On This Day of Joy and Gladness

Sing it with me everyone, because today my baby is officially old enough for Nursery!

Beginning at the age of 18 months children begin to attend a class at church on Sundays specifically geared toward toddlers and very young preschoolers, otherwise known as Nursery. Up until this time infants and young toddlers get to hang out with Mom or Dad during their classes; needless to say, as a child becomes more and more mobile (and in the case of my daughter, at least, more and more fiercely independent), keeping her occupied for three hours becomes increasingly challenging. Until now, I didn't fully understand why in the world parents would be so excited by a half-birthday.

Now I do.

Beginning Sunday, we can drop Clara off to play with other kids her age, have a little lesson, sing some songs, and just generally participate in something more enjoyable for her than having Mom tell you to quit climbing on the stacks of chairs 178 times an hour. And it means Mom and Dad can teach their classes without worrying about whether or not Clara will kill herself by climbing on those chairs for the 179th time. This assumes, of course, that she'll actually let us leave her there, but we can hope, right?

In other Clara-related news, she's finally starting to talk a bit more. Her discernible words are: mama, dada, no, uh-oh, that, yep, hi, night-night, bath, ball, bottle, apple, banana, pear, hot dog, all done, teddy (for teddy grahams), pretzel, and amen. And of course there are many, many non-discernible words that she expects us to understand and is frustrated when we don't. She can point to around 20 body parts, with special love shown for her belly button.


She's a running, dancing fiend and is trying most earnestly to learn to jump. Right now it looks more like drunken prancing than jumping, but we'll get there. She loves throwing things and is trying to understand why in the world Mama and Daddy will let her throw a ball but not blocks or books.


Hide and seek is still a favorite game, but we've learned that hiding behind curtains or blinds is much more fun that using a blanket or your hands.


She is still mightily in love with Michael, her betrothed. They both get so excited to see each other and actually play remarkably well together for two young toddlers. Michael has learned to say Clara's name, and she tries to say his but it comes out more like "Buba." She loves giving him hugs and kisses and will often stand behind him and pet the top of his head.



I know there are many more stories to tell, but it's late and I have a house to get ready to put on the market so I need to go paint. Here are just a few cute pictures to end with; enjoy, and once this house is ready to sell we'll be back in the blogging world.

Welcome to Swedish Net Radio

Peter, my Swedish podmate, commandeered my computer, pointing the browser to sr.se. As a result, I am now listening to Swedish net radio.

So far, the music is well charged and pleasant, with English lyrics that are only a little campy. Will let you know how this plays out.

Now playing: Suzanne (Vi Kan Inte Gå Hand I Hand)

I'm Raising a Junkie

Last Monday we headed south with the Overlys to enjoy a day at Kings Dominion (a local amusement park for those not in the know). We'll have a complete recounting of the trip posted soon, but as I was going through the pictures tonight this one made me laugh and I had to share:


My not-quite-eighteen month old is a Diet Coke junkie. I'm not sure how this came about since she's never had more than a sip or two at any given time, and those times have been very, very few. I have to be careful not to leave cans or cups within her ever-expanding reach or this is what happens. I needed to get something out of her diaper bag and put the cup down without considering my daughter's whereabouts; when I saw this I started laughing, and like any good mother told Oliver to get the camera before I took the cup away.

If only she would drink her soy milk this readily we'd be all set. But that's a subject for another post entirely.