caminando

Walking, that is. Coranelle is starting to toddle from one place/person to another! I cannot tell you how proud it makes me to watch her venture away from whatever she's holding on to and put one foot in front of the other. At this point, it's only 6-12 steps at a time, before she gets going to fast and falls down. Regardless, what a blast. She gets so excited that half the time, she is clapping for herself and laughing as she goes. This makes balance a littler harder to maintain, but I'm confident she'll figure it out soon.

The funny thing about Coranelle learning to walk is that her crazy personality is thrown into the mix. She does not want to do it all the time and if you try to stand her up and push her to walk when she doesn't want to, she'll become a rag doll in your arms, or just flop to the ground and start crying. Stubborn, always!

In other baby news, she has really mastered some sign language and it seems to really make her happier that she can communicate with and respond to adults. She can ask for more, tell us she's "all done", and when we tell her we're going to change her or give her a bath, she'll sign "change" or "bath". I've been signing to her since she was 5 months old and she never really responded. About a month ago, she started "more" and it surprised me and also gave me the push I needed to not give up with some basic signing.

This weekend, we had Rachael's bridal shower up in Estes and enjoyed a beautiful day with friends and family. It was a really fun shower and I am getting super excited for their wedding!

Ryan got to spend the whole day with Coranelle while I went up to Estes with mom for the shower. It was some good father, daughter bonding time. He took her to the fountains at Orchards mall and got to play with her a lot.

That's all for now because I need to go get some cleaning and weeding done, but enjoy the pictures and the video!

summer fun

I guess it's been a while since I last wrote. I guess we've been a bit busy! Last Sunday and Monday, we went camping up to Golden Gate State Park with Bruce and Heido. We stayed in a really cute camper cabin and had a great time. It was wonderful to be outside and have the time to relax and talk. Coranelle loved the dirt- crawling in it, eating it, being covered in it. She was filthy, but so happy. I cannot wait until she's older and can run around campground and explore. We saw some families up there with younger kids that were having a total blast. Lots of fun things to look forward to! Everything went really smoothly- Coranelle napped in the car and in her pack-n-play in the cabin. She slept great in a new place and even stayed asleep when we all four came in a few hours after she went to bed. We got to enjoy the stars and s'mores while she snoozed. We took her for a little hike in the pack and a little ride in her bike trailer and got to enjoy the wonderful weather.
We had one glitch in the shower house that I will tell you about so maybe you won't make the same mistake. So, Coranelle was filthy on Sunday night. She usually gets a bath before bed, so I decided it would be a good idea to take her in the coin operated shower to get her clean and relaxed before bed. While she might have gotten a bit cleaner, she did not have a chance to relax. After stripping both of us down, I realized that I had to step into the shower to insert my quarters in the slot. To my surprise, I didn't have to turn the shower on, it just turned on. And did it ever turn on! The extremely hard and freezing cold spay hit Coranelle straight on. It scared me, so I jumped and squeezed her, which scared her more. So, she began screaming. I couldn't attempt to adjust the water spray or temperature without stepping into the spray of water. I had already lathered some soap on Coranelle, so we couldn't just quit. So, as she's freezing and hurting, I'm hollering over to Heidi to see if she can help us find a warm shower. There we are, waddling through a bathroom, naked and cold and in tears. We found a warm shower, but the spray was still painfully hard, so we did the best we could to rinse off. I handed Coranelle off to Heidi, who got her warm and dry. I don't think it scarred Coranelle for life with a fear of showers, but I think a dirty baby would have been better. Now I know!

The following day, we took turns bikeriding while Coranelle slept. Ryan and I took off on our mountain bikes, thinking we were going to go about 3 miles. We each had a little bit of water in our bottles, and nothing else. Turns out, it was the most under prepared we have EVER been. After going down 1.7 miles rather effortlessly, we decided on a whole loop we would try. Ended up without any water before we were half way done, in 85 degree sun, with no sunscreen, no snacks and at 9,000 feet. The trail turned into a steep climb in a hiking trail terrain that was impossible to ride over a lot of the time. It was rather exhausting, but we didn't want to stop and rest because we knew we didn't have water. It was a beautiful area, and we made it through the 10 miles of hills, but it was quite an adventure. Oh well, it was a good chance to be out with Ryan, and we'll never leave for a ride without a camel back, sunscreen and snacks again!

On Wednesday this week, we celebrated out 3 year anniversary! Bruce and Heidi came out and watched Coranelle while we went to a Belgium brewery for a nice dinner and beer sampling and enjoyed hanging out at an outdoor mall with delicious chocolates and lovely company. It was a nice celebration with a wonderful husband!

Friday, Coranelle spent her first night away from us. We had a softball game scheduled for 9:30pm, which was too late to have someone stay at our house for. So, my mom drove Coranelle to her house on Friday, and she and Steve fed, bathed, played with her and put her down at their house. They all had a great time, despite Coranelle waking up a few times in the middle of the night with a bad diaper rash from the massive amounts of kiwi and cherries she had enjoyed that day. It is great to know that she can do that now, and I know my parents had a great time with her! It felt very quiet here without her. When my mom left with her Friday afternoon, I set out to make a fruit plate with chocolate mousse dip and cinnamon chocolate chips for a birthday party. It was so odd to not have my peanut crawling up the back of my legs while I was working in the kitchen and babbling to me. We went to the birthday party before the game was supposed to start and everyone had kids and I didn't know what to do with myself without a child to take care of! I felt the same way the next morning when I woke up and peeked into an empty nursery. We didn't have to be quiet making coffee and we didn't have to get up at 7am! But, we enjoyed a walk in the rain together and an episode of Lost with Josh and Claire. I think it was a good thing for all of us, regardless of how much I missed her!

Saturday night, we had a fun baby shower down in Denver for a friend of Ryan's from work. Coranelle enjoyed playing with the massive St. Bernard and was just giggling whenever his huge tongue would lick her face and cover her hands in slobber. Ah, fun!

Yesterday, Ryan and I competed in the Broomfield Mini Haha triathlon together. This weekend, it rained constantly, and it was a cold and rainy morning for a race. My parents came out to hang out with Coranelle while we headed off to set up our bikes in the transition area. Despite the rain and cold, we had a great time! I did well in the swimming portion and had a blast biking with Ryan and our neighbor. The new road bike made a world of difference for me and the biking was pretty easy! I was soaking wet and constantly had water splashing in my face, but for some reason, it was still great fun! We got off our bikes after 11 miles and tried to find our legs for the run. The rain let up a little and Bruce, Heidi and my mom were all out cheering us on. We finished and were really glad we had the opportunity to do the race together. We later celebrated with our heat at a BBQ and now it's time to catch up on the grocery shopping and laundry and everything else that has been neglected in the busyness!

That's all for now! Have a great week!

15 pieces of advice for friends and family

After eating TONS of watermelon on Memorial Day
Playing in the backyard with Kona.
Exploring Grams and PopPop's backyard.
Heidi's $1 garage sale find. Fun!
Love the crazy hair!

What to do for new parents:

This blog post was inspired by the fact that I know of a lot of women that are pregnant right now and it brings me back to what it was like, adjusting to a new life with an infant. I thought I would write down all of the wonderful things people did for us or other new parents as well as the things I wish family and friends would have done. That way, as my close friends and siblings have kids in the future, I will have this to look back on so that I know how to be a good support for other new parents. If you have other things to add, leave me a comment so that I have extra opinions.

1. If it’s not horribly inconvenient, bring some flowers by the hospital. My mom just did this for a friend of ours from HS who was in labor and I thought it was so sweet of her!
2. Bring dinner by for the new parents. Bring something healthy and enough for leftovers. It’s hard as a new mom to make time to prepare good food for lunches with a crying, nursing baby. We had a few friends do this as well as parents and it was wonderful!
3. Call before you show up and check to see if it’s an okay time. As wonderful and thoughtful it is that you are stopping by, the new parents may be trying to nap, nurse or spend some time with the new baby.
4. Set up a time to go over and clean or help out. Rearrange YOUR schedule to do this- especially if you don’t have napping kids. Heidi did this last summer when she wasn’t working and it was wonderful to have someone to walk with, and someone to hold a screaming child while I went to the store, to get a hair cut, or to take a nap.
5. Ask the new mom how SHE is doing. Ask her if being a mom was what she expected. Let her be honest about how hard it is. I remember when Kelly (another mom) called me up about 2 months into being a mom and just let me vent to her about how frustrating it was that my child cried all day. I also remember receiving an e-mail from my friend Jessica, asking me how my heart was. It was so wonderful to be asked how I was adjusting. Every time Bruce saw me, he asked how things were going for me. I really appreciated those questions.
6. If you think about it, send a card to the new mom. My friend Lauren sent me a really sweet note of encouragement during a rough patch and it sat out on my table for months and looking at it made me feel like someone was thinking about us.
7. Send random gifts for the baby. My friend, Kaitlyn did this and it was so sweet to put my daughter in the new shoes from my HS best friend. My mom and Heidi also always brought over little gifts and seeing Coranelle playing with their toys, wearing the outfits, and reading the books made me realize the system of support Coranelle, Ryan and I had.
8. If you can tolerate it, hold the screaming baby so the new parents can go out, eat dinner at a get together or just take a break. Mom, Steve, Bruce and Heidi all did this for us and it was great to be able to finish a meal or let my ears stop ringing for a moment- while knowing that my baby was safe in their arms.
9. NEVER, ever tell a mom that her child is disgusting or gross in any way- even if they have blowouts or spit-up or whatever. When you criticize a baby, the mom takes it very personally. (Really, when you criticize a baby, you criticize the mom)
10. Don’t say rude things about a child’s birthmark or size. It will hurt the parents’ feelings. If you know the parents well, ask them kindly. Don’t ask when it will go away or if you’ll have it removed. Don’t tell them they’re feeding the baby too much or too little. You don’t need to point these things out to parents. They are clearly aware of them. Coranelle has a noticeable red stork bite/angel kiss down the center of her forehead. When she’s frustrated, sad, or excited, it gets really dark purple. It will probably fade by the time she is 2, but I am tired of the questions. Especially when people say, “What’s wrong with her head? When will it go away? Can you have it removed?” and so on. Fortunately, Vann has lovingly dubbed it her “Super Stripe”. His title for it has made me love that little mark, but I am tired of all of the insensitive remarks about it.
11. When new parents get a babysitter and go out with you, make a big deal about how grateful you are that they came. Let them call home and be worried about their newborn without making fun of them. Someday, you’ll understand.
12. Send a present or a little note on the baby’s birthdays. Just something little so they know you care. Coranelle got lots of thoughtful gifts and cards.
13. If the wee one has a party, make a big deal out of it. Help out, bring something, rearrange your schedule to be there. We had lots of great help with Coranelle’s party and it was so special to us!
14. Don’t just offer to babysit- Do it! Set up a date. Our parents have been awesome about this and it has allowed us to do all sorts of fun things. Thanks guys!
15. Make an effort to get to know the baby. It will mean a lot to the parents and to the child as they grow up.
16. If you can, give mom a chance to work out or get a pedicure.
17. If the family already has a child, send the older child a present when the new baby comes.

There, 15 things for me to keep in mind when other people have kids. Hopefully I can be as thoughtful as some of the wonderful people in our lives have been for us!

On a completely different note, Coranelle went to her first year appointment today. She now weighs a whopping 18lbs 5oz. It actually puts her in the 10th percentile, which is up from the 4th percentile. Yay! She's 29 1/2 inches tall (65th percentile) and her head is 18 inches in circumference (70th percentile). She is healthy and doing well. I told the pediatrician all about our struggle with getting her to drink milk. He told me to give up the fight and stop worrying. She will be fine with all the cheese, yogurt, and other dairy she eats. I might have to give her a vitamin for the Vitamin D she is lacking, but other than that, she should be fine. He said to stop trying with the milk and try again in 6 months. Whew! That is a weight lifted off my shoulders that I don't have to battle with Coranelle daily about her milk intake (or lack thereof). I also spoke with him about her high pitched screaming and her throwing of unwanted food. After watching her for a half hour, he told me that Coranelle was going to be a really hard child and we had our work cut out for us. Then, he kindly asked how we were doing with all of it. I just laughed. I told him we have known for 10 + months that she was not going to be an easy child. She hasn't been easy going about anything thus far, so we have come to expect it. Regardless, I told him she's a really fun little peanut and we love her. I'm actually quite happy that my girl will be strong willed and independent as she gets older.

Watching her get shots, was NOT fun. I totally hate watching them load their 4 needles and pierce her perfect little thighs. I loathe watching Coranelle's face turn purple as she stops breathing. Poor thing. She looked so pale and tired when I loaded her up into the car. She's upstairs sleeping it off now. Hopefully she wakes up the strong willed child we've come to love!