A Day In The Life

What do you spend your days doing when you are 16 months old? Clara's favorite things to do every day are reading books, spending some time outside (especially if there is a siren to investigate or some power tools to check out--we spent 20 min. the other day watching our neighbor's hedges being trimmed), searching out dogs, visiting other kids, coloring, and best of all HELPING. In these photos she's trying out some crayons, preparing her snack traps for the day and sweeping up after the fill.

Santa

Clara and her friend Natalie (6 days older than Clara) appeared to love Santa while we were in line, Clara saying "More! More!" everytime we would try to walk away from watching him to get in the short line. HOWEVER, it was a whole different story when it came time to get on his lap! This is as close as we could get Clara to Santa, as she leeched on to her mom with incredible and previously undiscovered suctioning powers.

First Look at the Tree

Clara put the first ornament on our tree. She needed no direction--she walked into the room, looked into the box and picked up an apple ornament, then walked over and stuck it on the tree (nevermind that it had no hook). The rest of the photos are from the next morning when she got her first glimpse of the finished product. (It's worth clicking to zoom in on that third photo to see the look on her face!). She spent the rest of the day either begging for us to take her in the living room to look at it or peering over the baby gate and yelling "Hi!" to the tree. Her favorite ornaments? Cork Santas and Nutshell Babies.

First Haircut

Though we were not quite ready to cut off Clara's darling baby curls, she was beginning to resemble a shaggy sheepdog! We went to check out a local kids' haircutting place (just for research!) and ended up getting a trim--Clara was surprisingly cooperative throughout the whole brief ordeal. If you can't see much difference, it's because there wasn't even enough taken off to save! But we all had a good time.

Holiday Express

One of our holiday highlights was a trip on a steam engine with our friends Eric, Hollie and Milo. The "Holiday Express" left from a park near our house and was the perfect short duration for little travelers. Santa was even on board!

Dance Fever

Clara and her moms went to a toddler disco this weekend. Clara loves music and dancing, so of course she had a great time! She also really liked watching the other kids. We are sad we can't show you the little videos of her funny dance moves (haven't figured out how to add any video clips to the site yet!)

Feeding Bear

Chapter Sixteen, in which Clara feeds Bear some Egg and then eats the Egg herself.

Glamour Glasses

Peek-A-Boo

Clara's newest game is to walk around with things on her head in a thrill-seeking version of peek-a-boo. Somehow this morning she managed to get her swimsuit on there and thought it was great fun--I suspect she could see through the fabric a bit considering how well she was able to get around without bumping into things. More of Clara's latest favorites: Broccoli. Banana bread with apricots. SINGING, at first Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but now she's on to Old Macdonald. She provides a few animals or sounds and an occasional "EIEI," but mostly she likes her moms to sing it to her--a lot of times, with a lot of animals. Her bear and baby. Anything with a baby, actually. Saying "eye" and trying to poke her moms in the eyes. Meowing like a cat. Turning in circles, especially with a maraca in hand. Saying hi, but never when you want her to. Waving goodbye to every bus.

Emanuel Children's Garden

We visited the Children's Garden at Emanuel Hospital today, in honor of Ellery and Olivia's Nov. 5th due date. We chatted with our favorite Dr. Merrill who delivered Clara, did some maintenance on the book cart, and Clara had a little run-around in the garden where Elle and Livi's bricks are located. Here she is with the garden cow, as well as a silly photo of her looking at a frog that I couldn't resist including because, well, how can you not love that silky baby hair? :)

Happy Halloween

Our Red Riding Hood

Here's Clara as Red Riding Hood for the neighborhood Halloween parade, The Moreland Monster March!
In the photos you'll also see Ladybug Sophia, Hogwarts student Kaia and a few members of our playgroup.

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving was a big hit with Clara! She was a little unsure about reaching into the pumpkin itself, but she spent a lot of time in the bowl of seeds. She even tried to put some of them back into the pumpkins. :)

First Cookie

Grammy sent Clara a Red Riding Hood basket of frosted Halloween cookies today, thwarting our best efforts to stall Clara from learning the word "cookie." Should have known it wouldn't be possible in this family! So here she is, enjoying her first of Grammy's yummy treats. And yes, she ate the whole thing.

Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch

Chairs

Clara suddenly loves chairs--can you tell?