Conversation with Clarissa

This actually happened at the end of September, but it was a big milestone in communication so I thought I'd record it.

The girls had been with a sitter for the night, and on the way back from taking her home Clarissa and I had a very cute conversation - at least as much as one can have with a baby 16 mos old at the time.

Me: Clarissa, did you have a nice time with Jenny?
Clarissa: Uh huh (nodding).
Me: Did you go to the park?
Clarissa: Uh huh (nodding).
Me: And did you go on the swing?
Clarissa: Uh huh. Weeeeeeeeee!
Me: And then did you watch a show?
Clarissa: Uh huh. Tse-tse.
Me: Oh, and sister watched it too? How nice.

My little talker

Can you believe Clarissa is almost 17 months old? I can't! Although I am delighted that nursery is just over a month away, which means I will get to go to Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society again ;-).

I wanted to take just a moment to record Clarissa's current words:

Daddy
Mommy
Mama
Sister (sounds like tsee tsee)
Hi
Hello (sounds like allah)
Bye
Baby
Buddy
Happy (usually happy happy happy)
Nigh-Night
Pretty
LaLa (Aunt Lisa)
Mimi (Aunt Amy)
Gaga (Grandma)
Ball (sounds like bow)
Cheese
Potty
Puppy
Nice (she just doesn't add the 's' sounds to the end yet)
Go go
Bugga (meaning herself)
Nah nah (her word for food)
Nee nee (used to be interchangeable for nah nah but now it means bink)
Cup
Mine (thanks to the week we subbed in nursery . . . lol)


Some common sentences are:

Hi Daddy!
Nice baby
Nice Puppy

Clarissa's first sentence!

Clarissa's first sentence was spoken yesterday:

"Hi Daddy, hi Daddy, hi!"

So cute. She also said another quasi-sentence yesterday, "Mama na na", which she said while carrying a bag of bread over to me. (Na na is how she refers to food).

She will be 15 months tomorrow. Time does fly.

A little disturbed . . .

I don't know exactly what I want to say right now but I just have an icky feeling and I need to process it somehow. Through facebook I have come across some blogs recently, mostly from LDS women, and I the phrase "in the end, perilous times shall come" keeps going through my head. Usually it's because a page that I subscribe to has commented on one of the posts or something and I read the blog post because I am curious. I am coming across lots of stuff written by members in open defiance of things that have come directly from the 1st Presidency or scriptural Doctrine. On of these bloggers says "I'm either a complete apostate Mormon, or I'm just saying what we are all thinking". Believe me I'm not trying to make myself feel better about my own spiritual standing by comparing myself to these women and what they are thinking and publishing - I am just genuinely shocked. I know it's hard to be a stalwart member of the LDS church. But you know what? Whoop-Di-Freaking-Doo! We need to pull ourselves up and do what we need to do! When things get spelled out for us so clearly by people we believe truly communicate with the Lord, I don't think it's THAT hard to follow. Certainly we are always encouraged to gain a testimony for ourselves on different issues - that is a part of learning and progressing in this life, and that process happens more slowly than we would like sometimes - but I just don't understand how easy it is (apparently) to misunderstand. And part of my mood is no doubt influenced by the fact that one by one, many of the people that have played immensely important roles in my life and were true examples to me have stepped away from the Church completely. Many are now openly fighting the church. I'm talking endowed RMs. I don't get it. I don't get how someone can KNOW (and I know they knew . . . I heard them bear powerful testimony) and then walk away. Or take a true Eternal Principle and use it to justify things totally contrary. It is disturbing and frightening to me. I don't worry so much for myself, but I do worry for my girls and how to guide them and nurture them properly so that they can truly "endure to the end". I have known for quite sometime that finding friends in the church doesn't necessarily mean they will be quality friends who will lift, encourage, and support my faith. Truly embracing the values we teach isn't always what people do, and sometimes members of other faiths can be just as stalwart in those values, if not more so. In fact my best friend is a baptist. I just really had no CLUE there was this much division in the Church. It saddens me.

Finally a new post!

It has been 4 months since my last post. Eeeeeks!

Craig's law school applications are mostly turned in, and now we just get to wait! He is very excited about graduating in June and moving on.

Carolyn is, as ever, such a sweet big sister. She is finally potty trained, which was undoubtedly one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I just keep reminding myself that while potty training is always hard, it isn't likely that it will ever be THAT hard again. She loves playing with Clarissa, and is absolutely in LOVE with Sunbeams. I have started doing a few minutes of pre-school activity with her almost every day, which she is having lots of fun with and doing very well with. Every day we do a new letter. She practices writing it and rehearsing the sound it makes. Last week we quizzed on A-F (with just a picture of each letter on a page), and she had to find the correct page and then make the sound. She is very much looking forward to warmer weather and riding her new bike that she got from Auntie Leta for Christmas.

Clarissa is such a big girl - 10 months this week. She started crawling at 7.5 months (Carolyn was 9), and is very very close to walking. What is funny and very endearing is that Carolyn gave up the swaddle a little after 9 months, but Clarissa has just barely transitioned to one arm out. So maybe she won't be taking it to Kindergarten with her like I was thinking she would for a while there, but it will probably be a month or two before she gives it up completely. She is at such a fun stage right now. She loves to do "Boogie boogie", wave hi and bye, and say "Hi". It starts pretty high pitched and then ends about an octave and a half lower. She just ADORES Carolyn. It is so fun to watch them play now that she is older and more interactive. This morning they were playing dress-up. B was Snow White, Clarissa was Cinderella (Carolyn was quite adamant that Cinderella had to wear her glass slippers too), and I was appointed Fairy Godmother. I didn't have a dress, but she referred to me as Fairy Godmother and insisted that I refer to them as the Princesses they were dressed as. It's such a joy to watch their development and milestones - like imaginative role-playing. Clarissa is getting to be a Daddy's girl more and more, which Craig and I are both enjoying. It used to be that she would get really upset if I even left to go to the store, but now she quite enjoys her Daddy time.

I am trying to be patient while we wait to hear back from law schools. The wait is the worst. I know my life is going to change a lot and I will be moving 4 or 5 months from now but I have no idea where! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I have also been working a lot on emergency preparedness. Food storage . . . lots of food storage, as well as building a stock of basics that we use regularly - both for emergencies and because we don't know what kind of jobs Craig may be able to find in the interim between graduation and starting law school. I have also been doing a lot of reading on Essential Oils. AMAZING amazing stuff. It goes along with emergency preparedness. The Lord made an amazing earth and I have very much felt His guidance in my studies. Well, it's late so I am going to end here but I will post some pics tomorrow, and on Facebook as well. I'm so behind!

All about Clarissa!

Clarissa is 6 months old! Here is her life so far in review:

FIRST MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Nursing, being Swaddled, cuddling close and listening to a heartbeat, listening to familiar voices
~Least Favorite Things~: Baths, changing clothes, gas
~Things That Make us Laugh~: The cry that sounds like a question, the octave jump "I'm tired" cry, saying "Hi" with a sigh, snoring
~Important Events~: Visits from family

SECOND MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, looking at trees and angel friends, watching sister, watching the stars and bear on the mobile on her swing
~Least Favorite Things~: Gas, riding in the car
~Things That Make us Laugh~: The octave jump "I'm tired" cry, yelling through her bottle, snoring
~Important Events~: Mommy's birthday, first trip to the Gorge, Grandma Cannon's funeral

THIRD MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, exercising at her gym, playing with sister, smiling at the stars and bear on her mobile on her swing, Being a shoulder Bug
~Least Favorite Things~: Gas
~Things That Make us Laugh~: Her hair that sticks straight up in the back no matter what Mommy does with it and increasingly looks like antennae, Yelling "Ligga ligga" at her bink while trying to go to sleep, snoring
~Important Events~: Visiting with the Schneiders both at their house and ours

FOURTH MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, exercising at her gym, playing with sister, Being a shoulder Bug, a baby massage (riding in grocery store carts in parking lots)
~Least Favorite Things~: Being away from Mommy
~Things That Make us Laugh~: Finding her voice and experimenting with it! Yelling "Ligga ligga" through her bink while trying to go to sleep
~Important Events~: Great Grandma Madison's 90th birthday party

FIFTH MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, exercising at her gym, playing with toys on the floor, playing with sister, holding one parent and looking at the other, bathtime, being a morning Bug, watching a Baby Movie, a baby massage
~Least Favorite Things~: Being away from Mommy, getting stuck on her tummy
~Things That Make us Laugh~: More vocal experimentation, Tasting Mommy's shoulder/generally sticking her tongue out
~Important Events~: Blessing

SIXTH MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, being rocked, exercising at her gym, playing with toys on the floor, playing with sister, playing air guitar with Daddy, pinching Mommy's cheeks, stealing Mommy's glasses, dancing, watching a Baby Movie, a baby massage
~Least Favorite Things~: Her self-designed schedule not being adhered to, getting stuck on her tummy
~Things That Make us Laugh~: Blowing raspberries
~Important Events~: First General Conference

SEVENTH MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, being rocked, playing with toys on the floor, playing with sister, playing air guitar with Daddy, pinching/clawing Mommy's cheeks, feasts (baby food with rice cereal mixed in), dancing, a baby massage, a baby movie, rolling over and over again
~Least Favorite Things~: Her schedule not being adhered to, teething
~Things That Make us Laugh~: Her new range of sounds, babbling in a language that sounds rather German
~Important Events/Milestones~: Thanksgiving, rolling over both ways

EIGHTH MONTH

~Favorite Things~: Being swaddled, being rocked, playing with sister, rolling all over - then scooting - then crawling, feasts, playing with Aunties and Cousins, insisting that she is a Bed Bug (refusing to sleep anywhere but in bed with Mommy while at Amy's for Christmas, a baby massage, a baby movie, playing in the exersaucer
~Least Favorite Things~: Her schedule not being adhered to, cutting her first two teeth. What a relief though when they finally came in!
~Things That Make us Laugh~: Lecturing
~Important Events/Milestones~: Christmas, cutting first two teeth, crawling, saying "Dada", waving and saying "Hi" (she has done both on and off but it starting to be more purposeful about it.

5 months