Selective Hearing, Part 2

Yet another statement that shouldn't be so hard to hear and/or retain: "Don't put your toe in your sister's nose."

Visual Evidence

A Momentary Respite from Toddlerhood

We officially no longer have a toddler in the house (well, for a few months anyway) because...Clara turned three yesterday!

Before I went to bed the night before, I blew up a bunch of balloons and covered her bedroom floor with them. When she woke up she started yelling, "Mom! Mom! I have balloons! Look, Mom!" She then spent the next half hour doing this:




She then ran downstairs and had already begun tearing into her gifts by the time the rest of us made it down the stairs. Oliver went to get birthday donuts while I assembled some new doll furniture and Clara kept getting upset at Anna for looking and even breathing in the direction of her new toys. Yep, we have some territory issues around here. After lunch we sang "Happy Birthday" (which Clara proceeded to sing to herself over and over through the rest of the day) and had cupcakes baked in Cars paper liners (a very specific, and apparently very important, request from the birthday girl). Once we get the video edited we'll post it, but for now here are some photos:




After some quiet time we headed up to Salt Lake to have dinner our friends Heidi & Dave and their children Josh & Clara. Our Clara loves her friends and asks about "Joshie and Clara" several times a week. After dinner we rode the light rail over to Temple Square to see the lights. There were crazy numbers of people there (it was the Saturday before Christmas, after all), and Clara was kind of bummed that we couldn't take her inside the actual temple last night, but overall it was a lot of fun. Oh, and Clara LOVES to ride trains or buses of any kind, so that was a bonus.




Happy birthday Clara!

Need to Be Faster With the Camera

No picture, but...Anna just pulled herself up to standing for the first time. Trouble, trouble. She also likes to wrestle Clara since she's more capable of scaling small obstacles, much to Clara's chagrin. Seriously, it's always the quiet ones, isn't it?

Inky

This is what happens when Mom's attention is focused on feeding Miss Picky Baby her cereal and pears:

What once was lost...

I received the following series of instant messages from Kristin today:

11:02am - any idea where my keys might be? clara had them at some point yesterday but wasn't sure if that was before or after you went to ward council.

11:10 AM - nevermind. clara found them. in the little open/close compartment on the music board.

wonder who put them there.

geez.

Clara has a knack for hiding things. A few months ago she hid something. A week later, Kristin asked her where the item was. At first she played and said, "I don't know." Then she walked right over to a box, opened it, and took the item out.

So much fun.

At Bedtime Tonight

Me: Let me give you a kiss before I go.

Clara: I give you a kiss. It makes you happy.

Yes, yes it does.

Mama, I Do My Make-up!

It's the End of the World As We Know It