Ducks, Books, Blocks, and Colors

We came home from church one Sunday, and I couldn't believe how adorable they both looked, so I grabbed the camera and captured the moment before shoes and tights went flying.  Speaking of shoes, Corah loves shoes.  If she can find a pair of her shoes, she will bring them to me.  If I don't stop what I'm doing, she tries to put them on herself.

Corah might not speak well, but she understands most of what I say to her.  She feigns ignorance when she doesn't want to do something or when she want to disobey.  For instance, she touches the trash can or reaches inside of it even though I KNOW she understands don't touch and yuck.  I'm amazed that I can say clean up and she puts a few blocks away.  I love that I can ask her to bring me a book and she does.  When I ask her where her hair is, she pats her head.   Being understood as a mother is wonderful.

Kenly and I love to color together.  It is one of my favorite things to do with her.  It is slow and I can get her to talk about all sorts of things as we create beautiful pictures.  I've been a bit bummed here recently because my coloring sessions have been cut short do to RA pain.  I can't color for long when I'm having joint pain and swelling in my fingers.  Boo! 

Yes!  We live dangerously in the Brand household.  Yes, she is standing on a rocking chair with a toothbrush in her mouth.  And yes, I know it is dangerous.  But for the record, I told her to sit on her tush.  For the record, I made her sit on her bum.  Shortly after this picture, she fell out of the chair, landed on her head, and did a back flip.  Thankfully the toothbrush was not in her mouth.  Did she cry?  Not a tear.  But, she did sit on her tush.  Experience is a great teacher.

I love to watch her concentrate when she's coloring.  Kenly has also started "writing" in a journal.  I love watching her colored scribbles fill a page of notebook paper.  I love seeing real words and letters mixed in with the lines.  I love that one day soon, I will be able to read her stories and poems.  She's so smart that we have to be careful about what we spell in from of her now.  I spelled D-I-E the other day because the last time we discussed death, she got stuck on it for weeks.  She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and said, "You just spelled die, right mom?"  Um, yes.  Please don't become smarter than me at four, okay?

Nana found this outfit for Corah and I love it.  I think she looks adorable.  One day when we have tons of money, I want to replace all the windows in our house with uninterrupted panes of glass so that I can take pictures of my children in natural light without shadow mustaches.  Hehe.

Corah loves blocks.  She can stack 3-4 wooden blocks without knocking them over.  She likes to take towers apart one block at a time, and she loves stacking these big Duplo blocks.  She's pretty good at building a tower for a 13 month old.  I love the tongue.

Chilling in her chair on her tush.  I might be able to teach her after all.

Corah is cutting all four of her one year molars.  She is drooling rivers and putting everything in her mouth.

Corah loves blueberries.  I think she would eat nothing but blueberries if I let her.

Santa brought Kenly and Corah Play-doh.  Corah's a bit young for it.  I have to fish it out of her mouth and scrap chunks of it out of her hair, but she's obsessed with the gooey stuff.  I finally had to hide the containers because for days she followed me around the house with containers of Play-doh in each hand whining and saying, "Pay."  A Mama can only take so much Play-doh.

Corah loves ducks.  Ducks, bears, and dogs are the only animals she can identify consistently.  Awhile back she was afraid of ducks, so this new fascination is surprising.  So, I decided to take Kenly and Corah to Patton Park for a bit of exercise and to feed the ducks.  It was supposed to be a beautiful day, but it turned out "soggy" and chilly.  We made the best of it.  We even had a picnic under the pavilion when it started to rain. 

Kenly rode her bike. 

Corah chilled in the stroller.  I love how the blue in her new jacket brings out her eyes. 

Kenly fed the ducks and Corah screamed "duh" for about 20 minutes. 

I'm so glad that she was strapped into her stroller and that the brake was on.  If not, she would have propelled herself into the pond after the geese.  We did see a few ducks, but the day was dominated by the honk of geese.  Can I tell you how much I dislike geese?  They are so mean to each other.

Corah has developed a new love for books.  Her favorites are Eat, any lift the flap book, a touch and feel book called Animals, the Llama Llama board books,  and anything that has a duck in it.  She carries the books to me crawls in my lap and says, "Buh."  I love that she is learning to like reading.  She can sit for an hour flipping through books if I put her book basket on the floor.  She is rough on books though, so I have to hide the flap books when I'm not watching closely.  

Just this past week, Corah amazed me.  I was reading her a counting book.  We got to the 8 yellow ducks.  She said, "Duh."  She went to the book basked and started pointing.
"Duh."
I thought she wanted an animal book that has a duck in it.  I read that book.  When we got to the duck pages, she pointed to the book basket again.  I explained that there were no more duck books.  She looked at me like I was stupid.  She crawled over to the basket and searched for awhile.  She walked back carrying What's on my Head? I read her the book and was amazed when I got to a rubber duck on a baby's head.  At 13 months, she has a better memory than me.

We introduced letter magnets this week as well.  Corah likes pushing the bin around and sticking the letters to the fridge and the dishwasher.  She also likes hiding little piles of letters everywhere.  Kenly calls her "cutie head."  I love to watch Cutie Head explore the world around her.  She already finding ways around the child locks.  I constantly find that she's fished recycling out from behind a locked cabinet.  Girl is crazy smart.

She loves playing with the magnets on the refrigerator.  Another random bit of Corah trivia--she loves twirling her hair or my hair when she is trying to relax to go to sleep.  It is adorable to watch her twirl the hair on the top of her head.

Kenly checked out a book on the Statue of Liberty from the library this week.  She is fascinated with her right now.  The book features other famous American statues and monuments.  Kenly amazed some high school students at West when she pointed to a poster of the Lincoln Memorial on the classroom wall and exclaimed, "  Mommy, look.  There is the statue of that famous president that was in our book.  What is his name again?"  The sweet high school student said,  "Wow.  I feel dumb.  I didn't even know that man was a president." 

January has been unseasonably warm.  Last weekend we came home from church and decided to spend the rest of the morning soaking up some sunshine before the clouds rolled in.  Kenly and Corah enjoyed playing in the sandbox.  These are some of my favorite photos from the morning.  I love our backyard. 

Corah mowed the moss. 

Kenly baked a cake for Mr. Garble, the imaginary snail that lives near our creek. 

Corah started holding her own bottle thanks to Kenly cheering her on.  Now I can hand her some apple prune juice and watch her help herself.  What a big girl.