Growth according to Clara

So - we might have to work on our idea of how the whole growth process goes.

The other night Clara declared (after bathtime & brushing teeth, of course), that she was hungry and needed to eat. I told her that she needed to eat more at dinner so she wouldn't be hungry right before bedtime. And no more food tonight. So then she informed me that if she didn't eat she would start to shrink and get smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until she was back to baby size.

At dinner tonight we got her updated views. Gracie brought up that I had mentioned in Colorado that men can eat more than women (I don't remember this, but I'm sure I did say it!). So I was trying to explain why that was and after my oh-so illuminating explanation, Clara said, but girls have to eat a lot, too. If they don't they will shrink and get smaller and smaller. And she held up her hands for a visual. Apparently if you don't eat, you will shrink to four inches tall! So we all chuckled and moved on. Or so I thought. A few minutes later when I was reminding her to eat her hamburger, she told us that "the more you eat, the more birthdays you have."

So there you have it, growing by an almost four year-old (but don't dare to call her that to her face!!! I learned my lesson the other day when I tried. "MOMMY - I'M THREEEEEEEE!")

p.s. Lesson of the Day: Always remove your 15 month old's shoes after he has been in the sandbox. Seems obvious, but becomes even more obvious when you go to change a diaper and all the sand dribbles out once you are in the middle of the changing process. Oh - and your water in the house should be shut off at the same time, just so it's not possible to get all that sand off except with lots and lots of wipees.

What a 16 month old (boy) does . . .

Recycle himself (this is the basket where we keep our paper recycling) - it was a favorite spot for a few weeks in June.


Forget the doll - take your watering can for a stroll if you don't want to be too girlie (and of course, try to get in the stroller yourself)


Eat...


Eat ... (Daddy - you aren't supposed to give him the popsicle on the wooden stick by himself yet. Tssk, Tssk, the things you discover when you review the pictures on the camera)


and Eat!! (these are the current favorite snacks - granola bars and whole apples)

Why I shop at Costco

It's not really for convenience or to save money, is it? That would be so boring!!








Notice that JM is providing music for the show (that's a slide whistle dangling from his mouth!)









Finally - we get the original task accomplished!!

Daddy & Clara visit Amarillo

Last weekend, Clara got the chance (for really the first time) to experience what life as an only child/grandchild might be like - at least for a few days!

Mike was going up to visit his parents and I was still recovering from my bout with stomach flu, so we decided to send a smaller contingency to the panhandle. Clara and Gracie were both excited about the plan. No complaints at all when I told them about it. I think it has been an awful lot of togetherness for them this summer - we are counting the days until school starts!!

I don't know much about the trip or the weekend (maybe Mike will have a few comments to add??), but I know they made it up to Amarillo in about 6 hours which is a great time! Before Clara had left, she mentioned that she wanted to get something from the ice cream truck. Last summer, we had just pulled into Joe & Virginia's driveway, when we heard the ice cream truck. So the girls got to have their first experience with that & Clara definitely remembered! I told her she would have to see if they were at the house when the ice cream truck went by.
Well, she is one lucky girl:


Mike said this was the exact same thing (Daffy Duck on a stick) that she got last time. You can see how pleased she is!!

They also got to see Grandma's two kittens. Aren't they cute?


And again, I don't know much about the weekend, but I'm assuming either Clara got the camera or ... maybe there were some extra refreshing beverages being consumed by the camera operator???


So the crew got in around 9:30 on Sunday night. Of course Clara probably should have gone straight to bed, but she was sure she needed more of her pasta (leftover from the dinner stop). Mike said he had never seen her eat so much spaghetti and so quickly as she did at dinner that night. And she ate quite a bit that evening at home, too. Then she had to show me some of her treasures from the weekend. Most importantly, her new coloring book (from the TXDOT Travel Plaza) and her new box of crayons from Grandma. She has informed her big sis and little brother multiple times this week that they are HER crayons. She is very proud of them.

She finally headed to bed that night, but Monday morning came all too quickly for some of us (okay . . . for me). First thing (before breakfast), Clara had to show off her new (Daddy's old) Hot Wheels track. The girls had some complicated idea about taping it to the easel, etc. But I didn't think that would stand up to John Michael's "inspections." In a burst of ingenuity (or so it seemed at 7am), I told the girls to put the track under the sofa cushion to make a ramp. So here's Clara racing those cars down it. I guess I was sleepier than I remember because I thought for sure I had taken several more pictures when all three of them were playing with it. Oh well ...


After breakfast, Clara had to get out her coloring book. I didn't manage to get pictures that day, but you can see what they were busy doing on Tuesday morning as well...


I love the serious look on her face. And she is very serious when she is working on that book!

She was working on mixing colors to see what the outcome was and also making her picture "multi-color" one of her favorite "colors!"


Gracie pulled out one of her TXDOT coloring books to work on, too.


And of course, JM didn't want to be left out. What a goofy look - he has started saying "cheeez" when you are trying to take his picture, which results in this funny look!!

And finally, a very happy Clara. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa - she certainly had a fun weekend and enjoyed her special vanilla cake & all her treasures she brought home!!

June 17th - some fun firsts

Yes - I'm still catching up on things I wanted to blog about!

This is the day John Michael finally succeeded in getting up on the recliner in his bedroom by himself. But could he just sit & rock like my girls had done? No, no. Check out all this action. (and yes, that's a marker in his hand!)


I'm up!


ooooooo - what's down there???


Hey, if I stand up, I can make this thing rock better!


Push the book off, now me ... wait, maybe I should go backwards (and yes, he usually does!)



And of course, I didn't capture the first few seconds of this activity. But JM did put all those rings on himself. Watching him was so funny, he knew something was wrong, that's why he kept taking off that orange ring. But he just couldn't figure it out! This was the first time I've seen him actually put the rings on the spindle. (And I haven't seen him do it since!)

The VBS Picture I forgot ...

I think this picture sums up John Michael's take on the week at VBS!

While we were having our crazy closing assembly (130 kids, plus volunteers & parents in a parish hall with *bad* acoustics) & the girls were busy singing their songs they learned during the week, this was what JM was doing:



And that's about how I felt, too!!

The Madness!

Okay - I haven't made it to the end of our Colorado trip yet (in my blog), but I just had to put this video up. This is on the drive home - I think from Amarillo to Fort Worth, so the second day in the car.

Gracie was asking about her new letter workbook, JM was doing one of his favorite things - playing peek-a-boo and Clara was . . . well, Clara was being Clara!