Andy had to work a trade show in Orlando this weekend and his boss got him a room at the Peabody Hotel. Cora and I tagged along and enjoyed the perks.

Cora and I got to see the "Duck March." Cora loved the ducks and she was down at eye level when they marched in for their day in the fountain.

Getting ready for dinner at Maggianos with the boss and his wife.

The famous ducks

We visited Andy at the convention center and he showed cora the confetti machines! She tried to catch the pieces in her mouth.

Cora has been inch-worming for a while now, but after hanging out in Ft. Myers this past Monday night with Mary Cate, Cora is officially crawling. I think she just needed to see it done so she could copy the moves. The second video clip is her taking some steps with help.

Cora was 7 months on Saturday. She is growing as fast as everyone says they do. She is getting really strong and more curious about the things around her. Over the last month she has learned to go from sitting to crawling and crawling back to sitting. She has started eating vegtibles, sweet potatoes and green beans. She’s not crazy about either yet. Thanks to her BFF MaryCate, she has learned how to “tap-tap.” Which is just tapping two objects together, but according to MaryCate’s therapist it’s a good motor skill. We are working on some basic sign language, like “all done, eat, and please.” So far she just grins when we do it, but I think she is starting to recoginize the words. Just a few days ago I walked in to check on her while she was settling in for a nap and I found her standing in her crib smiling at me as if to say, “Look mama, Look!” It was so cute. I quickly lowered the matters so that the railing would come up to her shoulders instead of her waist. Now all she wants to do is pull up on EVERYTHING to stand. She gets frustrated when whatever she’s pulling up on doesn’t hold her. If you hold her hands while she’s standing she loves taking little steps forward and over exaggerates each step by pulling her knee up as high as her wast. She’s also discovered electrical cords and outlets in the past few days. She has started crawling, well…inch-worming really. She pushes off with her legs and belly flops herself forward. Check the video from a couple of weeks ago below. She  has advanced some since this video by using her knees more. I’ll post more video soon.

1. Making Cora’s baby food from fresh local farmers markets with the help of Babycook. Babycook steams and purees the food all in one little bowl, quick and easy! The green beans I made last week were as green and vibrant as grass, unlike the army green of Gerber’s beans.

2. Bumgenius 3.0 cloth diapers. So easy! I use these exclusively when we are home and when we are out and about I use pampers. The best part is that I just bought a box of pampers for the first time in 2 months!! I can’t image how much money I’ve already saved!

3. Needtobreath. I can’t stop listening to this band, yes they’re Christian, but they have such a neat funk about them that it keeps my foot tapping!

4. The Shack, great fiction book! I’m a little behind the times and read this after it made headlines, but it’s never too late. This book painted a really neat picture of God and His relentless love for His creation. I am usually comforted by the image of a very real and very near Jesus who I often picture walking with me through out my day, but I’ve sometimes struggled with how to imagine God. I’ve always pictured a white bearded God on a throne, but after reading this book I’ve dared to image a more intimate God, one with a personality beyond the throne.

5. The license plate game. Andy and I have a new game, surprised? We are keeping a running tally of who spots the most out of state license plates in one car ride. Andy usually tries to distract me so he can catch a glimpse of a plate first and call it. His tactics make sense since I usually beat him by a landslide.

6. SoutherSavers.com! Thanks to my friend Kelly, this is her picture above where she shared that she got all of this, $120 worth for $30 at Publix, I’m learning how to do some extreme couponing and saving big money on our groceries. A few weeks ago I bought about $60 worth of meat for about $25. Yeah, very cool! I still have a lot to learn though.