EXTREME peek a boo

Clara plays peekaboo and it is the funniest thing. She does it SO fast. It is a little ridiculous. She pulls whatever she has in her hands, be it a piece of paper or a blanket, up and down from her face and you have to say peek a boo so fast you are almost out of breathe by the time she is done. And she always has the biggest smile on her face. It is so darn cute.

Another thing that she does lately is when she is nursing and I kiss her fingers, she constantly puts her fingers in my mouth so I can kiss them over and over again. She is so sweet.

100% positive about sign language

So up until now, I was not sure if Clara was signing. It seemed like there were things that she was repetitive and assertive about signing but we had no idea what she was saying or what they meant. Today, for the first time, I am certain she signed to me. I did the eat sign and she did it back to me! It was very exciting! It sort of made up for the last couple of days. She has been rather cranky lately. At first I thought it was about a new tooth coming in but I think it is a new phase of wanting to do what she wants to do.

I think she also did her first tantrum tonight. It was pretty ugly. Something in the bathtub started her off. I think it was the fact that her little squeaky crab started floating away from her every time she dropped it and it started a bit of a freak out. She started crying so hard in the tub, that I ended up taking her out since we no longer use the ducky and I did not want her to fall over or anything. Her little tantrum continued for the next twenty minutes. It was ugly. At one point, I even ended up walking away to see what she would do. She crawled out of the room crying really hard and me picking her up only caused her to calm down for a minute or so. She ended up calming down when Matt came home while I was standing in his office (for whatever reason she calms down when you walk in there, if only I had thought of it sooner) and by the time Matt got to his office she was FINE. She even smiled at him. It was so ridiculous. She was a little touch and go for the rest of the night but for the most part you could not tell at all that she had completely lost it. She is definitely a strong willed little girl! Uh OH!!!!

Hard to keep up

I have been rather negligent in posting Clara's progress mostly because it is so darn hard to keep up. She is doing new things everyday and seems to me growing at a rapid fire pace. She points, and seems to talk in sentences. The other day, she was telling Matt a complete story that made no sense at all. It was pretty funny. The sounds coming out of her mouth seem to be more complex. For example (and this is a poor example because it is so hard to explain), she used to just say DA DA and now she says something like DEWEY. She most definetly is getting closer and closer to saying her first word.

Clara is so lovey. She really likes to cuddle and is just a wonderful baby. Tonight, she was nursing and decided she was done with that. She sat up and crawled up my body and rested her head on my shoulders until she fell asleep. I don't know if I am doing her a disservice by cuddling her to sleep every night but I enjoy it so much and I think she does to.

Today was a play group friend. We met at the mall and Clara had fun watching the older girls. Some of them were being a little rough near her and it made me nervous. She is so little still! Sometimes she looks so big and other times she seems so darn little.

Going back to my Jersey roots

Clara, Matt and I went to NJ for a visit, our last one since the baptism. We flew for the first time with the baby doll and it went rather well. It is quite a challenge getting around the airport with all the things for her and honestly I am not quite sure how I am going to do it with her when we go to NC but I will have to figure it out!

The trip went well, it was rather tiring though. Three crazy kids is a lot to handle! Clara had a lot of fun playing with Maddie and Nate. Nate was searching for a lot of attention though and got a little rough with Clara sometimes like pushing her or kissing her too aggressively. But it is to be expected, he is only 2 after all!

Clara seemed to learn a lot of things from them. We got a little bit more adventerous with the food that she eats as well which has been a bit nerve wracking but it is good for her. She had pizza for the first time too and she LOVED it. She hummed the whole time while she was eating it as she always does when she eats something she likes. She also started throwing things on the floor when she is done eating. That is sort of irritating. The other thing we have to do when she is eating is give her two spoons if we are feeding her something with a spoon to keep her occupied. She is a funny one.

Kazoo and Teeth

Clara figured out how to use the kazoo! She had it in her mouth and started to hum and now she is having a grand old time with it. It is pretty funny. She tried to kazoo the recorder but did not have much luck with it. Every now and then she will get the recorder down but she seems to have more fun with the kazoo.

On a scarier note, when Clara nurses now, I can really feel her top teeth and it is beginning to hurt. I hope that this passes or my body gets used to it but it is sure an uncomfortable feeling. When she pulls away with it in her mouth, it definately hurts A LOT!

The last two days she has been a little bit cranky. I think her teeth have been bothering her and her sleep schedule is a little off. She was going to sleep at 9 two night in a row but tonight she went to sleep at her normal 7. Most likely because she missed a nap this afternoon. I was running around like a maniac looking for my business debit card that I think I lost. And then I had to go into Bank One to get a new one. What a pain...

We are going to travel with Clara for the first time next weekend on a plane. I am very nervous about it! Hopefully it goes OK.