Little Helper in the Wings

Clara has taken quite a liking to babies in recent weeks.

It started with our most recent visit with her cousin Anna (a 6 mo. old).  Clara was elated every time Anna entered the room.  She would squeal, drop whatever she was doing, and run to greet her with her full attention.

Since then, she has taken a special interest in her baby doll, especially carrying her around and find places for her to do her "seeping" with her blanket and pillow.  (Anna was "seeping" most of Clara's waking hours during her visit).

Now, two of the last three times I've picked Clara up from the church nursery, the volunteers have gone to retrieve her from the fenced off baby area where she was busily "helping" with the babies in lieu of playing with the other toddlers.  The third of these occasions she was had not been allowed into the baby zone by the volunteers, but was still straining on her tiptoes to see over the bookshelf-wall when I entered.

Any baby she sees while out in public will make her very excited.

So, with the impending birth of her very own baby brother, I'm glad to see I have a little helper developing in the wings.  I'm sure she will reach the end of her good feelings towards him at points, but all in all she will take to this baby boy in no time.

Now for the issue of too much help...

Crying Can Be Distressing

A crying baby can be distressing. 

Clara's recent visit with her baby cousin Anna illustrated this sentiment well. Anna was crying in her room, trying to get down for a nap, and we were all listening to her on the monitor to make sure that happened in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, Clara wandered around, apparently distressed by the crying, unable to get on with her play, and periodically whining and searching around in the vicinity of the monitor for the baby.  As this process continued, Clara eventually identified the monitor as the noisy culprit... and proceeded to deposit it decisively in the trash can.

Then, last night, after a long, hard afternoon of playing at the Magic House and eating at Fitz's, Clara and her one-year-old buddy Zoe were clearly overtired. On the 25 minute drive home, Zoe expressed her fussiness in periodic shouts of discontent, while Clara furiously sucked her thumb and twirled her hair, brow furrowed. After about 10 minutes of unsuccessful attempts to quiet Zoe, she let out another shout, and Clara lost it. Her body was racked inconsolably with sobs.  After several rounds of singing songs and rubbing her leg and holding her hands, she calmed down. No sooner than we all breathed a sigh of relief, Zoe let out yet another shout, and Clara melted down once again.  This same cycle repeated itself the rest of the way, with the final shout-meltdown combo producing the most forlorn plea I've heard.  Through the tears Clara shook her head, and through her tears sobbed "no mo! no mo! no mo! no mo!"

It gave us all a good laugh in the midst of a stressful circumstance.  Thankfully we were almost home, so there was to be "no mo."  And, what's more, once Zoe and Clara were out of the car, diapers changed, pj's on, milks in hand, they decided they liked each other again.  All's well that ends well!

Poor Clara's in for some rude life changes in only a few months now.

Clara and Her Bucket

In our playroom there is an ice bucket.  It's too leaky to use for its intended purpose, but makes a great receptacle for the various kids balls we've accumulated.

Clara, being the girly-girl that she is, has little to no interest in playing with these balls.  Her main entertainment comes from dumping the out (they roll under couches and behind play bins), and dragging the bucket around to sit in.  

Last night we watched a movie with some friends.  Clara cracked us all up by moving her bucket right in front of the TV and reclining there for the duration of her movie-watching attention span.

Now, this evening, as I cleaned up dinner, she bustled and banged around to get her bucket into the dining room, select a book, and situate herself in her bucket to read it.  I had to laugh... and take a picture or two.  She's so funny!  And so serious about seeing her mission through to its completion!

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.

Girly Girl

Miss Clara has been revealing herself to be quite the girly girl in recent weeks.  

Her Papa (Mitch's dad), was the first to pick up on her uniquely girl-ness months ago upon observing her pick up a toy car and pretend it was a cell phone.  With three sons and three grandsons prior to Clara, he noted that he'd seen many phones turned into cars, but never this!

She never lost her love for talking on the phone.  It is her best game and one she plays many times each day.  I've learned quite a bit about my "phone mannerisms" as a result.  She answers the phone with a hi and then proceeds to babble while intermittently inserting a pause and a "yeah."  She casts her eyes around while in these imaginary conversations, as though listening intently and not really seeing.  She paces around, lounges, and gestures with her arms quite a bit, which I've been told I do pretty much. 

What's more, she's getting into wearing pretty dresses.  I tried a hand-me-down Christmas dress on her this Sunday morning to check it for size (it was too small of course... Clara's a big girl), but she got so excited anyway.  She went over to the mirror and grabbed hold of it, laughing, coyly smiling at her reflection, and cooing.  She proceeded to twirl and twist around, very pleased with herself.  I changed her out of it.  Later that afternoon she went to her room, found the dress, brought it to me to put on her.  When I did she proudly wore it around all afternoon until I removed it at dinnertime.

Her other favorite girly things: talking, SHOES, her baby doll, changing clothes and shoes, and she tolerates shopping outings pretty well too.  And she looks great in PINK!

Giving baby a hug.

And a kiss.

And some swinging.

It's so cute.  I always secretly hoped she'd be the girly type since I totally am.  I love the bows and dresses and tights and frills, so hopefully this means she'll tolerate it all a little longer!

Guest Blog: Directing Traffic

This is Mitch again. Katie has been a little under the weather recently and blogging has been at the bottom of her list. Due to her online absence, I have once again decided to take the reigns.

Story time.

Katie, Clara and I were standing in the kitchen the other day. Of course standing around wasn't good enough for Clara. So just like her father, she formulated a plan, didn't tell anybody about it, and set about executing it. First, she waddled over to Katie and grabbed her jeans and began to push her around the kitchen. We thought she was just playing around, but little did we know this was all a part of her plan. She directed her mom with great confidence and ease.They made their way slowly but surely across the kitchen. At one point she walked over to me and pushed me into the middle of the walkway. She quickly realized I wasn't as easy to move so she strolled back over to Katie. With one last big push Katie and I were now standing face to face. Well, in our case face to chest. Then a little arm wrapped around my calf and another around Katie's. As the arms began to squeeze Clara said, "Hug, hug." It was a nice little moment for our family of three. There we were, in the kitchen, hugging. It's amazing how a little person can change your life.

The End

I don't fancy myself a writer. I did teach math after all. The point being, don't expect many blogs from me.

Hope you enjoyed...