Cora's 8 Month Birthday

Today Cora is 8 months old. What a month it's been too! Each month makes a big difference, but perhaps this past one has been the biggest leap so far. She is impressively mobile, actually crawling on hands and knees much of the time now rather than only the military crawl on elbows and tummy. She pulls herself to standing using the cushions on the back of the sofa, and then will even walk along it if something a few feet away catches her fancy. She monkey climbs over everything, constantly bonking her head on chair legs, her mouth on windowsills, her bottom as she falls. She wails for a moment and then is back at it. She walks so well with us holding onto her hands. She says "Baa" a lot. Her two bottom teeth have poked through. She can pick up cheerios or peas or grape bits and feed herself. Her personality is becoming more prounounced. She understands "no" very clearly and already will pout or protest when we say it (though surprisingly she does usually stop.) Yesterday we visited with her two boyfriends, Jonah on the left (2 months older) and Lucas on the right (1 month younger), neither of whom are moving at all yet, so she was crawling circles around them...not that they don't up her on other things. For one, they'll sit through book readings, while Cora gets mad at me if I don't let her chew on them. Perhaps they'll be more booky and she'll be more athletic. :-)

Also today, David finished his finals. What an accomplishment. I am still completing a last paper to turn in tomorrow; right now I'm sitting at a coffee shop down the street, drinking a latte and working away at it (minus a little break to blog!) while finally-free Dave plays at home with Cora. Tomorrow after I turn in my paper, we're going to meet a couple friends by school for a lunch of sushi (of which Vancouver has an abundance for very cheap) to celebrate. One semester down. About 11 more to go.