Clara is 1 Year Old!!!

Our 1 Year Old Clara!

Weight: 15.7 lbs (0%)

Height: 27.17 in. (5%)

Head: 17.5 in. (35%)

I can't believe our little Clara is already a year old!  We all love Clara around here and can't get over how cute she is.  She is picking up on everything around her and always seems to be watching us and trying to learn and do what we all are doing.  Here are some things about her at ONE YEAR OLD!!

-She is still our tiny little petite girl.  Most of the clothes she's wears are 6-9 months and a few 9-12 but they are still pretty big.  She is also still in size 2 diapers.

-She has her two teeth on the bottom and no signs of any more yet.

-Clara is walking all over and all the time: turning, bending standing back up, etc. She really can cruise when she wants to.  She started really moving the week after her 11 month birthday.

-She has become quite the little climber.  She is always trying to climb up on things.  And when she is successful she stands up with this look letting us know how proud of herself she is and that she knows she is being mischievous!

-She learns things very quickly and is loving trying to copy or do what we are doing.  She likes to do gorilla bites and hummingbird bites just like Calin.

-She is picking up on some sign language as she watches me do it.  "Please" is her main one, but we used to for "up please" and so I think sometimes she things "please" means "up".

-She likes to sing. We have a "la la la" song from sesame street that Calin really likes and Clara also really likes it and sings "la la la" along with us.  She also tries to do "e-i-e-i-o" when we do that song. And she will just try to sing with other songs too.

-Occasionally she will do her little talking "reading" the books as we look at them and she will point to things on the pages.

-She is really trying to do animal noises and for a while she had a really good tiger growl down that she would do for lions or tigers and sometimes other animals too. We haven't heard it as much recently though.  The fish noise came out a lot and she would do that when she saw pictures of fish, but she would also do it for other animals as well.  She does a pretty good chicken too imitating us when she hears us do it.

-She is quite sneaky sometimes and will carry things around with her and then hide them around the house.  I have to watch her quite closely or things start disappearing!  Her favorite spots are in one of our kitchen cupboards, a kitchen drawer with towels and rags and then a drawer in the bathroom.  Guess it's time to up the baby proofing!

-She likes the garbage and will put things in there or pull things out.  Gross!  We so need a new garbage can with a lock or something!

-She loves kleenexes and wipes. She will pull a bunch of them out at once and then carry one or two around with her.  Sometimes she chews on them, but usually with a wipe she is cleaning the floor or furniture and with kleenexes she is wiping her head or face.

-She likes to brush her hair with her little brush.  It is so cute to watch as she tries to "brush" what little hair she has.

-She likes to open and close doors and play with door whether its cupboard doors or her bedroom door.

-She loves her shoes because she knows it means she gets to go outside.  She will find her shoes and carry them to you to put them on.  Or sometimes I'll see her trying to put them on herself.  As she's carrying them though she will chew on them.  Really trying to get that to stop.  If she has her shoes on already and we haven't made it outside she will sometimes find someone else's shoes to carry and chew on.  Ew.

-Clara is a good little sleeper.  She takes two naps a day still.  She takes a short one in the morning around 9 or 10 and then a longer one in the afternoon.  She still does a little 1/2 hour sleep and then wakes up so I usually go put her back to sleep, but sometimes she sleeps a long time all on her own. She is great at going to sleep.  I just put her in her bed and often times she doesn't even cry anymore. She just lays down and goes to sleep.  She goes to bed around 8 and then sleeps until 6 or 6:30 when she wakes up to eat.  Sometimes she'll go back to sleep after that, but sometimes she's up.    It sure is nice to have this little angel around!

-As I said she loves to be outside.  Once we put her shoes on she will occasionally go to the door and wait to go out.  Once outside she loves to wander, explore, play with rocks, play in the dirt, ride wiggle bikes, shoot baskets with Dad, ride in the stroller, hot rod, or wagon, go on walks to see the animals,  swinging, she just loves to be with everybody outside having fun.

-Clara is our very content little girl. She doesn't need someone right there all the time entertaining or playing, she will occasionally bring books over or toys over wanting to play with us, but most of the time she is very content just walking around from thing to thing, sometimes following Calin and doing what he does, but other times just doing her own thing as she explores and tries to figure everything out. This is when I have to watch her though cause she does just wander and can be a little trouble maker as she explores and investigates everything around her.

-She noticies airplanes and birds in the sky and she will also hear airplanes when we are inside and she will fly her hand around and make airplane noises.  She loves to see birds when we are outside and will point and watch them.

-She says "mom mom" and "dada" and "hi" (sometimes).  We also think she has been saying "Calin" a lot lately but she says it like she is calling him from a ways away like we say it when we call him.  "aaaa uunnnn" She also does this sometimes and it sounds like "daaaaa dyyy".  She tries to say other words and I hear them come out sometimes when she repeats after us, but she doesn't say them on her own yet.  Like talking about birds one day she said "bir" what sounded to me like bird.

-She is really good at grunting and pointing to what she wants and sometimes throws some sign language or some form of it to get what she wants.

-When she gets excited or wants something she has been doing this funny little foot stomp thing that is pretty cute.

-Robby will ask her to dance and she "dances" by wiggling one of her hands/wrists around.  So funny.

-She also dances to certain songs or when she sees Calin dancing.  One that she always does with Dad is an Elvis song and when Robby sings "come on everybody and turn your head to the left" she will shake her head back and forth and then do it again "to the right".

-She loves to wave and will wave when she hears us talking about saying bye or hi.  But she will do it on her own when she sees a car drive up or drive away.

-She is good at blowing kisses (puts her hand on her mouth and makes the "mmmwwwaa"noise.  She also does kisses on the cheek like this with her mouth open and then making that same noise.

-She will eat almost everything and mostly just wants to have what we are having.  However, if there is some sort of bread type thing for the meal then she will pitch a pretty big fit to get that over any other food.

-She likes to "talk on the phone".  We have several toy phones as well as old phones that we let the kids play with.  She will hold it up to her head and walk around with it "talking".

-She likes to give high fives!

-She does not love to get dressed or have her diaper change and will do all she can to squirm her way away from you.

-She loves the bath and has lots of fun splashing around with Calin.  She also really likes to go swimming and isn't too phased by her face getting all wet.

-She will put her hands together and wiggle them around when we do "here come mister alligator quiet as can be".  She thinks it's so fun!

We love this little "Clara Beara", "Clar Bear", so much!  She brings so much joy to all of us and we don't know what we'd do without her!! We love you Clara!