11 Months

I’ve been lazy with the blog, so this will be a brain dump post. I need to get something up, though, because I’m tired of seeing my cancer update. Thank you all so much for the encouragement and well-wishes through that journey. I’m so glad it’s over and behind us now!

So the babies turned 11 months on Sunday. Their first year has flown by! It’s gone much quicker than Abby’s did. I can’t believe their birthday is right around the corner. I really need to start planning a party for them! Here’s what they’re into now:

--Cora is so quick to laugh. It takes more work to get Emma to laugh, but it’s hilarious when she does. It’s more of a cackle than a laugh.

--That doesn’t mean Emma’s more serious than Cora. On the contrary, they are both really happy babies. Emma is easily excitable and tries to fly away. When she’s happy, she sits and flaps her arms up and down like she’s trying to take off.

--Cora is doing more regular crawling than her belly-crawl now. She still goes back to belly-crawling when she is going a long distance, or wants to go faster. Emma never did belly-crawl; she went straight to regular crawling.

--Cora tends to do things first, but Emma does them “right” when she does. Once Emma learns to do something, Cora learns how to do it “right” by watching her. See: the crawling.

--Another example: Cora learned to pull herself to standing about a month before Emma did, but she fell on her butt pretty hard trying to get down the first time and it scared her. For a long time, I’d have to go in to their room and repeatedly help her down during naptimes because she’d stand and get stuck. We learned Emma’s fearless (or has a really tough butt!) when she started pulling up. She plops down on her butt without a second thought. Cora finally figured out how to get down after Emma did, but she’s still very careful and goes down to her knees first.

--Speaking of knees, Cora loves to sit with her feet by her tush and her knees in front. Does that make sense? When she’s in this position, she likes to rock  up and down with  her upper body/tush when excited. Damon thinks this is the funniest thing ever!  Emma loves to dance any time there’s music on. I don’t know where she gets it from because Damon and I both have no rhythm whatsoever.

--While both girls are expert standers when there’s something to hold on to, only Emma has begun to let go.  And stay upright for a few seconds before falling!  I tell you she’s fearless!  Cora loves it when I let go of her and catch her, but she rarely keeps her balance for any length of time.

--Cora says Mama, Dada/Daddy, and Abby/Abba/Adda/Addy consistently. By far, her most used word is Abby. Cutest thing ever!  Mama only gets used by both girls when they’re upset.

--Emma says Mama (rarely), Hi, and da. Mostly, she just babbles.

--Both girls have learned to clap.

--Cora still loves peekaboo, and has learned to play on her own. She loves to find things to cover her face with. The funniest part is that she misses and gets it on her head, or it lands behind her, more often than not. She still thinks this is the best game and laughs hysterically every time!

--Another game Cora loves is to mimic us. If we make a noise, she’ll repeat it.  She’s going to be speaking in sentences before we know it!

--When they were born, some people from Damon’s work gave us some of those no-sew taggy blankets. You know the ones with the knots and tags along the edges. They each have 2, a big one and a small one. Emma LOVES these blankets. If we put one on the floor for her, she’ll happily spend a good chunk of time rolling on it, chewing on the tags, and carrying it with her.

--Emma also loves to watch tv. She won’t sit through a whole show, but she’s fascinated by it. Of course, she’s mostly interested in Abby’s shows. Cora’s too busy to sit and watch. She’ll watch for a minute or two before moving on to something else.

--Emma has become a much better sleeper lately. She’ll even sleep through the night once or twice a week! Mostly, she’s up once around 4. Cora has become a pretty light sleeper, so she usually wakes up too. I’ve got my system down now so I’m back in bed within 10 minutes, so their one wake-up isn’t all that bad. We’ve talked about splitting them, but they get really upset if one wakes up first and isn’t in her crib when the other wakes up. Plus, splitting them would entail either moving Abby downstairs or bringing a crib into our room. We’re not willing to do either option right now, so we just deal with Emma waking up Cora.

--Emma likes to flirt. She’ll smile at anyone who will look at her. She likes to tilt her head to her shoulder to be extra cute. Cora still takes longer to warm up. She usually just stares at strangers with a look that says “You can look but don’t touch.”

I’m sure there’s a ton more I’m forgetting, but at least now there’s a proper post up!