Mischief

Clara has gotten herself into her first mischief recently.

After changing her diaper one day earlier this week, I left her playing in her room while I removed a trash bag full of dirty diapers.  When I returned, I discovered she had crawled out of her room, down and across the hallway, into the bathroom, had pulled up on the toilet, and was gleefully splashing around in the water.  And all in less than a minute!  It was pretty humorous.  Needless to say, I won't be casually leaving the bathroom door open anymore.

Then today, Clara managed to get the Kleenex box down from its perch on our end table.  She proceeded to rapidly pull the magically reappearing Kleenex out of their box one after the other, successful littering the floor with about ten of them before I noticed and confiscated her fun.

As her decision-making skills continue to develop, I have decided to set a couple of household "expectations" to work on with her, after being encouraged by Jan (my mother-in-law) that she's old enough.  I figure we'll start with this and then work up from there:

1. Sit in the bathtub (tough for a baby who's just figured out how much fun standing is)
2. Don't play with the Blu-ray Player (it's so temptingly accessible!)
3. Lay still during diaper changes (they didn't cover "how to diaper a baby who's crawling away from you" in childbirth class)

Clara seems to have some formulating understanding of the word NO.  Although at this point, when I say "Clara, No," as she inches her way toward the Blu-ray Player, she turns and gives me the happiest, most beautiful beaming smile.  I think she enjoys it because I said her name and looked directly into her eyes to communicate my little message.  Many times she turns away from her mischief to crawl my direction, possibly getting distracting by one of the toys strewn across the floor in the process.  Otherwise I go intervene, redirecting her and reiterating "no" to help her understand it's meaning.  So far she's been accepting of that.  She's pretty happy-go-lucky in general.  Hopefully she'll be easy on her parents

Dot dot dot...

Clara at 10 Months

Weight:  22.5 lbs.

Length: 29"

What she can do: She's good at crawling, can pull up on whatever she wants, cruises along furniture, climbs up a down a step, eats bits of table food for most meals, self-administers her sippy cup (although she gets it upside down much of the time), babbles and "talks," and says mama with possibly some association to me.

What she likes: The itsy bitsy spider song (especially the "out came the sun" part), gold fish snacks, glasses of water, cords, computers, cell phones... and everything else she's not supposed to have, other kids, playing on her own, clapping, smiling, and sitting/standing/playing in her crib when she's supposed to be napping.

Sleep:  She wakes up twice at night, around 2:00 and 5:00 a.m.  I think we're heading in a good direction with her sleep though, despite the fact that my attempts to sleep train her a few months ago really never took, which was disappointing.  I only let her nurse for about two minutes at each night feeding, and I'm slowly decreasing that each night.

Other information: At church this morning 'Mr. Bob' was disappointed I didn't have Clara with me as I usually do (Mitch took her home for her nap while I stayed to volunteer in KidzCrossing).  "She's so smiley, seeing her really brightens my day," he said.  That was fun to hear.  She is smiley.  Also, she really giggles when you tickle her under her chin.  And her hair is long enough now to be in her eyes without a clip.

Little Fingers

Clara's little fingers are becoming increasingly dexterous.

Now, while nursing, she passes the time exploring my face with her free hand.  Both of my hands are tied up holding her, bracing her weight (now over 22 lbs.), so she has few defenses to contend with.  Fingers go up my nose as I crane my neck to avoid them.  Handfuls of cheek are jerked this way and that.  And no matter how tightly I pinch my lips together, those little fingers still manage to wiggle into my mouth.  As this struggle continues, with Clara more the victor than me, I become humored by it all and start laughing.  Clara stops nursing to beam at me.  She doesn't know what's funny, but she wants to be a part of it.  For her, any opportunity to share a smile and some fun is a good one.

I used to clip Clara's finger nails for her sake.  The moment they got too long, she would unwittingly scratch herself.  Now I clip her finger nails for my sake.  She no longer scratches herself, but in her constant exploration and climbing of me, she leaves her mark.  Battle wounds.

One of the many occupational hazards of being a mom.

Little fingers are into everything these days...

The Nap Enemy

I'm writing this to vent some frustration as Clara's cries waft in from the other room.

What is up with this standing thing??  It's messing up my nice little system.  Now every time I put Clara down for a nap she does her usually whining, but instead of sucking her thumb and falling right to sleep, she stands up.  Of course she's not going to drift off to sleep while standing!

Eventually I go in and find her standing, gripping her crib rails and crying.  I lay her BACK down and wind her pony BACK up (it plays a lullaby) and leave.  Repeat scenario.  Repeat scenario.  Repeat scenario...  After 30+ minutes of crying, I'm as tense as can be.  And we've been going through this twice a day for the last several days.

...Time to go lay her down again...

Sure enough.  Repeat scenario.