Your face

Clara can label parts of my face. She is pretty good. She does hair, eye, ear, mouth, nose and chin. She actually said chin and hair for the first time when we were on the webcam with Grandma and Grandpa. The rest of the words she has been saying for a while.

Clara also says Up (rather MUPPY) now when she wants to go up.

The going to bed book

For a while, we have been reading the "Going to bed book" as the last book before we put her down. Tonight, I was reading MANY books Clara before bed. When I had read about 8 books, I told her one more book and then she goes Ni-ni. I picked up the going to bed book and she would not me open it. She asked for "Peas bus" (which is please books) and would not let me read the LAST book. I picked up another book and she started to giggle because she knew she had gotten her way. After I was done reading the other book, I picked up the going to bed book again and she tried to stop me reading it again! Too funny.

Clara has picked up a lot of words lately. She says plane now (pane), know where the sky and grass it. She will really try and repeat words when you ask her to say a certain word. Sometimes she gets it right, it is pretty funny though when she repeats it and it sounds completely different.

Around 4 o'clock today, we were all sort of tired because we were outside all day working on the patio. Clara had not taken a great nap earlier that afternoon. She had found lovey and a different kitty and was walking around the family room with the two of them up to her ear (she LOVES to do that) and saying "Ni-ni" over and over again. It was pretty funny. I actually did not even notice it, Matt pointed it out of me. Lately Clara has been constantly talking. Every now and then you will hear a word that you recognize, but most of the time, they are just sentences without real words.

Outside

Clara LOVES it outside. Ever since the weather has gotten nicer, she clings to the screen door as soon as the door is open. She runs and runs and runs around outside and could play out there forever. She also likes to play in the dirt. We had some work done in the backyard and she was playing with the dirt, breaking it into chunks. At one point, she threw some up in the air and accidentally got some in her eyes. She was OK.

Clara has been saying more complicated things. Yesterday she brought over her favorite jungle puzzle and the hippo piece was missing. She said "Where's this?". I could not believe it.

She also asked to go downstairs when she woke up this morning. I was not sure what she said at first but I realized that I had heard her say the word before and I finally figured it out. She says it sort of like "Down-st". She says DOWN very well and ALL the time when you are holding her and she does not want to be anymore.

Hi

Clara: 17 months
I have not done a good job tracking Clara's progress lately, mostly because I have been so overwhelmed by how tired I have been. But now that I am feeling better, I really don't have an excuse.

One cute thing that Clara has been doing lately is when she is about to do something bad. She says "Hi" in this really sweet way. For example, when she is sitting in her chair (the hard one from Matt's mom) she says Hi right before she stands up in the chair which she KNOWS she is not allowed to do. I have noticed that she will do naughty things when she wants our attention to. But she is not too naughty which is a good thing.

Clara has a lot of words now. Matt taught her how to say "gorilla" when we were at the Lincoln Park zoo. We went to the zoo and the aquarium when Cherie, Gary, Nate and Maddie came to visit last week. She LOVED the zoo and the aquarium. The whole time we were at the aquarium, she said "fishy fishy" the whole time. She really liked the underwater section where you could see the dolphins and beluga whales. The zoo was very exciting for her. When she saw something she liked, she flapped her arms and squelled. She LOVED it.

My big girl!

Clara is becoming a toddler at light speed. She is talking so much and no so many signs. Lately, we have been asking her all about the animals she knows. What does a cow, cat, dog, horse, sheep say? She knows all of those. And she learns things so quickly, especially signs. She signs , book, all done, more, food, water, milk, elephant, duck, cat, bear, and so many more I can't even think of it. She is saying all sorts of words now like pretzel, kitty, cookie, banana, duck, preston, heather, mommy, daddy, baby, teddy... she has at least 30 words. Though sometimes, she will say a word and never say it again. Like the word Chocolate. She said it perfectly one night and has not said it again since then! Too funny.