When Cora Met Ida

When I shared Ida's birth story, I mentioned I was having a hard time getting these specific pictures off of my camera. Welp, it has been a year and it finally happened. These are some of my favorite pictures in the entire world and they give me all the heart eyes when I look at them.

One of the sweetest things about having a second child is watching my children fall in love with each other. Little Cora was obsessed with babies and was constantly asking for a sibling before we got pregnant with Ida. Cora loved cuddling up with my belly and couldn't wait to meet her baby sister.  When it finally came time for them to meet, Cora held Ida for about 20 seconds while we took these sweet photos. She said "done!" and was ready to run around the room and hang out with all the visitors. 

In the two years since these pictures, it has been so fun to watch their bond grow. Cora has been mostly sweet and helpful with her little sister and Ida is obsessed with her big sister. I love watching these two together... even if they're fighting. These two babes make me the luckiest mommy in the whole world.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We're celebrating our day off with a couple events around town and time with our family. I dug up these old photos from last year that I never shared and I can't stop swooning over baby Ida's fat rolls. 

I'm giggling that my girls are still wearing these matching dresses as recent as last weekend and looking back at these pictures of my girlies celebrating 4th of July last year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Thank you for turkey, and for family and friends and most of all... thank you for sisters!" - Cora's prayer

I've been working on stretching the practice of gratitude out throughout the whole year instead of just the holiday months (see #goldengratitude2017), but I love seeing everyone sharing their gratitude on social media. I'm thankful for so much these days... My wonderful daughters, an awesome partner, my sweet puppy, our little home full of projects, a family that I love to spend time with, and so so much more. We're looking forward to a day full of family togetherness and lots of yummy food.

Happy Thanksgiving friends!

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.

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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 4th of July!

We celebrated a couple of days ago with my family.  My parents grilled some burgers and my sister made pasta salad (my favorite!).  I made a delicious blueberry dump cake that I'll have to share here soon. I love seeing my girls in matching outfits and coordinating with their cousin.

Happy 4th of July!

Sibling Love

One of the questions I received most often after Ida was born was "How does Cora like having a sister?" or "How are the girls getting along?".  We've been lucky so far that they have so much love for each other and get along pretty well.  Before I was even pregnant, Cora was asking when she was going to get a sibling and how she couldn't wait to have a sibling of her own. She spent the entire pregnancy so excited that she was going to have a sibling soon and she could barely contain her excitement at the thought of having a sister. She would lovingly kiss my belly goodnight and pray for baby's health... So I was a little nervous when the first time they met and Cora held her for 2 seconds before declaring "Done!"

8 months later and they're completely in love with each other.  Cora is always asking where Ida is. Cora loves cuddling her, feeding her, and making her giggle.  She also kind of loves to mess with her, but ultimately she wants to be a good sister and make Ida happy.

Ida is also a huge fan of Cora.  Her first giggles were at Cora and loves being around her. 

She's also a typical younger sister where she gives a little chuckle whenever Cora is in trouble.

They love to cuddle.  When they're napping and on complete opposite sides of the bed, they somehow find a way to scoot towards each other and need to be touching. 

I love watching their cuddles and I can't believe how lucky we are that they get along so well. They still get annoyed at each other (too much cuddling, one isn't getting enough attention from us, etc), but at the end of the day they love each other.  I can't wait to watch their friendship and sister bond grow as they get older.

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!