Most Random Post Ever

Clara's talking a lot now. We can actually carry on conversations with her and she understands and replies back to us. Here are just a few of her first conversations.

--Yesterday, she put on her pants, shirt and shoes. She started looking around for something and I asked her what she was looking for. She said "I wear socks." I told her I didn't think there were any in this room so she left the room in search of the elusive socks.

--When she woke up from her nap and came into the bedroom to wake me up from my nap, I tried to distract her so I could lay there a while longer. I asked her where Daddy was. She said "At work?" I said, "No, I think he's downstairs." She said, "Ok, I find Daddy." A few seconds later I hear her saying "Hi, Daddy." He had been asleep on the couch. I'm so mean.

She's also started remembering things. The other day, I picked up a cardboard box to throw away. Before I did, I checked to make sure it was empty. Sure enough, a spoon to Clara's tea set was in there, so I set it aside. About that time, Clara walks in and sees me taking the box to the garage. She starts crying and saying "tea, tea". I calm her down and grab the spoon, asking her if this is what she wants, to which she replies, "Thank you!" I'm not sure how long it had been in there, but she hadn't been playing in that area for quite some time.

And then today as I was combing her hair, I couldn't find her comb so I just started using another one. She got upset again and I asked her if she wanted her comb. She said yes, so I asked her if she knew where it was. She went straight into the office where it was in a pile with a bunch of other things she was carrying around yesterday.

It's fun to see her learning. She's making connections, understanding things and how they work and figuring out cause and effect. Though she still can't control her emotions and doesn't yet think to just ask for something when things are not quite like she wants them, I don't think it will be too long. It helps that I'm understanding what she wants more and more. I feel bad sometimes because I can't understand her. I'll ask her to repeat herself a few times and then guess what she's saying, but still get it wrong sometimes. Today I finally told her "I'm sorry sweetie, I don't understand what you're saying." To which she replied "I'm sorry Mommy." Breaks my heart that she apologizes for not being able to say a word right.

Her eating has slowed down in the last week or so. She usually just nibbles at her meal and only ocassionally finishes everything you give her. When I name a food and ask her if she wants it for a meal, she says no everytime. This would be the complete opposite of the Clara of two weeks ago.

I think she may have had her first headache this morning. Saddest thing ever. She was acting a little strange yesterday. She did the fussy cry thing all through lunch and I picked her up and put her in my lap with her head on my shoulder. She laid there more than 10 seconds which is a dead giveaway that she's not feeling well. She had some tylenol before nap and felt ok when she got up. She started getting fussy again in the evening. She woke at 3:30 this morning in pain, so she got more tylenol. Then this morning she woke crying and wouldn't come to our bedroom, which isn't like her. She's normally very happy in the morning. When Chris brought her to bed, she kept crying and putting her hands on her forehead and over her eyes saying "owie". Another dose of tylenol and some Bugs and she was doing ok. I hope she's not getting sick, but she doesn't seem to have any other symptoms. I wonder if getting those top molars in can cause headaches or sinus pain. I saw that one of them is breaking through.

And one last Clara tidbit. She's started saying "yeah" which just grates on my nerves. The thing is, it doesn't come out as "yeah", it's more like "yah", like a valley girl. I think it's worse than her previous "uh-huh" phase.

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Ok, enough about Clara.

Chris and I pooled our Christmas giftcards together and went and got a ceiling fan for our bedroom this weekend. Glenn came over and helped Chris install it. I love it and think it looks really nice. I hope it helps with our electric bill this summer.



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I know I've metioned Netflix before, but I just have to reiterate how much I love them. We have one of the really cheap plans which gives you one movie at a time. If you watch them the day you get them and get them in the mail the next day, you can expect to receive 7 or 8 movies in a month. You've got to be diligent about getting them back in the mail though. There are no late fees and our plan costs less than $9 a month.

To make the deal more sweet, they just started offering free unlimited downloads with your service, so we've been watching tv shows lately. We have a tv hooked up to the computer in the office, so we can watch them on a normal size television. The downloads are immediate, so no waiting. It's awesome (except that we've been watching a bit too much tv lately.) We're watching the first season of Heros right now and are really enjoying it.

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I bought a book on how to draw 101 animals at Michael's. I paid less than $3 for it and I am definitley getting my money's worth. Here is a sampling of my work before the book. (I'm serious; this was how I drew a pig.)


Now, I know what you're thinking. "That's not bad, Kelsey. I knew it was a pig. The snout and curly tail were dead giveaways." Thanks, I do appreciate that most people, including my two year old, can tell that this is a pig. But look at my new and improved pig. I know, I colored him and made him all pretty and wrote oink oink next to him, so maybe it's not a fair comparison, but I just gotta brag on my new pig. My new pig rocks! I can also draw a lemur, owl, and zebra. You name it (as long as it's in my book) and I can draw it.