to see her develop and learn.
• We have also started working on shapes. She especially like hearts and stars and doesn't seem as interested in circles, squares, and triangles. Hearts and stars are way better, in my opinion.
• She still takes a nap most days. They vary in length from 1-3 hours. I rarely wake her up from a nap because they don't seem to interfere with her sleep at night at all.
• She is completely potty trained, even over night. She'll go #1 on the toilet all by herself. She still prefers to go #2 in a diaper. She'll ask for a diaper and then want it changed as soon as she finishes. Her pediatrician said this is totally normal for a lot of kids. Lee and I have decided we'll let her figure out when the time is right to poop in the toilet.
• Her imagination is incredibly active! She is constantly playing make believe and pretending to be someone or something else. She loves pretending to be a cat, dog, super bunny, or flying dragon. It is so much fun to watch her play.
• She has been diagnosed with a speech delay. She has previously hit all of her milestones for speech development except for this last one. While she can say individual words, she has difficulty saying complex thoughts and sentences. Her pediatrician suspects this will be relatively easy to fix with a speech pathologist. Since she has no other gross or fine motor skill delays nor behavioral or social problems or warnings, there is no underlying concern for anything more than just a speech delay. Her pediatrician easily made the diagnosis by a mere 2 minute conversation with her. I told him that I suspected she was behind and wanted to know how Lee and I could help her. He said that a stranger should be able to understand 50% or more of what a 3 year old says. The only people that understand more than 50% of what she says and Lee and me. Her pediatrician had an entire conversation with her. After a minute or so, I asked him if understood anything. He said no, not one word. I translated for him. He asked how Lee and I were able to understand so much because what she was saying was completely gibberish. I hadn't thought about that before. I realized that a) We have learned what he language sounds like (like most parents), b) she is very good about staying in context and talks about what is going on around her, and c) she uses a lot of gestures and acting while speaking. I even realized that she still uses some of her baby sign language. I just didn't realize until talking with her doctor how in tune Lee and I are with her gesturing and signalling. So, she starts seeing a speech pathologist in early March. I am looking really looking forward to getting her some speech assistance for both her sake and mine.
• She loves playing at the park, sledding, fishing, and tattoos. I don't know of many three years olds who will sit in an ice fishing hut with their Daddy for 4-5 hours or spend an entire day in a small boat and not complain once. Even if the fish aren't biting, which seems to be happening a lot lately. She is the most perfect side kick for Lee and me. I can't wait for her brother to be able to join the three of us.

She is an incredibly nurturing little soul who I love from the bottom of my heart. There is no one else in this world who could have completed Lee's and my life more than this 3-foot, blonde bundle of energy.

Third Time's a Charm

Cora's third birthday was pretty near perfect. We had a very small birthday party with her little friends, Claire and Sophie. Cora helped decorate the house. While we didn't have a "theme" this year, we went with rainbow colors! We hung streamers, had party hats, and plenty of noise makers. The girls made ornaments out of popsicle sticks and glitter. They turned out beautifully. :) They also played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I think Cora and Sophie were a bit too young for the game, but Claire did a good job of leading her troops. We skipped the blindfolding, so every tail was placed in the correct spot. Thirty tails all stuck one on top of the other. It was pretty cute. I made a rainbow colored cake and Lee bought a dozen balloons for the house. Birthday parties might be one of the best parts of having kids.

Craft time!

Sophie strategically pinning the tail on the donkey.

Cora Long Legs pinning her tail on the donkey.

Claire rounding up all the balloons.

Taking Soph for a lap around the house.

Lee coming out with the cake!

Cora gets pretty embarrassed when being sung to. She didn't really enjoy the Happy Birthday part, but she did love eating the cake. :)

The rainbow cake. The most fun part of this cake was making the different colored batter!

Claire and Sophie gave Cora a Leapfrog electronic device that teaches her to draw shapes and numbers. It is a nifty little thing. They also gave her a toy horse that she LOVES. She still plays with this horse nearly every day.

Sophers

Lee took a great picture of the cake.

A shot of our festively decorated home. The streamers stayed up for a whole week so Cora could enjoy them on her birthday. We took all the birthday stuff down on Christmas Eve, so Christmas morning would be more Christmas-y. It worked well.

Our little trio celebrated Cora's birthday on her actual birthday, December 23. Lee was pretty anxious to get to the presents, so we opened everything in our pj's. We had a nice, relaxing day hanging out.

Cora getting help from Daddy with a present. What is it?

It's a cool flashlight from Grandma Jo that makes animal noises!

Her first Skippy Jon Jones book from Aunt Jean. I highly recommend these books.  I think I have the most fun reading it out loud. I think we will eventually get the whole series because they are nothing less than fun to read.

Who is excited it's her birthday?

Mommy and Daddy gave Cora new cowboy boots and some more toy horses. 

She thinks the cowboy boots are pretty great. :)

Two birthday parties for one three-year old makes for an exciting week. Cora is one special little gem to us. It is wonderful to celebrate the day she was born. I think I can easily speak for Lee when I say that December 23rd is always one of the best days of the year.