The Busy Work of Being a Toddler

This is the second day in a row Clara has insisted on wearing her "jress" ...aka "dress" ... aka "tutu" for most of the day.

It's fun to see her getting more and more a mind of her own, although challenging at many points as well.

This little girl makes my heart happy.  How can you not smile watching this image prance around the house, busy with the important work of rearranging teacups, building towers, and coloring all morning.

Oh to be a one-year-old again, no worries, no fears, just knowing you're safe and loved, with little more on the schedule than eating, playing, being rocked and read to, napping, and pausing once per hour to do a little dancing when the Christmas clock plays its carol.

Although, now that I think about it, the one thing better might just be being the parent of a one-year-old...  It's definitely good for a lot of chuckles.

It Could Be Worse

Anything in excess can present problems, or at the very least inconvenience.  Clara has developed a couple of recent "toddler fancies" that I find myself fighting against throughout everyday.  You may be surprised that I would fight against...

Eating oranges and hand washing.

But, when child has already had a whole orange for a morning snack and another for lunch, and is ignoring all her other food while reaching and repeating "aurge, aurge, aurge!" in pursuit of a third, you have to put your foot down.  What could so many oranges each day do to a little 30 lb body?  I don't think I want to find out.

And then there's hand washing.  SO fun for this little one year old who can't reach the sink on her own even with her step stool.  She demands to wash her hands (straining for the sink and repeating, "hay, hay!") before meals, after meals, before she takes a bath, after she takes a bath, anytime I wash my hands, anytime I'm in the general vicinity of the kitchen or bathroom, and anytime she notices a sink anywhere.  And after she's washed her hands once, she wants to do it again and again.

While I initially reinforced her hand washing interest, I'm now seeing the inconvenience of letting her wash her hands at her own discretion, so I explain, I reason, I distract.

"You're about to get in the bath, you don't need to wash your hands."

"Hay! Hay! Hay!" she responds as a little cry of frustration breaks through and she strains all the harder to reach the sink.  Eventually I give in, hold her up to the sink, turn on the water, get her some soap, and let her wash them so she'll move on and get in the bath.

It's an interesting dilemma, because both of these new little toddler preferences are so good... but moderation is not such a bad thing either.  I'm hesitant to discourage them, but find myself resisting them quite a bit.

However, Clara's recent interests are going to keep her extra healthy this flu season, so I can hardly complain!

It could be a lot worse.

Next year at this time I'll probably be tackling preferences for making play dough cookies and feeding them to the new baby or something of that nature.  :)

My best 'little' buddy and me.

Mother-daughter.  Makes my heart happy.

High-fiving dad.  Because he's just that awesome.

Love that gleeful expression.