New Year

Our family at the wedding. This was after the cute tights and shoes came off, but she still looked adorable!
Coranelle and me at Lynn's wedding on Saturday.

Happy New Year to all! When I think back on it, parts seems to have flown by while others dragged. I cannot believe that Coranelle is now 7 months old. The parenting thing has gotten gradually easier as Coranelle becomes happier. She'll never be a chill, or easy child, but I have really started to appreciate her stubborn, restless personality. She's packed in a lot of activity in her last 7 months. Actually, she's packed in a lot of activity in the last 7 days!

We have had the chance to see a lot of great friends over the break. I saw my good friend Jessica on Tuesday and it was great to catch up with her and have her play with Coranelle again. Jessica is now working in Boston, so it's always a treat to see her! We also saw my friend Jaime and her husband Amado and it was good to hear about their lives- now that they live in Texas. We also had my friend, Kaitlyn over for dinner. She drove down from Allenspark to see Coranelle "in her own turf". It was great to catch up with these girl friends and I was so touched that they went completely out of their way to make time for us and come visit. We also got to see some great friends of mine from High School on New Years Eve up in Estes. We went up to my friend Phil's house for a fun party. Phil built his house from top to bottom and it is gorgeous. We love being there! Phil and I have been friends since middle school and we studied at Capernwray and Taurenhof together in England and Austria after HS. It was fun to catch up with some HS friends. Coranelle was wonderful and when she got tired, we tucked her into her carseat and she fell right asleep in the master bedroom. Then, we got to stay and enjoy the party until 11:30. We spent the night in my parents nice little condo up in Estes and really had a fun little get away. Saturday, we had another wedding. Coranelle did fantastic and I was so proud of her. Thanks to her new love for puffs, I did not even have to take her out of the ceremony. She just focused hard on taking puffs from Ryan's hand and eating them. She was quiet and happy for the whole ceremony. There were a few other babies there that melted down and had to leave, and I was amazed that for the first time, Coranelle was "well behaved". She got to meet lots of family friends of the Morks at the reception and when she was fussy and tired, she took a little nap in her carseat. It was an enjoyable night and fun to be with Josh, Claire, Bruce and Heidi at a wedding.

I know I have written on the blog about the rough transition we have had being new parents when so many of our couple friends are not parents yet. We had a lot of people promise us, pre-baby, that they would still hang out with us even after we had a kid. We had a lot of those promises broken and felt like we missed out on a lot of invitations to do things with our old group of friends. But, I feel like God is answering our prayers and providing new couples with kids in our lives. We have a few friends who are trying to get pregnant and another couple that has recently found out that they are expecting. We have a great couple up the street who had a sweet baby girl in November and I am excited for our daughters to be friends and for us to spend more time with the parents. Like all things, it takes time to adjust to a huge change in our lives.

Updates on Coranelle- As I mentioned before, she LOVES puffs. She has pretty impressive coordination in getting them in her mouth with her finger and thumb. It is a great way to keep her entertained while we eat dinner, meet someone for coffee or at a wedding! She continues to eat more and more solid food and care less about nursing. I refuse to worry anymore about this. I feel like she might self wean, but I am thankful that she has such a hearty appetite for "real" food. She eats solids three times a day now( and I try to nurse her 5 times a day still). I got a great babyfood making book from Steve for Christmas and have made her a great oatmeal ( oats, milk, dried mango or apricots, and banana). She loves that! I have also tried a cheesy, tomato, squash and pasta dish as well as a chicken, sweet potato and apple dish. She eats pretty much anything I give her. She is now scooting too. I wouldn't call it army crawling because she doesn't know what to do with her arms. But, she can push her self across the floor with her feet and get something she really wants. She continues to be super vocal- shouting and talking all the time, and super energetic. I held a 5 month old baby on new years eve. She was very sweet and chubby and was willing to be held by anyone (despite the fact that she doesn't go to daycare). She just cuddled up against me and sat still with her head on my chest. I was holding her while Ryan was bouncing a shouting Coranelle up and down next to me, remarking that Coranelle has never cuddled like that! It is so crazy how different babies can be. And, it also helped me realize why she is still so little. She moves ALL the time and burns so much energy. It has also made me less gung-ho about the anti swaddling kick I was on. Her little arms and feet are so spastic that it is just about impossible for her to lie still enough to fall asleep. We'll wait on the unswaddling for now.
Coranelle seems to be recognizing faces of family and friends and getting more comfortable with them. She has seen the grandparents and aunts and uncles more often and seems more willing to play with them and more comfortable being with them when I'm out of the room. She still doesn't love to just be held, or walked around, but I am pleased with the small progress she is making.

In other news, Ryan's back to work full time and we miss him already. It was really nice to have him home for 2, four day weekends. My dad will be arriving in Sarasota Florida today in order to start about 8 weeks of radiation. He has rented a condo and will be near a beach, but this is going to be a hard two months for him. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he goes through this treatment while missing his wife and 3 year old son in NM. Amanda is back in Haiti for another semester of teaching. She is still living in the orphanage and really has a heart for Haiti and has made some very lasting friendships down there. She was home for Christmas for a few weeks and we got to see her Christmas day. She and Rebecca have got to spend some good time together over the break.
Stefan and Rachael will continue to plan their wedding. I am so excited for them and really love that we get to see them more often now. They have made a lot of effort to visit us a couple times a month and come hang out with Coranelle.
Steve starts his tax season hours today and will be very busy for the next few months. He and mom have been working hard to get an office set up in Longmont so that Steve can work a few days a week at home, rather than commuting. I think that will be really great for both of them! Also, Josh and Claire are getting a puppy January 17th(a mini poodle). It will be fun for us to enjoy their dog and let Coranelle and her puppy cousin grow up together!

I just finished The Host, by Stephanie Myers and enjoyed it. It had a strange plot, but was another story of impossible love (like the vampire/human romances in her twilight series). I am looking for new books to read, so please leave me a comment with your book suggestions. I love reading in the evenings (and occasionally a chapter during Coranelle's naps) for pleasure. While in college and teaching, I had very little time to read and am loving the chance now!

Sorry that this was such a long update! I hope you are all enjoying the new year!