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?"