Clara goes to the park

You walked there yourself, holding your daddy's hand.

Then you went off on your own.

Your daddy chased you through the underpass.

At the park, you played on the rocking ducks.

And went down the slide, very bravely.

Then we walked home, the same way we walked out.

loud!

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Dinner last night was a disaster

Answer: no, you cannot use your spoon to eat your dinner. Not no way, not no how.

Watching Clara fall asleep at the airport before leaving for Brazil

I know when you're really asleep because you lose your thumb.

Clara in Brazil

Dear Clara,

You are now 16 months old. A year ago, I assumed that I would stop writing these posts for you because the ways that you were changing would seem less dramatic. It turns out that your changes are actually MORE dramatic. Talking is a lot more exciting than crawling, after all.

Lately, you have been really pushing limits. We have to watch you all the time when we are out in the world because you would just keep going if we didn't come after you. I love taking you to wide open spaces and letting you roam around. You are endlessly fascinated by leaves, blades of grass, insects.

At home, your favorite thing to do, hands down, is build towers of blocks and then knock them over. You have some really creative building strategies, most of which do not really work out and have to be demolished with a flick of the wrist. You always applaud your own destruction.

Your vocabulary has also really taken off in the last month. You are still mostly a non-verbal communicator, but words come through here and there. Your biggest accomplishment in the last month has been learning your own name, which is pretty cool. You are still a huge fan of dogs, but ducks have moved up on the list.

Love you baby girl,

MAMA

Clara at the park

15 months.

Dear Clara,

Well, you are now 15 months. I apologize for my non-diligence in updating your future self on your current self's activities and development. It turns out that keeping up with your antics cuts into the time I have to spend documenting them. Who knew!

You are 29.25" tall and 18.6lbs. At your doctor's appointment, you stood on the adult scale all on your own, and then flipped out when the nurse tried to measure your head. You really don't like it when people touch your head! Dr. Granite asked a bunch of developmental questions - stacks toys, walks backward, cleans up, removes clothing - which you passed with flying colors. You then proceeded to further demonstrate your status as a developmentally normal 15 month old by refusing to submit to stethoscoping or examination of your ears (same head issue), howling, turning beet red and then resentfully sucking your thumb in his general direction. You then redeemed yourself by waving to him when he left. Also featured - DTaP shot, resulting in 45 seconds of apocalypse and then heading home for some raisins, which are your new favorite food.

Last weekend, you learned how to climb onto the couch on your own, which once again changes the dynamics of the house and will likely result in the relocation of certain plants and breakable objects from their traditional home. You love to stand on your tiptoes and lean against the wall. It has been suggested several times that you should train as a dancer or a gymnast since you are small and agile. You like to walk backwards in a circle, which almost always results in getting very dizzy. You like blow and give kisses too.

You are demonstrating very clear preferences for things and are no longer distractable if you want something. As you get older, we are able to do both more and less. It is becoming less possible to take you to any old place. You don't like sitting still at a table and are no longer content to just watch the world go by. You want to get your hands (and everything else) dirty. You want to be the center of everything. You want to do rather than watch. It is very cool to watch you learn how to play games with us, to watch you figure and remember and experiment with your world.

Love,

Mama

quick children! be really cute!

clara at play!

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