Stewart news

We're getting excited for Halloween! I am, at least. I got this shirt for a dollar at Target. I couldn't resist. I put a "Happy Halloween" banner and a bat garland on our dining room wall, and orange lights across the fireplace. I have some cobwebs and little plastic ghosts that I still need to put up. I'm working on making our costumes. I finally got the thread I needed on Monday, but haven't had time to work on them since then. Tuesday was Activity Days, so I was planning for that, and I've been helping Josh label his books for school. We had already leveled them, but now they've started a new system which includes getting points for the books they read. We're also having a competition--the 17 students against Josh and me to see who gets the most points. It's fun to compete. :D



Last week Cora and I got a ride to the ward playgroup at a park. Here's Cora playing with her friend Zach, who's a month or so older than her. It was actually a little chilly in the morning, so I put a jacket on her. In the sun, though, it got warm, so I was glad it was a jacket I could take off and not a long-sleeved shirt. I'm terrified that I'm turning into a Texan because 50 degrees feels chilly to me. Yikes!


There were horses next to the park, which Cora LOVED! One of the moms was helping the kids find grass to feed the horses, and Cora kept just sticking her whole fist through the fence. I'm glad the horses didn't bite it! We need to go to the zoo with her. There are tons of dogs in the neighborhood where we go on walks, and Cora always gets really excited when they bark at us. Then she gets mad at me when I walk past them.






Can't you tell how much she loves the swings? She really does, once they get moving. She loves the slide, too. I have to watch her carefully when she climbs up on the playground equipment because she tries to walk down the slide. :D Then when she gets down to the bottom, she tries to climb back up. Silly girl.







Here's Cora and Daddy playing peekaboo on the bed. Cora loves playing on our bed. If I need to do stuff on the computer, I can stick her on the bed with a few toys and she entertains herself well.





Whenever I get out the videocamera, Cora always wants to watch the videos on it. I took a video of them playing peekaboo, and then we watched the other ones, too. I tried uploading the videos on the library computers, but it didn't work. I think they've made it so you can't open any programs through the USB ports, and our camera has its own software. So I'll have to figure out some other way to share the videos with you guys.


We finally got her a front-facing car seat! She's been playing in it all week. Her legs have been a little crammed in her infant seat for a while. She got to use it for the first time today, and as soon as I buckled her in, she kicked her feet happily, as though she was thinking "Hooray, I finally have legroom!"

Other happy things from the last few weeks:
~Josh gave Cora her stuffed dog while he was changing her diaper and woofed, and she woofed back. She hasn't done it again since, though.
~She's finally saying "Mama" again! If I'm in my room (which is blocked off), she'll stand at the gate and say it over and over until I come get her.
~Josh taught her how to make my guitar tuner light up by singing into it, so whenever she gets ahold of it, she'll turn it on and sing. Singing before she can really talk!
~At lunch one day, Cora was doing something (probably dropping stuff on the floor), and I shook my head and said "No, no." Then she vigorously nodded "yes!"
~I've been using a few signs with her, and she's finally starting to pick them up. She started signing "milk" a couple days ago, and today she also signed "more." I got a book from the library that talks about signing, so I'm hoping to learn more to teach her. I've had several moms tell me that it helped tame the terrible twos because their kids were able to say what they wanted.

So that's what's up with us.