Even more fun

Clara keeps getting more fun.  Here's a few new things she's been up to recently:

- Hide & Seek - Sometimes she tells us she's going to hide and other times we just realize she's disappeared, and we go looking for her.  Luckily her hiding spots don't seem to change much.  Her favorites are very small places like this one between the china hutch and the wall, or between our nightstand and the bed, or between our hamper and the shoe rack in our closet.  She also loves squeezing in the nook between her crib and the wall.  We'll act like we can't find her, and sometimes she makes noises as a hint.  When my Mom was looking for her she said, "Is Clara upstairs?"  Clara said, "No."  Mom said, "Is Clara downstairs?"  Clara said, "No." 

-She just destroys the house.  We pick it up every night after she's in bed.  Somehow she keeps getting messier and messier.  Kim was over for dinner a while back.  After we put Clara to bed, Matt and I were completing our evening ritual of cleaning up all the toys.  Kim asked how often we did that, and she was shocked when we told her every night.  It helps me keep my sanity!

-Cheeses!  We'll say "Cheeses" while we're taking her pictures, and she flashes her goofy grin.

-Books.  This little girl LOVES her books.  This is one of the few things that keeps her attention for any length of time right now.  She'll sit on her own, pull the books off the table one at a time, and read aloud to herself.  I took her to Monkey Bisness last week, and she was the only child playing with the books on the bookshelf.  We've been reading her Mr. Brown's book of silly noises since she was a tiny baby.  Now when we read it, we'll pause mid-sentence, and she'll make most of the noises.  (We'll say:  He can sound like a bee; he can go...  She'll finish:  Buzz, buzz."  We'll read, "He can make lighting...  She'll say, "Splatt, Splatt, Splatt.") We've also noticed her reading it on her own, and she'll turn to the page with the thunder, and say "Boom, Boom, Boom."

Mmm-hmmm - One of my new favorites is her way of saying yes.  She says, "Mmm-hmmm."  I ask her if she wants me to hide - Mmm-hmmm.  It's nice that she has a way of saying yes now so we can get confirmation on what she's wanting.

There are a few things that are not so fun at the moment....

Awful diapers (the blowouts are back--could it be teething?)

Meal time - some nights she just won't eat dinner.  I know it's normal at this age, but it still bothers me.

Biting - maybe also related to the teething?  She bit my toe today and left a tooth mark!