Clara - 22 Months

We love our little Clara so much!  Each month just gets more and more fun (and a little more challenging in new ways).  She is so full of life and personality and definitely has strong feelings and opinons about certain things.  Here's the rundown of what Clara's up to at 22 months:

-Her vocabulary is exploding.  She is putting more and more words together everyday and picking up new words all the time.  She narrates the entire day!

-She loves identifying emotions and has strong associations with emotions she's felt in the past.  For example, she hates the vacuum, so whenever she sees one she says, "cry, sad"

-She hates the vacuum!  The only thing that can console her is me holding her, but at 25 weeks pregnant I finally decided that holding her while I vacuum the entire house is no longer a viable option. So I just let her cry and tell her that as long as I don't have to pick her up while I vacuum, she can have a cookie afterwards for being brave.  Now that has become an association too - so vacuum = "cry, sad, cookie, all clean!"

-Loves to snuggle with us on weekend mornings.  I love bringing her back into our bed for a few minutes before we all get on with the day.

-Her pretend play is expanding and so fun to watch.  She loves to mother her little baby doll and will check on her often saying, "you ok?"

-She loves to color and draw.  She can say 'crayon' and 'draw' but for some reason most of the time she wants me to color with her she asks me to "lellow" with her.

-When I don't say something to her that I usually do, she'll remind me to.  For example, if she takes a tumble and I don't ask her if she's ok, she'll look at me and say, "you ok?" then "yeah"

-Has the most serious, insistent little expressions sometimes.  Her sincere little furrowed brow cracks me up.

-Her palette seems to be ever-shrinking and her sugar-radar is ever-expanding.

-Can be so cooperative.  While we were at my parents house, if I asked her if we could change her diaper, she would lay down on the spot for a diaper change.  When I tell her we're going to put a "pretty" in her hair (a little ponytail up front) she will sit down wherever she is and let me do it.

-Still sleeping great - 12+ hours at night and 2-3 hours in the afternoon.  I love my little sleeper!

-Loves to play "boo" where we hide around a corner and scare her.

-Is obsessed with giving hugs "hugggg" and kisses "keeees" to everyone and everything - me and Spencer, all other relatives, the cat, her cup, spoon, bowl, the car, her baby, etc.

-Knows what sunny, rainy, and windy look like.  When we had our first snow of the season and we woke up to a blanket of white she looked out the window and then at me, perplexed and said, "moon?"