A bit about Cora on her Second Birthday

Since Cora is turning two in just a few short hours I thought I should tell a bit about my girl...

Cora now talks in a LOT of sentences. Here are a few common ones:
Sit by me mommy!
I want to snuggle
Skip this part! (anytime a movie is tense)
I don't like this movie
I have no idea!
Do you want to come visit me? (anytime she is talking to family)
Wanna talk to... (Uncle Muggy, Uncle Teri (She calls mikes wife "Uncle" too...))

Cora is a very orderly little girl. When I am in the kitchen she follows me around closing cupboards and drawers behind me. After a diaper change she will throw away her diaper without being asked. The other day after eating an applesauce cup, she got down and threw the plastic cup and metal spoon away. I told her thank you, and then explained the difference between plastic and metal. (In her defense we had just been together with family, and using a lot of plastic utensils) She is always trying to put the lids on things, close the fridge door, or create order in some way.

After we sing songs to her at night we have a family hug, and she will often exclaim "I love my family!!!" Anytime I talk to Brian on the phone, she has to talk to him too. If I forget to let her say goodbye we have to call him back. While Cora and I were on a recent trip to Utah we would speak to Brian using Skype & a video camera. The minute Brian's face appeared on the screen, Cora would jump up and cover the screen with kisses. We actually had to clean the monitor off daily after she was done smothering her daddy with kisses each day.
Cora loves to dress herself. I have bins on the floor so she can pick out her outfits. Usually she is pretty classy, but if she has a strange combo I just smile and explain to people: "she likes to dress herself!" Cora can use the potty successfully anytime she agrees to sit on it, but we are still waiting for the kidney to mature before we actually potty train. She loves bubble baths, small stuffed animals, swinging on our playset, playing outside, picking flowers, visiting friends and eating anything chocolate.

Our little one is still very tall and skinny. She recently weighed in at 25 lbs, and is about 35 inches tall. Some of her favorite foods are pizza, cereal, applesauce, cheese, raisins, grapes, bananas and anything sweet. She still tends to shun meat, but we are able to slip more and more past her.

My most repeated phrase to her is probably "chew & swallow!" she tends to get so excited about stuffing things into her face that she forgets to process her morsels. If I don't remind her in time she gags, and I end up holding a large ball of not so tasty looking food in my hand. On our weekend to Maryland her cousins caught on to her dilemma, and they would often help her by reminding her of the same thing : "Chew and Swallow!"
Cora is very excited about her birthday. We had a party for her at her cousins house last weekend, and she loved being the birthday girl. We were going to have a party tomorrow, but she is running a fever tonight, so it will have to wait until the party girl is feeling a little more perky.

We love Cora so much, and can't believe how blessed our lives are for having this wonderful little girl as our daughter.