Getting On With Life

We're down in the dumps around here about last night's game and the end of football season. Cora and I went to Target this morning and everybody was wandering around like zombies. There's nothing like a cute kid or a handsome puppy to cheer you up, though, so here are some pictures of both.

If you read Micah's blog, you know that he spent most of Saturday working on the wood floors in our new master bathroom. (They look beautiful, by the way. My husband is a total star!) Anyway, the snow plow came by and put a big mountain of snow at the end of our freshly shoveled drive right after Micah left for the new house. So, when Cora woke up from her nap, she, Ollie and I went outside to do more shoveling so we could get out of the driveway (the Prius isn't exactly a snowmobile) and go check out Micah's work. Cora was very impressed with my shoveling skills and kept saying "Maaaameeee! Maaaameeee! Maaaameeee!" Above is a picture of her looking like a cute pink snowball.

It's amazing to me how much Cora finds to do at the new house. She runs in circles with Ollie, opens and closes doors and does all kinds of creative things with the construction debris she finds on the ground. I know she's going to be very disappointed when we move all our furniture in. :o) Above is an action shot of her busy doing who knows what in the upstairs hall.

Cora has also recently been obsessed with The Tales of Peter Rabbit book Grandma Char got her when she was a little baby. So, she brought that along to the house and spent a good 30 minutes reading it to herself (she won't allow Micah or me to read it to her) on the guest bedroom floor.

Tired of sitting, she rolled onto her tummy and into a bunch of dirt to do more reading. When she got up, she looked at herself and said "Dowty!" (dirty in Cora speak) for the very first time!

Sweet, sweet Ollie taking a break after chasing Cora around and running up and down the stairs. How can you be sad after looking at that face?!

Shovel Time

The snowfall finally ended this morning and Micah found huge drifts in the driveway when he took Ollie out, so we decided it was time to shovel. I love to shovel and it was extra fun to have Micah helping so we could get it all done in under an hour (how about those skills!). Ollie supervised from the sidelines and kept an ear on the baby monitor for us. :o)

Showing off our hard work (notice Ollie trying to act like he helped us). Behind me you can see our neighbor using what Micah and I consider to be the cop-out method of snow removal -- the snow blower.

Colts Pride and Snow Shenanigans

I'm not usually one to paint my nails (in fact, the last time I did it was when the Colts went to the Super Bowl three years ago), but I thought it would be fun for Cora and I to paint our nails Colts blue in honor of the best football team in the world. I found an eco- and kid-friendly nail polish called Piggy Paint (click here for more info) to use for Cora's first ever nail polishing experience.

Checking out Mama's painting job. She was very still for me so it was much easier than I expected.

Pretty excited about her big girl nails.

Worried that Ollie's tail might have wiped off the polish.

Showing off the finished product. Cora's still holding the nail polish bottle in this picture and didn't let go of it until we put her to bed for the night.

We had some snow today, which got Ollie very excited (as you can tell by the smile on his face). He spent the afternoon going in and out of his dog door and tracking all kinds of snow inside.

A video of Ollie doing his thing in the snow.

These Two

Ollie and Cora have the life. Often I wish I was them so I could eat, sleep and play all day. They've obviously forgotten how good they have it because they've been giving us all kinds of trouble recently. Ollie's been up in the middle of the night barking at who knows what, taking socks and anything else he can get his mouth on outside and being a general pest. And Cora, well, she's been acting like a two-year-old. (Can't imagine why that would be?!)

Ollie proud of the hanger he found and was about to take outside when I caught him. I would have liked to see him fit it through the dog door, though.

Cora pouting for reasons she's not even sure about. (Notice the lovely carpet burn under her nose from when she dove off her big girl bed yesterday.)

Bible Reading With Cora

Last year, we noticed that Cora's speech was behind compared to other kids her age. The pediatrician recommended a wonderful organization we have here in Indiana called First Steps. So, since December, Cora has been working once a week with Megan, a speech therapist provided by First Steps.

Megan told us Cora seems to have a processing issue that is causing her speech delay -- her brain knows what to say but it gets confused on the way to her mouth. The only way to overcome this is through lots of hard work and practicing. Megan has given us techniques to use on a daily basis to help Cora. And, thankfully, Cora is intense and focused with a will of steel and a desire to conquer the world. Though not so welcome during times of discipline, these traits have already helped Cora make huge strides since starting therapy two months ago. We are so proud of our little girl and glad God made her special just the way she is!

All that to say, here is a video of Cora reading her Bible this morning. She kept going to different spots in her room and speed-reading through it, so I strung two clips together. You'll notice she says a lot of "all done" during the second clip, which she just learned how to say a few days ago and is now her favorite phrase. We're quite glad to get a break from "no, no Ma" and "no, no Da."

A Little Bit of Cuteness