The Toddler Chronicles

  My daughter is officially at the age where her language development is sky rocketing. The confusing gibberish that she uses regularly is beginning to transform into somewhat discernible words. Most of the words that she can say clearly are on the basic “first words,” list, like, ball, mama, dada, shoes, socks and so on. Some of the words she attempts to say are still slightly unintelligible, but we are able to understand her thanks to the bits of sign language we taught her early on.  Everyday, we are more and more impressed as our child’s vocabulary expands, adding a new word or two daily. It’s getting hard to keep up. As much as I love this stage, I know it means that she is growing much faster than I am prepared for. Brett and I both love the fact that we can hold a conversation with her now, though usually the conversation is an adorable mix of babbling and connected words. Cora is also very animated when she speaks, using hand gestures and facial expressions to get her ...

Last night while laying in bed, Brett and I listened as our sweet girl chattered away in her crib. He room is located directly across from ours so we can easily hear what is going on in her room. Thanks to our video monitor we are able to check on her whenever we want to. Cora is usually fairly easy to put to bed. We have a typical routine that consists of putting her jammies on and reading a story. She makes a “chchchch” sound indicating she would like to brush her teeth. As independent as she is, she always wants to brush them by herself. Brett and I know that she won’t actually brush her teeth, but, wiggle the tooth brush around in her mouth while sucking the apple flavored toothpaste off. So, we commence with Operation Brushing of the Teeth. We hold Cora down just long enough to get a few scrubs in. She squeaks and squeals and starts writhing around like a fish who is caught in a net.  After we brush her teeth, we let her have the tooth brush so she doesn’t feel like we are con...

  Recently we took our daughter over to our friends house for a visit. They live way out in the middle of nowhere and their house was built above animal stalls. It’s actually pretty cool and honestly the view is incredible. Cora was enamored by the horses out in the field eating hay. She repeatedly runs around pointing and saying “neigh.” We bring her into the barn to check out the other horses. She of course is beyond excited to see them as well. After a little exploration, our buddy brings out their miniature donkey. Cora is beside herself. She is unsure of what to do. You can see the confusion on her face. Like, this looks like a horse but, it’s not a horse. Well, they both are equines so, I suppose I could understand how confusing that may be for a toddler.  We ask Cora if she would like to  pet the donkey. She shuffled her little feet across the floor with her hands tucked in her pockets and her head down. She gets very shy around our friend. It’s quite adorable. Usu...

New content coming soon! Having a toddler means time limitations. I am hoping to have new content up by tomorrow! Thank you to everyone for following and subscribing to my blog. I hope you enjoy hearing about all of my little families adventures. 

Cora playing in the water fountain!  Over the summer a friend of ours invited us to a little get together. It was a small gathering of family and a few friends. We couldn’t wait to get out for a little while. I knew Cora would love to be able to run around and play outside. We get there and the party has already started, we get our drinks and sit down and eat the most amazing food I have ever tasted. Jack’s mom is a phenomenal cook and sure enough, I was quick to ask for recipes after the party was over. Jack was kind enough to translate each recipe for me since they were all given in Polish.  It’s been such a fun, relaxing evening so far. It’s nice to just let loose a little bit. Brett, Jack, Jack’s brother and myself decide to play a little corn hole. Cora was having a blast running around playing with the toys Jacks mom brought out. Jacks dad made a rock garden in the backyard. Just on the outer edge was a water fountain. To no surprise my daughter was thrilled that she cou...

 It is now mid morning and Cora is peacefully sleeping in her crib. Occasionally when she naps I like to peek in on her. We have a video monitor that allows us to check on her from our phones. I open the monitoring app and my eyes widen. Oh no, not again!!! My adorable, sweet little girl was curled up into a little ball, butt up. This would seem normal, however on this particular afternoon, my daughters butt was completely bare. Where had her diaper gone? Her pants? More importantly, how in the heck did she get them off? Fear began to mount as I could recall the last time my child was naked and in bed.  Not to long ago Cora had an ear infection. The doctor put her on antibiotics. A few days after being on the antibiotics Cora developed a nasty rash in, how shall I say...her nether regions. Poor girl was miserable. After trying different ointments and creams, we were left with no choice but to leave her naked to help dry the rash out. I kept her in the kitchen on some towels du...

  I believe this is the first time that Cora has had spaghetti and as expected sauce and noodles are splayed across the table and her chair. Her face, arms and even her head have bits of noodles on them. I think someone set off a Chef Boyardee bomb in my dining room. It looks like my daughter is eating in the middle of a saucy battlefield. As the leader of this war, I decided I should probably take action. I pick the bits of noodles off and throw them to the dog and give my saucy warrior a bath. Cora has always loved baths. I can remember when she was only a few months old and she would sink her head just down far enough so her ears were submerged in the water. She would make all sorts of sounds and noises. She obviously enjoyed the muffled noises.  As I fill the tub with water, I smiled as I watched my daughter playfully dance next to the tub. She leans over just enough to put her hand under the running water. After creating tsunami waves and gleefully screaming as she kicks ...

 April 11th 2020. Brett and I have been raising chickens for just shy of a year now. We have a small flock of 8 birds, so we decided it was time to expand our little hen family and get some baby chicks. Excited about the prospect, we got a cute little chick corral and all the fixins you would need to care for baby chicks. We cannot wait for Cora to see them! We set them up in the office, safest place for them since we have “predators” who live among us, the most dangerous one is a little blue eyed girl.   We have them all set up, and for future reference I don’t recommend, inside the house.  I swear several months after the moved to the barn I feel like I’m still cleaning up dust that they created. We wake Cora up from her nap and Brett takes her up in his arms and, based off of the smile on his face, he is more than excited about bringing Cora in to see her new little nuggets. Phone in hand and the video rolling, we are ready to capture Coras reaction.  We ente...

 November 26th 2020. Today is Thanksgiving. A quite peculiar Thanksgiving this year since it’s just myself, my husband and Cora. Usually my house is full of people and I’m ready to entertain. This is the first Thanksgiving in 9 years where it will just be the 3 of us. Truthfully, and we all agreed, this doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving, but an ordinary day where I happen to cook enough food to feed an army.   Cora is happy per usual, and because it is Thanksgiving, she is extra happy. Not because of all of the awesome food she will eat, but because of the extra TV time she will get while I get everything ready. We ate early, around one, and then brought a few plates of food to Gramma. Once we were home Cora took a short nap...too short.   After her nap, we all enjoy some much needed family time. Cora loves her tent that is housed in a corner of the  living room, a little pink tent that one of our neighbors gave her for her birthday. Cora forcibly, but in a sw...

October 2nd 2020. Cora’s 18 month well visit with her pediatrician is today. We pull into the Children’s Hospital where his office is located. I look at Cora, knowing exactly how this visit is going to go. I give an exacerbated sigh, and I strap my currently oblivious child into her stroller.  Once inside, we proceed with the mandatory temperature check and Coronavirus questions. All looks well, we may now pass go, yay, so we head to the elevators and here we go! Cora, as cute as can be, is waving and smiling at every passerby. I love hearing the “Awe” and “she is so cute” comments, but soon, that cuteness will be taken over by a demon spawn who will let out screams and cries in holy terror as the doctor tries to look in her ears.   We are now in a patient room and Cora is on the table. She is enjoying the pictures displayed on the walls and the crinkle of the paper under her feet. She suddenly spots the canister full of tongue depressors! Naturally, I give her one in an ...