The Many Faces of Clara

An Unexpected Tour

Last Saturday Robert and I joined Clara and Chris on their breakfast date. We went to the donut shop and then to the bookstore. Robert fell asleep on the way to the bookstore, so I sat in the car with him the whole time.

On our way home, Chris made a quick run into Lowe's for something and as we were leaving we happened to notice some emergency vehicles in the parking lot. They were allowing people to come and take looks inside. So Chris jumped out with Clara for a quick look.

It just so happens that our neighbor down the street is a volunteer fireman and he was there so he showed them all around. (I got to stay in the car again because Robert was still sleeping.) She got to sit in a life flight helicopter and Mark showed them all around the firetruck. There was also a constable car and an ambulance but they didn't make it over to them.

This blog has been a little Clara-heavy lately so I'll try to get a Robert one up soon.

Crazy Star

Clara was Star of the Week in her class last week. She made a poster all about herself with pictures of friends, family and some of her favorite things. She helped pick the paper and pictures we used and helped glue some of the photos and put stickers on. It turned out really cute. Then one day she got to use the star pointer thing and tell her classmates all about it.

She wanted me to take another picture of her and I thought her smile was really sweet.

This is homecoming week and today was crazy socks and hat day, so here she is, acting crazy while wearing crazy socks and a crazy hat. I kinda forgot she had the socks on when I took her to the doctor today and she got some funny looks. That's ok though; I think she looked rather cute and quirky.

Ten Months

-- Robert is around 20 pounds now and was 29.5" at his well visit a couple of weeks ago. He's wearing 12 month clothes and 4.5 shoes.

--He's up to 7 teeth now and the drooling has slowed significantly this month! Thank goodness because he's decided that bibs are for nerds and he usually yanks them right off.

-- He can stand for a few seconds at a time and balances very well when he does. As soon as he realizes he's not holding onto something though, he plops right down. He's not at all interested in walking. When we try to help him he just lifts his legs in the air.

-- I think he's gotten somewhat better about biting but he's still doing it way too often for my liking.

-- His eating has been much better this month too. He's finally finishing a full jar of food at most meals. I've been offering him more and more real food but not much is actually getting in his mouth. He's more interested in smashing it and throwing it on the floor. He is still doing well on the soy formula and gets one, sometimes two bottles a day.

--I was hoping that I would be reporting about his miraculous sleep improvement on this post, but it hasn't stayed that way. He slept through until morning for four nights in a row, doing 10.5, 11.5, 9 and then 8 hours. Then he started waking again, though not as bad as before. He started getting sick and so his sleep has been out of whack since. Hopefully it will be easier to get it back on track when he's all better and not so congested.

-- This next one is going to make most people gasp, but the beginning of the month brought Robert's first time to stay with a babysitter. The funny thing is I'm not scared to leave him or anything; it's just never been convenient and I new he would be a difficult child. Becky kept him for a few hours on the 1st. Before that, I had only left him in bible class and a few times with Chris while I ran to the store. And as I suspected, he didn't do very well. He wasn't terrible, (so she says) but he wouldn't take a bottle and wouldn't nap. I figured he'd fall asleep on the way home, but he didn't. I couldn't get him down for a nap when we got home either. That stinker was awake from 6:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. when he finally went down for a nap.

-- Robert doesn't really have a favorite toy yet. He just loves to pull everything out of Clara's play kitchen and hear it crash on the floor. He also loves to pull up on and bang on Clara's easel. Other than that, he just loves to go around finding things to put in his mouth.

-- He's great at giving high fives. He loves peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. The only thing that draws his attention on the television is The Laurie Berkner Band dvd. He's glued to the tv when it's on.

-- He is so cute at bath time. When I start running the water, he comes over to the tub and starts banging on the inside. While he's standing there, I take his clothes off. If he's wearing shorts, he actually lifts one leg at a time and steps out of them for me and when I take his shirt off, he lifts his arms in the air without me even having to ask. The boy wants to get the show on the road.

-- There weren't too many exciting things that happened this month. He had bronchitis at the end of August and started getting sick right at ten months. He started going to the nursery while I'm at ladies bible class and that's about it.

Daddy/Daughter Camping

Chris has kicked it up a notch when it comes to one-on-one time with his eldest child. He signed the two of them up for Adventure Guides through the YMCA. It used to be only for dads and daughters and was called Indian Princesses until a lawsuit or two resulted in both a name change and the addition of moms and sons. But Chris said it was mostly dads and their daughters.

This was the kick-off event and was only one night at their newly opened camping area. There were these treehouses about 20 feet off the ground and also teepees (which was where Chris and Clara slept). How cool is that?

At some point there was an induction ceremony where the girls got to choose a walking stick that will be theirs for as long as they're in the program. Of course Clara chose the tallest, thickest one and gets tired of carrying it after only a few minutes.

They went to a community pool across the street where Clara proceeded to have a blast. She had never been to a water park kind of pool before and loved having buckets of water dumped on her head.

And then back to the campsite for pizza, s'mores by the campfire and an outdoor movie. Chris and Clara were a hit. He brought her a package of four glowsticks and gave them all to her telling her she could pass the rest out to her friends. She came back empty-handed because she gave them all away. Sweet girl. Another girl came and gave her one a little later.

And then when the movie started, Clara busted out the 2.5 ziploc gallon bags of popcorn that she and Chris popped right before leaving the house. Oh yeah, they were making friends left and right.

What a good daddy Clara has! There's lots more camping, a sweetheart dance, an Aeros hockey game, a gymnastics lock-in and more scheduled for the upcoming year. I can't wait to hear all about their upcoming adventures.

Nuggetsitting

Clara got to bring home Nugget, her class pet, last weekend. Nugget was supposed to go on adventures with Clara and then we were to write what they did in his journal and include a picture and drawing.

So Nugget hitched a ride to dance class and got to meet Ms. Ryan,


he got to steer the firetruck while Clara got her hair cut,

and best of all, he joined Clara and Chris on a daddy/daughter overnight camping trip. (More on that later)

Nugget was one tired bear after such a busy weekend.

This One

"The Force is strong with this one."

You can rest assured we're raising him up right, J Dog.

Clara's New 'Do

Last Night by the Numbers

1 - Number of minutes Robert cried at bedtime.

0 - Number of times Robert woke during the night.

10.5 - Number of hours Robert slept.

100 - Percent better I feel.

Yay Robert!!!!

Breakthrough

I am excited to report that my little one seems to have had a breakthrough on the sleep front. A week or so ago I decided that it was time to do a little crying it out again. I thought his sleep would improve as he got older like Clara's did, but instead he seemed to be getting worse.

He was waking two or three times before midnight most nights and then when he woke around 3:00 or 4:00 he was impossible to get back down. When I brought him to bed he would do one of two things. He would wake and nurse 10-20 times until time to get up or would nurse for a bit and then start babbling and crawling over top of me ready to play. So it's now also a safety issue. I don't want to doze off and him fall out of bed.

I now nurse him when he wakes during the night because he is still hungry and nursing a full 15-20 minutes. But now when I put him down, if he starts crying, I tell him night night and leave the room. He cried for quite a while the first few nights, but he eventually fell asleep on his own each time. I'm doing it at nap time too.

Now, maybe a week later, he is doing great! He's waking once or twice and only crying for a couple of minutes. Last night he woke once around 3:00. I nursed him and he cried as I put him down. He fussed (not even cried) for 2 minutes tops before falling asleep. And when I put him down for his nap a little bit ago, I could hear him for at least 30 minutes. He never cried, only fussed for a few seconds every once in a while. I'm assuming he's asleep now since I haven't heard him in about 30 minutes.

Crossing my fingers that this isn't just a fluke. I've been wrong about these things before. And Robert likes to keep things interesting around here. He feels he's gotta keep me guessing or else I get complacent.

Wordless Wednesday

Boating

We took Clara's boat out again a couple of weekends ago and invited the Courington's to join us. Clara was once again elated to be able to go for a ride in her boat.

Chris took the big girls out first. He got a real workout when the wind started blowing against him. When they got back to shore he was worn out and not up to taking Kate out just then. The poor girl had been so patient waiting for her turn so Glenn took her out. She only needed a few minutes on the water and she was good.

We had a little dinner in the shade and let the girls play on the playground for a while and then Leah and Clara wanted to take the boat out again.

This time they got to go out by themselves. When they got to the end of the rope they paddled and paddled and then Chris would pull them back in and they'd do it again and again. Surprisingly they never dropped the paddles. I just knew Chris was going to have to go fetch a one out of the water.

Once they got tired of boating we let the girls run around in the grass to their little hearts' content. Becky and I got to chat and wrangle Robert, the boys played some bocce ball and we didn't leave until dark. It was a fun and relaxing summer evening.

Like the braids? Clara and I had matching braids but hers came out before we even got there. Robert loves them. They're like his own personal pull toys.