The Cousins

Clara loves going to Aunt Audra's house. Several times a week Clara asks, "Audra? Tobin? Keynan? Julian?" Audra has a huge playroom downstairs and one day last week Clara said, "Audra? Stairs? Fun?" Audra's boys are so sweet to her and she is so content to play the entire time we are there. Today we went for a visit and the Halloween costumes came out. Even Rex got in on the action.

Splash pad

Clara, Rex and I went to our new neighborhood splash pad earlier this week. Clara had a grand time. She enjoyed the other kids as much as she enjoyed the water. She's been so excited about putting her swimsuit on this summer. Whenever she sees it, she starts shouting "suit!" and tries to take off her clothing.





Occasionally, she'd come over and say "Hi Rex!" before hopping back to the water.





She got pretty worried when the water would temporarily stop.

House guest

Can you see what was in our living room tonight?



As Clara would say, it's a hopper.

Cause & Effect

Cause: Rex sitting in Clara's Bumbo



Effect: Hysterics

Yes & No

Clara gets better every day at answering our questions with a "yeah" or a "no". Before taking this picture I asked her if she could smile. Can you tell what her answer was?

Catch Up

I had a baby. A darling one. Here's Rex looking at his Daddy. He is such a sweet, well-tempered, smiley little man. Clara has suddenly grown up. She is learning to talk and repeats nearly everything I say. She is full of spunk and makes me laugh. Here she is on the 4th of July.I have a resolution to update my blog a little better. We'll see how it goes. :)

Sweet Clara Belle

Clara is growing up so fast. One of my favorite parts of being a stay-at-home mom is seeing her learn new things every day. She's been changing so quickly and I've wanted to write down some of the cute things she's been doing lately.

A few times this week when I've told Clara we needed to change her diaper she has willingly gone and laid down on the floor so that I can change her diaper. This is quite a change from last week when she went and hid in her tent when it was time to get clean pants. She will also happily jog back to her room when I tell her it is time for a nap or time to go to bed. She loves her bath and as soon as I mention that it's bath time she is back in the bathroom trying to hop in the tub.

She loves her Daddy. Ben has been out of town A LOT. As much as I hate it, Clara's reaction when Ben comes home is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I've never seen so much delight on someone's face. I usually end up cry/laughing because Clara's reaction is so darling. When Ben is home, Clara wants nothing to do with me. Occasionally it is a little offensive that she doesn't want me, but most of the time I just love how much she loves Ben.

Clara is learning new signs and words everyday. Tonight in the bath she signed horse for the first time. I love seeing her tiny little hands doing the signs. It is too cute. She can point out her eyes, nose, hair, mouth, teeth, ears, toes, and belly. She is getting really great at following commands and loves to throw things in the trash for me, put away her books and generally do anything that she knows will get me to say, "Good Job!"

She dances and jumps on command. When I sing her songs before bed she dances around the room. She got a little fridge barn/animal magnet set that plays songs and she always pushes the button so that she has music to dance to.

She loves to be around people. She gets so excited when anyone comes over to the house. The other day I was watching a sign language DVD with her and they began to sign Grandma and Grandpa. Clara turned around and looked at me with anticipation and then went to the door and tried to open it. She was sure Grandma and Grandpa had come to visit. When I told Ben's parents this story they came to visit her the next day. She was thrilled. She is always grinning and hamming it up for people when we go to the store. It's fun to be out and about with her because everyone responds to her sweet dimpled grin and constant babbling.

With this pregnancy I cry nearly every day. Just one of those awesome pregnancy side effects. It's been fun to see Clara learn some empathy. At first when I cried she'd have a mostly annoyed and slightly confused reaction to the tears. Now, she'll come sit with me and try to swat away my tears.

I love you Clara. I'm so glad to be your Mama.