2 Months!

Cora is 2 months and 4 days old and she is the sweetest.

Seriously, she is so calm and happy and content. She's figured out smiling, but sometimes forgets, which means she gets SUPER excited each time she re-remembers.

Sunday morning in mama's bed

She is very tolerant of her big siblings, particularly her big sister who needs to touch, hold, and love on Cora pretty much all the time.

Mommy I just love my baby sister SO much. -Claire, constantly

She loves baths and showers and either takes a shower with JP and her big siblings or a bath with me after the big sibs are in bed. And sometimes both.

First swim lesson/back float

We started taking her in our shower because she was a little stuffy and we thought the steam might help. The first night we were super careful to keep her warm but out of the spray. Then the next night I was holding her and accidentally walked right under the spray, and in usual Cora fashion, she had no comment on that little surprise, and now she gets just as wet as her big brother and sister while they play under the dual heads of our giant shower. It thrills the kids and seems to help her snortiness too (and 4/5 of my family gets clean at once, it's like a car wash).

Chillin', talking about boys, whatever

She still hates most baby gear. She will lay happily on the ground wherever you put her for many minutes, but put her in the baby swing or monkey bouncer or mamaroo and she will unleash cries and screams like she's being tortured. The only thing she tolerates is the playgym and I think that's mostly because she pretends like the toys aren't there and she's really just laying on the doormat as she prefers.

I turned to get my camera and turned back to find two kids in there

She remains suspicious of the car seat, is LOUDLY displeased if we drive anywhere at less than 40 miles per hour, and becomes downright furious if we stop for any reason, including stop signs and red lights. Cora would really prefer we run those. While speeding. Afternoon pick-up of Landon and Claire remains a delight.

Because she hates the car seat and I can't run at 40 mph she also hates the stroller frame for the car seat that I so adored using for my other two children. She does however tolerate and maybe even enjoy being able to sit upright in the borrowed Bob. Claire likes it too.

But car seat issues aside, she's easy as can be. She falls asleep within 2 minutes anytime we lay her in her crib. She can be wide awake and you just lay her down, give her a few pats, and close the door. Two protest sounds later and she's out. It's fabulous. I try not to hold her during naps too much anymore as part of our pre-gaming for good sleep habits, but sometimes we cheat and do it anyway. I can rock and stare at her chubby cheeks for a really long time.

At night she sleeps about 9 hours. Unfortunately these 9 hours start at 7:30, so she's still up at 4:30, but we pushed that back to 5:30 today and I have hopes for 6 or 6:30 soon. When you pick her up she always smiles at you while you change her diaper. She'd like to eat as soon as you can make her bottle please, but she's mostly just delighted to see you again. JP and I still switch off for the nighttime/early morning feedings, so one person gets a full night's sleep every other night. Unfortunately, this largesse by Cora has not caused JP to budge one millimeter on the no more babies thing.

daddy!

We had some concerns about her crying and arching after eating, so she's on Zantac for reflux now. Hopefully that will help because right now, eating is the only time she really cries (besides on car rides, but she's been clear on her feelings regarding the car from the beginning) and it is the saddest sound. As I told the pediatrician at her 2 month check up, she clearly wants to be the easiest of babies, but she has to eat and then she has to cry and cry and then it makes her tired so she doesn't finish eating and it's just messes everything up.

memorializing the sad face

She's a big girl- I just had to call Honest Company to mail back 5 packs of adorable diapers that are suddenly way too small. She's in the 90th percentile for height (23.5") and 85th for weight (13 lbs!). Her head remains half the size of baby Claire's.

Skeptical of the iPhone

She has slid right into our family routine with barely a bump. I took all three kids to the dentist yesterday, a trip that ended up being 3 hours long because they lost our appointment and we had to wait an hour for Landon to be seen and then another 45 minutes for Claire. But it was fine. The big kids LOVE the dentist (it's the same one I go to, but she's great with kids, and there's little TVs in front of the chair and getting to watch cartoons during the day is basically the equivalent of going to Disney World for L&C) and I just sat in the waiting room the whole time holding Cora and reading my kindle. A little while after Landon returned from his check-up and Claire walked back with the hygienist, he went back to check on Claire and I could hear her indignant voice ring out, "No Yandon, this is MY dentist appointment!" Made me laugh. Cora was exhausted by the end and really wanted to be asleep, but she was a trooper and allowed herself to be bounced in my lap until my newly-barre-class-toned legs went completely numb. Then she fell asleep when we got home, meaning she was out while I made dinner, making what is normally the trickiest part of my day as easy as can be (amazing how another kid totally changes your perspective- two kids arguing with each other while I made dinner used to seem stressful and difficult; now, as long as they're arguing while Cora is asleep, it's no problem! I can devote all my attention to kicking them outside and/or telling them to quit it.)

Anyway, the point was supposed to be that throwing Cora in the mix hasn't changed much except what our daycare bill is going to be in February. And we're WAY into hand-washing this flu season. But other than that, she's just a fun squishy bonus who smiles at you anytime you make eye contact (and then smiles because she was able to smile and you can't help but smile even bigger at that). We'll see how things change when I'm no longer on maternity leave and JP is 100x busier during Spring/Summer swim season, I imagine there will be a few more of this kind of night (update: my burn scar just finally healed up and went away this week), but most of the time being a party of five is pretty darn awesome.

2 months CoraCora, and it's just going to get more fun from here!