Tuesday Morning Dance Classes

Okay, I realize that (1) it is no longer Tuesday morning and (2) I may go a little overboard with the whole dance thing in general but I swear she loves every minute of it! For the summer we have been getting together on Tuesday mornings to do a creative movement class that generally lasts around 40 minutes and involves everything from marching around to hitting rhythm sticks, playing with a parachute, and tumbling (which is pretty much me "helping" them do a somersault). Occasionally we throw in a little game of Ring Around the Rosie or London Bridge and always start with a rousing round of Wheels on the Bus but the girls mainly love running around in their dance clothes and getting stickers at the end! Here are some pics from our latest class and a shamelessly exploitative video of me urging my child to show you her "pretty turn". You will be here someday too, just wait!

I am Blessed .....

with this darling little face that I can smoosh and kiss and grab whenever the feeling takes hold of me. We had some friends over for dinner last night that have been struggling with conceiving and I was reminded, in talking with B, of just how blessed I am to be healthy and able to conceive without any "extras". Granted, she has a lot of other factors affecting her fertility, a plethora of medications and diabetes to name a few, but I still feel so blessed to have my child. My heart aches for them when she says that it has gotten to the point where she just expects her period at the end of every month rather than set herself up for being disappointed when it appears. If anyone deserves motherhood it is this woman! She is fabulous with children, has worked with them all her life and they are trying so hard. Then, to add injury to insult, she works in a high school where there are a ton of teenage girls getting pregnant by accident and she has to see this every day! There was some bright spots in our conversation, B said they are not putting a lot of pressure on themselves anymore and if it comes down to her health she'll just love on other people's kids. Plus she has been able to be a fabulous aunt to her own nieces and nephews and her husband and her can take last-minute camping trips, etc. I may miss some of those things but I am so glad to have Kora in our lives and I hope that B and L will one day be able to experience all the joy and pain that parenthood entails for themselves.

Happy 9th!

Kora smelling the flowers at the Tobacco Campus
Kora and I getting ready for the parade



So it's a little late but I wanted to share the fun we had during our 4th of July weekend. It all started with a trip to Bond Park for Kora's first parade. It was really more like a mini-parade but still fun; we got to decorate our bikes and her trailer then join some other kiddos in (pretty much walking) about 1/4 mile. Kora loved every minute of it, from the singing performance to waving at adoring onlookers. The fun continued with her first dance show that afternoon. The American Dance Festival is in town and has these awesome children's matinees that several performing groups are offering and are geared especially for the kiddos. As soon as I found out about them the hubby and I conferred and bought tickets to see Pilobulus. If you have never seen them before they are awesome! We did take the camera, in hopes that the members would come out afterwards and I could possibly get some pics of her with them, but that didn't quite pan out. Instead we hung out for a little bit outside of the theater, listening to the music, then headed over to the Tobacco District where we ate at a yummy restaurant called Cuban Revolution. (This was a REALLY big deal because normally the hubs doesn't like to stray too far from his "favorites", i.e. pizza, burgers, etc. We wrapped up the weekend with a relaxing BBQ at a friends house where Kora had a blast playing in the kiddy pool and eating all kinds of yummy food. The girl pretty much inhaled 3 barbecue chicken legs much to my astonishment! I forgot the camera for this so don't have any pics of the fun but rest assured we had a blast!

Pre-potty training and Ode to cloth diapers

In honor of BumGenius launching their new 4.0s I wanted to talk about cloth diapering and how much I LOVE it!!! I didn't start out with the BumGenuis, as they are a rather expensive diaper, but I can't imagine my life without them now. Here is my cloth diapering story with Kora.

I decided when I was pregnant that I wanted to use cloth diapers and did a lot of research via the internet and speaking with friends who had cloth diapered before deciding what I was going to use. I had some other issues when we first came home so we didn't officially start the CD'ing until Kora was around 2-3 months old. Even then, we didn't have much money so I started out with prefolds (think the type of cloth diapers you use for burp cloths) and waterproof covers. We used those for about a month or so until I found someone selling used BumGenuis on Craigslist for a steal and was able to get to them before the hordes of other people could! From that moment on it has been L-O-V-E. I do also have a few Kushies (all in ones that can be bought off WalMart's site) that my little bro had given me when she was born that I use as back-ups but they definitely can't hold a candle to my BG's. I also have another pocket diaper I found later called SmartiPants that are very similar to the BG's but have snaps and openings in both the front and back of the diaper for the inserts. In all my CDing experience has been an awesome one and I am definitely a proponent for them. (Just ask my husband who laughs everytime he hears me talking to a new mom or mom-to-be and offering to show my diapers!) While we're on the subject of when she was little there is an awesome group in the Raleigh area available for breastfeeding mommies called Nursing Mothers of Raleigh. The issues we had that prevented immediate CDing were with breast feeding and the support my husband and I got from the members of this group was overwhelmingly helpful in every possible way. So, if you know anyone who is a new mom (struggling or not) and breastfeeding please refer them to this group.

On to the Pre-Potty training. We're not really trying to potty-train Miss Kora, as she is NOT ready for it, but I am having her sit on her potty occasionally so she can get used to it and know what it's for, etc. So far, she's peed in front of it twice, peed in it once (purely by accident I'm convinced)and pooped in other areas of the house twice. Oh, the joy we have to look forward to when we officially start! Wish us luck!

Just us girls....

This the second weekend in under a month that Kora and I have been left to our own devices by Daddy. Granted, the first time he was gone for his grandmother's funeral so that couldn't be helped, but this time he is on a fishing trip the whole weekend and.....

While the cat's away, the mice will play!

And play we have. Kevin officially left Thursday night so Kora had to go to dance with Mommy yet again and spend two hours playing her little heart out with the sweet girls who help me watch her there. She was so cute with them and gave each one hugs before heading home and to bed. Friday she slept till about 5:30, then went back to sleep until around 7:30. I was thinking about heading up to Boone since my bro is out of town but wasn't sure how much money Kev would be spending on his trip so decided against it. Instead we walked over to Trader Joes so Mommy could stock up on her current vice, chocolate chip scones!!! Then we walked over to a little shoe store that is going out of business and bought a really cute pair of Pedipeds (who knew they were pronounce Pee-di-Peeds?!) for about half the price. We also visited a used bookstore but I was able to restrain myself and made it out of there with nothing but plans to return! By the time we made it home I was dripping sweat and little Miss got to go in the neighbor's inflatable pool with Eben while I watched. Later in the day we headed over to Wally World for some basics and had a relaxing evening at home. This morning we hit up two Farmer's Markets, which were both really small but still fun, in Cary and Apex. Then we headed over to the Mall for the rest of the morning so Mommy could buy a new swimsuit top and continue her search for a "fun" white tank top. I have officially given up on that search, by the by. I don't think what is in mind exists and I am so tired of looking!

This week we also were able to reconnect with some "old" friends who we met last summer and weren't really able to see during the school year. Savannah is just a couple weeks older than Kora and so cute! We met up Thursday morning for some coffee and story time at Barnes and Noble and the girls had a lot of fun playing and running around together. I'm glad I was able to reconnect with Meredith, she's almost as crazy about worrying as I am and makes me feel not so bad for all the worrying I do! I'm looking forward to more playdaytes with her and Savannah and I know Miss Kora is as well! Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we also had our first creative movement class this week (taught by yours truly) and the girls did so well, they went for about 40 minutes! I didn't get any pics as I was teaching but I will try to get some next week and post them.

P.S. The pic included in this post is just a fun summer pic from a playdayte at a friend's a few weeks ago

P.P.S. Did I mention that while shopping today my child threw a deodarant (granted I was purchasing it) on the floor and broke the cap! The nice salesperson said I could get a new one and that one would be donated to a woman's shelter. So at least some good came out of it, right?!

Thank Goodness for paccy clips!

Who would have thought that my life would come down to being thankful for a small strip of fabric that keeps a pacifier hooked to my child like an umbilical cord?! This miracle holder can be credited for many things in my house, one of which includes my child FINALLY sleeping through the night! Now, we've also not been going when she cries but I truly think that clipping the pacifier to her, so she can't throw it out of the crib when she gets mad, has helped. Plus, it helps in the car and oh so many other places I can't even begin to name right now. This particular one seems to work better than others as it is a little longer so I can clip it to her lower down and not worry so much about it getting wrapped around her neck! Because, natural worrier that I am, you know that has entered my mind several times! The rest of this post is dedicated to our past couple days alone together. Kevin had to go back to SD for his grandmother's funeral this weekend so Kora and I have been flying solo since early Thursday morning and the girl has been FABULOUS for me! Absolutely fabulous! Sure, she's had her melt-down moments but for the most part she has listened, been patient while I run a ton of errands and make her get in and out of the car constantly (no small feat when your car seat is still rear-facing and there are overhead tether straps involved), endured long meetings in places with pretty much no toys and meals on the go. We're used to being alone during the day so that hasn't phased me too much but I must admit when I put her to bed at 6:00 I start feeling a little lonesome and wish for some adult company. Kevin will be back Monday morning and probably by Friday I'll be wishing him away again so I'm counting my blessings for a sweet girl, who has been giving her Mommy constant hugs and kisses, and an absent husband who is making my heart grow fonder as I type :)

Summer is HERE!

So, Friday was my last official day of school and then we had a fun Memorial Day weekend planned up in Boone at my brother's house. (The pic above is Kora with her Aunt Amy at their house in Boone) I still had dance on Saturday morning so Kora and Daddy headed out to North Hills and checked out the Farmers Market while waiting for that to finish. Then they got some yummy Panda Express for lunch and we loaded up my car for the 3 hour drive. Kora did pretty well on the drive and was very happy to see her cousins when we finally got there! She spent the next 2 days enjoying herself playing with all their toys, squealing at Carter whenever he was in sight and just being her usually silly self. Mommy got a gift card to the Mast General Store for her birthday and found a nice shirt for herself but also couldn't resist an adorable onesie with a skunk on it that says Little Stinker. Perfect for our little stinker. This morning was so nice at home. Kora slep till about 7:30 then we just hung out for a little while before getting dressed and heading over to the mall to spend the generous gift card that Mommy's class gave her at the end of the year. I found some cute clothes at Charlotte Russe after getting much too overwhelmed in Forever 21! We ended the morning with a yummy food court lunch and headed home for a nice afternoon nap. Kora is currently down for the count and I'm on my way there! I'm looking forward to a relaxing summer with my girl and trying out story time at the library tomorrow with my crazy toddler! Wish me luck!