Cora turns Two

I know I am not going to win any decorating awards with this. My free-hand pen sketches didn't have quite the "shell shocked" blank expressions on them as this poor rabbit does. There is no ctrl-z command when you are piping pink icing on a cake. With that said, I am happy that it was close enough to a bunny that Cora was able to recognize it as such.
Mary baked the chocolate cake and it tasted wonderful. She is batting 1000 with chocolate cakes this month.

We came to the realization that two-year-old girls are seriously neglected by toy executives. Boys are easy: dump trucks, Lego, dinosaurs, any form of inflatable ball, nerf, action figures, the list goes on...
Girls: pink hula hoops, my little pony, dolls in hundreds of different forms, and domestic indoctrination (Shopping trolleys, play kitchens and other such nonsense)

I think grocery shopping and cooking is great fun, but I don't think my daughter needs toys to help her imagine doing these things. Where are the mini lawyer brief cases for her? Why don't I see commercials on Saturday morning television pimping a pink socket set for barbie's corvette or a little girl's formula-one racing suit and helmet? The obvious answer is that most grandmothers, mothers and aunts wouldn't buy it. I say there is an entire population of fathers and uncles who shop for presents and are yearning for a choice in gift giving. We are an untapped market.

Back to Cora. She doesn't know she is two. She just floats around the house making happy squeeling sounds that are reminiscent of a tea kettle boiling. It is actually sort of musical when compared to the noises she makes when she is angry. She also does a little dance when she is happy where she bounces from foot to foot, while bobbling her head from side to side and forms the letter 'W' with her arms--with jazz hands just to complete the effect. we can never get it on camera. It is like lighting in its unpredictability and fleeting presence. So many things like that we can never capture, and we know we will forget about.

At this stage she still doesn't say much unless she wants to. If she thinks she can get you to do something or provide something through brute vocal force, then she will scream to get it. But if it is something interesting or thoughtful (like shoe, bunny, water, bird...) then she will use the word, but only if you haven't asked her a direct question about it. Everything is on her terms; deal with it. and I still haven't come to terms with that. I still have this delusion that I can get her to see that I am the boss.

Mary likes to point out that the stubbornness and insane mood swings come from me. And she is probably right, but I have to say Cora's ability to get me to stop what I am doing and come to realize that I am going to have to do what she wants definitely comes from Mary.