All about Clara Jane

Clara's word list:

mommy, daddy, puppy, pew-we, that stinks, cookie, here you go, thank you, please, uncle Tim, Harley, Crystal, grandma, more, drink, kitty, were'd it go, baby

She has a word for Thomas, but it's not very understandable.

When we say "I love you" she answers back with "I do."

Along with her words, she is a pro at animal sounds.

She loves to dance, do somersaults, and play in the backyard

These are her favorite shoes. (mine too) I took her to the shoe store because her feet decided to grow really fast. I had 2 pairs for her to pick from. She chose these ones and I was quite happy.

She may be a handful, but she is fun. It's hard to believe she is coming up on 20 months! She will be 2 before we know it!

Because I need to write this down.

Today we had swim day. Thomas has been looking forward to this day for about a month now. It was at the home of a family in our ward. By calling their pool a pool, you are insulting it. It is huge. It has multiple waterfalls, 3 slides and a couple very high waterfalls you can jump off. It's pretty impressive to put it mildly.

Thomas mastered jumping off the cliffs (at least 10-15 feet high) last time we went and has been so excited to do it again. Today he wanted me to join him. How do you tell a 4-year-old that you are kind of scared, not only of jumping, but jumping in front of a backyard full of ladies from the RS? I climbed up to the top of the cliff and tried to stall. Thomas pulled me down to his level and started rubbing my shoulders while singing me a song he made up on the spot about not being afraid to jump. It was so sweet. How could I back out? He then took my hand, lead me to the edge, looked up at me and said, "It's okay, Mom. I'll hold your hand the whole way."

And with that I plugged my nose and took the plunge.

Perception

"Mom, I had a dream last night that I was in the circus. I didn't do anything, but there were lot of clowns."

(I don't know about you, but that sounds like a nightmare to me!)

Must see tv.

If you are not watching Sesame Street, you are missing out. I love their music videos. I truly think that the producers of the show do these just for us moms who are at home with our kids. These are a few of my favorites...

I wish I had this one when I was teaching geometry to my old students.

This one has been one of my favorites for a while.

Is that really my job?

Thomas is growing up. A tad too fast if you ask me. One of the problems we have is he thinks he is an adult. When he gets reprimanded for doing something, he always turns around and uses the same "sayings" on us as we use on him. I have been asked "Mom, why are you acting this way?" or "You know I don't like it when you talk to me like that." It takes everything in me to keep a straight face and not laugh. Today it couldn't be helped, I lost it and couldn't stop laughing.

Thomas was running across the family room and stubbed his toe on Clara's sippy cup that was laying on the floor. He hit his toe, then grabbed it while falling towards the couch. I quickly came to his aid and asked if he was all right, but instead of answering my my question he very sternly said...

"Mom, why is that cup on the floor? Don't you know you are the cleaner around here?"

I should have set him straight right then, but I couldn't get a hold of myself. I was laughing. Really hard and loud! Maybe next time I teach him how it really is. I'm sure I'll have the chance.

(Would you believe this picture was in my files - crazy how perfect it fit this post!)

At the tone, the time will be 3:36 am....

I can't sleep. I was doing just fine until....

This little girl started to whine. She was moaning, then whining, then crying. I finally dragged myself into her room to check on her and figured she just wanted a little cuddle. I happily obliged because she rarely wakes up at night, so I knew something must have scared her. I heard some talking outside, so I looked out her window and saw a cop car down the street blocking one of the intersections. After seeing that, I was wide awake. I had to watch and see if anything else happened.

Of course, nothing did.

About 30 minutes later, I climbed back in bed only to be reminded that I really need to slather myself in sunscreen when I do my kids. Yesterday we went swimming and I neglected myself. I have been in pain all day long. I know better! I'm Irsih for heaven's sake! I burn faster then bread under a broiler! I tried to rub some aloe gel on my back, but arms only reach so far. I tried to get comfortable, but it wasn't happening.

To top that off, Steve was snoring. Usually he is not a snore-er unless he is extremely tired, which I know he is. I didn't want to roll him over and wake him up, so I turned on the TV to try and block out the noise. I usually turn on QVC or something else for the mindless white noise, but unfortunately I stumbled on a movie that has great Michael Buble music and got sucked into it.

The movie ended at 3 am and I was still wide awake trying to get comfortable. I decided I would go take some tylenol to try and mask the sunburn pain. Lucky for me, when I got downstairs I found that Steve hadn't eaten all the left over chocolate cake from the Cheesecake Factory. I grabbed a fork, turned on the computer to play around and then dropped the cake on the floor.

I'm not going to tell you what I did next.

Drum roll please.....

I finally finished editing all the wedding pictures. Photography is an interesting art. I am a creative person, I love to make things and create things that pop into my mind in the middle of the night while I am trying to sleep. With everything else, you can change the end results. You can rip out a seam, paint over, cut out, or start over. That is so not the case with photography. It is what it is. I look at these and love them, then come back an hour later and get a pit in my stomach because I should have been standing 3 feet more to the left. These are just a few of the many, many, MANY that I took. I am sure that my favorites will be different from the bride and grooms favorites.

I still have a lot to learn, but I know I will eventually get there. I can't thank this cute couple enough for letting me use them as my lab rats.

I need this song on my ipod.

This video was made in the Antwerp, Belgium Central (Train) Station on the 23rd of March 2009.
. . . with no warning to the passengers passing through the station,
at 08:00 am a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi' begins to play on the public address system.â€
As the bemused passengers watch in amazement, some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances.
They created this amazing stunt with just two rehearsals!