Fun Filled Day

This morning, Clara and I went up to church for a water play day. There were a couple of kiddie pools and a blow up water slide and a firetruck made an appearance and showered the kids for a few minutes. Clara really didn't much care for the firetruck shower. And there was a spray of water at the top of the slide, so she wouldn't go down it. The girl just doesn't like to have water sprayed on her.



Here are a couple more pictures from dance class. Clara was the only one in her class who came in today in a good mood. Everyone else was not happy to be a ballerina. Most of them warmed up after a few minutes, but one mama just drove everyone crazy the whole time. Her little one got woken up from her nap after 30 minutes to come to class and she was NOT in the mood to be there. Mom talks a little too loud to begin with, but add to that the "Either get in there and dance or we're going home" threat that echoed through the hall at least 20 times, and the 10 times she interrupted the class by opening the door to shove her kid back in and I was just about ready to take her kid home for her.

I feel for the teacher. Both the mom and the little girl were such a distraction. She had her work cut out for her trying to keep 4 other curious, easily distracted pre-schoolers focused on her and not the rude behavior going on behind them. Other than that, Clara is still loving every minute of dance class.

Chris asked me today how she's doing in class and I told him she's doing awesome. She follows directions well, she goes in with a great attitude and ready to have fun and learn, and she does great at taking turns. She even quietly came out during class today because she needed to go potty. Then I told him she can't really do any of the dance moves, but I guess I'm not measuring her success in this class by her dancing skills. I don't care if she's the worst one in her class come recital time. I'm proud of her and her sweet spirit and could care less if she has any talent as long as she loves what she's doing. She has plenty of years ahead of her to figure out what she's good at and what she loves, so she sure doesn't need me pushing her to be the best at anything. She'll figure that out on her own and we'll be here to encourage her and guide her. I think it's going to be a blast! If it weren't for all those other parents.

Her skirt got torn last week and I started sewing a ribbon around the bottom of it but didn't get it done in time, so Clara went skirtless today. This is her teacher, Ms. Ryan. Clara talks about "Missa Wyan" all the time. She really is a sweetie.

After dance class, we came home just in time for me to leave to go to a young wives dinner hosted by some of the ladies at church while Chris and Clara hit a chinese restaurant for a little daddy daughter dinner.

Happy Father's Day

Here's Clara and Daddy before church this morning.

Clara gave Daddy Guitar Hero III for Father's Day, so now he has a new game to play and a second guitar. Or I guess more accurately, Chris has a guitar and Clara has a guitar. A guitar knocking you in the head apparently adds a whole new level of difficulty to this game. Who knew?

We were officially announced as new members at church today. Got our picture flashed on the screen and everything. After church we had lunch at Panera Bread and came home to play our new game and nap.

Nightime Fun!

I decided earlier this week to bite the bullet and put Clara in panties during naptime and nightime just to see what happened. You wanna know what's happened? Laundry, that's what.

She's yet to wake up from nap or night dry. The first night, I went in to check on her around midnight and she was soaked all the way up her back and on her pillow. She woke wet again around 3 and was wet when she got up in the morning. The next night I never checked on her. She only woke wet once and was wet upon waking. Last night I checked on her around 3:00 (after a LOST marathon), and to my surprise, she was still dry. I woke her up to go potty which was the saddest thing ever. She was wimpering and couldn't even sit up straight she was so sleepy. She did go eventually, and woke up slightly damp in the morning.

So, my question is, how long do I do this before I put her back in a pull up? One week, one month, 6 months? I'm not frustrated at all right now, so my plan is to just do it until I am. How do you successfully night train a kid? Get up in the middle of the night and make them go? Check on them all throughout the night to figure out if they're going at the same time every night? And then wake them up according to your findings?

So far, here's what I'm doing. I put on a waterproof mattress cover, a waterproof pad from when she was a baby and then a sheet. I then put on a second layer of each. The waterproof pads have worked great. Clara doesn't move around in bed too much, so most times, I just have to pull off the pad and throw on another sheet instead of having a wet mattress pad to wash. I also have a waterproof cover on her pillow.

I put a folded towel on the floor next to her bed and her potty (or chamber pot if you will) on top, telling her to go on the potty if she wakes up. When I have to change the sheets during the night, I take off her clothes over the towel and have her sit on the potty. I just throw her wet panties and pjs on the towel and collect them all the next morning for the wash. So far my system seems to be working well. I'm being really, really anal about making sure there is no trace of urine every day. I do not want her room to reek. And she's really into copying me right now, so she loves to get in the shower with me in the morning. Works out great!

Anything else I should be doing to help things along or make things easier?

Two and a Half

Some Clara randomness in honor of your two and a half years with us.

~ You have the loveliest big blue eyes that I love to stare into, when you're still enough to allow for a little staring.

~ You want to be just like Mommy. If I have on pants, you want pants. If I'm wearing a dress, you want one, too. Ponytails, bracelets, purses, lotion, deodorant, you name it. If Mommy's doing it, you want to as well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

~ You can dress yourself completely now (except for buttoning) down to your shoes, which you rarely get on the wrong feet anymore. And oh, how you love to dress yourself and change your shoes.

~ Shopping with you has become a real chore. You don't want in the cart anymore but can't be trusted to walk beside the cart. While I was picking out bananas the other day, you grabbed a mango and took off running through produce. I had to abandon the cart to chase you down.

~ You can go potty all by yourself now on the big potty. We've caught you emptying your little potty all by yourself several times, which is a little nerve-wracking to watch.

~ You love to raid the refrigerator for baby carrots, especially when watching Bugs Bunny. Mommy wishes Dora loved to munch on brocolli or something.

~ You still wake up happy, wide-eyed and ready to start the new day every morning around 7:15 or so. You usually take about a two hour nap around 1:30 and get to bed around 8:30. Your bedtime routine consists of brushing teeth, going potty, a book, song, drink of water and a prayer. You then come out once or twice with some excuse, your current favorites being "Owie knee" and "Need help". A kiss on the knee and/or help getting back under your covers and you're all set.

~ You've never met a stranger. You wave and say hi to random people, and in the process make a lot of people smile, including me.

~ You are incredibly loving and empathetic. Though you're two and are oblivious to a lot of things, you immediately stop what you're doing and render aid if someone is sad or hurt. One of your new friends in your dance class was crying during the middle of class. You stopped dancing to go to her. You squatted down, patted her back and I'm sure asked "Ok?" like you do anytime you see someone hurting. It warmed my heart.

~ You make me want to be more like you.

Got Us Some More Culture

We hit the symphony again last night. We weren't VIPs this time, but had an enjoyable evening sitting on the lawn with the VUIPs nonetheless. We had dinner at Johnny Rocket's with Glenn and Becky before the concert. The waitstaff started dancing to a song as we were leaving, so we sent Clara and Leah up to dance with them. One of the girls took Clara's hand and danced with her through the whole song. The girls loved it. We were standing behind them, so I wasn't able to get a picture.

Then we headed on over to the pavilion where they were giving away free Hagan-Daaz complete with tons of toppings. Score! It was hot out and starting to melt and our hands were full of other things, so it was a bit messy. But still, it was free!

I didn't get any good pictures at the concert, but did get this one. I realized I haven't posted a picture of one of Clara's signature silly faces. She flexes her neck muscles, eyes wide, eyebrows arched and freezes her face this way. Cracks me up.

Family Resemblance?

Admittedly, I don't usually notice family resemblances in babies. I'm sure it's there and I try real hard to find it, but I just don't see it.

Well, my cousin Jennifer just had her sweet baby boy and immediately I saw a resemblance between he and Clara in one of the pictures on her blog. To me babies look different in every picture you take, so just this one picture struck me as looking just like her. Sure enough, I went looking through photos and came across a couple of Clara that (I think) look just like him. Minus the weird faces Clara's making, of course. The first one is Benton and the other two are Clara.

So, what do you think? Do you see a resemblance or do I need more practice?

Busy Busy

We've been socializing like crazy these past few days. This is all new territory for us; we typically don't have a very full calendar. Wednesday morning we had a playdate with Travis and Emma. We played on the swing, sand and water table and the kiddie pool and then had some lunch. We went to church that night, which is not normal for us. We've gone to a no-Wednesday night-chuch for so long that it's hard to get back into the swing of going midweek. I forget about it half the time.

We both really enjoyed the class, so we'll be going back. They also have a dinner every night before chuch that I would love to go to, but they usually serve a chicken main course, so that's not something we can do. Plus, even when it's not chicken, Chris is still leery. He's been burned by church food a few too many times to be comfortable putting anything edible in his mouth at church.

Thursday we went swimming with some other friends from church. Clara fell asleep on the way home, so wouldn't take a nap, which means I didn't get my nap. Grrrr. Then we had her dance class and had to run to the grocery store and get home because we had Glenn and Becky coming over for burgers. At the grocery store, she squeezed a tomato and it went all over her, the floor and the cart. That was fun. The girls played outside a little and then we had snowcones out in the driveway.

Today Clara and I had a few errands to run. She had her first public urination accident and it happened to be in an upscale children's boutique. Why, oh why couldn't it have been at Petco? She had been playing in a little play area and had to come find me, so she made a pee trail all over the store. And then one employee stepped in the puddle before I could tell her. I felt sooooo bad. They were so nice though and didn't make me feel bad at all. I had Clara tell them sorry and thank you for cleaning up her mess and they just said, "It's ok, sweetie, everyone has accidents." I hadn't planned on buying anything, but after that, how could I not? (You got lucky this time, Tanya.) And then tonight we had Ty and Amy and Randy and Danielle over for fajitas and heart surgery conversation.

Oh, and the Texas summer reading program started today. I believe it's at libraries state wide, though I could very well be wrong. It's happened on occassion. You sign your child up and when they read any 10 books, at home counts, they get to choose a free book. (It counts to have books read to them if they can't read yet.) I misunderstood last year and thought you could only receive one book, but supposedly the kids get a book for every 10 books for as long as the library has them available. So get to your library and start earning those free books!

Since You Asked

Ok, since someone asked, I have to tell you about the wonderfulness of Etsy.com. The lovely Erin turned me on to it. It's like Ebay only it's all handmade stuff. You have sellers that have some high dollar, boutique quality stuff in their shops and other people that just make stuff at home and put it up there. It might not be the highest quality stuff you can get, but by golly, it's cheap and cute. And you're supporting individuals and artists and not big businesses. I'm sure lots of them are stay at home moms trying to make a little money on the side. I like that.

I've really only browsed childrens stuff, but there's a tutu out there with Clara's name on it, I know. The cape I got came from the seller superflykidz. It was only $13.00 and the mask was $3.00. Not too shabby for something totally customizable. And I think verysweetbows has Clara's tutu. They're pretty reasonably priced it seems and she uses higher quality tulle and the waist is sewn, so they should be a little more durable. (For those of you with princesses in need of a tutu.) I've found super cute pillowcase dresses with matching bow for $10.00 and lots of other great deals.

So go check it out. If you're into cute, personalized, customized, one of a kind items, you'll love it! (I don't think my links stand out, but if you click on the names of the two sellers, it'll take you to their shop.)

Super Ballerina

I ordered a superhero cape off of etsy.com for my nephew Wyatt's birthday. (Thanks for the link, Erin!). I had Clara try it out and it works. Faster than a speeding bullet. You could customize the color combination and it wasn't until I pulled it out of the package that I realized I inadvertantly made him a Wonder Pets cape. Oopsie. The only difference is their's is a circle instead of a superman shape. So now I'm trusting everyone to keep Wyatt's present a secret from him.





Today was the big day. I think I had more fun at Clara's dance class than she did. I smiled the entire time. I loved watching her interact in a group setting with me out of the room. (Parents could watch through a one way mirror.) She did great. There were 5 girls total in her class and her teacher was so sweet and so patient with them all. This was all of the girls' first dance class and all of the parents were so nice. We were all just loving it. There were even two daddies there and you could tell they loved watching their little ballerinas dance.


Clara and I talked a lot before class about being a good student and listening to the teacher and following the directions and she did just that. She got distracted on occassion, but as soon as the teacher told her to do something, she was there. I was so proud of her and I can't wait to go every week. She can't either; she cried when we had to leave.

Funny Girl

We were eating dinner a couple of nights ago when the conversation somehow changed to Baywatch. Chris said he had never seen an episode. I told Clara to say "Sure, Daddy". Chris went on to say that his entire knowledge of Baywatch was based on what he'd seen on YouTube. Without missing a beat, Clara says "Sure, Daddy". I was cracking up, though Daddy didn't think it was quite so funny.

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I was getting dressed yesterday and Clara kept trying to give me my shirt to put on even though I wasn't quite ready for it. It was starting to get annoying hearing her say "Here Mommy. Here Mommy.......". When I finally took it from her, she told me "Say thank you." I guess she told me.

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I came downstairs yesterday and snuck up on Clara who had the refrigerator door open. She was eating on a quarter of a watermelon that was still in plastic wrap. She had bitten a hole in the plastic, ingesting some I'm sure, and there was juice all over her, the refrigerator and the floor.

Living Vicariously

My mom called this morming after joining my sister Linsey at her ultrasound appointment to tell me the sex of the baby. I won't post that now though because she hasn't put it on her blog yet. I don't want to steal her thunder or anything. Feel free to bug her now.

Not half an hour later, I had Clara loaded up and we were at Babies R Us looking for baby stuff. I did the same thing when I found out what Tanya was having a couple of weeks ago. I realized on the way to the store that I was living vicariously through them. If things had turned out differently, I would be shopping for precious baby things for my own baby right now.

And then after the intial excitement of finding out the sex of her baby comes the inevitable realization that I would've been able to find out the sex of mine soon since I was only a few weeks behind Linsey. I'm sure the coming months will be filled with moments like these especially as I get closer to December.

I'm already preparing Chris for the possibility of me being a blubbering mess come Christmas time. Linsey and Tanya's sweet babies will be here, my due date will have passed and we'll be without our baby at Christmas. I'm not sure how I'll handle it. We've even talked about doing a very non-traditional Christmas to perhaps keep my mind off of things, like maybe a vacation somewhere.

Please don't take this post as anything other than me writing down my thoughts. I don't want anyone to think they can't talk and be excited about their baby around me because it might make me sad. It doesn't overwhelm me with sadness; it's just a small reminder of my loss. I tend to not think about the miscarriage very often, but of course I'm going to be reminded of it sometimes and that's ok.