Phone Photo Dump

Paige was so tired she took a little rest standing up.

It's so hard to make it home these days from our activities without this little face falling asleep.

Wearing a dress that used to be Claire's. ADORABLE!

Eye spy with my little eye....PAIGE...playing with the big kids at Barnes and Noble. Claire is giving her cheesy smile! Her buddy,Alexa, is in the purple dress.

Paige "graduated" from Little Gym class last week. She only went 2 months but she still did great working on her motor skills. She loved shaking her bells!

More Little Gym happiness. Her favorites were the bells, bubbles, and balls. All the stuff you can sit down and play with basically. Ha!

The random things Paige finds and drags around the house. Toilet paper skates?

My big girl having some much deserved ice cream. Do NOT call it frozen yogurt. Ick!

I cut my hair about 2 months ago. Finally a picture! I grow it out, cut it, grow it out, cut it. It's a cycle!

Where they get it from

Anyone else notice that my brother is nonchalantly trying to steal things out of my basket??

I was a sturdy child. Putting a hurtin to that box!

Cheesy K

The fam...minus Jason. Where was Jason?

K (18yrs), Dad, and J

Let me start off by saying...DAMN I was a cute kid!!! =) Check out that cheesy smile. I don't think  either of the girls look like me. Not in the spitting image kind of way. They share my traits of course and clearly the red hair runs in my family. I think Paige and my brother have a similar eye shape too. Claire shares a lot of the Cox family traits. She didn't just get her curly hair from me. Her Aunt Carolyn has her same hair but brown! That is my mom brushing my brother's hair. Her hair is a perm. Mine is not. Oh the curls, they came in full force around junior high. My mom spent so many years blow drying my hair and setting them on sponge rollers I don't think we ever realized before the age of 12 how curly my hair really was. Does anyone else remember sleeping in pink sponge rollers? OUCH! After many years of coloring, cutting and pregnancies my hair no longer curls up that pretty anymore. It's fun to look back and see old pics of the family. See where it all came from.

Thinking about you today Dad.  ~~ February 27, 1944 - April 30, 2000 ~~

End of April

Oh boy....I always had an inkling that Paige may be our "climber". Everyone seems to have one kid who climbs onto to things...the kitchen counter, out of their crib, on the edge of the couch (and then falls). Claire has not been a climber. She doesn't really like movement much. She won't ride the carousels (we had a brief window when we went to Disneyland that she did ride the rides. whew.). She won't ride those things at the mall. God forbid someone puts a quarter in and it rocks gently back and forth. She will LOSE IT! Paige may not be walking but she is showing signs that she knows exactly what she wants. I found on her on the train table trying to get to a bowl of goldfish. She was quite pleased with herself. Of course, I took pictures and laughed so now she thinks this is acceptable behavior. Now where will I cage her when I shower? She has no way off this thing except to nose dive. Oh Paigey! It's fun to see the toddler emerging in her.

Claire had an overnight with her Uncle Tom and Tia last weekend. They are the coolest aunt and uncle ever. They just know how to play with Claire and keep her busy. The had pool time then they taught her how to make homemade lemonade. They always bake cookies too. I think that is such a sweet tradition. Lucky lucky girl!

Easter wrap up

By far my favorite Easter yet! It was a beautiful day outside The girls were well behaved! We started the morning bright and early with an egg hunt around the backyard. Only Claire found eggs since Paige isn't walking. No way was Paige fast enough to find anything. Next year Paigey baby! We headed over to Tom and Carla's in the afternoon and enjoyed a delicious dinner with our family friends, Patty and Larry. The girls had an awesome egg hunt at their house. Goodies everywhere. I love how my sister in law doesn't care about eggs. She will just put a coloring book in a tree! Cracks me up. The whole day was...well....LOVELY! What else can I say. The sunset was amazing over the mountains and that capped off our day. We headed back home and tucked ourselves in. I can't wait to see how Paige does next year with Easter when she can get out there and get some eggs! I love the picture of the girls together. Even though Paige was crying a little (the only time she cried all day), they really look like sisters to me. Not in their looks but just in their body language. Sweet girls.

A classic

Look what I can do!!!!

Look what else I can do!!!

Claire doing it at 9 months old!!

It's a classic move apparently. The first time Claire pulled up in her bed (9months old) she cruised right over to the curtains and gave em a tug. Oh great!! Fast forward to Paige (13 months old) and guess who cruised over to the curtain tie backs. Haha! Oh girls. Paige was quite pleased with herself that she could stand up in her bed. A little over a week ago Paige pulled herself up for the first time! It was yet another delayed milestone that was put to rest. We were so excited for her. I was blow drying my hair and turned around and she was standing up against the tub. I was shocked. I guess her Little Gym class really made an impact because she had an "ah-ha" moment. She seems better about standing but still gets nervous on her legs. She prefers to speed crawl so I think walking is still a couple months down the road. Poor girl got another ear infection and it ruptured her right ear drum this time. She has a pain tolerence and doesn't cry or alert us she isn't well until the ear drum is about to rupture. No fever either. It just breaks my heart. Between her ears and teething she hasn't been the happiest girl but her smile still slays us every day.

Girl Time

When Claire's school schedule first changed all I could really think of (selfishly) was how MY schedule was going to change. My shopping, my coffee dates, etc... Yes, mama time is important but with Paige getting bigger and more mobile my coffee dates were going to change anyways. In the past few weeks we have really enjoyed our mornings together. Claire goes to school 3 days a week from 11:30-3. We have every single morning together now. Running errands is a little less (and so is my spending) and we don't always make it to the grocery store (thank goodness Daddy is a good grocery shopper and does about 90% of our shopping now) but we do play more together. I am not the best "player" either. I don't like to sit and play for long. I admit it! I get antsy and bored but lately I am trying harder and finding myself enjoying the play times. It is strengthening my relationship with Claire too. We did a girls day just the 2 of us to the museum one Saturday. We haven't done that in forever!  I even got talked in to a "magical" pony (see above pic). Mercy she loves that thing! How could I say no? If you squeeze it's ears it neighs and makes a magical sound. Pretty dreamy!

Now, I just have to figure out how to socialize Paige more. We are trying the Little Gym Wednesday morning. Since Paige naps during Claire's school times it's hard to do anything alone with her. I am so excited to take her to her first mommy and me class. Claire will be hanging in the lobby while we have our class but she gets to watch a movie and chill. I assumed they wouldn't let me bring Claire so I hadn't called before now to inquire about classes. So glad I did! We can start working on Paige's motor skills!!!

Busy Body

This girl was such a busy body during our 12 month photo shoot that I could barely capture a still shot of her! She didn't care much for her crown either! lol! Neither one of my girls are much for bows or headbands in their hair. That suits me just fine. It's just one less thing to fuss with each day.

We had Paige's 12 month checkup today(yes, one day before she turns 13 months). We had to delay her shots due to her ear infections. They almost delayed them again today since her ear looked irritated still and he didn't want her to get a fever and not know if it was the shots or her ear. I reminded the doc that there had been a mumps outbreak 3 miles from my house and he immediately agreed that the shots were necessary (MMR is the 12 month vaccine). He said that the worry of her ear actually getting infected and the fever issue was silly in comparison to her getting the mumps. Thank goodness!! How scary to worry about mumps or measles in this day and age! She is doing good and is healthy overall. She has some delayed gross motor skills but I am certain we can work through them and she will be standing and walking in the next few months!

We just wrapped up Spring Break last week and it flew by. We didn't do much and it was actually nice. I had a cold so that didn't help much but still it was nice to relax and play at home. Next week Grandma visits AZ! We can't wait to see her!