All About Clara, Age 3

I just wrote a post on Clara's 3rd birthday.  This one is all about Clara at 3 years of age.

Clara has the best personality.  She is happy, enthusiastic, silly, smiley, kind, and playful.  She truly is such a pleasure to be around, and has a special light about her that is infectious and endearing.  She does have her fussy and whiny times, but they are way less in number than her joyful, sweet times.  She still uses her pacifier, which can calm her down when she's upset in just an instant.  Lately though I have been able to better reason with her to help her calm down when the paci wasn't around.  (I try to keep it just for sleeping times, but she likes to sneak it out.  It really does soothe her, and I'm okay with her letting it go when she's ready.)

She did really well at her 3-year check-up.  She is a happy, healthy girl!  Here are her stats:

Weight: 30 lbs. (50th%)  (Eli is only 9 lbs. more than her.)
Height: 37 3/4 in. (70th%)

Clara's definitely a "Mommy's Girl," but she loves a good Daddy play session and snuggle.

She wears size 3T, she knows all of her colors, she can count to about 12, she recognizes her name, and letters C and E.  She speaks in full sentences but is still a little tricky to understand all the time.

I potty-trained her a couple weeks after Eli started school.  I was happily surprised at how well she's done!  She seemed to "get it" from the beginning that pee and poop go in the toilet, as she'd tell me matter-of-factly, "You don't pee in your underwear."  She's still had some accidents, but they've been minimal, and more often than not, in the bathroom, just not the toilet.  :S  I trained her using our child potty seat, which is awesome since it moves around the house and can catch it in a hurry.  Thankfully it was only a couple weeks of cleaning that out until she was ready on her own to transition to the big toilet.  The potty chair also helped while she was afraid of public bathrooms and absolutely would not go in them.  I still put a pull-up on her at nap and bedtime.  She's been super enthusiastic about potty-training.  I never did any bribes or rewards.  Read her a sweet potty-training book and made a big deal out of every time she went.  Her favorite part of going was coming out and shouting to everyone, "I went peepee!!" or "I made a big poopie!!!"  She likes to pass the encouragement on, saying to me when she's in my vicinity while I use the restroom, "Good job, Mom!"  :)

Clara playing with her Bella bear.

Putting Bella bear to sleep.

Favorite song: Clara LOVES music.  She loves for me to sing to her, loves singing herself, is often found humming or "lalala-ing" a little ditty.  If she's sad, singing to her can often help her feel better.  She loves "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,"Popcorn Popping," and "You Are My Sunshine."

Favorite food: Clara is the BEST eater!  Yay!!  There really hasn't been anything she's turned her nose up at.  Fruits, veggies, meat, beans, breads, pastas, dairy, you name it.  She always eats what I make for dinner, and has a hearty appetite.

Clara was sick and we told Eli not to be too close so he wouldn't catch her germs.  He decked himself out in "protective gear" so he could be with his sister without getting sick.  :)

I attended a super fun and creative  event at the Carmel library.  It was called Applefest.  Began with apple songs, stories, rhymes, also had apple snack, two different crafts, and then several learning activities.  Very well done.  Clara had a blast!  She made the cute Johnny Appleseed 'pot' hat that she's wearing.  The last activity was really fun.  She was blindfolded and then had to place cut-out felt apples onto an apple tree.  She got the biggest kick out of being blindfolded, it was hilarious!  Video below.

Clara can be rascally, but honestly for the age she is she is very well behaved.  She doesn't often give a hard time, but instead complies willingly, especially when asked/told nicely.  (Obviously if I am stressed and losing my patience and trying to quickly force her compliance, it's more likely her stubbornness will appear instead.)

Enjoyed getting her nails painted.  Picked the colors herself.  :)

Silly girl loves to act like the baby.

Favorite book: ALL books!  Clara LOVES books and being read to.  She will look at books for a long time on her own every day, "reading" with a chosen doll, stuffed animal, or toy.

Favorite show: Daniel Tiger.  Sadly they took it off Netflix.  She also loves Little Einsteins, Super Why, and Word Party.

Favorite color: red (this is new.  before it was always pink and purple.)

Video of Clara doing her crazy somersaulting--



Favorite place to go: Wendy's (her answer.)  She loves going everywhere and anywhere, though, and she's also happy to stay at home.  :)

Best friend: Eli

Favorite animal: dogs!

Favorite thing to play: Clara is extremely good at playing on her own.  She loves dolls, playing "kitchen", puzzles, tea party, play-doh, helping Mom with chores and cooking/baking, and playing with Eli when he includes her in his funny imaginative play scenarios.  She likes to switch up "favorite friend" for the day, and pick one of her dolls or stuffed animals to accompany us on outings or to be her pal that she plays with at home.

Sweet sibling moment of Eli "reading" to Clara--

Clara sadly has been unwilling to attend Nursery at church since Ezra was born.  She becomes very upset and cries hard if I try to put her in there.  She would stay if David or I stayed with her, but neither of us are available to do that, so she comes with me 2nd hour (while I feed Ezra, which is loads of fun) and David 3rd hour.  She'll start Sunbeams in Primary in January, which I think she'll be ready for (and so will we!)

I started a Joy School with Clara at the beginning of the month.  There's only 4 kids/moms involved, so we each teach once/month, which is perfect.  It's three girls and one boy and I think it will be a great group.  Clara loves it!

"1st day of Joy School." Technically it was the 3rd time.  First was at our house, 2nd she missed because Eli had the stomach flu.  She looks like such a big girl!  So proud.

Here's a cute video I took of her, that also showcases her super cute twisting dance move that she loves to perform for us.  I tried taking a video of her singing some songs, but she would only "sing" her silly babble that pops out of her mouth when she's being shy or too goofy.