April 19

Contemplating how to shovel mass quantities of oatmeal raisin cookie dough dip into her mouth as quickly as possible...

Clara's idea of what owls eat: "pine needles and french beans and flowers and ladybugs and sweet potatoes!"

"Aww, you're a cutie pie!"
"Are you talking to me? Thanks babe."
*laughter* "I'm just teasing you Mommy!!"

"I wasn't too sure about sharing my walk."

April 18

Finger painting (her idea, with watercolors) turned into hand painting - as in, painting her hand! She was so proud of her creation!

"Mommy, can you paint with me?"
"I have to finish washing these dishes and then I can paint with you."
"But I don't like you when you're washing dishes!!"

"Mommy, can we watch Thomas? I was dreaming about while I was sleeping that I wanted to watch Thomas and you said yes. So can we do that?"

"I have another meeting tonight. Can you believe it?"
"No! You have a lot of meetings!"
"I know it.... Whew! I'm tired. Can I take a nap?"
"Yeah, when you come home after your meeting, then you can take a nap."

April 17

Such a good little mommy to baby Joy!

April 16

Watching ducks in a little pond at the deer park in Bennington today, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch after our grocery shopping. "Mommy! They're just like Mr. Mallard in my ducklings book!"

April 15

Heading off to play with friends after church in her new dress from Gramma!

April 14

Helping Daddy stretch out his latest cow hide.

April 13

Getting bucked off of her first horse on Friday the 13th... (please don't think I was waiting to take this pic! I was trying to get one of her riding with her dolly and didn't even realize I had actually taken one as I was leaping to gather her up after she fell. Poor baby. She is fine and her friends arrived shortly thereafter which instantly took her mind off her fall.)

April 12

The view out my kitchen window as I gathered a few more things for our picnic lunch:

April 11

Planting peas!

April 10

Tuesday = baby Josie! Here with Clara's friend Lauren, who just turned 3 and also loves to hold Josie.

April 9

Foot washing! At first she was just pretending to wash my feet, then she took my socks off and headed to the bathroom, saying she was going to get water and soap. I think she had as much fun giving me instructions ("Sit in your yellow chair Mommy." "Put your foot in the water. There, isn't that nice and warm?" "Take your foot out. Now put your other foot in." "Don't move your foot, leave it in the water....") as she did playing with the soap and water, which she loves.

At lunch time Daddy came home sick from work. He went straight to bed and Clara was so concerned about him all afternoon. She kept wanting to "check on him," which I tried to keep to a minimum so that he could sleep. She had been a little whiny most of the day (par for the course after an exciting weekend!) and was pretty needy this afternoon, but she absolutely lit up when I needed to get dinner ready and suggested she cook something in her kitchen for Daddy to help him feel better. Her excitement over doing something to help her Daddy really touched my heart. She then threw herself into cooking something "really special" for Daddy, with lots of pots going, things cooling down and heating up, and all sorts of dishes being prepared. Her tender little heart is such a blessing and it was a good reminder to me as well that focusing on helping others is usually the best way to stop a case of feeling sorry for myself. This little girl teaches me so much every day!

April 8

Happy Easter! Christ is risen!

April 7

First hair cut!

Clara was SO excited about going to get her hair cut all afternoon. We talked about how she would sit in a big chair and watch in the mirror, and a man named Kevin would cut her hair, etc., and she was squealing with excitement as we got out of the truck. We walked into the salon, she took one look around and started sobbing. "I want to go to my house! Mommy, I want to go back to my house!"

I sat in the chair with her til she calmed down a bit and then asked if Kevin could just brush her hair and clip it a little bit. Her reply? "Maybe later..."

We took some more deep breaths and Kevin began (very gently) combing her hair while her head was buried in my chest. She finally looked up to check out the mirror and he took the opportunity to put some clips in her hair. All of a sudden, she was hooked! She thought those clips were so cool and when he took the first snip of her hair and handed it to her, she got a huge smile on her face. After that she was much happier. She started smiling and laughing and we had a blast. I love this picture because it shows her half-smile of starting to enjoy the process but still not completely sure about a stranger being so close to her.

By the end she was so excited she was having trouble sitting still and once she was done she hopped down and ran around laughing and chattering. Success! She talked about Kevin the rest of the evening and one of her thankful things at bedtime was "going to the hair salon." Hopefully next time we can have fun sans tears.

Her hair cut both makes her look so much different and doesn't change her at all. I know that doesn't make any sense. But her hair was shorter right around her face anyway so I think that is part of it. The cut is so cute and it does make her look older but I thought it would make her look completely different. Of course, she's still her same terrific self and when I look at her, that's what I see. Oh, how I love that silly little girl!

April 6

Wearing her chaps over a dress with leggings! She wanted to (you guessed it) wear a dress so she could dance again. I love that she finds no incongruity whatsoever in this outfit.

Earlier in the day she was "reading" a new poetry book that I brought out of storage and telling me all about it: "There's really good poems in this book, Mama. And it was written by a man named Center Cambridge. And he lives in North South. And there's a poem about a man going to sleep. And there's a train that says "choo, choo!" and a lion and an elephant and all sorts of adimals and there's kids in it too - gors and boys, there's gors and boys in it Mama! ...this is a good poem Mama!"

April 5

Trying to swing herself on the hammock.

After breakfast she wanted to know, "Can I put on a dress so I can dance, Mommy?" She spent most of the morning dancing to a Rosemary Clooney Pandora station or wanting me to watch her "dance like a ballerina" in her bedroom. Then, while I was trying to get dinner ready she kept asking, "Mommy, can you put on a dress and dance with me?" So we put on dresses and danced while our dinner cooked.

April 4

A full lap!

April 3

Clara's current baby obsession: baby Josie! She has adored this little girl from the moment Josie was born!

Today Clara pretended to "wash" my feet and clip my nails, admonishing me, "This won't hurt, Mommy, so sit still!" Future fashion stylist?

April 2

Introducing Pepper! My horse when I was a "little gor" as Clara says:

Today at the grocery store Clara saw a little baby in its carseat and immediately told me all about it. A few minutes later she asked, "Mommy, can we take that baby home with us, the baby I saw in its carseat? Can we please take that baby home with us Mommy?"

I had to explain we can't just take other people's babies, that wouldn't make them very happy...

April 1

March 31

Clara's song of the day: "He was rescuing God's people, He was rescuing God's people, He was rescuing God's peopllllllle. His people were sliding on the slide, they were eating bananas, they were eating food, happiness of the whole world... and the sheep said 'baaa.'"





(changed to speaking) "Of course people didn't like God. And some people didn't like birds, they were noisy and said, 'caaaw, caaaw!'"

"And God's people remembered the slaves from Egypt...."

March 30

"Mommy, I put a band-aid on my knee so a fox wouldn't bite my knee." (Not sure what the one on her elbow was for...)

March 29

Friends! I have other pictures where they're both in focus (hard to get both still at the same time!), but this one was just too cute not to share. Before we left home Clara told me she was, "bringing some cookies I made all by myself on my stove for Callan, and me, and you, and Maria. They are SO delicious. They have vitamins in them, so Callan doesn't get sick."

March 28

March 27

Clara's 20 minute story of the morning about a tiny scratch on her hand: A wolf scratched her! But she wasn't scared, she was brave. It was a girl wolf. And there was a baby wolf and a daddy wolf and then another baby wolf came and they were nice to each other because the baby wolves were friends. And Callan went with her to see the wolves. And Maria and Mommy came too so Clara and Callan wouldn't be scared. But the wolves weren't scary, they were nice wolves. And, and, and....

Clara's song for the afternoon: "Angels' Christmas party, everyone cheers for angels' Christmas party, happy Christmas to Jesus, angels' Christmas party, Santa Claus has everyone to cheer about Jesus, everyone cheers for Jesus, everyone needs Jesus from o little Bethlehem town, Mary needs Jesus, you will name him Jesus because he's cuter than other people and everyone cheers for Jesus, and they dooooooooooo. The End."

March 26

Fun with red! We also ate red foods for lunch: red peppers, strawberries, red dip, etc.

March 25

March 24

March 23

March 22