The Brodie Files

 September 23, 2013 Coraline Paige entered the world, 16 days early.  A year later it is hard to imagine our family without her!  She crawled at 5 1/2 months, walked at 10 months, and seems to answer us when we talk to her.  Damon says she is the smartest one in the family (although he has said that about each of the kids as babies!)  She is our snuggler and gives the best hugs, just throwing her arms around you and burying her head in.  Maybe someday she will start sleeping through the night.  We look forward to seeing what this little girl will be like at her next birthday, and what this year will bring!

Cora at five days old

Our climber.  She climbed up the back of the chair and started to bounce.  She has no fear!

Saturday we had some family over and celebrated her first year with us.   A few of her presents.  Her cupcake.  Most of it ended up on the floor, but she did like licking at the icing!  Happy Birthday Coraline!

Joseph probably put on his suit at least three times during the week leading up to Easter.  He said he "just loved it so much" he wanted to wear it all the time! Unfortunately, he did wear it most of the day and got dirt and glitter all over it.  Back to the cleaners! 
Elizabeth was not about to wear the headband in her hair, it was her necklace!  While Jonathan's vest and all of Joe's attire was hand-me-down clothing from the Morrison family, Elizabeth's dress was first worn by cousin Elaina for her Easter dress five years earlier. 

Cora didn't mind the hair band and kept it on most of the day.  She received her dress from Grandma Sandy for Christmas.  It still fit!

After dinner Elizabeth felt a little cold as she ran around the yard collecting eggs and got her sweater from the hook.  Aunt Vicki playfully put one egg in her zipped up jacket, and Elizabeth kept on filling it!


Before the age of 7 months, Cora can crawl, pull her self up on furniture and legs, and even start to walk along the couch a bit. 
Joe lost his first tooth before Spring break, and his second during break.  He received a quarter for his first tooth, but then lost the second.  Since the tooth fairy had to look for and find the tooth, he had to find his quarter.  When he found one on the fire place mantle, he claimed it!

Joe agreed to dye his hair for the Jog-A-Thon and crazy hair day.  We couldn't find any blue and he certainly did not like the green!  He insisted on washing it out before going to school. 
That weekend Jonathan wanted to try it as well, but also didn't like it. 

Monsters, dinosaurs, towers, robots, and all manner of other creatures have been built in this house lately with Mega Blocks.   Daddy helped with this T-Rex but the boys do pretty well on their own too. 
When the rain made mud, the kids jumped in it!  And had a great time, too!  It all washed out of the clothing, but the interiors of the boys' boots were ruined. 

Joe has his first loose tooth.  Which means that Jonathan, of course, also claims to have one.

Cora is 5.5 months old and is trying to crawl.  She gets up on her hands and knees and usually just rocks or moves inchworm style, but has been seen to actually move her hands and knees to achieve forward movement.

Elizabeth sliced her thumb pretty good yesterday with a razor.  It's a nasty deeper cut that makes her cry anytime the thumb is touched or bumped.

Jonathan will be four next week!  There aren't a lot of kids his age so it's hard to give him a birthday party with his friends.  Instead we're having a 'birthday get together' at the church parking lot this Saturday morning to ride bikes, scooters, skateboards, etc and have a cupcake afterwards.

Cora got hit in the head yesterday afternoon by a ball.  I was holding her while pitching balls to Joe to hit.  Jonathan picked one up to throw back to me but I didn't see it until just before it hit the back of her head.  Fortunately it is a light weight ball, not an actual baseball. It still left quite the red mark and caused lots of crying.

I made dinner-spanish rice with tomatoes& diced green chilies, chili powder, and cilantro.  Added in cooked chicken, pinto beans and a can of corn.  Turned out to be the hottest thing I've tasted all month.  No way were the kids going to eat it!  We forgot about healthy and went for speed--boxed macaroni and cheese.  The kids loved it!  Damon and I ate the rice with tortilla chips, which cut the heat enough for me to enjoy it.