I had no idea what it was like to have my baby able to move on her own until it suddenly just WAS. She is officially mobile. The rolling around only got her so far and she usually got bored with it before too long. This week however, my little gal is fit for the army with her creeping on elbows and hands movement. It’s not a full blown crawl, but she can get clear across the room and into anything she finds interesting in less time than it takes to tell a bad joke.

She also is really into food now, too. Can I get an A-MEN? Because something has to keep that girl full and I just haven’t been able to keep up!

I’ll dig up some pictures (hopefully a useful video) to add to this but it’s so hard to just enjoy her while trying to capture it all on camera sometimes …

I can’t even believe how fast time flies. Cora turned 8 months old yesterday and she’s so different than that first day we brought her home.

We’ve tried to capture as much of the wonder that is a little baby growing up in pictures and video. In stories we’ve got a few choice tales to tell.

Her paternal grandparents got Cora a bike trailer for Christmas and the weather shared a nice day for us to go on a ride in it for the first time last week. Despite some hiccups getting started, she seemed to really enjoy the ride. I know I did. I’m enjoying the improving weather and opportunities to take Cora out in it.

For the big kids in the family, the baseball season has started and Cora and I went gone out to cheer on Sean at his first game last weekend.

I’m playing league ultimate with several friends from Rice on a fun and laid back team. It’s nice to get back on the field to play snd have Cora there on the sideline to snuggle between points.

There’s more going on but I don’t want to bore you and frankly I’m happy I got this much into a post!

PICTURES! – Cora Month 6

More PICTURES! – Cora Month 7

and yet more PICTURES – Cora’s First Easter

Well folks the time sure does fly when you’re having fun. And Cora is a ball of fun most days of the week. She gives us a LOT to laugh about.

Some fun she’s thrown our way since 6 months old:

• Sprouted two new teeth
• Rolling over from front to back, back to front and using these skills to move across the room when we’re not looking (which isn’t that often, HONEST)
• Sitting up on her own
• Eating “solids” (seriously why do they call this stuff solids, it’s practically all liquid!)
• Feeding herself (hand held foods) and occasionally the spoon makes it to her mouth
• Been to her first ComicCon
• and conversely, is teaching her mama about dressing like a lady*

She has continued to be quite the chatterbox. We’re pretty sure “mama” and “dada” have escaped her lips and we’re happy to possibly even be the intended subject BUT we’re still waiting to claim first word for non-babble words with purpose. Stay tuned there.

Pictures have been added to the gallery and it was really fun taking Cora and her birth buddy Orion out to Madrona Park to take pictures and “play”.

The move has really afforded us easy access to green space and beautiful views. I hope that Cora is learning to appreciate the beautiful things around us and personally that I never lose my awe and wonder at them either.

* If you know me at all, you know this has been a struggle 🙂

It’s a lie, you know. All these parents out there that say you blink and it’s gone. I think we’ve been graced with the opportunity for time to stand still so we can soak up every moment. Working full time wasn’t enough for us to try to stop time, so we’ve also decided to move homes to check out the other side of Lake Washington while experiencing Cora’s 6th month on earth. You’ll be able to find us at 1420 Madrona Dr after the 24th of this month. Which is also when we’ll finally post a bunch of pictures and videos of the last month and a half with Cora. Nothing too crazy going on, just growing up…. too fast!

Little onesie action from Seattle Underground courtesy of Jillian.

Serious Conversations

Cora giving the world a piece of her mind.

Well, we Beards think we might have found the formula for us surviving winter in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve had a lot of recommendations for keeping the winter blues at bay: finding sun (lots of trips to Hawaii were proposed), full spectrum happy lights, going out to eat often, exercising despite the weather. However, snowshoeing above the gray and gloomy weather might just do it for us!  Last weekend we tried our first snowshoe at the Summit at Snoqualmie, guided by the US Forest Service Rangers. For a small donation, we were able to borrow snowshoes and be guided on a 60-minute interpretive walk. Snowshoeing is amazing to us because it really felt just like walking and allowed us to get in the places you couldn’t otherwise (12′ off the ground in most places!) in a blanket of beautiful white snow.

Photos courtesy of DyAnne.

So far we’ve learned that children can bring their parents much pride and joy. Until they don’t know when to stop. Well folks, it was bound to happen. Sean and I are just amazed it happened so soon. Cora had a little too much of the festivities this New Year.

We tried to set a good example by observing the New Year based on Eastern Time and heading promptly to bed. However, this was the scene that greeted us in the morning despite our best parenting efforts. Looks like we’re going to have our hands full for the next couple decades…

In the meantime, Cora put on a great show for Christmas with our families and friends in Houston this Christmas. Check out her latest antics in the Christmas 2011 album!

More pictures added today (1/06/12).

Ok this isn’t the best post, especially since we made it to the mystical and wondrous 3 months for Cora. The end of the “4th” trimester as they call it. She’s done all she was supposed to do in that time, grow grow grow, make us fall in love with her, and charm friends near and far.

For a quick snapshot of pictures of her 3rd month on the outside, visit her album.