We took Cora to her first fall festival this weekend with Chris, Brigit, and Mary Cate. Between all of us we were able to down a funnel cake, a chicken skewer, and fried pickles (the fried pickles makes more sense if you know that Brigit is pregnant.) We took a hay ride and took some fun pictures of Cora and Mary Cate in the pumpkin patch. We had a hard time getting Cora to look at the camera since this was her first experience with hay. She couldn’t get enough of it. It is crazy to think that last year I was just about 4 months pregnant with her at the festival and this year she’s sitting on my lap. God is good! We are hoping to go to another farm this week to buy some pumpkins and I hope to get some better shots of Cora looking at the camera.

It has been unusually hot this October and we were really excited for the relief that came this weekend. The temperature started dropping noticeably on Saturday afternoon just in time for my first post-baby-5k race. I was pretty happy with my run and it felt really good to have some healthy competition. I ran a bit faster than usual since I wasn’t pushing Cora & her stroller in the race. Andy and Cora ran around the course to cheer me on and snap a few pictures. This was the first time we’ve ever needed to put a jacket on Cora and she looked so cute bundled up. Later that night Andy and enjoyed a fire and some roasted marshmallows in the backyard. We also caught part of my cousin, DJs, soccer game on Sunday afternoon  which was another great opportunity to enjoy the cooler weather. Unfortunately, the first 15 minutes we were at the field we had to unwrap Cora from her cute layered outfit to clean up what the diaper couldn’t contain. We then redressed her with mismatch colors and one clean sock ( I’m not sure how the other sock got dirty.) This has become an all to familiar scene, we have Cora is in a cute outfit, clean, ready to go, and when we arrive she’s usually blown out of her diaper and she ends up in whatever random backup outfit I have in the bottom of the diaper bag. You think I would have learned by now. She also has her first sunburn from the brief time we were at the soccer fields, the top of her head is a bright pink color and her checks are a little rosier than normal too.

Cora is 6 months old!! She is growing and changing rapidly these days. As much as I hate to see her grow out of the cute cuddly baby stage, I am  really enjoying seeing more and more of her personality.

Some of her latest milestones are:
Rolling in both directions until she is stuck up against something, usually Chase
Pushing her chest up to about a 90 degree angle
Sitting up on her own, though she can’t rebalance herself yet
Eating oatmeal rice cereal, and by eating I mean mushing it around in her mouth, making funny faces, and eventually swallowing it
Telling her babbling stories at a new amplified volume, she most enjoys telling the ceiling fan her stories
Riding in the umbrella stroller with out folding over herself
Attempting to pull herself up to peer over her crib bumpers (This is extremely cute when you see her little head straining to catch a glimpse of anyone who might rescue her from the land of nod.)

We have gotten into a pretty good routine the last few weeks. Mondays we run errands and get food for the week. Tuedsays I do a lot of chores around the house and we head to bible study in the evening. Some friends of ours volunteered to take Cora on Tuesdays so we can go to bible study on our own, huge answer to prayer! Wednesdays I teach a bible story to kindergartners & first graders up at my old school, Samoset, while some other friends come to the house to stay with Cora for the afternoon. I also clean on Wednesday nights and Thursday mornings for some extra money. Thursdays and fridays are more flexible and we usually get to spend some time with friends or family. Saturdays have been great family days with Andy, skiing at the lake or heading to the park, and Sundays are youth group, church, and football. Whoa, not a lot to show for our days but they sure go fast.

We had a hint of cooler weather last week which prompted our latest trend of heading to the shaded part of the back yard with a big sheet to enjoy the cooler part of the day. I’ve learned that Cora’s bath tub can double, at least for now, as a swimming pool. My mom has been coming down the last few Wednesday nights to watch Cora while Andy and I clean his office and then she stays Thursdays so I can run to clean the gym without Cora. That has been a huge help and it’s been fun to have her around on Thursdays to poke through some consignment shops or treat ourselves to lunch.

Cora licking the bowl of her oatmeal rice cereal

Back yard bath

Love those rolls!

Little things have been gently reminding me of my new role as mom, things like;

Being up for two hours before I eat MY breakfast at 9am (I wake up hungry)
Thinking nothing of doing errands all morning with wet hair and no make up
A two hour nap can make my whole day
I can tell the difference between “UUgh,” and “uggHHHH”
Singing along with Veggie tales sunday school hits long after Cora is asleep
Missing her after only a few hours out by myself