It's hard to believe our baby is 15 months old--or that she can get any cuter--but here she is, getting older and cuter by the day! Abby often likes to say, "Clara is the cutiest!" and I agree: we all love the littlest sister around here.
She trails her siblings all over the house and back yard and loves imitating them. One day I peeked around the corner to see all four of them in a knot, brandishing sticks and PVC pipes--and Clara wielded hers like the best of them.
A few weeks ago Clara figured out how to climb the ladder up the big fort. Boy, was she ever proud and pleased! Since then she's perfected her climbing skills and is sure-footed and fast in climbing the ladder. Usually she turns herself around up top and slides down the big slide feet-first, flying off the end with a big grin as she sits down hard in the sand.
In the last month Clara's attention span has expanded enough that she'll sit still for a full book reading, and sometimes even a few readings (usually the same book repeated). When I sit in one of our small arm chairs, she takes it as a cue to pick a book and clamber up on my lap, begging to be read to with her "Uh? uh? uh?" Her first favorites were
I Am a Bunny and
Baby Animals. Now that those two books have sort of hit the dust (after three other kids, they were pretty beat up to start with!), she currently prefers
Goodnight Moon,
The Mitten, and
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as well as a dinky picture-and-number book that's devoid of story but has a page of doggies that is quite attractive to Clara.
Clara's newest word is "book," though she leaves off the "k" when she says it. She's not very verbal, though she is quite communicative! Her repertoire of words is short: "mama," "dada," "hi" (sounds more like "ah") and "book." She makes animals noises--mainly growling (for lions, tigers, bears, dogs, etc.), but some sniffing (for bunnies), high-pitched little noises for kitties, and a nasal attempt at hissing for snakes. She pretends sometimes to be a puppy or kitty, crawling on all fours and making little barks or meows.
She really likes the little mower and the red coupe car--though she can only propel the latter backwards
She has attempted to say other words and sounds, I think, but so far they're not consistent. She does some sign language:
more, please, all done, eat, nurse. Sometimes the
more sign is an all-purpose effort to beg/demand whatever she wants.
While she can't say much, Clara can certainly make plenty of noise! She screeches at her siblings when they bug her and yells in protest when something doesn't go her way. Her tantrums involve her whole body: crying, hollering, thrashing, whipping her head around, writhing on the floor. It's hard sometimes not to laugh at the burgeoning self-will. Clara has also started biting as a means of retaliation or coercion when the big kids block her way, take her seat, snatch her stuff, etc.
Protesting ill treatment
Although she's not the mellow baby she was, Clara is often sweet and tenderhearted. She seeks out anyone who is crying to lay her head against him or her in a "hug" and gives lots of loud kisses. When she hears wails from her siblings, she makes concerned and questioning noises. She loves to hug baby dolls and stuffed animals tight and give them kisses, and she often comes up to hug my legs or cuddles on my shoulder when I pick her up. I love it! She spontaneously kisses and "hugs" characters in books, too, especially when they're going to bed in the story.
Clara's teeth are coming in hard and fast. She has one bottom molar through and the other bulging in the gum and nearly through, and she's also gotten canines and her last incisor (after the canine next to it) recently. All the teething sometimes results in hard, tearful, clingy days; but these are not the norm for Clara, who is still quite a pleasant child normally.
I love her dimples!
We're transitioning Clara from two naps to one, which has been a bit difficult. I persisted in putting her down for two for awhile, but she'd often stay awake for the first or sleep for a short while and then resist the second. Probably a longer midday nap would be best, but it's so hard to get her down around noon with everything else we have going on--outings, schoolwork, meals, etc. So lately she's been going down between 1 and 2 p.m. and waking sometime between 3 and 5 p.m. She does become a bit emotionally fragile mid-morning, wanting to be held and nursed. So maybe I should still try to push the morning nap. I don't know! The other kids took two naps till about 18 months, albeit with some struggles. So Clara is the youngest to give up the morning nap.
Clara seems to be developing a substantial appetite, and I hope she's overcoming her pickiness. She no longer rejects scrambled eggs, so that's improvement! She wouldn't taste asparagus tonight, though, and still refuses avocado. She likes frozen mango pieces and flaked coconut, but not in her yogurt--no, sir! She prefers her yogurt plain, or perhaps with chia seeds, but definitely not with chunks of fruit. She picks the fruit out of Dutch baby pancake, too, oddly enough. But she does like most fruit (though not pear).
She'll eat green beans, sweet potato, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts but draws the line at bell peppers, peas, and corn. She still loves cheese, peanuts, peanut butter, and cashews. Her recent attempts at using a spoon have been messy but satisfactory--at least for her. She knows she's one of the "big kids" with that spoon in hand! Her hummus ended up all over her tray, face, bib, and hair yesterday, though.
That shock of straight hair in front is getting long and refusing to curl, despite her cute little curls in back. I think she might end up with hair more like Josiah's than the twins'. She pulls out hair bands and barrettes, so I'm not sure what I'll do with the long bits over her forehead . . . I'm hesitant to cut bangs.
Clara's delight in being included in her siblings' games is so fun to see. Abby encourages Clara to follow her around the house, crawling along the floor in some sort of pretend-animal/chase game involving much squealing and laughter. Josiah tickles her and elicits laughs or initiates a tag/chase/hide-and-seek game in which Clara is always [happily] "it." Lydia seems to have a bit more of an antagonistic relationship with Clara lately, but she does eagerly share her hoard of baby dolls and stuffed animals with Clara and sometimes plays nicely side-by-side with her as they build Duplo. Unfortunately Lydia has a propensity for disobeying Mama and taking matters in her own hands with Clara: she picks her up to haul her away from their games and possessions, sometimes sits on her or pushes her or drags at her leg, etc. (Abby does these things too, but to a lesser extent these days.)
I just love this toddler stage and am enjoying Clara so much. She certainly prefers Mama, but she's a happy girl who warms up pretty quickly to others. She's eager to welcome Daddy home each evening with hugs and kisses and raised arms, ready to be picked up and held. She plays happily in nursery at church, although the last couple weeks she's cried when I dropped her off. She's possessive of Mama and Daddy, protesting and pushing at anyone else on our laps or in our arms! If I try to sit on the couch and read to the older kids when she's awake, she asserts her rights to my lap and usually is "desperate" to nurse. She seeks kisses for bumps and owies and "sings" in a lilting, sing-song voice when we sing--or if she wants me to sing to her. She dances with a funny, rhythmic squatting to any music she hears. If I ask her if she wants a snack, she makes a bee-line for my chair and climbs right up to sit at the table (and hates when anyone else sits there!). She loves to be in the midst of the activity and grabs any chance to get into the big kids' stuff--markers, Lego, puzzles, etc. Though she spoons dirt and sand right into her mouth, she remarkably hasn't swallowed Lego or other small toys.
I love to see her interest in everything around her as she figures out her world here at home!
