Clara is a very playful, smiley, loving girl, who is quick to laugh and feasts on attention. She's a girly girl, who loves showing off her Sunday dresses, picking out her hairbows, and carrying her dollies.
Although she is often quiet and observant, she is advancing more in her speech and has a decent vocabulary of single words and phrases. Her "thank you" is killer. She tilts her head up at me, grins her big smile, and squeaks out a high-pitched "thank you!" After I say "you're welcome!" she loves to keep coming back, smiling, and saying "thank you!" in a sing-song voice. Just too cute.
Girl is a rockstar sleeper! Goes to bed at 7:30 p.m., I wake her at 8:30 a.m., then she naps for 2-3 hours every day. Pure bliss! She has always needed lots of sleep to be well and happy, and I'm so glad it's easy with her. She always goes willingly to bed without fuss, waving and saying "night-night" on her way to her room when I say it's time to go to sleep.
We started Clara in Nursery at church when she was about 20 months. She had a hard time the transition, crying and clinging to us. I'm still not able to take her because she handles it so much worse when I'm the one to leave her. So David drops her off and stays with her until she's okay. And when we ask her if she enjoyed Nursery when we pick her up, she nods with her eyes wide open and says "Uh-huh!"
Clara is not always sunshine and rainbows. She can certainly be a ridiculously fussy and sad girl. She continues to hate car rides, and generally fusses minutes into driving somewhere. Dinner prepping is beyond her capabilities to handle. She seriously thinks she's going to DIE while waiting without my being able to hold or play with her. (She l-o-v-e-s being held.) She's also lately been having a difficult time in the mornings at home when I'm getting finished ready and getting supplies ready for outings. She'll just cry and cry and cry! Just wants me to hold her and snuggle. She's been teething some molars, so I'm sure that's been affecting her mood. Thankfully she loves her paci and blankie, and they are usually good secondary soothers when Mom's not available.
She is always pulling out the crayons to make a picture!
Eli & Clara are such great buddies! All through the day Eli exclaims, "Clara! Want a hug?!" They play a lot together and he usually really enjoys her companionship (unless he wants to play by himself in his room, which utterly devastates her).
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| Eli reading to Clara |
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| When Eli sat in a chair to get his hair cut, Clara had to sit right up there with him. |
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| Tea parties! |
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| A great eater! |
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| Such a good Daddy's helper! |
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| Loves going shopping and playing with the toy kitchen |
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| Is a caring doctor to doggie, Rover. |
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| Playing games with Grandma H. |
She's obsessed with the outdoors and will excitedly run outside any chance she gets. We take walks most afternoons, and I'm glad she'll also sit cheerily in the stroller during our walks. Eli zooms fast on his big wheel that we wouldn't be able to keep up if I let her walk, plus she likes to be mischievous and run into the street.
We watched a friend's kids the other day, and Clara was so in love with the baby! She gave the baby plenty of squeezes, and so kindly kept the baby's paci ready in her hand, and may or may not have kept trying to sneak the baby's paci into her own mouth. The baby and Clara were on different sleeping schedules, and when it was time for Clara's nap not too long after the baby had gotten up, Clara cried and cried. I knew she was missing that baby! Someday I know she'll be a great big sister.
Life with Clara in it is just so much better. We are all completely smitten with her.
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