Crazy Cat

Jammer is one crazy cat. Clara adores him. He adores baskets, particularly this one. He regularly sleeps in it. Today Clara had a blast putting "blankets" and all of her doll house dolls in the basket with him and then pushing him all around the living room.

Snuggles

Sadie has discovered the lap of luxury. Clara likes it too!

Sadie's not sure she wants to share!

Bunk Beds

There are so many fun toys at this house! Clara discovered this little dollhouse today and after playing with the little dolls for awhile, decided Panda and Pooh Bear needed to sleep. We made them bunk beds and then Clara decided to sleep with them.

Needless to say, we are having lots of fun! The sleeping part took a little adjustment the first couple of days but we are slowly getting into a groove and Clara is loving her special bed. It has been so terrific this time around to have an older toddler who I don't have to worry about quite as much. Sure, she still finds things she shouldn't necessarily get into, but she's much better at following directions, she's much more capable and careful and thus able to handle more, she's much more confident around the animals and, with so many interesting new things to look at, there's a lot to keep her busy. This evening I was even able to chop up all the veggies for our soup without interruption while she contentedly played with kitties, read books and snacked on orange pieces. At one point I asked what she was doing as she wandered through the kitchen and she replied, "Nothing.... just walking around...." The weather has been gross lately and it's been such a blessing to have a big house to play in!

Kitty Friends, part 2

January 17: A funny angle - I took it from directly above. She stayed here forever with Jammer the cat, blow drying his hair (doll's blow dryer), sharing toys with him, telling him stories and then snuggling with her blankie as he watched her, entirely unimpressed by the whole thing.

Side note: see the large pot behind Clara? It holds a tree. One time when Clara got up from her spot she announced, "Oh, there's a little garden!" She says the same thing about the empty window boxes when we look out the windows - "There's a garden! There's another garden!"

Kitty Friends, part 1

January 16: Clara loooves her kitty friends!

That remote she's holding? That's her "camera"/"phone" and she loves to show us all pictures on it. She shows the kitties pictures of themselves, shows the dogs pictures of when they were little puppies or pictures of Pat and Roger, shows me pictures of all sorts of things! Her imagination just goes wild with that thing!

Salon Party

We've been busy packing, moving and adjusting lately so not lots of description, but here are the pictures from the past few days!

January 15: Clara and her friends had a nail clipping party (she can't actually clip anything but likes to pretend!).

Little Entomologist

Ever since she was little, Clara has been fascinated with bugs of all kinds. This morning she found another little specimen crawling across the floor and spent a long time picking him up, letting him crawl on her hand, on my hand, holding and examining him...

- the end result for whatever bug she's caught usually is not a very happy one, which I sometimes feel bad about, but mostly feel like they died for a good cause. I find it both funny and interesting that I posted about her fascination with these same stink bugs last January - head over to Stirrup to Stirrup to see what a difference a year has made! Watching that video is such a striking comparison to Clara's communication skills today! It is so fun to be able to hear how her mind is working.

One of her newest questions is, "What you thinking 'bout?" She asks both of us this question all the time these days! I guess she's curious about how our minds work too!

Getting Ready...

We are headed to the Goulds' house to house sit on Sunday and Clara is sooo excited! She wakes up every morning and after every nap and says, "I'm ready to go to Grandma Pat's house now!" Last night at dinner she finished up her meal extra quickly, pushed her bowl away and again announced, "We can go to Grandma Pat's house now!" I keep telling her we're going after church on Sunday, it's still a few days away. Today she was so excited to help me pack some of her clothes to take with us! First she gave her animals rides on her suitcase:

Then she had a blast grabbing anything I handed her from her dresser and just throwing it in the suitcase - the piles got bigger and bigger and bigger, but we had fun! And finally managed to pare it down and fit everything in. We are so excited!

Pillow Pile!

When Clara and Sadie are determined to get on each others nerves, I know without a doubt it's time to head outside! The problem today was that it was barely above freezing, the wind was howling and it was sleeting like crazy. Not exactly outdoor weather, even well bundled up. So instead, I pulled out a new diversion - the pillow pile! We took the mattress off of the pull-out couch and gathered all the pillows from the house (not all that many, actually) to put on top of it. Clara had a blast running and "jumping" (=flopping) onto the pile, especially if I did it too. We even managed (at Clara's insistence) to get Sadie to run and jump with us a few times!

Clara and Luke also had a blast rolling around and tussling on there when he got home. Yay for indoor fun and exercise!

Friends!

This evening we got together with our friends the Shoemakers who live in the manse next to our church. They have two little girls - one six months older than Clara and one a year younger than Clara. It had been a long time since we'd seen them and the girls had a blast cooking, climbing, sliding, taking babies for walks, reading books and playing with all sorts of things. Here I think they are solving a complicated problem on Ana's computer!

We also had a terrific morning of playing and grocery shopping, with not one meltdown the entire time, even when Clara had to leave her beloved "red cart" (with the car on the front). It was such a blessing to have a cheerful girl who listened well to instructions!

Creative Cooking

Cooking cookies from her fort.

It didn't last too long. She said, "This is hard for me, Mommy. I will come and cook down there with you." We did a lot of measuring sugar. Clara kept pulling little boxes out of her stove (which also serves as a cupboard): "This is sandwich sugar. It's special just for me. And for you..... this is blue sugar... this is cream sugar. It's good for me and you. This is ice cream sugar. I like ice cream! I can have it. Ummm, this is other sugar, it's special for us. We can use it. Okay, that's all the sugar!" Whew! My blood sugar is spiking just thinking about that much sugar all at once!

Bible study started again today and we are so glad! Clara had a blast seeing all her friends after a break for the holidays, even though she was a little unsure about heading to the nursery at first. But this morning as we were getting ready she was talking non-stop about seeing Brandi, the young girl who helps out in the nursery. "Mommy, will Brandi like these pants?" "Will Brandi like my socks, Mommy?" "Mommy, I want to bring baby Joy. Will Brandi like baby Joy, Mommy?" "Mommy, will Brandi like my hair clips?" "What's Brandi doing right now, Mommy? I think she's eating breakfast. Is she eating rice pudding for breakfast? Does Brandi like rice pudding, Mommy?" And then, when we left Bible study: "Where's Brandi, Mommy? Is she going to visit her Daddy at work?" It is so cute to see her look up to some of the older girls she knows and I am so thankful for the positive role models she has in her life.

Ready for the Day

Here's Clara with everything she needs to start the day: Panda, blankie, water and - instead of a sweater - a blanket-cape! Our house was chilly this morning but she refused my offer of a sweater, sweatshirt or fleece, asking me instead to wrap her up in her soft blankie. She stood like this and just stared out the window for quite some time. Then she started slowly walking around the room saying, "I'm awake. So I'm just wandering around..... I still really sleepy."

This morning I asked her if she wanted to make bread with me and she replied, "Umm, I'm pretty busy..." She did end up making bread with me, I guess she was able to clear her schedule! I got the same response when I asked if she was ready to eat lunch, "I really busy playing right now."

I told her about the stray cow that ended up in our yard last night while she was sleeping and she thought that was hilarious! She kept talking about the cow and ended up telling me that it was from Bethlehem, in Judea, where it lived with the wise mens, and it liked Bethlehem.

This evening she spent at least half an hour wandering around the house with Luke, "looking for our airplane" and waiting for the airplane to come and take them to Montana to see Baaba and Daada. I know I keep talking about it, but her imagination is something else these days! She keeps coming up with longer and more involved story lines!

Bedtime Snuggles

Poor Clara fell and bonked her head during an after-dinner game of bull and bullfighter with Daddy, so we snuggled and read awhile before bed. I'm not glad for the bonk, but my little girl has been so active lately she rarely sits still and snuggles for more than a few seconds, so our reading time was really precious.

This afternoon we were at our friends' house riding horses (even though they're away) and when we came home Clara declared that she was Annabelle, Daddy was Uncle Scott, I was Kristen and Sadie was Abby (their dog). Later Luke asked her where Becca was and she pointed to Sadie, then proceeded to call Sadie "Becca" or "Rebecca" the rest of the evening! This kid has such an imagination. She was telling us long involved stories about elephants and lions in the truck today and it was so hard not to just die laughing. Love listening to her imagination and expression blossoming!

Phrases of the day: "at some point" ("We can go to my friends' house at some point!")
*laughter from the back seat* "I just laughing at something..." 

We Went Back...

It was fairly warm today, considering much of the week it was 20 or below, so we headed back to the soccer field for some more fun. I think Sadie may have the most fun of anyone! Clara was so excited to play on the bleachers some more!

This evening, Daddy came up with a terrific game! Clara recently discovered that she could hear Daddy in her room over her monitor and she thinks it's great fun to walk around the house and hear him talk over the monitor (I'm sensing walkie talkies in her future...). Tonight Luke was talking over the monitor and told her, "Go in the living room, and pick up two toys!" She thought that was a great game, laughed, and did it. Over the course of the next 10 minutes he gave her other tasks such as, "Go in the kitchen and give Mommy a hug!" "Pick up all the toy fruit on the floor!" "Come in your bedroom and give Daddy a high five!" "Pick up all the toy french fries!" By dinner time 90% of her toys were picked up and Clara was thrilled about it! What a blessing to have such a terrific, creative Daddy and a cheerful kiddo having fun together!

Dolly Snuggles

One terrific moment of many from this morning. Clara sure loves her dollies!

This afternoon she came in the living room with three bears, then went back into her room to get two more. She came out again saying, "They're all my friends, Mommy!"

Clara's Kitchen

On the menu today: peanut butter balls, gnocchi, heart cookies and pie! Mmmm....

Oh my we had a terrific day today! This morning we headed out to check on our horses and, after a quick stop there, headed over to Clara's friend Callan's house. Clara and Callan were born 8 days apart and while they've always enjoyed each others company, they haven't spent lots of time together because Callan's mommy was working full time. But, she quit! And we're so happy!! C & C had a great time together today, sliding, running, rolling on balls, crawling in a big box, snacking, doing puzzles and just having a blast! They played together well, shared nicely 95% of the time (pretty great for two twos!) and neither of them wanted to play date to be over. Clara kept telling me on the way home, "I really, really want to stay at Callan's house Mommy!!" We are looking forward to more fun times together!

Probably due to the fun she had this morning, Clara actually slept during her nap time for the first time in 3 days! That made our evening and bedtime so much smoother and it was lovely to have a cooperative, smiling girl brushing her teeth, putting her jammies on and going nicely to bed instead of an exhausted, screaming, fighting mess. Yay for a terrific day!

Contemplating Peas

Clara was apparently very thoughtful about her lunch today.

After dinner her dollies Laurie and Emily were sick so we took them to "town" to see the doctor. "Town" was in my bedroom though when I asked Clara where town was she said, "Judea. It's in Judea. We going to Bethlehem." Baby Joy was the doctor and when we got to the bedroom Laurie (through Clara) said to baby Joy, "We're sick. Help, please!" Baby Joy helped them feel all better by giving them both hugs. If only all sickness could be cured so sweetly!

The Cold is Here

After a long while and wondering if it was ever going to come, it is finally cold here! Today our high was around 18 and tonight it's supposed to be down around zero. After our out and about and rather rough day yesterday, it was nice to just hang out in our cozy house, not go anywhere, read books, do a few projects but not get too ambitious. I am having a hard time getting back into a routine after two weeks of guests and Daddy on vacation and I think Clara is too - I know for sure she is missing all the playmates! Today while I was washing some dishes she started asking from the living room, "Mommy, what's that? What's that? I couldn't tell what she was pointing to so I walked over to where she was a realized she was looking out the window. There was a huge flock of birds in our neighbor's field that looked like they were doing the wave! One end of the flock would fly up, flutter around and settle back down. As they went down the next section would flutter up, and so on. Clara was fascinated and climbed up on the trunk so she and baby Joy could watch.

Other favorite moments:
Before lunch she was spreading out blankets for us to lie down on and said, "Oh, let's take my slippers off. It's hard to lie down with my slippers on." I gave a tiny little chuckle and she immediately responded with, "Don't laugh at me!" She proceeded to laugh at herself and then repeated, "Don't laugh at me!"


Getting her up from her "nap" (no sleeping today) - this is one of my favorites every day because I tap rhythms on her door with my fingers and every time I tap, she squeals and laughs and bounces and squeals some more and I can hear her through the door and when I open the door to go in she is full of laughter and giggles.

Watching her light up as she told Daddy all about a James Herriot story we read today about a little lost kitten that ends up suckling from a pig. She loved the story and just glowed while she was telling Daddy about it.

Puppy Love

This moment just melted my heart.

Holding on tightly to terrific moments like this (and the sweet bedtime snuggles I had tonight) today when we've battled the "terrible" side more than usual.

Soccer!

Today was gorgeous. Close to 50, sunny and a beautiful start to 2012! This afternoon after Clara's "quiet time" (she talked away, no sleeping) we headed over to the local soccer fields. We were all feeling the itch for a change of scenery and some fresh air and this was the perfect fix! We had a blast! We took a ball to kick around, which Clara loved (she also carried it a lot). We investigated soccer goals (Clara liked going in them). We chased a train - the tracks run right behind the fields - Clara on my back, shrieking with excitement and laughter the whole way. Clara discovered the bleachers and then it was all over. I have no idea how long she spent walking back and forth on them, but she loved every second of it. It was a great discovery and we will definitely be going back soon!

We'll have to see Uncle Joel, we might have another soccer player on our hands!

I have to say that running crazy toward that train, with Clara in all her terrific two-year-old excitement and glee bubbling over with laughter and joy on my back was the absolute best start to a new year. I can't think of anything better!