Reflections on Our First Weeks

After 3 weeks together as a family of four, all I can say is my "cuteness tank" is overflowing!  I don't think I could stand any more.

Matthew peeking out at the world.

Clara is absolutely adorable as "big girl," "big sister" two year old. Her hair is curlier than ever in this summer humidity, and she says and does so many charming and hilarious things.

Serving pizza at the Magic House

And Matthew is an awesome newborn: content, cute, sweet, and cuddly as all get out.

I am praising and thanking God for the overwhelming blessings He's given me in my amazing husband and these two precious little ones.

So far, in his first weeks of life, Matthew has:

• road-tripped to Eldon
• attended a wedding
• met all his cousins
• visited the zoo
• visited the Magic House
• visited the pool
• gone on multiple shopping outings
• gone out to lunch
• gone to Fritz's... twice
• and attended to two different churches

"my kids" and me :)

It's amazing how the life of a second born varies from that of a first born. By three weeks of age I believe the sum total of Clara's experiences were a lone trip to Target and a couple of walks around the subdivision. Matthew has taken everything in stride beautifully.

Clara had a bit of a rough transition. She had a 103.5 degree fever and Strep while we were in the hospital with Matthew, cut two back molars, and then got a mother who couldn't do much more than lay on the couch and recover all week instead of playing. What's more she was suddenly forced to share the lime light.

So for many reasons, Clara was an emotional mess for about a week, but now seems very pleased with her baby brother and very interested in seeing that his needs are met. She's a sweet big sister. It's heart-warming to watch her love on him and fun to include her as an eager "helper" in his care.

We've had lots of visitors, which has been awesome and a great distraction for Clara. All of her grandparents and cousins have been up to see her and her new brother, along with some of her aunts and uncles.

Clara and Matthew with their visitors!

Fun, fun!

 We've had a great introduction into our new reality. Here's hoping it continues to be so smooth!

Toddlers Are Funny

Some things Clara does that make me laugh:

• She gets out of bed at nap time, plays in her room until she decides she's ready to sleep, and finally slips her books out under her door before falling asleep right in front of it. One day she didn't have books available to her, so instead she took off her socks and shoved them under the door. It's like a little flag of surrender. Or maybe it's something fun to do that then removes all her entertainment so she succumbs to sleep.

• Clara seems to feel quite "bullied" by young babies who may reach for a toy she's playing with or pull on her in some way. She screams, pulls her toys in close, and runs to mommy, proceeding to climb on my lap and glare at the offending baby (who's happily toddling along, oblivious to the situation). It's a comical sight considering she's often far bigger than the "culprit."

• She loves "coloring," which more or less consists of handing mom or dad the crayon of her choice and commanding them to "draw tree"... over and over again, until we have pages and pages of trees in every color in Clara's personal notebook.

• When she gets in trouble, she tends to take it very seriously. As a result, she often spends time rehearsing what she's been told earlier that day. While we were driving a few days ago, I'm hearing the little voice in the backseat say, "Do not 'frow" it --milk! Don't do dat!" over and over again. Today I overheard her saying, "Look at me. Time out!" 

• When Clara wakes up in the morning she comes out of her room to find us. As soon as she sees me she gives me the brightest smile and the most affectionate, "Hey mom!" you can imagine. If she sees Mitch first, he gets an excited "Dad!" squeal. It's a great way to start off our day. It always makes me giggle.

So fun. :)

Conflicting Emotions

"Clara, do you know the meaning of 'confused?'" Mitch asked last week.

She had just spent 5 minutes whining about not wanting her oatmeal and being "all done," then proceeded to burst into tears when I finally removed it from her. Upon returning it (in confusion myself), she grabbed her spoon and dug in.

This type of scenario is common with Miss Clara. She has many conflicting emotions and will push for something, realizing the moment she gets it that she didn't actually want that after all... or maybe she did she later decides.

Like when she takes her shoes off in the car and then cries because ...her shoes are off.

Or yesterday when she got herself a yellow spoon at breakfast. I had already gotten her a blue spoon, but she really wanted the yellow one, so that was fine. Unfortunately she kept changing her mind. Eventually she was alternating bites with each spoon and at one point tried to take a bite using both.

Or today when we went outside to play, she wanted her jacket on, then off, then on, then off, then on. And when I finally made her decision for her in an effort to get us out the door, taking it away, she was quite genuinely upset about it.

I try to encourage and allow her to make her own decisions about things that don't really matter to me. I want to give her a sense of control and independence when I can, but sometimes it just gets ridiculous when she can't make up her mind.

Mitch likes to be funny and call her a "typical woman."

It makes me chuckle, because I know I'm the main woman he's referencing.

However, I think the root of the matter is that it's just SO hard to live with any decision when you're two!

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.