Some Clara Items

Two weeks down and her finger is practically completely healed. There's the teeniest of scabs, but really that's it. She does, however, seem to be much more concerened about other people being hurt. Especially if she sees a band aid on my finger or 'the King' in her Cars book (when Chick makes him crash). She'll bring her book in to me every time saying "Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! mama! HURT!" With her face all scrunched up and I have to tell her, "yes, he got hurt but look, Lightening McQueen is helping him so he'll be all better. It'll be ok! He'll get better." Then she says "help. Help." and continues through the book.

She pointed to my finger the other day with a band air on it and said "Mama. Hurt." Yes, it hurts, please don't touch it. "Mama. Door. Hurt!" No, no mama didn't hurt her finger in the door. "Me. Door." Yes, yeah you hurt your finger in the door didn't you? So we need to be careful with the doors and ask for help. "Mmhmm."

I thought it was terribly observant that she made the connection that my finger was hurt, so since she hurt hers in the door, I must have hurt mine in the door. But maybe that's just maternal bias (don't burst my bubble : )

Last night she also talked in her sleep. I went up to check on her and started to move her back onto the fouton (she was half off with her blanket in a ball under her chest) and as she rolled back onto her bed (completely asleep) she said "Mama. Plane! Mama! Plane!"

I laughed because she says that ALL DAY. We hear planes flying all the time and whenever we drive in the car we're under the approach pattern so she constantly points out the planes. I thought it was funny that she was even dreaming about it.

I think she understands a  little bit about the baby.  We've talked about the baby's bed and small baby blankets and how the baby will have to wear diapers and next month, when Clara turns two, we'll bring the baby home. She knows there's no baby in hers or daddy's bellies, only mine. And I've talked about how she can help mama read to the baby and show the baby her animals and play with the baby. . . so I'm hoping it'll all go smoothly.

She's getting much better at using "me" and "Clara" in reference to herself. Like she'll ask for "Clara Movies" or "Me Movies" (it acutally sounds like "Car jeeya!" or "Me jeeya!" but at least she points to herself as well). But at the same time Daddy and Frankie/Doggy have merged yet again. Frankie used to be gagee and Daddy used to be Gaga. But now she uses gagee for them both and it's confusing for me. She's anti "d" though, not sure why.

She says hi to lots of her toys. "Hi Pony!" "Hi Turtle!" "Hi Doggy!" and she'll say it very high pitched and get increasingly higher the more times she says hi (which is usually at least 2-4 times). She'll also put her toys to bed. She often decides her doll, llama, turtle or pony needs a nap so she'll take them upstairs and put them on her bed (pillow) and then come back downstairs and report to me. "Doll. Sleep!" "Llama. Bed!" So all her stuffed toys are migrating upstairs.

She's very into bears--but mostly at night. Her fouton has a bear cover and a bear comfortor. I've got a bunch of polar bears that are practically 3/4 her size that she's insisted on sleeping with the past few nights. She'll put her arm around the one from Sea World Australia and then ask for the prayer then just fall asleep cuddling with it (while the other bears and doggies are around her head and other side). She knows only one bear is allowed for story time though becuase otherwise there's no room for her on my lap.

She still gets shy in public or when people say hi directly to her and sometimes she still spits at them. Fortunately she's still young enough that people think it's funny. But we're working on that. We're also working on wiping boogies on a tissue instead of pants or in the mouth. AT least she points them out to me when she wipes them on her pants, so then I get a tissue and say "boogies go in tissues." Then I have her blow her nose again in case she missed any : )

She says no for EVERYTHING.
"Do you want some breakfast?" No. . . . .. . . baba. (Breakfast).
"How about some oatmeal this morning? "No. . . . . . .  momo (oatmeal).
"Do you want to pick out some undies?" No. . . . . . nunies! (as she gets some from the drawer and brings them to me).
Tyler will say "Hi Clara!" No.  (no what? No is not an appropriate response to a greeting, Clara.)

I can't even imagine how insane I would be right now if she didn't still use some sign to communicate with me and if I was trying to start potty training right now. IN-SANE I would be! As it is I'm just holding on, so I always have to remind myself how much worse it could be for both of us.

She's not very articulate. I don't think, anyway, for being two (in two weeks). But I think she's ahead of the game on some other things, so I'm not too concerened that she uses the same two syllables for, like, 6 different things. She's putting words together and constantly 'talking', so I'll just serve as translator until she sorts it out. . . . and laugh at her pretend games and silly faces.

Small things make me happy

Like when clara wakes up at 6:20am today (nistead of 5:50am yesterday) and has taken off her pants, thrown her wet diaper in the garbage, and has pooped in her potty and is just waiting up in her room for me to come up and help wipe.

"Mama. Wipe. Mama. Wipe." As I hear her playing around in her room.

>sigh of relief< THIS I can handle.

That and also, this happened this morning:

Clara eating her cereal

"Bubbles! COOL!"

I Laughed so hard and said "DId you just say "COOL"?! That I think I made her nervous or something, but then i agreed, that bubbles in cereal ARE cool and she smiled and said it again for tyler.

Bubbles aren't new, she always comments whenever she sees them (in milk, usually) but the 'cool' was definitely a new addition.

P.S. I added pictures finally to the Space Jammie post as well as to our trip to the UCC for her finger (which does not need a splint or even a wrapping anymore, but it still looks awful.)

PS Again, these pictures are from earlier in the month, before the 'incident", just playing around with TYler.

But It's WAY WAY Worse when MOM is in Charge!!

>sigh<

Yesterday clara caught her finger in the closet door. She's fine (see how I start with that?) but the top of her finger got munched pretty bad (split open all across the top, parallell to the nail). Fortunately the bone dind't break and it didn't touch any nerves or anything, just split the top, but still. IT WAS AWFUL!!

The pictures are on the camera, but I haven't put them on the computer yet so here's just the story for now.

I got home from lunch and the commissary (the only errand I managed because she was being a bit of a stink. She bit me so hard on the arm at the food court that I started crying and she gave me a huge bruise and teeth marks for hours afterwards--through my coat sleeve! I wanted her to eat before playing on the playgym, that was my crime.) and had just brought all the groceries in and taken off her coat and both our shoes.

I sat down on the couch to put a movie on for her so I could put away groceries and maybe think about starting dinner and she went to the closet to open it up to get an acutal DVD case. I said "no sweet pea, I've got the movie right here" (They're all on our computer). So she starts to close the closet (accordian style closet) which she's done MANY times.

It's almost closed by her pulling on the handle but she decides to switch tactics and close it from the middle fold. I say "Be carfulL! wath your hands!" but it closed and caught her middle finger. She starts crying and I immidiately go over to her.

I think she just clipped it (which she's done before in her bedroom) and it just scared her, but after a few seconds of holding her I say "ok, let mama see" and she pulls her had away from her chest, takes her other hand off her fingers and I just see blood.

Lots and lots of blood.

I think to myself "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!!OH MY GOSH SHE CHOPPED OFF HER FINGER!!!! AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

But I say, quite calmly, "Ok. It's ok sweet pea. We've got to clean this up. Come on."

And I pick her up as blood is literally dripping everywhere on our clothes. Take her to the kitchen to try to clean it off but realize there's no way she'll let me stick her finger under runnign water becuase I Wouldn't let someone do that to me if I was her. So I grab a paper towel, wet it, half squeeze it out and just put it over her fingers to clear some of the blood. When I pull the towel away after a few seconds I just see split open flesh.

Again, I think, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! OH MY GOSH IT"S SPLIT OPEN!!! WHAT DO I DO!??!!? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

I think I said, "It's ok sweet pea, we'll just keep this on your finger. Shhh Shh, it's ok. Mama's got you."

I take her upstairs and give her some tylenol, becuase I figured it will help with pain and whatever happens at the UCC (urgent care center) but then I realize I have to get her TO the UCC. . . . but I need to keep pressure on the finger becuase I don't really know. .  she'll bleed out or something If I let go!!

So I've been holding her in my right arm this whole time with my left hand holding her right hand. And I manage to get the phone and call Cami without really letting go of Clara or her fingers. And I tell her clara smashed her finger in the closet door and I need to get her to the UCC but I'm not sure quite how to do that becuase i need to keep holding her finger.

Cami, being the awesome friend that she is with three children of her own, says "ok, I'll just put the kids in the car and we'll be right there. . . . are YOU ok?"

"Yeah. . . yeah, I'm just. . . .just a little emotional."

So I keep holding her until Cami arrives.  We said a prayer. . . mostly for me. . . but she completely calmed down immidiately which in turn helped me too. Clara asked to say another prayer a few seconds later and I obliged her. That's nothing new, she'll sometimes ask for 2 or 3 prayers at bedtime, but still. I wonder if she acutally made a connectio nthat time between the prayer and how she felt?

Cami arrives and she puts clara's car seat in her van and takes us to UCC. They ask to see her finger before even giving me the stupid forms to fill out, which annoyed me but I guess I understand that they might get a lot of panicky parents in there. Plus clara wasn't crying anymore or even whimpering and it only happened 30 minutes ago. Anyway, I get hte form and have to figure a way to hold her hand (She whimpers every time I let go) and fill out the forms about a 2 year old by answering questions such as "could you be pregnant? when was your last Menses?" etc etc. I skipped most of the form.

Cami called the squadron to let Tyler know we were there (I thought he was flying and just wanted him there instead of sitting in a debrief). They asked to see her finger again a few minutes later (two different people) and said "yeah, that's not good but it's not terrible." But they were still nice enough to let us skip ahead of one or two people.

She had to wash her finger off in a cup of solution and I thought "yeah right, she's two. Like she's going ot keep her hurt finger in a warm cup of wash." However, she was fine with it. She dipped it in, said "Hurt. Hurt." I said "I know, its ok, put it back in the cup and it will feel better." Dip. "Hurt. Hurt." It's ok. Dip. Then she kept it in there and started moving her fingers around ot swish it all over the place like I DON"T allow her to do with her milk at home.

We go back, they take her vitals. She takes off her socks (I never put shoes on her), we point out things and various colors around the room. Tyler arrives. She doesn't want to say hi (go figure). The doc comes in, assesses the situation and says "its a little too deep for my comfort. Before I seal it up I'd like to tak X-Ray."

Dr. Olga (I can't remeber her last name) orders the x ray. Fortunately tyler was there becuase I couldn't go in the x ray room becuase I'm prengnat. And fortunately clara was done being shy with daddy at that point so he took her back no problem.

Olga got a second opinion on the X rays from orthopedics and fortunately, the bone wasn't broken. But the next question was how to seal it up. Her finger was almost too small for stitches, plus the way it was injured, the skin was too thin to even hold a stitch anyway. But it looked a little too wide to derma bond it. . . so what to do on such a little finger?

The two (Olga and Ortho) are just standing there holding her hand out like she's giving them a high five and Tyler's just holding clara and she's just sort of looking at everyone. Not making a sound while they investigate and move her hand and fingers and stuff.

They decide to derma bond it (superglue it, basically) to keep it clean and then put a little cast/splint on it. She was practically alseep while she was soaking her hands in cleaning solution again (it didn't hurt the second time, or at least she didn't say it did). She was just leaning back against me with her blanket on her lap (I grabbed it before we left) and her hand in the cup. Then let them put the splint on and wrap her up without a fuss.

We get her in the car (Tyler sent cami and the kids home since he was going to stay) and Clara starts laughing and giggling at tyler and his hat. We get home and she starts running around and playing 'choo choo train' and laughing at the dog and just being crazy! LAUGHING! and smiling and she ate a huge dinner (good thing we had a late lunch around 2pm becuase we didn't get home until about 5:30). and ran around some more with tyler and then went to bed. She slept like a rock! I was in more pain I think than she was that night!

I checked on her a bunch, and she was completely fine. Even when I found she'd curled her hand up inside the splint and Tyler and I had to straighten out her fingers. She fidgeted, but dind't wake up.

So, in conclusion. My child is a champ rockstar who's super tough yet rediculously cute at the same time. And I'm clearly not fit to be sole caretaker of her, especially in time of emergency. She's better off with Daddy.  At least HE"S never had to take her to the emergency room!! ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

This last picture was taken on Tuesday (She did it on WEdnesday) after her follow up at 7:30am with orthopedics. She's just sitting with her right middle finger taped up watching Toy Story. Course she also got a cold this week too, so that was awesome.

"Undies" Night

Last night I put Clara in undies around 8pm. I went to check on her around 10:30 before I went to bed and, of course, she had peed on TOP of her covers. She was sleeping soundly, however she had soaked her top fouton cover and her crochet blanket was a little wet too.

Fortunately her waterproof pad was bone dry--so I'm glad I went through that effort.

I take her wet undies off and hold her over hte potty. She just has some gas then clearly wants to get back to bed, so I put a pull up on her (baby steps) and she lies back down so I have to finagle her jammie pants on her while she's dead asleep.

I've got a bajillion blankets but lots of htem are downstairs from when I washed them, so I just covered her with her remaining dry blanket and got an extra quilt from her changing table.

I didn't notice any later wake up or anything (which sometimes happens when I change her wet diaper or help her go potty before I go to bed--probably becuase her diaper gets so wet that it wakes her up. It'd wake me up if I was her) but it wasn't an early wake up either. So that's nice.

Maybe we'll try again and I'll check on her a little earlier. . . If she wants. Otherwise I might wait until the baby gets here becuase then I"ll acutally already be up and I don't think it'll be that big a deal to feed the baby then check on clara. Like I said, I'll be up anyway.

Sans nightime diaper?

Clara's been out of diapers for a while now. We've been going out and about and staying home with her in undies all day since at least 18 months (there were still accidents, but mostly becuase ignored her or she couldn't get her pants down on her own).

I guess maybe a few weeks or a month ago I stopped putting her in a pull-up for naptime. Mostly becuase I would go to check on her when she wouldn't fall asleep and she'd have taken it off and either missed her potty or taken it off mid-potty or taken it off and thrown her tangled up diaper/pants combo in the garbage. While I appreciate that she knew where her dirty diapers go, I flush poop and there were two times where she clearly was very close to getting the diaper off but couldn't quite make it--so I had poop cleaning duty which, as many of you know, I am not a fan of.

So once I started putting her in undies she acutally did pretty good. I'd go in to check and there'd either be a #1 or #2 or both in her potty (she'd be sleeping soundly naked from teh waist down--she still has some trouble with getting undies and pants on by herself). Sometimes she'd wake up wet and sometiems she'd come down to me dry. Lately she's been mostly dry on wake ups.

(except for the time I went in and she had taken off her pants and undies, gone potty, then managed to climb up on the changing table and fall asleep--after ransacking her room)

Tonight, however. I put her in her standard pull up, did bed time routine and went to check on her becuase I head noises. It was dark, she was wandering around upstairs (it's not that big) and I say "clara! get in to bed!"

I walk into her room, kneel down by her fouton and straighten her blankets for her (in the dark) and she comes and lies down and I cover her but feel her naked bum.

Anna: "What? where are your pants?"
Clara: "Peaaa! Peaaa." (pants, pants)
Anna: (turn on the nightlight and see her jammie pants on the floor, no diaper in them) Where is your diaper?
Clara: Diap! DaiP! (as she points to the garbage can)
Anna: Why is your diaper in the garbage? Was it wet? did you go potty?
Clara: Weh! Weh! (wet, wet)
Anna: (pulling hte diaper out and, noticing she had ripped the side like I do when I take it off her, sees it's wet.) Oh, well then lets get another diap and put your pants back on!
Clara: Nunies! Nunies! ('undies, undies' as she gets a pair of undies and brings them to me to put on)
Anna: Oh, you don't want a diaper? you want undies on?
Clara: (nods) Nunies! Peaa!
Anna: Ok. I guess we'll just see how this works then.

So I put a full sized water proof pad on her fouton and tucked her back in and now I'm just waiting, I guess, for a hopefully dry night? or for her to use her potty up there and not come down at 1am saying "mama! wipe! wipe! Potty!" THat would be AWESOME. . . . but I"m not corssing my fingers. Plus it's not like I won't be up anyways being 35 weeks now.

However, Daddy Still Rocks

I don't want anyone to get a bad impression of Tyler's fathering skills, because he really is quite awesomely talented.

(crap, again, video exhibits a, b and c are not loading!)

Example #1:

The other night I had a baby shower to go to, so he was in charge of bedtime. He was playing with her for about 15 mintues--running around, chasing/being chased, standard fare and all of a sudden Clara stops and says "no'. Apparently the scene went like this:

Clara: No

Tyler: No? I'm gonna get you!!

Clara: NO

Tyler: Oh. . . . you're all done?

Clara: Up

Tyler: Oh! You want to go up! ok! (starts to throw her up in the air)

Clara: No

Tyler: Oh. You don't want that?

Clara: Bed

Tyler: Ok, lets go to bed. Do you want a bath?

Clara: No

Tyler: Ok. Puts her in a diaper and jammies and holds her for a second

Clara: Bed, down

Tyler: Ok. Good night Clara!

Boom. DONE. He walks out and doesn't hear a PEEP out of her!

No bath, no freak out about a lack of bath balls, no teeth burshing requirements of him brushing at hte same time, no ear cleaning, no drink of water, no bed time book, no fifteen blankets and 32 stuffed animals (or not stuffed, plastic planes), no leg warmer requirements or specific jammie requests, no three rounds of prayer--NOTHING.

In case you were wondering, yes, I must satisfy anywhere from one to all of the aforementioned requirements for Clara before she will go to bed for me.

Example #2

Clara: Movie! Movie! (pronnounced "jeeya! jeeya!")

Anna: Ok, what movie do you want?

Clara: Daddy movie (pronnounced "Gaga jeeya")

If I try to put anything other than the Incredibles in, she'll freak out. If I try to persuade her to another movie more to my liking, she's obstinate. The SECOND I put The Incredibles on, she sits on the couch and doesn't move. It's like she's channeling Tyler home through the movie.

I think Tyler watched it with her one time and from then on, only Daddy's movie will satisfy. Fortunately for me it's getting better with repeat viewings, but still.

Example #3

Tyler can make a funny face and Clara will try to imitate it and then laugh out loud hysterically. I tried to make funny faces with her the other day and she stared at me like I was retarded. No imitation, no laugh. Nothing. Just this look of "Um. . . you probably shouldn't make that face in public because you look retarded"

I just hope I can get the videos to load because lots of his parenting can't really be explained, you have to see Clara and her reactions and how she looks at him to understand how great a Dad he really is : )

When Daddy is in Charge Part III

He takes Clara on the slides at the Weasel's Den meant for 5-12 year olds. . . .

(Shoot, my video isn't loading)

She was able to go down all three of the big green slides at least once. She still got knocked around a bit, but nothing too bad until she tried the middle one again and smacked her ear on the side of the slide and started screaming.

FORTUNATELY on her way up the stairs to go down that slide her foot slipped and she smacked her forehead against the plastic slat leaving a nice red mark. . . sooo. . . . . yeah. : )

When Daddy Is In Charge Part II

Tyler took Clara out to go potty at church today. She didn't have to go she just wanted to play. So he stayed outside with her until the sacrament was over. While I was sitting in teh chapel I THOUGHT I heard Clara's cry and I THOUGHT it sounded like a hurt cry, but I dismissed it thinking there's lots of kids out there and Tyler just probably won't let her play with the elevator so she's not really hurt. But still. . . .I thought it.

AND I THOUGHT RIGHT!!!

Turns out Clara decided she wanted to try jumping down the stairs with both feet. So she made it one step (her hand was on the rail) and the second one but she lost her balance and started tumbling.

Tyler was right there and just missed grabbing her when she jumped down the first step. He tried to get in front of her but she fell sort of sideways so she was parallel with the steps and he didn't want to step on her. Not only that, but the church stairs are REALLY steep and narrow, so he probably would have fallen and broken something if he tried to leap over her to catch her.

Fortunately it's a short bout of stairs, but long enough to give him a good scare and leave her with some good bruises. She was a little cranky the rest of the day, but no signs of concussion or anything like that. Just some solid cheek bruising and a forehead bruise/scratch. (I couldn't get a good picture of it though)

I really felt bad for Tyler though because it did give him a pretty good scare. Would have given anyone a good scare given those stairs! But to be honest it probably would have happened if I was watching her because she's NEVER tried to jump down stairs before. She's always been really good at stairs even before she could walk. I don't know what got into her. But now we're both a little nervous with her around stairs.

When Daddy Is In Charge . . .

Blood is involved and I am not told about it until I find blood on the couch that he didn't see.

scene

I get home. Clara's napping.

A: How was she?

T: Fine. She should be waking up here soon.

A: Oh, ok. You put her down before Lunch?

T: Yeah. She hasn't had lunch yet.

A: Ok, that's fine. (as I'm walking aro

und the living room to the short end of the

couch) Wha. . is that. . . is that blood?

T: Oh. . . there's some over there?

A: panicked, wide eyed face WHAT?! There was more?!

T: Yeah, there was some over there and over. . . she's ok! (in response to my incresingly panic stricken face) She's fine!

A: YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED WITH THAT!!

T: She's fine! She's fine! She just cut her finger.

scene

Apparently she was playing--unsupervised--with some seaglass (which she's done before, but usually supervised as soon as I know she has it) and

somehow either broke a chunk so it had a shape edge or found the one piece in the entire collection that randomly has an edge sharp enough to cut.

Tyler was in the bedroom and all was quiet on the living room front. Eventually Clara comes in with her finger in the air (second on her left hand) covered in blood.

"Gaga. Hurt. Help" she says/signs.

She's not crying, but very calm and Tyler tries not to overreact to not freak her out. He washes off her hand to see the cut, it's not bad. He wraps a paper towel around it and scotch tapes it (I told him we had band-aids, he maintained they were too sm

all for her tiny fingers.)

He goes into the living room and realizes that she must have c

ut her finger awhile ago because there's blood all over the couch (ALLLLLL over he said) and on her little mini couch and some on her leggings and thighs. He cleans it up (except for the part he missed that I saw) and they sit down and watch a movie together and.

Clara sits with her left hand up, finger in the air, on Tyler's lap and eventually falls asleep. Tyler puts her to bed. I get home and there you have the beginning of the scene.

I have a picture of her eating with her left hand up. The mini soft-cast he made for her made her really favor her right hand and leave her left alone. Which was good, I guess. But it would have been better if she HADN'T BEEN CUT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

He felt so bad the entire day she basically got whatever she wanted. So did I for that matter (namely help in the kitchen, hugs and reassurances that I"m not fat just pregnant, that I'm super awesome and that I'm the best wife ever).

PS. Please excuse the filthy wall behind Clara. We've pretty much exited our "throwing food" stage so I need to strip it and repaint it because when I wipe it off (which, yes, I do clean it) the paint comes off too so it looks even worse--and yes, that is possible.

A Day in Winter

Sometimes I just think she looks funny and cute all bundled up for winter so I take pictures of her.

Santa in the Jet (OG Christmas Party)

Yesterday we went to the Ops Group Children's Christmas party after church.

It was potluck style so there was a lot of food and they had tables with crafts for the kids to make Christmas cards, ornaments, marshmallow snowmen, glittery snowflakes for windows, and a bunch of other things Clara was too little for. We tried the card-making with the stickers, but it didn't pan out like I'd hoped.

I tried to get Clara to just stand and take a nice picture by the tree in her super cute dress, but she kept sitting on a gift under the tree that was just an empty box I"m pretty sure (it looked a little crumpled when she left). She did find an airplane ornament and was very gentle with it.

After hanging out for a bit Hoser got a call from the North Pole announcing Santa's jet. So we all went outside into the FREEEZING FREEZING COLD!! and watched as Santa taxied around to us.

Clara was horrified. And not because of the cold (although I'm sure it was a contributing factor). When Santa actually got out of the jet she turned and clutched Tyler like he was about to throw her into a sacrificial lava pit or something. She didn't let go until she was certain Santa had left. You can hear her grunt on the video in response to my question "Do you want to go see Santa?" And after some more prodding by the World's Greatest Mother she eventually bursts into tears. . . and I keep prodding. HAHAHAhahaha!

Then we all went back inside to the briefing room where Clara had fun playing with the seat. The spring was a little too stiff for her light little body, so the chair kept bouncing back up and folding her in half (see video--if it uploaded).

When Santa came in we had her standing up and she just stared at him. I said "Clara! Is that Santa?" and she just shook her head "no" repeatedly.

Santa would pull a gift out of his bag and call the child whose gift it was up by name and then give it to him or her. When he called Clara Young and Tyler brought her up to the stage--the SECOND he put her down she took one look at Santa, screamed, and tried climbing back up Tyler.

Tyler carried her over there and had to mediate Santa giving her a candy cane and her gift. Tyler put her down and I said "say thank you!" she did a quick nod of the head and grabbed for Tyler's hand to pull him off the stage--hahahaha!

Once back in her seat though she really liked un-wrapping the present and was excited when she saw it was a book. "I Can Be Helpful". Man that Santa can choose them! It's all about being helpful and it even has a dog in it! How does he know? : )

I'm not sure how the second Christmas Tree photo got down here, but here it is. At least the video clips seem to be working.

CoOp Delivery and the Undercover Crate

My First CoOp elivery arriived yesterday! Woo hoo!! December first. I tried to take a picture of it but clara saw the camera and ran into the fram and I thought it was funny so I took a picture of her and my first delivery. The advertisements include things like bedding, giant quilted Snuggies/slankets, pots, pans, socks, underwear, organization bins and lots of japanese cleaning supllies and makeup that i have no idea what it is.

If you think I'm above ordering socks from a delivery catalogue you'd be wrong. I just have to measure my feet in Centemeters.

Then while Clara was napping the other day I sewed up this crate cover. It's an old Deseret Industries crate from the Creamary on 9th at BYU that's had many a use since my Dorm room CD holder. Lately (the past 4 years ish) it's been in garages--Until NOW!!

Now it's apparently clara's new favorite chair. I tried taking a picture of my handiwork and again, she jumped in the frame and gave me the grin of grins, so

my crate cover, and clara. And clara climbing out of the crate to see the picture I just took of her.

The novelty hadn't worn off by morning and she spent all day today climbing in and out of it and sitting in it while watching a movie or playing with a little toy in her hands. I personally like the bed head she's got going on.

Clara Stuff

Lately Clara has taken to reading the dog book of sayings we

have--and by reading I mean opening it and saying "Gaga!" and proceeding to kiss the picture of the dog. If there are two or three dogs she kisses each one. The stupid book is about 35 pages with multiple dogs on every 3rd page practically.

So while it keeps her busy, it takes some getting used to this new morning rythem: "Gaga! >Kiss<" "Gaga! >Kiss<" "Gaga! >Kiss< >KIss<" "Gaga!"

It's literally like she has no idea there will be a dog on the next page and is super surprised when she sees one.

She has also taken to freaking out when Tyler leaves in the morning and asking for him when she doesn't like what I'm doing.

Example 1: "Ok clara, lets go take a nap!"

(vigerously shaknig head) uhh uh, uuuh uh >shake

shake shake<

Example 2: Whilse sitting in time out for hitting me (mostly so I can calm down becuase I don't think she gets it but whatever) she'll scream GAGA!! GAG

A!! GAGA!! As though if He were home he would release her from the horror that is her mother's punishment (of sit

ting on a stool for 90 seconds--if we get that far). He probably would, acually, if I wasn't there to say "NO! She's in a timeout! Don't touch her!"

Every time she hears a plane she gasps and looks at me and says "gaga!" The loud ones scare her (when we're on base) so I started talking about them. "It's ok. It's just a plane. Yeah, it is loud, but that's ok. Yes, that's daddy's plane." So now, ever time she hears the faintest airplane sound in the distance she gasps, looks at me, says Gaga then signs "Loud" with her verbal variation fo the word.

She will freak out if you don't let her open the door to let the do

g in or out (any door, it doesn't matter) as well as if you don't let her

pick out her underwear or give the dog a treat (TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!) or if you try to read a book she doesn't want for bedtime. She also, apparently, has a probelm when I deny her cereal for dinner after she's already eaten three bowls that day. I refuse to raise my child on Cherrios, Mini Wheats and Rice Chex.

We have a blue exercise ball. She loves to bounce her face one it. I'm not sure why. I'd stop her but I'm usually laughing too hard.

She's a great laundry helper. Especially with folding rags. She shakes them out for me then hands it to me so I fold it while she gets the next one. This is a much better system than the previous one.

I cannot put her in bed for night or nap without brushing her teeth an

d cleaning her ears. She refuses everything until I do those two things. For some reason she doesn't have this freak out with Tyler.

She is obsessed with the movie Cars. She asks for it all the time and acutally watched the large majority of it. "Vroom vroom! Jeeya!" Which is Clara for "Car movie!!" I'm not sure why movie is 'jeeya'. She says "mama" just fine so I know she can pronnounce m's. I've tried to correct her to no avail. I just have to keep reminding myself to not call them jeeyas myself.

She is also obsessed with the camera. I can't take pictures of video of her without her stopping what she's doing and running towards me to see the "jeeya!". She understands she has to go back and say cheese and let me record for a few seconds before she can see the movies. If I played homevideos of her on a loop I don't think I'd ever have to check on her. She can't say camera, bbut she says "cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" very well.

She also repeats things I do. Like when I'm looking for a movie to put

on or a home video file I apparently say "Ummmm" a lot. Everytime I pull up the video folder she says "ummmmmmm" as though shes thinking she might want to watch something other than cars (although, as I type, she requested the Fish movie. . . so I put nemo on. Woo hoo! A new movie! : )

PS. Nemo didn't last long. Dangit!!

Clara's "Boat"

Clara will dump out the contents of our little ottoman and then sit in it and tell me it's a boat. She' thinks it's hilarious. As do I, acutally.

But today's nautical adventure was, apparenlty, terribly relaxing for her. I'm not sure what was on the TV that she's looking at, but that's a pen cap in her mouth, her foot on the side and her elbow resting on the edge.

(since this post--it's now mid-January--she's pretended many things are boats. Laundry baskets, the 'bucket' (which is what I call the green covered crate), even while sitting between Tyler's legs she'll say "boa! boa!" and do the sign with a huge grin.)

"MaMa!" = "I'm Naked!"

Lately I've been walking into Clara's room in the morning or after her nap to find her completely naked. If she's in a two piece jammie set, usually her top is off too. Completely nude.

The first time it happened I asked here where her diaper was and proceeded to search high and low and everywhere in between for it to no avail. The next time it happened I couldn't find the diaper again and thought "maybe she threw it in the garbage?"

Then when Tyler got her one morning, he asked her where her diaper was and she walked over to the edge of the crib and stuck her hand through the slat and hit the garbage lid to make it swing and said her version of 'dirty'.

It's quite convenient except when she throws a poopy one in there. . . or if she tries to pull the diaper off before she pees then pees on the bed. . . or when she takes a nap in undies and then throws the undies away. . . and it's also sort of annoying to have to collect her top, bottom, blanket and any socks off the floor. So I guess maybe it's not convenient. But it is a little bit funny.

I just know now that babbling is fine, but when she starts calling for me she requires assistance to either turn up the heat in her room or finish her business on the toilet.

Clara and Wii Resort

Clara LOVES it when peop

le play the swordfighting game on Wii Resort. She couldn't get enough of it when Brittnie and Tyler would play when she was here in October. Its a little out of sequence, but I'm still not cuaght up on October (or numerous other months).

(Ok, alignment is going crazy sorry).

When people start playing the swordfighting game she shakes her arms like crazy and kicks her feet (if she's sitting) and then when someone falls into the water she puts her arms up and yells "ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!" then just laughs and claps and signs 'water! water! water!" She acutally has started saying "wa wa! wa wa! ha! ha! Wa! Wa!" while clapping and signing. It's pretty hilarious so I'm glad I caught it on video.

(the video is really dark I don't know why and it won't let me reload the pictures in a bigger size. I don't know why.)