Making Music

Today we visited the coolest little playground. It was near the nature center at a local park and I loved the way they integrated the play areas with the natural woods. There was a climbing/jungle gym (a little above Clara's age range), a sandbox area, an area that had a low log balance-beam (which Clara loved!) and stumps of varying heights to climb on, and a neat little music area that had 3 xylophones: one wood, one marble and one made of old metal wrenches! They were so cool and Clara had a blast playing them!

We also had a major potty milestone today: Clara actually stopped right in the middle of playing the xylophone to tell me she had to go potty. Then, she held it all the way to the nature center (a good 2-3 minutes before we actually got to the bathroom)! Last week she had a couple of accidents when she was really engaged in something and would just get her panties a tiny bit wet before running to the bathroom, but today she was completely dry! Way to go Clara!

After the park we went by the mall to return some pants I bought last week that are too big in the waist for her. While I was browsing, waiting for the register to be open for my returns, Clara and Gramma found the rack of socks and tights. Clara zeroed in on one particular pair of tights and brought them to me, announcing, "I want these ones, Mama!" They were my least favorite out of all the different tights there and I did my best in a cheerful way to convince her to consider one of the other pairs. Nope. Not a chance. Her mind was made up and she was dead set on the ones she had chosen. This girl knows what she wants! Since I had planned to get her some tights anyway we bought them, along with a tutu and a turtleneck. All wardrobe essentials, don't you think?? As soon as we got to the car she ripped the packaging off her new tights and admired them all the way home. :)