Sunday, March 20, 2016

Our 2 Year Old Clara!!

Clara is 2!! 


Weight: 20.72 lbs (1%)
Height: 31.5 in. (5%)
Head: 18.3 in. (24%)


Clara is 2!!!  I can't believe it and at the same time it's hard to imagine life before two years ago when we didn't have her.  She is such joy in our lives and is loved greatly by her mom, dad, and brother.  She sure is one special little girl!



-She loves her big brother Calin.  Often in the morning she wakes up before him and when he gets up she always greets him with the sweetest "Hi Calin"!  She loves to do whatever he is doing (often its dangerous) and tries to be just like him.  We often have to tell Calin to pay attention to what he does since Clara follows his every move.



-As much as she loves Calin she also knows how to push his buttons and will purposefully take toys from him knowing that she shouldn't.

-She can be quite the drama queen and has figured out how to fake cry.  Sometimes Calin will just walk by her and accidentally brush her or bump her and she will start to cry.  Other times he does legitimately hurt her or take things from her, So I have to be careful not to jump on him right away cause I never know if she is faking it to get attention or actually upset.


-She likes to be acknowledged when she is talking or telling us something and will often repeat herself over and over until someone acknowledges whatever she is talking about even if it is something silly that may not really require a response.


-She is becoming quite independent and often wants to do everything herself.  She will not allow us to help until she has made several attempts and then can sometimes be convinced that she may need some assistance.  A lot of this has been with getting dressed or something she is trying to do when eating. 

-She is still quite the climber and will climb up anything she can; ladders, climbing walls, chairs, counters, anything she can get herself up on!  


-She has become more of a reader lately and will often sit down and look through books and "read" them as she repeats parts she remembers from us reading or as she makes up her own story for the pages.  Her favorite lately though is train books.  We found a few train books that she really liked and so now when we go to the library she asks for train books.  We have started looking for lots of variety of train books and she has gotten into the Thomas train books and likes those.

-She likes to sing and we often get to listen to her sing a song she knows or just make up her own songs.  She can really belt it out.  One of her favorite places to sing is when she is swinging with Dad.  They like to sing "Hope of Israel" and "We are a Happy Family".   She doesn't have a huge number of songs that she could sing just from memory, but she will often try to sing along to songs she doesn't know.  She has started doing this with the hymns at church or if I have songs playing at home. 

-She really likes to be outside playing with Dad and Calin.  She likes to jump on the trampoline with them, but likes to swing even more.


-She likes to ride her pink wiggle bike and just in the last month has finally gotten really good at using both feet to push herself along and is getting quite fast! She also really likes to ride Calin's strider bike when he isn't riding it.  She has started to figure out how to move a little more on the balance bike instead of just waddling along.  I think she will start to move more and more as she rides it more often. 


-She is our little early riser.  It seems like no matter what time she goes to bed she still wakes up by 6:30 at the latest, but usually closer to 6.  Every so often we are lucky to get her to sleep in until 7.  

-She does not like to change from her PJ's to clothes or then from clothes to PJ's.  She also hates diaper changes and I usually have to gear up for them and get her distracted or really happy about something before we even attempt to change her.



-Just recently she will sit on the toilet to go to the bathroom.  Before about a month ago she wanted nothing to do with sitting on the potty so I didn't even think to attempt potty training.  We will keep sitting her on the potty when we can and hopefully a few months after little baby is born we can get her potty trained.


-She often runs around in little circles doing a little skip hop prance thing.  Usually when she is excited or wound up.  She always runs clockwise and we can't usually get her to run the other direction. 

-When Clara went to nursery she did really well but mostly because Calin was in there.  In November they started taking the 3 year olds to primary to get them used to sunbeams before they moved up in January.  Clara was always so sad when Calin would leave but then be fine when he came back.  In January when Calin started sunbeams she had a really hard time and started saying she didn't want to go to church or nursery and would cry before sacrament meeting got over.  It took until about mid to end of February, but she is finally doing better.  She is still a little nervous when I first drop her off, but she isn't crying anymore and reminds herself that "mommy will be back" or "daddy will be back".  



-She eats most food, but is slow and often needs encouragement to sit still and eat her food.  She will not sit in her high chair and will scream and cry if I try to put her in it.  I do use it as a threat though if she doesn't stay in her seat.  She likes to climb from chair to chair or get down and not eat her food.

-She loves macaroni and cheese, pieces of cheese, green beans, noodles, blueberries, grapes, treats, candy, cookies; she is our little sweet tooth and will never turn down a treat!


-She goes down for naps all by herself but still needs 2 pacifiers.  I can just put her in her crib and she will be out usually within 5 minutes. She goes to sleep quick at night but likes to have someone in with her.  I think she would go on her own but Calin still needs someone in with him so she has gotten used to having someone in there with her.


-She is quite a mommas girl for the most part, but I think slowly she is starting to favor Dad more and more.  She is often asking for Dad to do things instead of mom.  Night is the exception for this though and she will only accept mom for help at night when she wakes up.  Robby often tries to go so I can sleep but most of the time she will not let him help. 


-She loves babies even when they are her size or bigger.  She is loving the idea of a new baby and we often hear things like "there's a baby in your tummy" or "when the new baby comes..." 

-She HATES having the sun in her eyes and gets really whiny and says "it's bright! its bright!!" She will whine and cry until we can somehow get the sun out of her eyes.


-She loves the water and loves swimming.  She is often pretty daring and just splashes herself right down in the water.  She will dump water all over herself in the bath tub, but when we do it to rinse her off she does not like it very much. 

-Sometimes she is the best helper and will clean up/organize when asked and also sometimes without being asked.  However, the rest of the time the spunky independent Clara comes out and she will not listen or cooperate at all.  She can be very defiant and will put up a pretty good fight to get things her way.  She has figured out that she can say "no".  And will just refuse to do anything, listen, or help.



-She throws a pretty good tantrum when she does not get what she wants or has to do something she doesn't want to do. She is not easily reasoned with and sometimes we just have to let her be for a while until she calms down enough for us to try and help.  She can really cry and kick and hit and often does not want to be held or get help to calm down. 


-She loves dogs.  She loves real ones, her stuffed one, and pretending to be one.  She will get very excited and try to go pet them or see the pictures again, or will just keep talking about seeing a doggy.  

-She likes to look at pictures and is often found sneaking onto mom and dads phones to try and take her own pictures.  I often find lots and lots of pictures of the carpet or other blurry pictures that she has taken.



-Halfway knows her colors.  Just in the last week though I'm noticing more and more that she can identify them correctly.

-Sings the ABC's on her own and recognizes letters/numbers and will start singing ABC's when she sees letters or numbers.


-She can count to ten on her own, sometimes to 12, and then says a lot of "eens" like she is counting on.

-She can do a pretty good "heeeeyaaaa" when she battles with Dad and Calin with swords or lightsabers.

-She didn't like having her hair down or getting pony tails or bows in at first, but the last couple weeks she asks to get her hair down cause she wants her hair out of her face.  Guess it's time for a hair cut.



-She got moved in the new van up to Calin's old car seat and is quite enjoying facing forward.  She will often tell me things she can see now that she is forward.

-She makes the funniest faces sometimes and says and does the most random and funny things. We often see this little spunky Clara come out and often have no idea where she comes up with some of the stuff.  She has this serious voice she does sometimes and will look at us very intently as she tells us whatever she is trying to say in this kind of deep voice.  Robby and I often look at each other and chuckle because we just don't know where she gets it.



-She has this squeaky high voice that comes out every once in a while, but lately it comes out every time she prays.

-She also has a very sweet and cuddly side of her and her empathy comes out when she notices that someone is upset, particularly Calin, and she will try to comfort or help with hugs.  She has a hard time waking up in the morning or after naps and will often just want to sit with us on the couch for a while reading a book or cuddling until she wakes up enough to do her own thing.

-She knows lots about star wars.  She can name most of Calin's star wars figures but can't name her princesses.  Life with a big brother I guess!  She is always involved and interested in what he is doing so she catches on to his stuff a lot more.



-She likes to play in the kitchen with the dishes and cups and for weeks she would carry donuts and little cups around in her shopping cart and was always making donuts for us.

-She is good at sharing most of the time and will often share with Calin even when he won't share with her.  She is often good at recognizing when Calin is upset that she has something and will make an effort to share with him to help him to be happy.


-She loves to talk on the phone and will wander around the room talking and talking away.  She is usually talking to Gracie or Preston or grandma and grandpa.  She will say "hello, how are you?,  what are you doing".


-Clara loves to go to the park and play with friends.  We go for playgroup on Wednesdays and she loves talking about the friends she will see.  Although she doesn't have many friends her exact same age, she has adopted Calin's and a few that are just a little older.  She LOVES Dylan and gets so excited to see her.  She is also really liking our next door neighbor Josie.  She also talks a lot about Calin's other friends Declan and Lucy.


-She talks  a lot and can pretty much repeat anything we say and can put many word phrases together.   For the most part she can pretty much say anything she wants to.  She has a great vocabulary like Calin did. She does not speak totally clearly though and is still missing a lot of her sounds but we can usually understand what she is saying.  If we can't, Calin can usually figure it out.  She has a little growth on her lip that we need to get removed and hopefully that may help her speech become a little clearer.


We love you little Clara and can't imagine not having your sweet and spunky cuteness around! 





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