The Rankin Zoo 

Books! Books! Books! Books!

When I went to pick up Coral from daycare today the first thing she said to me was “car seat” - which, as it turns out, was a reminder to get her car seat from the nanny’s car before we left. They had gone to the library earlier in the day and so we had to switch the seat to the nanny’s car.

Then I asked “Coral, how was the library?” - and her response was an emphatic “books books books books”. Apparently they had a good time at the library.

Then a mom of one of the other kids asked Coral what Champe had on his feet. “shoes” said Coral. Then she asked Coral what she had on her feet. Coral looked at her with one of those “are you crazy” Coral faces and replied “boots!” Apparently Coral has strong feelings about the distinction between shoes and boots.

No time for a cute Coral story - just cute Coral pictures. Check out Coral’s latest album in our photo gallery!

Coral is starting to understand that “Coral” means her. She’s also learning how to say her name. She can usually pick herself out of pictures. If you ask her “where’s Coral” she’ll point to herself. If you say “who’s that” and point to her she’ll say “Coral” - it’s all very cute.

She’s also starting to play with her dolls and doll house stuff more. She likes to put her dolls in the toy bed, cover them with a blanket, and say “night night”. She generally treats her dolls very well, but sometimes she throws them around. This morning she took one “doll” (really just a small person toy - about 2 inches tall) over to her potty - saying “potty” the whole time. I guess the doll had to use the potty.

Coral’s also putting words together a lot more. “Hi Dada” is a regular thing now. She says “bath colors” to refer to her bath crayons (she refers to all crayons, chalk, and markers as “colors”). “More please” is also fairly regular. If you’re eating something she wants she’ll say “bite” - asking for a bite. Today at daycare she was learning the concept of “next” - as in “your turn next” - and the nanny said Coral seemed to be grasping it, which is good.

She continues to impress us every day!

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Coral used to be a little apprehensive about Uncle Brian. I’m not sure what it was but she was cautious around him. Well, not anymore, now she loves Uncle Brian, and Aunt Adena, and Cousin Eva. We have to be careful about mentioning them (or even Stuart - or, as Coral calls him, Tuey) unless we’re likely to see them soon because Coral gets excited. She knows which way there house is so if we’re driving in that general direction she gets excited.

They were all over last Saturday for the Redskins game (GO SKINS!) and fun was had by all. At one point Adena told Eva, “Go give your daddy a hug.” Coral heard this, and was a little bit closer to Brian and me (we were sitting on the couch) than Eva was. She got a big smile and ran over to Uncle Brian and gave him a big hug. We’re not sure if she made the connection that Eva’s daddy is Brian or if she just felt like hugging Brian.

Sorry the photo doesn’t match the story. I need to get better about taking pictures when these cute things are happening. I also need to post another batch of photos to the gallery. One of these days…

This morning Coral was begging for food again. At first she would just come up to me and say “bite” and open her mouth. I was eating a bowl of cereal so I would give her a small spoonful whenever she asked.

After asking for a “bite” a few times she came up and just stood there with her mouth open. I waited a second. Then I said “what do you say?”

She crinkled her nose, thought for a second, and said “MORE!” I chuckled and said, “well, that’s right, but what else?”

She thought some more and then said, “peeeaaase?”

Perfect! I shoveled some cereal in her mouth and she ran off.