Clara at 23 Months

Baby girl, where have you gone? Who is this bike-riding almost-two-year-old?!

She does go very slowly; she also loves to wear the helmet around

Clara finally learned to say "no" (sounds more like "nah") a few weeks ago and--of course--uses the word all the time now! She had no trouble conveying her displeasure previously through tone of voice (and sometimes screeching, biting, hitting, etc.--you know, normal toddler behavior). But now she can say it, too.

We had her evaluated for early-intervention speech therapy back in early September. The evaluators said she would have qualified a couple years ago, but funding dictates that they raise the requirements. So now they average the receptive and expressive language scores. Because Clara understands everything and thus scores high on receptive language, the average of the two is too high for her to receive services. They recommended we re-evaluate a couple months after she turns two, since the standard of what they consider normal speech dramatically increases in word count when a child turns two (they expect 50-100 words and some two- to three-word sentences at two). So we'll see.

But the process did confirm what I knew: Clara is mildly delayed (or at the low end of normal) in her speech production, but there's nothing wrong with her cognitively--she clearly understands everything! She has long understood when a sibling insulted her or even insinuated something she considered offensive--she'd point at the offender and respond with a drawn-out "eeehhhhh" of objection.

Sinned against during irrigation

Lately she has ratcheted up the defiance and disobedience--and the all-out tantrums. She's strong and squirmy and thus difficult to carry out of the library kicking, screaming, clawing, crying, one-shoed, hungry, and near nap when what she would prefer is to crawl all over the library floor, hang on/mouth the drinking fountain. (This happened Wednesday.) She's a force to be reckoned with when cranky--and almost impossible to strap into her car seat when she doesn't want to leave the park.

While she's picking up more words (and non-nouns lately like "down," "done," "go," "mine," and "ess" [yes]), she still uses her "ehh-uhh?" questioning noise as a conversation-starter or to get us to discuss/explain whatever she's pointing at. She loves having us read the same books over and over (I remember the others at this stage, too!) and discussing a particular picture at length each time (except I'm the only one actually speaking words). For instance, she's often quite absorbed by a storyline involving someone hurt or sad. Baby Bird with his broken balloon in The B Book holds a certain fascination for her. She must sympathize with him and have me retell what happened again and again. The same is true for the All Talls and All Smalls who fall off the wall in Hop on Pop--and for poor Pop whose paunch is poked by his offspring's pointed feet.

She's concerned about all small animals, babies, and others who might be disadvantaged in her board books. She's divided in her feelings about a couple pigs and chickens in Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance: when they're swept off their feet (literally) by larger animals, they have a look of consternation, and Clara both laughs and empathizes. I do love that she sits through longer books now, though! We can actually read The Runaway Bunny, Great Day for Up, The Snowy Day, and others of more literary merit.

She copies her siblings in picking her nose, too

The big kids perhaps have helped delay Clara's speech, as they pick up on her desires and often prompt her or fill in the blank for her--sometimes to our annoyance. Abby especially likes to offer Clara exactly what I said she could not have. For instance:

Clara, in her seat, pointing at the table at supper: "Ehh! Mama, umm, aahh!"
Me: "You need to finish what's in your bowl before you get anything else. You may have that only after you eat your sweet potato."
Abby: "Clara, you want muffins? Mmm, those are yummy muffins! Do you like them? You want to eat them? You want dessert, Clara? Do you like to eat dessert? Do you want ice cream for dessert? Chocolate ice cream?"
Clara: nods vigorously
Me: "We don't have ice cream. We're not having dessert. She will not get a muffin unless she finishes her sweet potato. Don't offer her things she's not allowed/we don't have/I haven't offered!!"

She also does lots of pantomiming, which is oh-so-funny and cute. The other day at Trader Joe's, as we headed toward the check-out, she popped her finger in her mouth and repeatedly acted out sucking on it, along with gestures and sounds to emphasize what she wanted: a lollipop (which the cashiers give to the kids when they find Charlie the Camel).

Earlier today she came running out to "tell" on a sibling who threatened to bite her for messing up his drawing--she acted out the mean face, the biting on the arm, etc. with lots of excited pointing. She made sure I followed her and ran right back into the room and pointed out the culprit.

Good thing Clara is just as cute as she is a stinker. Everyone loves getting kisses from Clara and often requests them. Today each kid wanted "a kiss on the head," and Clara leaned out from my arms, pulled each head to her, and gave each a satisfying smooch. Too cute!

Kissing Grandma

I love hearing her say the kids' names now, too. Interestingly, she says Lydia's the clearest and most often, though it's a little garbled: something like "Ladladlya!" She only recently started saying "Abbe" or "Bamba" or some cross between those for Abby. She's been saying "'Siah" for awhile, though it has sounded almost identical to "Dada"--just recently has she started differentiating it a little better.

When she's playing on her own or sitting in her car seat on a drive somewhere, she likes to repeat names as a chant. Usually it's "Dada. Mama. Dada. Mama. Dada. Mama," etc. The kids respond in horror, "Mama's DEAD?! Clara, are you saying Mama's dead?" Of course she nods.

Clara loves to pretend to be a doggie with Lydia or Abby. Her big sisters do a pretty good job of devising games that she likes and including her in them. They do "room time" or outside play time with her (sometimes individually, sometimes together) when I do reading with Josiah. While they sometimes get into mischief, mostly they do a good job entertaining Clara. The doggie game involves crawling around, barking, licking, lolling tongues, begging, etc. Oh man--Clara is just so funny to watch through all these antics.

She likes to sneak a sip of a sibling's cup/water bottle any chance she gets

Clara also likes to pretend with her baby doll. Almost every day, the baby must nurse from Clara while Clara nurses before nap time. The baby switches sides when Clara switches sides, and it, too, must be swung into bed just so and covered properly. Sometimes her stuffed bunny, plastic dog, or some other toy tandem nurses along with the baby and must be stuck under her shirt--and kept there! There are a lot of readjustments.

Speaking of nap time, the dreaded day has finally come: Clara can climb out of her crib and she knows it. I've long expected her to discover her ability to hop the rails, but she just hasn't. She's thrown a leg up when upset, but I've warned her away from actually climbing and she's listened--until now. Josiah apparently showed her how to clamber out of her crib over the weekend, so she tried it out this week. Thankfully she stayed in bed after I carefully explained the consequences and she had one chance to experience them! This is quite the contrast to my other children, who were undeterred by consequences in their determination to get out of bed (over and over and over and over). I'm hoping it sticks with Clara. We'll see.

Clara has joined the general clamor of the older kids for my attention, adding her voice to the eternal "Mama! Mama! Mama!" But if she's close enough, she'll take my face in her hands and turn me to look at her, and then get close enough so her lips touch me--as if she's going to kiss me (and she often likes to kiss on the lips rather than the cheek). Then when she has my full attention, she tries to explain her question/desire/command/request.