"Tiss"

So I think Clara said Kiss this morning. Matt was on his way out to work and Clara and I were sitting at the breakfast table. Matt kissed me goodbye and Clara put up her arms and said "TISS!".

She picked up her face and let Matt give her a big kiss and then she smiled :)

Independant ME

Clara really seems to be exerting her independance these days. She is much more opinionated about what she does and how she wants things done. She complains quite loudly and gives that "pucker" face when she wants to do something and you tell her no. Heather was just telling me she does that face a lot when she is trying to get her to share with Preston.

I am sitting downstairs working and I hear her complaining quite loudly because Heather is probably trying her to make her share! Oh boy! I am in for a lot of trouble with that baby girl :)

Demands demands demands :)

Ever since everyone left for Christmas, Clara has been pretty demanding. I came up after working yesterday and I picked her up. She immediately asked for help and I got her the animal she wanted. She then asked for milk. It was actually pretty neat that she used sign language like that. I am going to figure out a few more signs to teach her.

She wants to be held ALL THE TIME by me right now. I think she missed me with all these other people around.

Help

Clara learned how to do the help sign on the 22nd. Very exciting! It is a useful one. Today Matt was holding her down giving her kisses and she started to do the help sign. Pretty funny!

Christmas

My parents were here for Christmas and Clara really warmed up to them. She really seemed to like my dad and would do the monkey smile for him on command EVERY single time. It is always funny too. It is really rather adorable.

My grandmother was also here yesteday and Clara really did not like her. Whenever my grandmother would want to hold her, Clara would turn away and she even swiped at her a couple of times. Naughty baby!

Clara got a lot of toys for Christmas and some clothes. I think she had a good time but did get overwhelmed with all the presents that we even stopped opening them and several of them are still sitting under the tree unopened! She is too young this year to know and every now and then I will pull out a present for her to open. She starts out getting excited about opening presents but then sort of slowly gets bored with it and has yet to really rip into anything. She was afraid of some toys though! We got her these cars that go when you bring them back and they move forward. For some reason, she is afraid of the orange one. I have not figured that one out yet!

Overall, I think Christmas was a success. Dinner was great. I made my first turkey dinner and I thought it came off rather well! It was fun to make it.

Come here kitty "titty"!

Clara has been doing this for a while and I don't think I have mentioned it yet but when she sees the cats and wants to call them over, she scratches on the carpet like Matt and I do. She does not do it very effectively because she does not do it very loudly but it is so cute that she picked that up. She loves her kitties.

As Matt says, somedays she walks up, rubs her eyes, and says "KITTY!".

Clara's Meals at 13 months

For breakfast, Clara pretty much eats a half a banana that I cut in half longwise and toast strips. She LOVES to drink her milk in the morning as well. I could give her the banana whole but I think she gets frustrated with it sometimes and seems much better when I cut it in half.

For lunch, I usually give her some cold cut strips, a cheese stick (which is her favorite), grapes and some sort of cracker or veggie booty or something.

For dinner, it is varying. I am trying to give her veggies at this meal but I am really not having much luck getting her to eat. Usually it is some sort of pasta (which she loves), chicken if I have it on hand, some veggie, and whatever Matt and I are eating. The other day, I gave her some spinach, mushroom and chicken and she did not like that too much. Last night I gave her a grilled cheese sandwich and she did not seem to like that either! I was surprised at that. Cheese and bread, what is there NOT to love!

Machine gun laugh, BREEEEEHHHH, and touch your nose to the ground

One evening, Clara started yelling at around 10:00 at night and Matt and I got her because we were not sure what happened. In order to calm her down, Matt usually takes her to his office because for whatever reason, it is THE room that works for her. He has a couple of X-Wings in his office and she noticed them. Matt started making one of them "fly" and he was making machine gun noises with it. Clara thought it was HYSTERICAL! After that, when she gets excited sometimes, she laughs like a machine gun. It is SO funny. I got it on tape!

Sometimes, when Clara pets the cats she makes this noise that I wish I could spell it properly. But it is something like. BRRRWEEEHHHHHHH. It is SO sweet. I was trying to get it on tape to remember it but I couldn't last time I tried.

At class on Saturday, the makeup class we did, Clara touched her nose to the ground for the first time! I was working with her to do it a few days ago and she remembered it and did it during class. I was so proud.

Coloring

About a week ago, I decided to start Clara on coloring to see if it would be an activity that she would enjoy. I think she is beginning to like it! I know she definitely likes the crayons. She likes to carry them around like she does with the forks and spoons from her play kitchen and when I take them away from her, she gets pretty made. I was on my computer and I saw Clara go over to her little table, pull off the crayons and the coloring book and start to pull all the crayons and start to color. She seemed to enjoy taking the crayons out and putting them back in the container more than the actual coloring, but I am sure she is eventually going to love it!

A little white lie? Or just a neat trick?

I am sitting here watching Clara eat breakfast and I think she just learned a new trick. To cross her fingers. She is doing with with her left hand (because her right is gripping a fork) and she keeps doing it over and over again. She was watching herself do it as she mastered this new trick!

Milk, Books, Utensils

Clara is really beginning to enjoy whole milk which is a comfort to me since we weaned about two weeks ago. She loves it. I love it when she goes, "AHHHHHHHHHH!" after she takes a big drink.

Her new favorite book right now is this Dora the Explorer book that the Clancy's bought her. It has these buttons on the right hand side that go along with the story but Clara just enjoys making all the fun noises. She says "Duck" when you make the little duckie quack!

For her birthday, my mom got her this huge kitchen set and she loves it. The kid has a thing for utensils. It is so funny. She likes to crawl around with them and use them at meals. I started giving her things on plates and giving her more utensils during meals.

Monkey Smile

Clara has this funny smile that we have dubbed the Monkey Smile. She smiles really big and squints her eyes and looks up. She does it so randomly and she just sort of started to do it when you say Monkey Smile. She does make it cheesier and bigger when you say Monkey Smile too. So cute.

It is a much more pleasant experience than the Monkey Family I had to endure in college...

Where's your nose Clara?

Clara touched her nose for the first time today when you ask here where her nose is! I have been asking her for about a week and she does touch her hair when you ask her where her hair is, but when I used to ask her where her nose is, she would touch her hair instead!

Nik was over and I was trying to show him that she touches her hair when you ask about her nose, but instead, she touched her nose!

Now when she touches her nose, she decides to stick her finger up her nose. Since it is already there, why not!?!?!?

All about the hugs

Clara LOVES to hug me. It is so sweet. She will come up and reach for the hug and puts her head on my right shoulder. Sometimes she pats my back.

Stinky daddy

Forgot to mention, the whole time I was gone, Matt did not shower once because he could not find the time. He was stinky!

Gone for a weekend

I left Clara with Matt so I could go to Mols wedding. She did well but I don't think she slept into the morning one night and was up with Matt at 4 AM. She also was a bit whiny, might be teething or missing mommy.

When they picked me up at the airport, I caught Matt outside of baggage claim and hopped into the backseat of the car. Bad move, Clara wanted me to hold her stat and of course I couldn't. We ended up stopping at McDonalds so we could get out and I could eat lunch. She was not too happy to get back in the car! Overall, I think she missed me because I was required to cuddle for most of the day yesterday with her. She is the sweetest.

Clara's fun new things are: slapping her skin, mostly her tummy and chest when she is naked. It is hilarious. She now also pats me on the back when I hold her with her head on my shoulder because I often do that to her. She asked for milk this morning when she woke up and drank a whole sippy cup worth. She loves her moo juice!

She is learning more every day. The day before I left, she started taking steps into the great wide open. She is becoming a big girl!

Walking like a crazy monkey

Clara is def getting more confident with walking. She has been taking more and more steps and it is so funny to watch because it is so exaggerated. Her arms flap out to the side sticking straight out and she sort of walks with her legs sticking out to the sides. It is pretty neat to watch. I am going to be gone for a couple of days starting tomorrow and I hope that I don't miss too much while I am gone! I will be sad to miss any of it.

Directions to Matt for Molly's Wedding - his first weekend alone with her - just him!

December 2005

How to take care of Clara Rose

Daddy’s first big weekend alone with his little girl!

In the morning

When Clara wakes up, don’t forget to give her water, change her diaper, turn of the heater and humidifier.

Breakfast

For breakfast, give Clara some milk, ½ banana, toast strips until she tells you she is all done.

After Breakfast

It is play time and time to change Clara’s clothes.

Naptime #1

When Clara is tired put her down with her lovey and kitty. If it is chilly in her room, turn on her heater. Clara likes to be read to before her nap.

Lunchtime

Clara eats around noon. If you are hungry she is too! Feed her grapes, cheese stick, ½ a turkey slice, and some starch like veggie puffs, cheerios, bread, etc. I give her the starch last. She drinks milk with lunch as well.

After Lunch

This is a good time to get whatever you need to get done outside of the house. Please make sure you bundle her up no matter what her complaints are. AND SHOES SHOES SHOES please.

Naptime #2

Whenever she is tired.

Play time again

Play until dinner. She is most cranky and clingy at this time so don’t expect to get ANYTHING done other than be her sounding board.

Dinner

Mac and cheese is always a popular move. Try and give her at least one fruit or veggie with this meal. There are canned peaches and canned veggies (which I have to go buy so if there aren’t any I forgot to buy them- overcook the ones in the freezer, follow directions). If you get take out, Clara likes pasta or pizza. Make sure she does not eat too much of that or you WILL see it again later.

Bedtime

You know how to do this well so have fun! Give the BBD lots of hugs and kisses from her mommy!

Don’t Forget

1) The baby doll must wear socks and preferably shoes at all times
2) Turn on her humidifier and heater at 77 degrees on oscillate at night

3) Try and keep her hair back so she is not a shaggy dog. A clip is fine, just don’t put her down with the clip to sleep.

NO MORE SUCKA SUCKA

Clara and I officially stopped nursing on Sunday (12/4/05). I was not planning on stopping it that soon but they day sort of got away with itself and it made itself into a good day to cut out the last feeding. I believe it was last Wednesday when I realized that I was going to have to take the pump with me if I did not have here weaned by tomorrow. So I slowly started, took one feeding out after a few days and then Sunday rolled around and I had one feeding left to go, and between staying at Ryan and Amanda's for Evelyn's party and the Switchfast Holiday Party, we did not have time to feed her.

I must admit that Clara really only seemed to mind once or twice when she was being put down for a nap or bed, but I had a hard time with the transition. I always appreciated that time with her as a nice quiet cuddly time where I could play with her hair or rub her cheek. I always found it worth while, that year of nursing when I started to feed her and she was content and rolled her eyes, or closed her eyes in happiness.

That I will surely miss.

Though I cannot believe that I did it for so long and now she is a toddler that is almost walking!

She is certainly getting close, taking a few tentative steps here and there. She has made more headway in talking which is pretty funny. She says dog, doll, duck, done, kitty, mama, and dada. She also repeats sounds too. Nothing like teaching your one year old to moo!