The Bean

Every baby develops at a different rate. Cora has always been ahead of the charts in every way, from the very beginning. At her 12 month check-up, she was in the 95th percentile for height and 65th for weight. It has been a blast to watch her grow, learn and develop over the past 15 months.

According to the Virginia Department of Education Child's Development Guide, the average 15 month old child:

1. may walk without support

2. stacks three blocks

3. vocalizes-voice up and down

sounds like conversation

4. may use four or five words

5. some self-feeding

As of today, October 1st, 2012 Cora's accomplishments are as follows :)

She can:

1. strum a guitar

2. dance her hiny off (video is was taken at 13 months)

3. use sign language to tell Mama "more", "please", "thank you" and "all done"

4. speak! words in her vocabulary right now are: Hi!, bye-bye, Bear, no, Mama, Mommy, Dada,

Daddy, go!, bath, baba (bottle of milk), side (for outside/inside), dit-do (thank you), peees (please),

up!, Pop-pop, Paw-Paw, YAY!!! (while clapping, of course), Cora & hot

5. pee-pee in her training potty! (first time tonight, right before bath time, running around naked, with

a suggestion from Mama and a cell phone to look at, she nonchalantly sat on her potty and peed!)

5. That's cetified Cora pee!

6. walk

7. run!

8. sing (the Cora song is her favorite, that figures :) )

9. sleep 12-16 hours per night (crazy, right!?)

10. drink from a cup, almost unassisted

11. feed herself with a fork or spoon with a 75% success rate :)

11. Tofu scramble with a spoon!

12. climb up everything! Stairs, chairs, sofas, people...
13. get down three stairs with a railing upright, by herself
14. "color" with crayons
15. turn the pages of a book
16. occupy herself with toys, books, playing with her kitchen or playing "dress-up" with all of the
clothes in the bottom drawers of her dresser
17. can sign two workds together, she signed "more please" today when she wanted more bread :)
18. wave at total strangers and say, "HI!" with a great big smile
19. put Mama's shoes on and clomp around
20. point to a dog, bear, baby, lion, owl and elephant in a book when asked
21. bark like a dog and roar like a lion when prompted
22. pull everything off of every shelf with surprising speed
23. fall asleep on her own (since around 10 months)
24. give hugs and kisses
25. blow kisses
26. make you feel more love and more loved that you ever thought possible

26. Love like nothing else

A great big thank you to all of the wonderful people in Cora's life that help shape who she is every day :) We love you all!

We spent Cora's first Christmas morning at her Ammy's house in right outside of Warrenton, VA. It was all so exciting and there was much rejoicing...so much rejoicing that NOBODY TOOK ANY PICTURES!!!! Daddy video taped the opening of stockings and some gifts. Cora sat in Mommy's lap and Ammy passed out presents...someday we will get the right equipment to download the video to the computer, Ha! But, until that day, which may never come, by the way, here are our pictures from the rest of the season, from finding our Christmas tree to Christmas day dinner with the rest of the family. Enjoy!

PS- the video above was shot on Christmas morning watching Santa's Marching Band, a chorus of automated bell ringers that I grew up with and, to this day, is one of my favorite Christmas things :)