Beware!

This may be a random post, because I am in a somewhat random mood. I'm just warning you. Plus, I usually base my posts off of the pictures I put on them, and I haven't taken many pictures lately, so the ones I do have are completely unrelated.

First, a work of art by Josh. This is known as a Joshiecake, not a gigantic pancake. He put the fork on so everyone could gauge the size. He was very proud of this one; every other Joshiecake this large has fallen apart when he tried to flip it over.

Next, a photographic study by Cora. She LOVES to watch videos on our videocamera (and has even taken a few herself), and recently she discovered that she can look at pictures on the digital camera. So she was playing with it (yes, I was aware and most supervising her) and took quite a few pictures, most of her own fingers. Obviously, while she was able to discover the picture-taking button (no, I don't know the technical term), she never did figure out what the lens did. I kept this one because it has a Cora's-eye view of our game shelf.

And yes, of course, some actual pictures of Cora. Last week, I once again gathered my courage and attempted to style Cora's hair. Previous attempts involved lots of squirming and shaking of a certain cute little head, so it had been awhile since I tried. To my utter amazement, she sat still almost the whole time until I'd finished putting in her pigtails! Somehow or other, I started calling it her "cute hair," and she copied me. She touched her cute pigtails and said "Cu' hai, cu' hai." So we've done pigtails 3 or 4 times in the last week and every time she sat so calmly while I was doing it and didn't pull it out when I was done. This morning, when I was combing her hair after her bath, she even asked me to do "cu' hai"! I was so excited! So she's wearing pigtails today, too.

But anyways, these pictures are from Sunday. I tried to get a good smile, but the smile would never last through the flash. I like her pose in this second one, even though she has her sippy cup.

Cora is getting really good at identifying colors. She can pretty consistently name something that's red, orange, blue or green, and often yellow and purple, too. She sometimes gets green and yellow mixed up. I'm amazed at how much she knows. In addition to basic colors, she knows all her capital letters, many shapes (including obscure ones like octagon and wedge), can count to ten alternating with us (we say 1, she says 2, etc. It shows she's beginning to understand the order), and loves helping with small tasks like sweeping and setting the table. She even helped Josh make the batter for the pancakes earlier in the post. Her vocabulary is expanding exponentially every day, and she is an accomplished mimic. She "reads" several verses during family scripture study and says prayers with help. She's a real joy!