Ida's One Year Photos

It is always a joke that there aren't nearly as many photos of the second child (and third, and fourth, etc.), but I wanted to make sure I have plenty of photos of each of my children. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I take lots of photos of our girls and mostly just candid photos of our lives. I'm working on trying to get some more 'styled' shoots of the girls where they're dressed a little cuter or I make an effort to make the bed or remove clutter... and eventually I'll work on my photography skills. So all that said, here are a couple quick one year old photos of my Ida Rue 'reading' Birthday Monsters.

Baby Bookworms

It's been about six months since I last did a little photo shoot with the girls. It's fun to look back to see how much the girls have changed since February, so I think I may make this a regular thing.

This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing, but I earn a small commission from purchases through them.  Thank you for your support of my little blog!

I love seeing what other families are reading, so I thought I'd share some of our current favorite books. The girls have a pretty decent book collection and it's always growing. They seem to really like a couple books for a week or so and then they find another book to rotate into our stack... and sometimes, the annoying ones conveniently make their way out of the stack.

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds - I received this from my high school art teacher many many years ago. When I was unpacking from the move, I found it and Cora loves it. It has a fun, motivational message that is simple enough for kids to understand, but something that I need a reminder of as an adult.

I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont - Ida got this book for her first birthday from Jazz. It's a sweet book and I love how the main character is a black girl

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees - This is one of my favorites and I love to gift this for baby showers. 

The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler - This is another one we got for Ida's first birthday. It's a little long for my liking (I like short kids books), but I love the range of skin tones and the different ways it describes different colors of skin. Since this is a topic that we frequently talk about in our household, it is nice to have a fun book about it.

Ten Tiny Toes by Caroline Jayne Church  This one is a favorite across the board. It is quick and semi interactive. I like to tickle their toes or poke their nose whenever they mention them in the book and Cora likes to stand up and point to the other body parts like her tummy whenever those come up. Bonus, the author has the same initials as Cora.

Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton - We love a lot of the Sandra Boynton, but for some reason the girls always pick this one for me to read. I also like to sing the title to the tune of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.

Someday by Alison McGhee - Cora received this for her first birthday. It just recently joined the rotation and Cora loves it. It's a mother talking to her daughter about all her dreams for her and it's the sweetest thing.

I Love You Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt - Cora got this in a compilation of other books for Valentine's day. She wants me to read it all of the time... probably because it contains more than one book. I read through them all and then I let her pick one that I'll read a second time.... and she always picks "the Stinky Face one"

What are your current favorite kid books? What were your favorite books growing up?

Happy Valentine's Day!

I would have loved to do some holiday pictures this year, but I didn't have my stuff together due to the baby, move, and going back to work.  I'm finally starting to hit my groove a little bit, so I got everything together to have a little Valentine's day photoshoot.  Cora loved helping me set up the decorations and picking out what they were going to wear.  My camera battery died after like 5 photos and the girls lost interest pretty quickly while the battery charged.  We had fun, so I'm happy we made the effort.

 Happy Valentine's day friends! 

Life With Cora :: 6 Months

How the heck is my sweet Cora already 6 months old?!  This 6 month 'milestone' is something that I was excited to reach (6 month old babies are the perfect age), but couldn't really picture getting there.  This past month, Cora has started having tastes of food (avacado & zuchini so far), become obsessed with paddling around during bathtime, mastered the highchair, and had her first cold.

We have been going out on a lot of adventures enjoying the last of the nice weather.  Cora loves when we go on walks where she can look around the neighborhood and watch the dog walk along beside us.  We've also had multiple zoo adventures in the last month.

As seen in the pictures, Cora has been sitting up with very few toppling instances.  She is also working on her 'crawling'... or what looks more like inch worming.  She still has the old-man-wheezing laugh, and is finding more and more to laugh at every day.

I'm not sure how I got such a smiley & happy baby (even when she was sick).  My heart is full.