Clara at Age 2

Height: 35.25" (84th percentile)

Weight: 31 lbs. (91st percentile)

Head size: 51 cm (99th percentile) ...I'm thinking this is why she bonks it so many times a day...

What she can do: Form 3 word phrases, climb playground equipment, steer her tricycle somewhat (but not peddle), use the potty some, navigate the iPad proficiently for her own purposes, help unload the dishwasher, clean up after herself with prompting, count to 12, and attempt to sing her favorite songs (Itsy-bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me, Wheels on the Bus).

What she likes: Reading books, eggs, ice cream, oranges, green beans, puzzles, bubbles, Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse, coloring, attempting to say the A,B,C's, the iPad, babies, baby dolls, swinging outside, playing Ring Around the Rosie, and being silly.

Other information: Tantrums are her go-to when she doesn't get her way these days.
Fortunately for Clara this involves mostly crying and occasionally stamping her feet or becoming grabby. Unfortunately once she gets worked up, it can last awhile. Usually after 5 minutes or so I will offer her some distractions. Disappointment is a hard emotion for a little girl.

Every day after being laid down for her nap she gets back out of bed and plays until she falls asleep on her floor.

Clara had her first real hair cut recently (by mom). Her hair twirling habit was proving long hair to be impractical as she pulled out hair ties, and broke many hairs off, and knotted it terribly daily.

Also, she's been more clingy to me recently for no known reason. Maybe she realizes her life is going to change somehow within the next 5 weeks? Hopefully this won't make our upcoming transition as a family any more difficult for Miss Clara!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

You've gotta love the firsts.  

Yesterday we took Clara to the park to fly a kite for the first time.

 She was fascinated for about 5 minutes.

She even did it all by herself, although that included dropping the line twice.  No big deal, mom's pretty fast (ha!).

There's no doubt it was a great day to be outside enjoying time as a family. :)

Birthday Partying

 It's official. I'm 26 and Clara's 2. We've had a busy week of birthday partying around our house.

It began on Monday, my birthday. Mitch made us a special breakfast, and my choice of dinner. It was fabulous. Mitch is a very good cook. Hence why he makes dinner on both our birthdays :)... seriously.

Afterwards we went to Fritz's. Since it was my birthday I got 2 mix-ins... so I was pretty excited.
Sometimes it's simple joys in life. And of course I shared with Mitch and Clara.

As a result, Clara was on a total sugar high (at 7:30 at night no less), and was cracking us up "dancing" to the music in the Fritz's picnic table area and running back and forth like a crazy child. It was all pretty funny until she was still up at 10:00 pm after being put back in bed like seven times.

Then it was Tuesday. Clara's birthday. She'd been practicing for it for a long time with her pretend birthday cake (you can even "blow out" the candle). In the morning she helped me mix up her birthday cupcake batter. I chose chocolate because that's her "usual" when we play birthday.

Afterwards we headed to the zoo. She was a bit tired after her short night of sleep, but was overall excited about the animals and happy. Since the trip she's talked most about the elephants, cheetahs, hippos, zebras, and monkeys.

 
We picnic-ed in Forest Park and headed home for naps and to prepare for Clara's birthday party. Instead of going "all out," we opted to have a little birthday celebration for her with our Bible Study group prior to our regular study time. Clara and her friend Will kicked it off with a treasure hunt in the back yard (which strangely resembled an Easter egg hunt).

Then we sang happy birthday.

Between the marshmellows, chocolates, homemade ice cream, and chocolate cupcakes, Clara once again got pretty sugared up.

Clara also got to open some presents. She and Will had a great time playing outside on this beautiful, warm spring evening.

And once again, it all ended with about a 10:00 pm, VERY drawn out sleep-time. I think we're going to take a long break from the sweets. But hey, a girl only turns 2 once!

Little Bookworm

Clara is definitely into books.

We spend what seems like hours each day reading book after book as she brings them to me. She often chooses this over playing with toys while we're at home. It's a habit I'm happy to encourage, but I find I have about a 5 book maximum per sitting. Clara could go on indefinitely it seems.

A couple of weeks ago I took a tally of each time she asked me to read her a book. We read 25 books that day. I would say that number has only gone up since then. In only four waking hours today, we've already read 18 or 20.

Additionally, she likes to sit and "read" books to herself. This often involves babbling or quietly turning pages, but more and more I'm hearing her say words that are indeed found on that particular page. And not necessarily those obvious from the pictures. This occupies probably at least 1-2 hours of her time each day. It's nice for me, especially anticipating the arrival of her baby brother next month.

What's more, as of late I've been pausing on each page of books we frequently read together to see if she can fill in the next word. Amazingly, she can. Even saying many words she doesn't actually know.

It seems I may have a little bookworm on my hands. We'll see if this trend continues, but I don't think literacy is going to be an issue for Miss Clara.

She sat on her bin of books and proceeded to pull them one at a time out from underneath herself to read them.