Clara is SUPER cute!
I just thought I'd throw that out there. She is not yet walking, but she is getting into EVERYTHING!! We have had to tape one our shelves that has doors shut because she kept opening it. (It houses our DVDs and I did NOT want to keep cleaning that up!) She has learned how to climb steps, open cabinets, rip paper, play with the blinds, take books off of the shelves, etc. She keeps her mom (and dad) on their toes for sure. And I wanted her to learn to roll over why?!
She LOVES to read... but don't expect a paper book (or one with paper pages) to come back in one piece! She doesn't like it when you take them away so she doesn't totally destroy them. Same thing goes for adult books. Her favorite books are Hand Hand Fingers Thumb (board book), Dr. Seuss's ABC (board book), Little Einsteins Neighborhood Animals, and the Bendon Bear series. When I start reciting Hand Hand Fingers Thumb or Dr. Seuss's ABC by heart (yes, I have them memorized) she can usually pick out which book it is I am reading from off of the floor!
She loves animals, too! Caleb's mom visited us this past weekend and we went to the Salina zoo with her. It was a lot of fun! Clara said "ca" for all of the big cats and "ga" for the wolves (since they look like dogs). (The Salina zoo was pretty good, but the Saint Louis Zoo will always be my favorite. The best part about the Salina zoo was that you could get REALLY close to the rhinos.) We also put on Frozen Planet the other day just to see her reaction (since it has animals on it). There is nothing cuter/funnier than Clara trying to touch the animals (even if she is no where close to right next to the TV)! We also went to the Oz Museum on Sunday, and when she saw Toto she said "ga." She also knows that he bathtub is a duck... she says "ca"... not to be mixed up with cat...
There is a junior hockey team in Topeka, KS called the Topeka Roadrunners. We went to one of their games recently, and Clara LOVED it. She even did okay for the loud sounds when we scored a goal. It was guns and hoses night (guns = police and hoses = firefighters) so there were additional mascots running around the stands. We say Reggie the Roadrunner, Smokey the Bear, and there was also a fire safety dog whose name I didn't catch. Clara got to "pet" the dog... and she said her version of dog, too.
She definitely likes music. She dances every time she hears music... or thinks she hears music since she sometimes dances to sheep baa-ing. Her CDs and tapes plus Glee and American Idol always get her moving!!
She is also now able to put the rings on her stacking toy. And, she can put the shapes (and other toys) into her shape sorting bucket (although not through the lid). She sleeps through the night now. She also has been eating a lot more new foods: beef, white potatoes, and salmon. She absolutely LOVES the Gerber Little Crunchies in the veggie dip flavor... we call them her Cheetos.
I have enrolled Clara in swimming lessons for the end of April. They are called PACA (and I have no idea what that stands for). I figured it's never too early for swimming lessons!
I also have a friend I used to work with who has horses who is going to let us come out and "meet" them, pet them, and maybe even sit on them (if mommy feels comfortable enough about letting her and Clara isn't scared). I'm also secretly hoping that my friend will play with Clara while I get to ride.
Other than that, Sookie is still Sookie. She tolerates Clara crawling on her a little be more now, but it is obviously not her most favorite thing in the world.
Caleb's knee was fine on the MRI, so he has been working out pretty hard to get back in shape for selection.
I went mushroom hunting in the woods on Sunday while Clara was asleep. No luck. I'm going to wait for it to get a little bit drier (but not too dry) and then go out again. We have had a lot of rain lately so maybe it's just too wet. But, I guess others could have already picked them all... who knows! I did have fun getting to drive down a road I had never been down... until a creek went across it. I was a little too scared to go through it even if I did grow up driving through a creek and my car has four wheel drive.
I have also been feverishly planning Clara's birthday party. I now have a date for it and it is neither of the dates I asked about in my last post. I am pretty excited about it, and I hope my mom can help me with the planning and making of stuff for it while I'm home in April. There are a TON of Dr. Seuss party ideas, so just thinning them out and figuring out what I want to do is a task! I will be posting a second post today because I need help with invitation wording. I need your opinions!!
I am also hoping to get back into blogging more. I realize now with wanting to finish Clara's first year scrapbook that not a lot of blogging means even harder to remember what Clara was like, what we were doing, etc. I have missed you all!
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