16 Months

Two more months until nursery!  Haha. In all honesty, it is a bittersweet prospect to send Clara off on her own for two hours during church, but the sweet is slowly taking over the bitter as she becomes more and more wiggly!  We love our little explorer.  She is so much fun.  The constant wiggles make her a bit more difficult to photograph - that is for sure!

 At sixteen months, Clara...

-is a little singer!  She sings constantly.  She has three go-to songs (ABC's and two that I made up) and she will embellish her tunes with syncopation and triplets.  When we drove up to Washington, she sang the whole way.

-weighs about 22 pounds.  She's got the cutest little belly!

-is still a great eater.  Some favorite foods are bananas, blackberries, pancakes, and pineapple.

-has become obsessed with BABIES.  I think it started when we went to see my sister when her new baby Levi was born a two weeks ago.  "Ba-ba-ba-bo!" has evolved to "ba-ba-bo" and "ba-bo."  She loves her baby doll, her book of baby faces and she loves to see babies when we're out and about.

-loves to look in the mirror and dance with her reflection.  She likes to kiss her reflection too.  And when she sees herself in the mirror she says, "baby!" (ba-bo) which makes me smile.

-talks a lot - lots of chatter all the time.  Some new words that have emerged recently: pretty, Jesus (jee-ju), poopy.

-runs everywhere.  She loves being chased and running around outside.

-climbs the stairs whenever I let her.  It still makes me very nervous, but she loves stairs.  If she has a railing, she'll walk up them.  Otherwise she crawls.  She needs my help to go down stairs.

-smells flowers, grass and other plants everywhere we go.  Even if they are just printed on a fabric or in a photo.  She takes a big sniff and says, "mmmmmmmm"

-still naps and sleeps great!

-has started to fall asleep frequently during independent playtime.  If I don't let her sleep more than 30 minutes, she'll still take a good PM nap, so it's win-win.

-loves to walk backwards (and does it on cue if you say "beep, beep, beep."

-still loves to dance, but not so much the hip sway anymore.  More of an up/down bounce, and gets her arms involved.  It's adorable.

-signs "bird" whenever she hears chirping.  It's my favorite.

-is VERY attached to mama.  If someone comes over to the house, she will say, "mama, mama, mama" and get very concerned that I'm going to leave.  She will cling to my legs or want to be held, and usually cries when I leave the room.

-has transitioned from saying "dada" to "daddy."  And does she ever love her daddy!

-has TEN teeth!

-loves emptying and filling - buckets, drawers, boxes, etc.

-enjoys reading "Elmo is so big!" that we got from the library.  She can do all the motions too. :)

A Day in Claraville

I thought it would be fun to photograph one day in the life of Clara.  It lasted until about an hour after breakfast, and then I was done.  But I think I've got enough pieces of different days recently to put together a little photo essay of our typical day.

Clara wakes up between around 7:30.  She usually wakes up singing!

She tells me about her dreams while she hugs her stuffed animals and the birds on her wall one last time before departing until nap time.

I change her diaper and then we go eat breakfast.  Usually breakfast consists of a sliced banana, cheerios/toast/pancake and a big cup of milk.  But if it's a bath day (every other day), I might let her at a bowl of oatmeal or whole wheat.

After breakfast, she happily hops in the tub.  She plays with her ducks and foam letters and only protests mildly when I want to wash her hair and body.

After drying off, snuggling and getting dressed, we head to the living room with an ouftit (friend?) in hand.  I hand Clara a scripture mastery bookmark to play with while I read her anywhere from a column to a few pages of the scriptures depending on how the day is going.

We play for a while to get out the morning wiggles, look for the kitty, read some board books.

Most mornings we go on a walk around the neighborhood and when we get home (around 9:00) she goes into her pack-n-play for independent playtime.  She happily plays by herself with a few toys while I work on orders (have I mentioned that my work load hasn't slowed down since November? ) and get the house straightened up, switch out the laundry, etc.

When she's done playing by herself (anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes) we head to the living room for more playtime or go outside if it's nice.  At least a few times a week, this is also our errand time.  Anywhere from the grocery store to the library is an exciting adventure and she happily accompanies me as my favorite sidekick.

Around noon it's lunchtime! Hooray!  Lunch is a usually peanut butter sandwich, a few cut up fruits and veggies, some string cheese and a cup of milk.

Between 12:30 and 1:00 it's time to get ready for her one and only nap.  Quick diaper change, lay her in her crib and we're golden for 1.5-3 hours.

She wakes between 2:00 and 3:00 - happy and singing!

We have a snack, put on shoes and head outside if the weather is nice. 

When we come inside, we read a few books and sing songs together before turning on some tunes for our afternoon dance party.  Clara loves to dance and twirl.

By 5:30 or 6:00 we have dinner together.  Since daddy has a really busy work schedule and gets home between 9:30 and midnight, we don't wait for him to join us. :(

Around 6:30, we put on Clara's pajamas (we call them jam jams) and let her pad around in them while watching for signs of sleepiness.

When the big eye rubs start to happen, we head to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

And then we go to her room to say prayers, have a hug and a kiss, a song (or several, depending on the night) and then go night night (usually by 7:00 or 7:30).

When daddy comes home late, late at night, sometimes Clara will wake up and start singing in her crib.  And if she does, we take that as a sign that we need to go get her.

For a story.

And a song.

And a snuggle.

And then she goes peacefully back to sleep.


PS I started this post about three weeks ago, and I had to change so much of what I had written... the routine of a little kiddo is constantly evolving.

Easter

This year, we thought Clara would be into looking for eggs, so we set up a little egg hunt for her in the backyard on the day before Easter.

Right after breakfast, we dyed the eggs together.  Well, mostly I dyed them and Clara sat in her high chair pointing and saying, "pretty" over and over.

Then, later in the afternoon, we had a little egg hunt.  I put a few eggs out in the grass (plastic ones with some fun little  toys inside) and with our help, she found them.  She was pretty over it after finding one or two - I don't think she realized there were more for her to find.  But it was still fun!

On Sunday morning, Easter baskets awaited and Clara totally "got" it.  She went right to her basket and started excitedly pulling out her treasures - some headbands, a book, a picture of Jesus, some animal magnets.  She loved it.  She even got try a jellybean, which she thought was the best thing ever.

After church and a quick nap (we actually had to wake Clara up), we headed to my parents house for Easter dinner with both of our families.  My mom always does such a beautiful job of creating an occasion.  The table was really elegant and festive.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner and afternoon together.  Clara scored two more easter baskets (thanks to both grandmas!) and looked so cute in her little spring dress.

This picture reminded me of a photo of me and my dad on a spring day in Oregon.  I'll have to find it and scan it in.

Two bummers: no photo of everyone who was at dinner and no family photo of the three of us.