Clarisms

Clara - You do some of the funniest stuff. You’re always coming up with new things that we find entertaining.
• You have started hiding, and you especially like to hide in tight spaces. This morning you hid in the nook next to the china hutch. When we didn’t come find you quickly enough, you started squealing. This evening you hid in the space between your crib and the wall. I acted like I couldn’t find you and looked everywhere else in the room. You came out of your hiding spot squealing, laughing, and flailing your arms. What a fun game!
• You LOVE monkeys right now. This includes your sock monkey, any books that contain monkeys, and the monkey song on the see-and-say toy, “pop goes the weasel.” As soon as the song finishes, you start earnestly say “monkey song!” So we play it again. You try really hard to jump up when it says “pop!”, but you can’t get your little body to leave the ground. When you’re really trying hard to catch some air, you bend down really far and stand up as fast as you can. Still not luck, but we sure get a kick out of you trying!
• You love to play pretend. You feed your sock monkey dinner after you get done eating. You’ll toss him in your highchair (we have it lowered to the lowest level), and then bring me your bib and insist I put it on him. Then I give you a plate and a spoon and you pretend to feed him. We started this last week, and on Friday when Heather watched you, she couldn’t figure out why you kept bringing her the bib and fussing. She said she had just fed you a snack. I asked her if the monkey was in the high chair, and she said yes. I explained what you wanted, and sure enough, that made you happy!
• Barney. Oh Barney. I know that your Daddy and I said on more than one occasion that we would never own a Barney video. That was apparently our first mistake. Now you can say “Barney” and ask for it by name. We had in on this evening for about 10 minutes, and I turned it off when Daddy took you to get your jammies on. You came back into the room and kept saying “Barney, barney.” We’re working on figuring how much Barney is a healthy amount. Your Daddy calls it baby crack. We’ll explain that analogy when you’re older. It’s almost scaring how it immediately makes you calm, happy, and puts you in a zombie like state.
• You’ve finally figured out how to crawl down the stairs going backwards. Sometimes your navigational senses are off and you turn around and crawl backwards 5 feet before the first step. Other times you don’t turn around soon enough and we have to catch you.
• Mommy’s favorite thing right now is that you love to sit in my lap while we read books. I’ll sit on the floor Indian style and say “Come sit with Mommy.” You walk over, turn your back to me, and back it on up. When you run into my legs you sit down. Mommy just loves this.