Brandrea

On Friday, I was feeling a little stir-crazy and overwhelmed and it just so happened to be a beautiful day outside. After taking Cora to play in the clover patches in the backyard (while deftly circumventing the dog droppings…), I decided we should take as much advantage of the day as possible. I needed one more ingredient for dinner and rather than pack up in the car for it, I thought it would be fun to walk to the Wal-Mart a little over a half a mile away. It involved crossing one “major” street, but it is a part of the road where the speed limit is 25 mph and really isn’t that crowded most of the day. I figured it would be a great little trip to take advantage of the weather. After I changed a diaper, let the dog out, got Cora a bottle of juice, grabbed a snack, my cell phone, keys and a hat to protect her fair-skinned head, we started to set out. (Oh, and I went back and grabbed my iPod, which I never actually used. I decided to not go back in and change my shirt once I realized that i would be getting a farmer’s tan with my tshirt – what’s one more random tan line?)

As we got closer to the “major” road, I got a little nervous about crossing. There was no crosswalk. (Does that make me a jaywalker?) I decided to continue on the side of the road (no sidewalks, boo) until I felt like there was a decent break in traffic to make my crossing the safest possible. As I was walking between cross streets I saw the perfect space open up. I rushed to the road ahead and then (not so) calmly sprinted across the road. I felt pretty good about it until I looked down and realized that Cora was no longer holding her sippy cup. I started having flashbacks to our family Valentine’s evening (a story for another time) and desperately scanned over the street I had just crossed. Fortunately it was not in the middle of the big road, but it was at the front of the cross street, just waiting for some unsuspecting mini van to crush it to bits. I said a couple PG words and waited for another pause in traffic. As I spotted the perfect moment to cross, Cora’s hat blew off and flopped around behind us a few feet away. I panicked, but managed to snatch it up before it went too far, and then hurried across and grabbed the sippy cup. Darn sippy cup.

At this point, I was considering going back home. But what would all this pain and misery be for if I did not press onward? It would be for naught. So we crossed one more time to get where we needed to be. The rest of the trip was through some mostly peaceful neighborhood roads, save a large (fenced-in) German shepherd and a noisy Latino group tearing up part of the road. During this part of the trip I noticed that Cora’s feet were exposed and getting a lot of sun. I realized on the trip back the sun would shine even more directly on them. After insulting myself for not thinking of putting socks on her little feet, I tried to come up with a solution. I had no extra material of any kind to use to cover and protect her! I finally decided I would solve the problem once we finished our shopping trip. After making our purchase, I took the food out of the plastic bag and put it in the basket under the stroller. Then Cora’s feet went inside the Wal-Mart sack, with the top part of the bag tucked under her little bottom so it would not blow away! I’m sure we looked a little funny, but it made my mommy-heart worry a little less.

Oh – and on the way home, we crossed the “major” road without a hitch.

*An extra roll of chub at the top of Cora’s thighs. Squeezable and cute. Maybe she will have finally hit the eighteen pound mark at her doctor appointment next month?

*Forty-five minute naps for Cora. Only twice a day. Not cool.

*A beautiful entertainment center (still to be painted)!

*Speed. Army-crawling, booty-wiggling, floor-wiping speed.

*Cherry chocolate cake balls. Amazing.

*Finger foods. Cheerios, peas, mum mums (also known at our house as “surfboards” and yum yums) and flavored baby puffs.

*The waltz, salsa, and swing dance. Brad had a date last night with four ladies, ranging in ages 7 months to twenty-six years, and we learned some fabulous moves.

Not new, but our favorite, trademark Cora smile:

Today is a beautiful day. We got something like 6-8 inches of snow yesterday and it is shimmering in the sun this morning. Cora woke up an hour ago, ate, and then wanted to go right back to sleep. She has been trying to go down to just one “morning” nap (around noon) and one late afternoon nap; because of this she often wakes around 7:30 to eat and then needs a little more sleep after that – maybe until 8:30 or 9. We have been keeping her up until about 8 or 8:30pm when we can, which has been adjustment for me. For some reason I have an unspoken Babies and Children Should Go To Bed At Seven rule in my brain. But this new bedtime seems to be working well. It makes sense because then she is awake (and happy!) when we are out and about in the evenings.

This morning as I was feeding Cora in bed, she touched my face with her soft hands and I returned the caresses, tracing along her cheek and chin. Some days just have those moments. They are moments that happen every day, but they somehow seem unique. I hold them, breath them in for a minute, and remember that now will only happen this one time.