2015 Resolutions: Mid-Year Check-In

I made me some resolutions (slash to-do list) way, way back 6 months ago. Let's see how they're panning out.


1. Have baby, name the baby!
Done, and done! I had said in January that naming was harder than birthing, but I got a stubborn one who had to be induced at nearly 2 weeks late. Named in about an hour after birth, little Audrey Francine has been a pretty awesome baby so far.

2. Still be pumping at work a year from today.
As much as I was dreading pumping, I'm doing great! And I don't dread it. I got my routine down and my supply is doing beautifully. I can pump out her full 4oz. feeding in less than 15 minutes usually (and in my first morning session, it's more like 6oz.) It's too early to say, but I think I'll make it the year.

3. Decorate Cora's room.
Done! The only thing missing is the curtains that I haven't made yet. B has contributed, too. Her room runs really hot in the summer and he bought these tinting decal sticker thingies for the window that have really helped!

4. Read 12 books.
Well, I thought I wasn't on track because my book club read the same book for 6 months (which did not help light any fires under my bum), but actually I've finished exactly 6!

My book list so far, and I'm currently reading another two:

1. Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs
2. The Beginner's Photography Guide by Chris Gatcum
3. Marriage: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures by Amber Dusick
4. Shopaholic to the Stars by Sophie Kinsella
5. Bébé Day by Day: 100 Keys to French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman
6. Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver

And yeah, 2 of those (numbers 3 and 5) are sorta what I call "throwaway books" that I read in like a day. Totally counting them.

5. Run ONE race.
I have gone running once so far since giving birth (one mile, and it was S L O W), so I'm sorta on track! I think my goal is to run the River City Rat Race in October.

6. Host 4 dinners at our house.
We've had one. And does Cora's birthday party count? Or hosting Book Club? (Things to ponder.) My sister and her family and my parents are coming in town this week and we're having a baptism party, so I think I'll count that somehow as another.

7. Learn how to use my fancy camera.
I read the photography book, sorta figured it out but still haven't invested the time or energy to do everything on manual. But I do know my other settings pretty well and have gotten decent shots.

Taken a few months back while Cora ate a snack and I messed around with manual settings.

8. Get that blasted passport already.
Still need a push on this. Maybe we just need to plan a trip to Canada so I get it done.

----------------

Basement Update:
And this was on last year's list, but it keeps evolving, so I thought I'd share. I had the goal to clean/fix up the basement back in 2014.

Before everything, here was what we were working with:





Yikes.

Mid-year check-in (a year ago from now) it looked like this:




Nice, right? Except then life happened.

End of the year, it looked like this:




And now, thanks to my wonderful husband, it looks like this!

I had no idea we had beanbag chairs until I took this picture. Where did they come from?

Yep, B's homework table is still there. And the beach chairs stay . . . We'll get a couch eventually.

So those are my goal updates. I think I have a good chance of hitting them all within the next 6 months. How are you doing with your goals?

5 Faves

I've been squee-ing about a few things lately (except for the fact that I'm pretty sure I've never actually squee-d in my life). Here are some of them.

1.

The Book With No Pictures

by B.J. Novak

If you have a child roundabouts the ages of 3, 4, or 5, get a hold of this book somehow and be ready for adorable belly laughs. Cora is in love with it, and has been asking to read "Booboobutt" every night. (Read it, you'll understand.)

2.

Vests

Where have these been all my life? Or at least the past 2 winters I've lived here in Snowtown, USA? I can't zip them any more, but I throw one of these puppies on immediately when I get home and my arms are happy and my core is happy and momma is happy.

3.

"Wood of the Cradle"

Yeah, yeah, Christmas season is over, I know. But we sang this a few times at church during the season (perfect communion song, no?), and I just loved it. Not sure if I've just never heard it before, or if I've just never paid attention. And now it's stuck in my head.

4.

fruit and veggie muffins for my picky toddler

These Fruity & Veggie Muffins have been a big hit around here, at least with the little one. This is the second time we've made them (and frozen half the batch to use later). Cora even helped me make them, telling me how she doesn't like broccoli during it. (My response: "That's okay, you don't have to like everything.") But of course Little Miss Picky scarfed them down once they became actual muffins.

5.

this photography book

My BIL knew I was getting a DSLR camera for Christmas, so he got me this book as an accompaniment. It's fabulous! (I had been trying to learn some stuff from schmucks on YouTube, which was seriously hit-or-miss. Mostly miss.) I still have a loooong way to go, but now I've at least heard of metering patterns and figured out how to change my white balance. Also, it's a photography book that includes lots of pictures and tells you the settings used to achieve them. Thank God.

Linking up with Jenna's #5Faves

7QT: Lazy Marathons, Tortoises, Lamb Chop Selfie

--- 1 ---

In major life-altering news that I have not disclosed on the ol' blog yet, my husband quit his job. He needed out, for various reasons that are not my business to disclose here, but he is definitely going to get his Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering with his GI Bill. However, his timeline for that is still up in the air, thanks to the Navy Reserves. He has one week left, but now we both are applying for jobs. I have no idea what our life will look like in a month or so, but we'll figure it out. If anyone needs an electrical engineer/marketing specialist/admin assistant/budgeting class instructor, just holler at La Casa W.

--- 2 ---

A few online friends and I decided to run a "lazy gal's marathon" in May. The goal is to RUN 26.2 miles between May 1st and May 20th. I'm at 12.3, so I guess I'm almost where I need to be right now. I have a 5K next Saturday, too, and I can't wait!

My 5K prep will look like this but with much less clothes and snow.

I also ran with a buddy for the first time since high school last week. It's a girl (woman? when do you switch over? she's 35?) I met through our kids' gymnastic class a month or so ago. It was so great chatting and getting to know her that our 30-minute run turned into a 40-minute one. We'll definitely be doing that again!

--- 3 ---

It was really cold and windy out during that run with the friend, and I decided at the last minute to wear an ear-warmer over the headband that I already was wearing. Well, somehow I LOST my favorite headband. It's a Sweaty Band that B gave me for Christmas (those things are not cheap!). I was so bummed, so I went back to look for it. I ended up walking over a mile [even though I was 99% sure it came off during our cool-down] and asking the few joggers out there if they had seen it.

I finally gave up, went back into the Y, and asked the front desk if anyone had turned it in. They had! I kinda wonder if it was there before I even went back out to look for it. Next time, I will ask FIRST before walking a mile in the wind and cold. Lesson learned.

--- 4 ---

One more take about running, I promise. I decided to run JUST ONE MILE this morning before Zumba so I could see my time. I run 9-10 minute miles when I do longer runs, but I have some goals to reduce that, so I definitely needed to see the potential. 7:40. Pretty sure the last time I did that was 8th grade. (I came in 2nd place on Olympic Day. That ribbon hung proudly in my room for many years.)

--- 5 ---

Hey, I heard you like tortoises, so here's a picture of 2 people on a fake tortoise while 2 tortoises walk around in the back ground.

--- 6 ---

Can I rave about my cell phone company just one more time? I promise I'll shut up about it after this. I am loving Ting. And I still haven't actually paid a bill! Somehow I amassed $100 worth of referral credits (in addition to my $25 signup bonus), and that has paid for FOUR MONTHS of smartphone service for B and me. I have like $1.81 left to use on May's bill, too. Unless you want to sign up, that is. Hint hint, nudge nudge.

--- 7 ---

My book club has officially decided to read Something Other Than God for our June meeting! I started it this morning, after patiently waiting because I refuse to read more than one book at a time now (after last year's issue with never actually finishing any books) and hadn't finished our previous book (Strange Gods by Elizabeth Scalia, since I know you're wondering). I have a hunch this one won't take me the whole month to read. As I've learned lately, I'm a sucker for a good conversion story.

Here is my official #SOTG selfie:

That is my Lamb Chop puppet from when I was a kid!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes: Books, Brackets, Bunnies

--- 1 ---

I finished another book for the year, my third . . . and my 3rd conversion memoir. Those things suck me in! Girl At The End of the World just blew my mind. Elizabeth Esther (the author) blogs over yonder. I luckily never knew such abuse as a child. And some of the theology that she was brought up with--yeesh. (There was one thing about a woman's soul being subject to a man's soul that had me hollering, "Are you kidding me?!" over and over and over.)

I'm joining a Catholic women's book club soon, and I might be suggesting this one. There were even discussion questions in the back, so I guess that makes it book club material??

Also, it's kinda cool knowing you're the first person to read a library book! It was on order when I put it on hold.

--- 2 ---

I realized the reason I hardly finished any books last year.

It was because my 'fun reading' looks like this:

Yes, that's 5 books all at once. I did sorta make it through the potty-training one, and it was not for me. According to that book, my kid is already potty-trained. The author also made it sound like no one in their right mind would use cloth diapers, so that's just a no. I returned it to the library a few days ago. I think I'm going to focus on the Jesuit Guide and let the others just collect dust/overdue fines for a bit.

--- 3 ---

So how did everyone do with their March Madness brackets??

Here are ours:

Cora's brackets were done mostly with a very scientific coin-toss method. Needless, to say, she came in 3rd for both men's and women's. I won the women's bracket with a very nice score of 135. I really feel that if we had no ties to Notre Dame at all, I could have done even better. But we both picked ND to win over UConn because that's what we wanted. One year I did a 'fantasy bracket' where I had my team (Georgia) win the whole thing (it's never actually happened), and then did a more realistic bracket instead. Maybe that's what I need to do again.

--- 4 ---

I only caught parts of the men's final match (in all honestly, I never cared much for men's basketball), but I did watch almost all of the women's final game online. Since we don't have cable, the only way to [legally] view it was on ESPN's website. However, it was the 'multi-cam' view. It turns out that meant there were no announcers. It was just the sound of the game being played. It was sort of interesting, mostly in that I could hear a little bit of what the players were yelling to each other. And I didn't have to listen to the same things being said over and over again by the commentators.

--- 5 ---

Our Y had the Easter Bunny come last week, and Cora called him "Peter Rabbit" (we read that one a lot). But she wasn't too keen on getting a pic with him.

Why are the Easter Bunnies so odd-looking? I've never seen one I like.

--- 6 ---

Tonight (Friday), we had B's aunt, uncle, and grandma over for dinner. I'm trying to host dinner for someone at least once a month because it forces me to keep a clean house. It's also rather fun. I made macaroni and cheese using half gouda/half cheddar, and it was delicious. I also made my own fresh breadcrumbs for the first time ever. (Um, that was easy. Never buying those again.)

We finished off dinner with another first for me, monkey bread:

I made this completely from scratch, using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen. (Which, by the way, is a book I still do not own--I just keep checking it back out of the library.) There's another method out there that uses refrigerated biscuit dough, and honestly, I think I'll be using that from now on. Sure, this one was great, but it was a lengthy process that involved letting the dough rise 2 different times. If I had done the biscuit method, we might have actually gone outside and done something this morning.

--- 7 ---

I'm so glad it's finally warm and beautiful here. We even took our dinner guests on a walk around our street after filling our bellies. But flower names. Freakin' flower names, man. Every time I'm with older women, they look over yonder and ask me, "Oh, are those crocuses?" (Please tell me this happens to other females.) I recognize pansies and daffodils, but only after they've already bloomed, and that's all you'll get from me. I'm sure I learned other ones at some point, but it's been a long winter.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7QT: Cancelled Plans and Hot Deals

--- 1 ---

This past weekend, I was supposed to get a weekend ALL TO MYSELF. B had Drill and was taking Cora down with him for Grandma to take care of. I went to a mom's night out at a martini bar (the most overpriced and pretentious thing in this town, but I was happy with the complimentary valet!), and then woke up the next morning sick sick sick. I couldn't even talk. So I was so glad I didn't have to take care of a kid! Or a husband. I laid in bed all day and finished book #2 of the year!

A memoir, a conversion story, and a handful of quick birth stories
Check out Clan Donaldson for more from Cari!

--- 2 ---

But then. Of course there's a BUT THEN. Around noontime on Saturday, while I was still lying in bed, B texted me to tell me that his Sunday drill got cancelled due to an impending snowstorm that was supposed to drop 6-12" on Indy. He and Cora would be coming home that night. We were both miffed, since if he doesn't have Sunday drill, he doesn't get paid for that day. He was happy to have a day off of either job on Sunday, though.

So he slept until 10am. Which means, on my 'me' weekend, I was up feeding breakfast to my kid at 7am. Then we had to shovel our way out to get to church. (At least I had help with that.) My MIL texted and said we'd try again for his drill in April. If it snows then, I am done with you, Indiana. So done.

--- 3 ---

After doing the 7 posts in 7 days challenge, it seems I've run out of stuff to blog about. Luckily, we're taking a mini 3-day excursion to Louisville next week, so you'll get a recap of that. My husband took the entire week off because he just 'needed a break'--he's right, he does. He worked 26 out of 28 days in Feb., and one of those days off was to attend a funeral. (He had another half-day off due to illness.)

I wanted to go somewhere close enough but south of here where they just might not have snow on the ground. Fingers crossed, but I have lots of museums and indoor activities planned. Including a trip to Krispy Kreme when the 'HOT' sign is on. Not kidding.

Of course there's an app for that

--- 4 ---

I booked our Louisville hotel through Hotwire.com, and I made out like a bandit! I did the deal where you don't know what hotel you're getting, so you get a better rate. They had a promo going where if you book through the app, you got $25 off $100. I was getting a $51/night hotel for 2 nights, so this was perfect. With all the taxes and whatnot added at the end, it came out to $100 even, and I had even figured out which hotel it is. Hopefully it treats us well. I was really just looking for somewhere with free breakfast!

--- 4½ ---

This post needs another picture.

Yes, B is wearing my "Queen of Everything" apron

--- 5 ---

I have been messing around a lot with apps that make money and getting stuff for free. Just yesterday, I cashed out the money from my Ibotta app using Venmo, since there was a $5 bonus incentive. I then used a promo code from deal site Hip2Save to sign up for Citrus Lane (for Cora) for $9 for the first box. B went to Kroger and did some deal where he bought 3 boxes of his favorite cereal and it made the milk free. Then I got 50¢ back on the milk through Ibotta and 50¢ back on a 40¢ yogurt through Checkout 51. And then I decided to try Bulu Box (for me) for free by using my EarndIt points. And some awesome person used my Ting referral link, so we'll be getting another month of a cheap (maybe even free) smartphone bill.

If that wasn't enough, I currently have $30 worth of Amazon gift cards I've earned through Swagbucks and Bing Rewards that I'll be using for something soon.

--- 6 ---

That entire last take probably proves I'm nuts and/or speaking a foreign language, but it was a pretty good way to spend naptime. I'll throw in the disclaimer here that this post definitely contains affiliate links. Feel free to comment or email me asking about any of those. I don't feel like launching into 20 explanations right now. But here is the link to the post I wrote about our awesome cell phone company Ting!

--- 7 ---

Were anyone else's ashes really wet this year? I know it makes a better cross instead of just a smudge with dust in your eyes, but it felt wet for a good 10 minutes afterward!

Our #ashtag selfie. Hard to see Cora's, but it's there!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes (Snowshoes and Dancing Olympians)

--- 1 ---

Hey e'erbody, happy Saints Cyril and Methodius Day! Oh wait, hang on a sec.

--- 2 ---

Literally an hour after I told someone yesterday that "we don't do squat" for Valentine's Day and that B might get me flowers and candy 3 days later, when they're on sale, he walked in the door with this:

WAT.

(He was apparently so excited that he got off work on time for the first time in a long time that he flew to Meijer and bought the farm.)

--- 3 ---

He also got some hilarious snow shoes for Cora that make animal footprints in the snow (clearance rack, baby!) and a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal that he'll give her tonight. I was so surprised because he always thinks she has too many toys. (He's kinda right.)

She walked around with them on okay while in the house, but once she was out in the snow, she couldn't walk at all! Maybe next year.

--- 4 ---

I have been loving the Olympics once again! So many cool sports that I'll never do and athletes that are younger than me. Like freestyle skiier and his ridiculous giant pants:

Yeah, those are 4XL. Apparently, it's his style (and he uses suspenders).

--- 5 ---

With all the Olympics I've been watching, it's no real wonder that it might pervade my slumber. I was having a dream last night that I was a beautiful figure skater, gracefully doing triple axels and double salchows like nobody's business. Just as I was about to go for the quadruple toe loop, my husband jabbed me in the arm and woke me up. He told me I was thrashing around and wanted me to stop.

Apparently, I'm not even that graceful in my sleep. I have been laughing about this all day.

--- 6 ---

I finished my first book of the year! (I have a resolution to read and actually finish 7 books. I have a bad habit of starting books and then getting distracted, usually by other books. It's a rough cycle.) But I devoured this one in 3 days!

It was fantastic, and reminded me why I am pro-life. I had never heard of this gal until a few months ago. Her entire conversion and news surrounding it happened right after we got married, so I guess I had other things going on.

--- 7 ---

Since B is cooking tonight, I promised I'd make him cookies. So I better get on that. I'll let Olympic luger Kate Hansen see us out.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7QT: My Christmas Wish List

Hey, a Christmas wish list post! Because why not? This is technically 8 Takes, but I'm also joining up with Mary Kate's gift-giving guide link-up. If you have a 29-year-old gal in your life, something on here might just be what she wants.

--- 1 ---

This is my big-ticket item, and I haven't had one of those in YEARS. The Ninja Mega Kitchen System 1500. Not only is it fun to say, it's what I hope to be an awesome blender/food processor system. I currently have a blender that works okay but hates frozen fruit and takes forever and a lot of armwork on my part to make a decent smoothie. I also don't own a food processor, but have wanted one. Bam, 2 birds with one stone. Oh, it has a dough hook, too, and I watched a video on how to make pizza dough in it. That would be amazing!

--- 2 ---

A personalized welcome sign for our home. We just bought our first house this year, and I have the perfect place to put a nice sign with our name on it. The one pictured is from the Etsy shop Chapter Red Studio. I would also think this would be an awesome gift for any newlywed couples you know.

--- 3 ---

Food food food. Oh, glorious food. I don't really like cooking, so anything that could take that burden away would be great! My husband B was given Omaha Steaks for his birthday once, and I think it was more of a present to me! We didn't own a grill (still don't, actually), so I just broiled them in the toaster oven. Is that actually considered cooking? Barely.

It's a sign of a good gift if you took a picture of your freezer!

--- 4 ---

Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. I have heard sooooo many good things about this book! Truth be told, I have actually checked this out from the library and am currently working my way through it. But I think this might just be one of those books I need to actually own.

--- 5 ---

A necklace/jewelry tree. My dresser is a mess, and this looks like a pretty way to fix that.

--- 6 ---

The slightly embarrassing yet highly practical gift: razors. Specifically a gift card to the Dollar Shave Club. I gave up on crappy disposables  this year, and now I'm tired of digging for coupons for good razors (currently have a small stock of Schick Hydro, thanks to coupons and Target deals). The club has a few levels, but the one I want is the 4-blade razor. It sends you 4 cartridges a month for $6. That's $1.50 per cartridge--delivered to your door! I don't go through razors that quickly, so a $25 gift card to this would probably get me a year's supply of razors!

--- 7 ---

Pope Awesome by Cari Donaldson. Her blog is hilarious, and I've heard lots of great things about this book! Also, I don't think my library will be stocking it--just checked, and still a nope--so I wouldn't mind actually owning it. (And then I can lend it to friends!)

--- 8 ---

Functional and (can be) pretty: a Kitchen Canister Set. I would like to be able to scoop flour, sugar, and, hey, maybe even M&M's out of these lovelies. There are lots of fun designs out there, but these are probably going in our large pantry, so clear would be nice to see the contents!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Also go check out Mary Kate's Christmas Gift-Giving link-up. There are lots of great ideas for all ages over there!

Real Motherhood: Books, Books, Books

I went to the dentist a few weeks back, and the hygienist and I had a conversation about our kids. She has a daughter that's about 5 months younger than Cora, so obviously we needed to compare notes. At one point she asked me what Cora was into, and all I could think in reply was, "Everything." (Because that's what people say about toddlers, right?) Two seconds later, as the hygienist was speaking again, I realized it wasn't true. She said her daughter had recently got really into . . . "Books!" I actually finished her sentence for her, even though I'm pretty sure she had her fingers in my mouth.

I told her to not expect that to end. Because it hasn't for us.

All day long Cora wants me to read to her. It's cute and fun, most of the time. But some other of the time, it's just annoying. "Mama's hands are busy" is an oft-used phrase around here, because sometimes I really cannot drop whatever I'm doing (usually cooking) and read to her. "You read it to me" works sometimes, but not always.

Now that we're in a 2-story house, it's getting difficult because Cora's favorite place to read is the glider in her room, which is now upstairs. We've employed the baby gate to block the stairs a bit, but that's a pain if I need to get up there (it also doesn't fit on our stairs well). Before and after her nap I usually let her play in her room a bit, but really the only toys in there right now are about ten of her books. She doesn't seem to mind one bit.

Of course we gave her the room with the built-in bookshelf!
(Still working on unpacking Cora's library, though)

I think what takes the cake here is on Halloween we were trying to get her out the door to go trick-or-treating, and she straight-up REFUSED to go until Fox In Socks was read to her. I'm a pro at that tongue twister now (Cora now says the word "gooey" because of the "blue goo" page), but Daddy thankfully obliged her this time. Oh yeah, all the books she wants read are at least 30 pages (if not 60)--thanks for nothing, Dr. Seuss!

Even though it's annoying, I'm glad my kid is such a voracious reader already! I also love that she can give a 60-pager her full attention for the duration. (That helps her later on, right?) We let her go to bed with books; sometimes I can't tell if she's awake because she's just quietly reading in her crib.

We just need to get back to the library so I can avoid going crazy reading the same books over and over!

5 Favorites

1.

Parenting: Illustrated With Crappy Pictures

I have loved this blog for a while, and I just devoured her book in a weekend (and I'm one of the slowest readers ever). It's weird because I seriously haven't even had most of the issues the author complains about (yet?). Still, the MS Paint-style pictures are hilarious, Amber's writing is hilarious, and Crappy Baby is adorbs.

2.

Birthday Freebies

This was some of last year's since I'm too lazy to take a pic of this year's

Ah, I love my birthday. Mostly because of the influx of coupons, freebies, and good deals that hit my inbox in the week leading up to it. I got a free sub at Firehouse Subs, a free (kid-size) scoop at Baskin Robbins, a free $3 to spend on whatever at CVS, and a free burrito (with purchase of drink) at Moe's. I still have a free breakfast at IHOP that has so far gone un-used, along with a couple other 'buy something get something' offers that I'm not always so keen on because there is actual money involved. (But I did want that burrito on Sunday night, so that worked out well.) I think I just ate more fast food in one weekend than I have in a few months. Happy 29th to moi!

3.

the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV)

Yeah, this is a weird one, but they do a great job with this here! They have good hours that can appeal to people in almost all shifts --open Tuesday through Saturday with certain days of the week open until 7pm. This is totally awesome because it meant I didn't have to lug the child with me to get my car registered here. (I did take her to get my license, and it was a huge mistake because she whined the whole time I was attempting my computer test. Doable, but not ideal.) They also have perfected speediness and short wait times. There were actually a lot of people there when I went to do my plates this week, but there were 10 workers, and each could handle anything. And there were another two 'floaters' who did things like checking my car's VIN number while we handled the rest of the paperwork. I got my number at 4:51 and walked out of there with my car registered in Indiana at 5:10. Less than 20 minutes, start to finish!

The only weird thing is that I only got a temporary plate, and they'll mail me the real one. The other states I've lived in just grabbed one from the pile and handed it over. Also, I've heard that IN plates are crappy plastic, but my others are pretty metal. I'm planning to hang my 3 former plates in our garage when we buy a house, so this kind of matters.

4.
this house that we didn't buy

I probably shouldn't think about it any more, but we saw this house last Thursday with our realtor, and it was fabulous. It was also at the top of our budget so we decided to wait a few days. Someone else put an offer on it the next day, and there is now a big "Sold in 7 Days!" sign next to the other one on the lawn. If you want to see more pics, here is the trulia listing. (Yes, it even included the swing set!) Things I've learned: we (actually, it's just me) are totally gun-shy about making an offer, especially this early in our search, and the good houses around here go fast. I'm also probably going to compare every house we see from here on out to this one.

5.

Maximum Cuteness

In the Crappy Pictures book, Amber Dusick introduced me to the phase called "Maximum Cuteness" which goes from about 16 months until 3 years. (I guess kids get mean and nasty about then, or at least that's what Crappy Mama says.) Anyway, Cora has hit this stage, and I am loving it. She had never shown much interest in her stuffed animals before, but now she has started carrying them around and hugging them and such. Then, there was this:

Let's take a closer look at that: 

And last night she fell asleep with her stuffed cat under one arm and her mousey under the other. I can't even handle the cute.