Little Sister Cora : Sophie the Great!

One week before Sophie goes back to school. Thank goodness!! She is more ready than she ever has been. I think she's finally tired of the "unstructured" summer, and ready to get back to more challenges and brain activities. I almost said she was tired of playing Minecraft and Skylanders, but that would be taking it a bit too far. She is turning into such an awesome big sister, though. She literally just said in the background - "isn't she the cutest thing in the world?" Yes, referring to her sister (i actually had to ask, because it was an out of the blue statement). She wanted to help her put her jammies on tonight, and read her a story, and stuff, which was unusual. But I will take it - i love to see them together. Cora of course thinks EVERYTHING sophie does is awesome, and tries to emulate every move. Sophie brushed away my kisses at bedtime, and made a face, so then 5 mins later, Cora did the exact same thing. Go figure! We rode our bikes together tonight, and Cora just calls out for Sophie continuously, unless she is in the exact right spot (not too far ahead, and definitely not behind us). I was still walking/jogging next to Cora, cause though she is doing great on her new Princess bike with training wheels, she still likes to have me there just "in case". She practiced her brakes a lot tonight, so i think she will be more confident and in control now.

Anyway, it's been about a week I think since I wrote last. We've had a bunch of Anderson visitors - Mom, Dad, Jenny and Mariah. All were big hits, and Cora asks about them often, and wants to skype and say "hi" on the phone when she can. It is so so wonderful to have her meet her family. I think she thinks they are celebrities, after seeing all the pictures of them in the albums! We'll be going to Chetek on Friday I think, so she can see g'ma and g'pa's house, and do the lake stuff, and meet Kyle and Mike. Paul's coming in a few weeks, too!

Everything is just rollin' right along. We're staying busy with summer activities, and enjoying almost every minute! Cora just gets better and better about meeting new people, and also separating from James and I. She loves anything that involves her "listing" the family (like setting the table, one spot for each of us, and naming our spots). I think she is getting the family idea more, and certainly seems to love it! She does still have her moments, and her tantrums still come out once in a while. It usually involves me telling her no, or doing something she is not happy with. James tells her no, too - but when she melts down and gets really angry, it's almost always with me. But it only happens now maybe once every 3 days or so? So not much to complain about there. We still recognize that even though she seems like a VERY happy kid, there are still feelings in there that she can't express and she still has pain/anger/confusion about this new life. The language gets better every day, but there are limited things she can actually say, and she gets frustrated by that sometimes.

But yes, the comment from almost everyone she meets is how smiley and happy she is. We laugh a lot in the house, and she's certainly brought a new spark to us all.

Oh, she is on night number 3 of sleeping in her bed! We got a bed rail put up last night, after she fell out of bed 3 times the night before. So now we all sleep sound in our own beds. I really can't believe she transitioned that fast into her own room. I hardly slept the other night - mostly cause she was falling out of bed, and I was worried and listening for her all night. But knock on wood, she is doing amazing on that front.

I did register her for school today. We'll meet her teacher this week, and come up with some sort of "staged" approach. Likely starting around the 16th of September. Wish us luck on that! We think she's ready, though. She's smart (of course) and is good at standing in lines and sitting in circles. It's just the separation part that worries us. I'll keep you posted.

Pool tomorrow, since we are having a heat wave, and i think lunch with some friends. Have a good week!

Michelle