It’s hard to believe she’ll actually be 2 in a few months. Ok 6 months, but I was never good at the math. I’ve got lots of video and pictures to share of recent activities, so here is a little blast of what’s been going on with her in our lives.

https://plus.google.com/photos/101730385792753985153/albums/5855060071005291201?authkey=CJiwvKiNt6f9dw

Help! What do I do with the categories on the blog? She had her very own category “Baby” but soon there will be another in the same category. Is there some etiquette to moving her into a “big sister” category or something like that so I don’t feel guilty for slighting her (because we all know she won’t really care)? Any ideas? Does anyone really worry about this stuff or is it just me?

Well, the woodworking bug has bitten me and thanks to the woodworking class that AJ got me for Christmas, I am taking on an ambitious project. I am going to build Cora a play table. I have already selected the material and it is American Red Oak. I know, I know, solid oak furniture for a 1 year old. I have also learned how to use Google Sketchup. This is quite a program and has been useful in designing the table. Below is the image of the table to date. In case you are wondering, the white cylinder is a roll of butcher paper for coloring. As I go down the path of building the table, I will be posting additional pictures showing the progress of the table. As a side note, I am going to take the Sketchup image to a place here in Seattle to get it 3D printed. That should be interesting and give some exposure to using a 3D printer.

We celebrated Cora’s first birthday in several phases, that lucky little gal. First phase was in Texas, with family and good friends in Houston and Dallas. In Dallas, she was able to meet for the first time her maternal-paternal great-grandparents, Granny and PawPaw Henderson and Grandpa and Grandma Thomas. She also was able to meet several cousins (Liz and Will, Sam and Tameka, Rachel and RaShad, Lydia, great-aunts and uncles and cousins Becky, Doris, Town and Stace, and I’m sure I missed somebody… big families == BIG LOVE, right?).

The second installment was a birthday party at the park near our house in Seattle. Once again, that girl has everything anyone could ever ask for. Mama and babe both had runny noses and low grade fevers, but that little Bam Bam didn’t bat an eye. I can’t say the same for myself.

And in case you were wondering why this post took almost three months to appear, happily our blogs are back up, the webserver, fileshares, etc. are all rocking big boy style, and the posts will flow aplenty now… because Sean also figured out how to add time in to the day while he was learning Linux.

It’s been a tragically full summer thus far for our family. On July 16th, we lost Cora’s current sitter, Marilyn. It was a surprise to our family and hers and a huge shock to our lives after just recently losing Sean’s grandmother.  Cora’s short life has already been punctuated with much sadness. We are only grateful that she is so young and will most likely not remember, at least not with the sadness that typically comes with such events.

We sent our condolences to Marilyn’s family and made a donation to the Seattle Parks Foundation in her memory. She shared the parks with Cora and the other kids in her care over her 30+ years as a provider.  Rest in peace, Miss Marilyn.

Some of my favorite things from this month:

Frantic arm waving/giggling/body shaking at the sight of water or food; that ticklish spot on her collarbones and the resulting laughter, the slow smile she gives when her daddy enters the room; how amazing it is she can recognize her grandparents via Skype when it’s been months since she’s seen them in person; grabbing my hands to clap them together (but not clapping on her own); rolling, rolling, rolling around.

Some pictures from her 9th month on the outside (equal time out as inside, says her dad).