My little girl is almost TWO! :'-(

In case you don't follow my photography blog, I posted some pictures of Clara. In case you do follow both blogs, I won't post them again, but here's the link.

And just one repeat because she's cute. :)

She said her very first prayer a couple of days ago! Dennis gave her a line at a time and she'd say at least one of the words from each line. It made me so happy! Afterwards she said, "again?" ...Sometimes I think she just stalls as much as possible at bedtime. Haha

She's doing much better at forming complete sentences. She used to just use a subject and a verb together ("Clara... dishes!" and "Bear... Sleepin now") but I've noticed she's using more words to say the same kinds of things ("Clara want go walk now" or "It's rainin' out dere!") She still says "now" after almost everything she says but it's not demanding, it's more kind of sing-songy... And she moves her hips and head back and fourth while she says it. Yesterday morning Dennis went into her room and said, "Clara look, it's raining outside!" And she replied so matter-of-factly, "Yes, I know." It cracked us up! We find everything this kid says to be so entertaining!

She's getting good at jumping (like both feet actually leave the floor an inch or two- she used to just kinda pony) and she actually does forward rolls on her own pretty well! I'm a little surprised. She doesn't always leave herself enough space though and sometimes crashes into the furniture... Or off the side of a bed... She loves to climb everything (the book shelves, the chair to the counter tops, her dresser, anything with a ledge (ugh!) and I think her favorite place to sit is in the fridge. She is usually a pretty happy girl, but at least a few times a day she asks to take a bath (and disrobes) or go for a walk (and puts on clothes & shoes and tries to put my shoes on too) and when I say no (which I usually do- I just don't have the energy or coordination for either activity these days) she has a breakdown. She loves it when daddy gets home and she gets to go get the mail or take a stroll around the block and see the neighbor's puppies.

Her cousin came to visit last week and I have never heard two girls giggle so much! She still is talking about her cousin Sharlene, and I'm still in awe at Shar's beautiful curls.

Today was an AWESOME day! Of course, it's conference weekend, so naturally it's just awesome. I had prayed that I'd be able to hear some things that would help me and comfort me as a parent of two children... I feel like I need to do better at teaching my own kids the gospel and I find it no surprise that the first few talks were pretty much exactly what I prayed for. The Lord hears our prayers. It never ceases to amaze me. I can't wait to re-read them and act upon the inspiration I've received. Today was also awesome because I'm pretty sure it was like 75 degrees outside. Plus, I must be nesting because I had so much energy and motivation to get stuff done! Every piece of laundry is done (still working on folding), I vacuumed the entire house and even cleaned the carpets (something I've NEVER done in entirety), I organized what I'm sure was hundreds of baby clothes, packed a hospital bag for me and the baby, cleaned out the diaper bag, organized the changing table & blankets, and just all around tidied up. There is absolutely no way I could've done more than one of those things if it weren't for my amazing mother-in-law who offered to take Clara for the afternoon. I love having awesome in-laws... It just makes life wonderful. :)

As far as pregnancy is concerned, I am full term (37 weeks!) on Monday. All week I have been crampy and have had contractions off and on, some painful, some just uncomfortable. It's so weird because I had hardly any with Clara until after my water broke (and then she was born 6 and a half hours later!)... I'm not a fan of this looooong pre-labor, but I guess that means things are progressing, right? On Wednesday at my checkup the Dr. said she was low, I was a 2 & 50%... But that I could go all the way to my due date like that so not to get too excited. Regardless of whether she comes tomorrow or in four weeks it's still really close, right?! It's the not-knowing that just kills me!

In the mean-time I will just enjoy my time with Clara, my evenings with Dennis, and my (somewhat) full night's sleep until she decides to make things really fun. :) Life is good. Remind me of that when I'm in labor, okay?

The Scriptures

Our branch has the goal of reading the Book of Mormon this year. We've made it a habit to put on pajamas, and brush teeth and then we go into Clara's room to read the scriptures, read a book & say our prayers.

Well, sometimes Clara isn't the most interested in a story without any pictures. I got her a Book of Mormon picture book, but she still isn't terribly interested (not for as long as it takes for us to read a chapter or two anyway)! Plus, everyone knows the Isaiah chapters can be particularly difficult to get through...

So this is what Clara does... She may have a bit too much Michael Jackson going on these days! Haha

She lines up her animals and gives them all hats. 

Sometimes she takes a ride on Ambrosius, the big English Sheep Dog.

And sometimes she's really nice and gives her teddy bear a turn. 

This kid just cracks me up!

Go Cougars!

Any time Dennis watches sports of any kind Clara will either say "Go Cougars!"... Or (more often these days) "Cougars... No want it!" She'd much rather watch Kipper I think. Regardless, we had fun dressing her up for the first tournament game.

Thanks for the outfit Josh & Donielle!

I love this girl.

Big Girl Bed

Since this blog has become a journal of sorts, I figure I should have record of the little things that Clara says and does that I just won't remember if I don't put it down somewhere.

A few weeks ago we had company over and we tried to put Clara to bed in her pack n' play in our room. Well, that didn't work. It took her all of .25 seconds to escape. The next night when she was back to her crib, she though she'd try and escape from there too. I'm sure she could have gotten out before, she just never realized it was possible until that night! The thought of her diving over the rails of her crib scared me half to death, so the next night we tried her in her twin bed. I was seriously skeptical. This kid hasn't been one to just fall asleep at night, and especially takes a while to fall asleep for her afternoon nap.

It was a little traumatic at first with her banging on the door and crying sad sobs for "mommy!" and "daddy!" but it only lasted a few minutes and she went right back to her bed and even tucked herself in. She does much better than I thought she would. It's still not perfect... Like today she just spent an hour running around her room and knocking on the walls (we took all the toys out) but most of the time she'll eventually end up in her bed...

I'm glad that she's taken to it so well so we don't have to worry about it when baby #2 needs to go from the bassinet to the crib. Now my question is how the heck do a 2 year old and a 3 month old sleep in the same room??? Does any sleeping actually take place?!?

34 Weeks

We've had a few nice days this past week (up to 60 degrees!) so I left Clara with Dennis and dragged my parents to the park to snap some maternity pictures of me before baby girl comes. They were good sports to take all of my instructions, let me look at the image, fiddle with the settings, give some more instructions, let me look at the image... Thanks for being so patient with me!

This pregnancy has been quite different than my first one. Everything has just been multiplied (morning sickness, soreness, heartburn, fatigue) and I feel sooo much bigger than I ever was with Clara... And I've got at least a month left! I am very glad that she is healthy and growing as she should be, though. While I am very anxious to meet her, I am also happy that I have a few more weeks before she comes. I just don't think there's any more room left for her to grow!

 

This was my favorite. :) I love shooting into the setting sun.

Style

My daughter has a way of dressing... and un-dressing herself that we find very amusing.

A few other things besides her style that we find amusing:

*Her curiosity... She wants to know what everything is. She'll always ask "whoose dat, whoose dat?"
*Her absolute obsession with "Kipper Dog!" (a british kid's cartoon) and her Valentine's gift from Grandma Teri, "Lady... Tramp!" She'll go around singing "He's tramp" all day. Yes, we watch too much TV.
*She loves garbage... throwing it away, digging stuff out, pointing out every single garbage can she sees, and (her highlight of the week) watching the garbage truck from our front door. The garbage men are always sure to honk and wave to her. She relishes the attention!
*She likes to push buttons... mechanical and even sometimes psychological. ;-) Even though she can now ride in daddy's truck in her carseat, we don't very often because her feet can reach the gear shift. She also likes to turn off lights, shut the garage, change the channel, and (much to mommy's chagrin) run the blender. "Buttons... push!"
*Ask her where her baby sister is and she'll show you her belly button.
*When she's riding with me in the car she will warn EVERY. SINGLE. THING. that she can name... "Watch out trees!" "Watch out cows!" "Watch out house!" "Watch out moon!" I don't feel quite so bad about my driving now that she does it for Dennis too...
*The way she does forward rolls (or as some people call them, somersaults). She'll put her hands and head on the floor with her bum up in the air for a few seconds. Sometimes she'll kick over, other times she'll fall sideways, but usually she just stands back up and says, "Ta-Dah!"
*When she says "Mmm mmm mmm, Love it!"
*"Clara Syntax." I'm not sure if that's the right word to use... but when she's speaking she always uses the subject first: "Mommy... doing?" "Horsie... ridin!" "Chocate milk... more?"