Kind of Late, But...

School has been in session for three months, but here's a couple of pics from Clara's first day of Pre-K:

Someone was pretty excited that morning.  Can you tell?

Just a Couple of Cute Sisters

Pottermania Through the Generations

Thanks to the Lego Harry Potter game for the Wii, we have a budding Potter fan on our hands. Since I feel like four is still a bit young for the books and movies, this has been Clara's only exposure to Harry and the wizarding world. She knows there is a Harry Potter movie out in the theaters this weekend, and to Clara, there isn't much better than a daddy-daughter date to the movies, complete with vast quantities of popcorn. This was the conversation she and I had yesterday:

Clara: Harry Potter is at the movie theater. Daddy and I can go to the theater to see it?

Mom: No, sweetie, the Harry Potter movies are kind of scary, and you need to be a little older to see them.

Clara: But I can see them now, because I'm not scared of anything anymore. Except lions, 'cause they have big roars.

Should I tell her about the Gryffindor symbol?

Meet George

Warning: this post contains multiple references to poop. Non-parents, proceed with caution. Parents, read on; this is nothing new to you.

Everyone, say hi to George:


So, Clara may not have been the hardest child ever to fully potty train, but she's certainly up near the top. In a fit of desperation a few weeks ago, I promised her a fish just like her friend's if she would just poop in the toilet. Four-and-a-half years of changing poopy diapers will do that to you. She finally did it, and we are now completely pull-up free. And of course, she remembered that rash promise I made and has held me to it. Last night we made a trip to the pet store to pick up her new little friend. Today she informed me that she'll be getting a second fish next week. Um, no.

Unless we prove ourselves to be incompetent fish handlers. Which is quite possible. Then she just might get a second fish next week. Wish us all luck.

Tugging on the Heartstrings

We've had a rough couple of days; Oliver is out of town, Clara has been even more demanding of attention than usual (and that is really saying something), and Anna has been pulling out all the stops on the two-year-old attitude. And she's getting molars. Super awesome.

Mommy would like a vacation.

But.

Then things like this happen:

Clara: Look, Anna, I hurt my knee.
Anna: (bends down and kisses Clara's knee)
Clara: Thanks, Anna. You're the best sister ever.

Okay. You're all forgiven.

Keeping Busy

Today my sister brought her girls over for a cousin play-date/sister craft project time. Given that all four girls were experiencing varying degrees of exhaustion, grouchiness, and general emotional malaise, we spent more time breaking up arguments and drying tears until Clara unwittingly came up with an activity that gave us 20 minutes of nearly uninterrupted project time.

She found three rolls of crepe streamers left over from Anna's birthday decorations. You can imagine the joy of this discovery.






Didn't get a picture of them in their bedroom jumping from bed to bed while wrapped in streamers. Good times.

So, the real question is, does the fact that I let the girls destroy the streamers and then chow down on a bunch of Nilla Wafers while sitting on my pile of clean laundry make me a really awesome mom, or a really terrible one?

Either way, they had a good time. I'm going to go with at least slightly awesome mom.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hey, look at me! Three days in a row! I don't think we've posted three days in a row since Anna was born. Sick of me yet?

Anyway, our brief taste of summer seems to have gone by the wayside today, so to combat the stuck-in-the-house blues, we decided to make ourselves a little flower garden.

Anna loves markers and now views crayons as completely beneath her. But Anna with markers and Mommy don't always get along. Tangent - the other day Clara was using markers when Anna snatched a few and tried to bring them out into the living room. Marker use is strictly limited to the kitchen/dining room, so I directed Anna back into the kitchen. She disapproved (loudly), and, to show her displeasure, started coloring all over her t-shirt. When I informed her that she could not do that and was on her last warning, she growled at me and started coloring on the kitchen cabinets. Needless to say, no more markers for Miss Anna that day. But back to today...when she's buckled into her high chair, she does great:


And here's our table in full project glory:


Clara loved gluing flowers and gems onto the "grass", but then decided we needed some original artwork as well:



Clara has given Anna a nickname - the Goofer. I think it's appropriate, don't you?


And the finished product, for now. Maybe we'll add some butterflies and bumblebees on our next gray day.

Catching Up - Summer/Fall 2010

As I looked back through my "recent" posts, I realized just how badly we've neglected this poor blog since last summer. So, to begin my penance, here are some photos from last summer/fall...up through Halloween-ish. Clara's fourth birthday, Christmas, and beyond to come soon.

Here are a few favorite outside activities we enjoyed during the three most perfect summer months you can find anywhere. Seriously, summer in Seattle is awesome. The other nine months...well, we don't talk about those.

Backyard picnics, where Anna discovered a love of salsa, and Clara got as much cream in her belly as she did on her nose:



Enjoying the sunshine at one of the many city parks:



Or just enjoying the sunshine in our own backyard:


Sidewalk chalk isn't just for the sidewalk:





And on those days when the weather isn't quite so fabulous, we find ways to stay entertained:





Anna's self-feeding skills keeps improving...except when it comes to spaghetti:


And, last, but not least, a picture of the Halloween costumes Clara came up with. Here are our little fairy princess and bumblebee all ready to hit the Stake Trunk or Treat:

Words of Wisdom

No better insight into the minds of my children.

Phineas and Ferb Are Teaching My Child Wonderful Things

Clara loves "Phineas and Ferb," a show on the Disney Channel; for those not in the know, here are the basics. The first couple of lines of the title sequence song are:

There's 104 days of summer vacation,
'Til school comes along just to end it.

Clara has come up with her own version:

There's 104 days of summer vacation,
'Til stupid Mom comes to end it.

Hmmm. Not sure where to go with that.

Just Some Randomness

Isn't this what beds are for?

Clara trying to get some value out of a mushy snowfall

Please? Please? Please?

A new favorite perch for movie watching

What do you mean I'm not supposed to be here? Did you not know I can climb the tall chairs now? Have you not been paying attention?

Of course it makes more sense to wear my hat in the house instead of putting a sweater over my summer dress when I'm cold. Duh, Mom.

Wings are a must when watching Peter Pan and trying to fly like Tinkerbell. A certain little girl was highly disappointed when she first realized her wings would not, in fact, allow her to fly.

Four

Is it really possible that this:


has become this?


Our wee little baby has become a fully-fledged child, always curious, always imaginative, almost always sweet, sometimes full of the drama. Well, a lot of the time, actually. She can write her name, draw people, loves "doing" art projects, knows her letters and numbers, and surprised me the other day by doing simple addition. She loves to sing and dance, loves movies, and can use my iPhone almost as well as I can. One of her favorite pastimes is playing Super Mario Brothers Wii with Daddy or MarioKart with Mommy (since Mommy is highly inept when it comes to Super Mario Brothers). She calls every kid everywhere her friend, and her cousins (all of them) are amongst her favorite people in the world.

Happy fourth birthday, my little Clara Bright. Thanks for making me a mommy four years ago, and for bringing joy to our home every day since then.

Costuming

Clara has decreed that this year's Halloween costumes shall be as follows:

Anna: a bumblebee
Clara: a fairy princess
Mom: a witch
Dad: a ghost

Okay, pretty typical choices for an almost four-year-old, right? But then I got to thinking about it a little more, and I really think these costume suggestions are representative of how Clara views us. Follow along, if you please:

Anna: a bumblebee - annoying and sometimes frightening to Clara.
Clara: a fairy princess - obviously.
Mom: a witch - need I say more?
Dad: a ghost - the one who is only seen at night (well, and weekends too).

Smart girl.

Nothing Like A Little Boost For the Self-Esteem

At bedtime tonight:

Clara: Mom, you're pretty amazing.

Me: Thank you, Clara. I love you.

Clara: Just kidding.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

Scene: Our living room. Anna has an old broken cell phone of Oliver's. Clara wants said cell phone and has been told she needs to wait her turn. This displeases Clara in the extreme. A tantrum fails to sway Mom. Time to explore more deceptive tactics.

Clara: Anna, put your phone in here. (opens end table drawer)
Anna: (ignores Clara)
Clara: Anna, please come put your phone in here. (gestures to open drawer)
Anna: (ignores Clara)
Mom: (quietly laughing) Clara, why do you want Anna to put the phone there?
Clara: So I can reach it easily.
Mom: You need to be patient and wait until Anna is done with her turn. Please come here so I can brush your hair.
Clara: No! No! NO, I want the phone! (tantrum, tantrum, tantrum)
Mom: You can hold the brush. (Hands Clara the brush)
Clara: (throws brush on the ground) NO!

Anna comes over to retrieve said hairbrush. She now has both the hairbrush and the coveted cell phone.

Clara: ***SCREAM*** (grabs the brush from Anna)
Anna: ***SCREAM*** (whacks Clara three times in the head with the cell phone)

Mom: Oy.

Silliness

(I'll get back to vacation posts soon, really.)

Clara and Anna have been sharing a bedroom for about six months or so now. After a rough couple of nights at the beginning, they've done remarkably well together. Anna is usually out within minutes of being placed in the crib, even if Clara is taking her sweet time falling asleep. And by falling asleep I mean singing (loudly), talking (loudly), and banging her feet on the walls (loudly). We don't like going back in to try to get her to stop, since oddly the sound of the door opening is one of the few things that will almost certainly wake Anna back up. So we usually ignore it and eventually Clara stops and falls asleep.

Last night, though, the noises coming from the room were different. Normal Clara noises, yes, but also quite a bit of Anna-babble. Not normal. We waited a few minutes to see if Anna would settle down, but it soon progressed to much loud laughter and hilarity from both. I went back to investigate and as I opened the door I saw Clara crawling under Anna's crib. Neither of them noticed me so I stopped to watch for a minute. Anna was busy dropping her pacifier between the crib and dresser over and over, while Clara fished it out from under the crib over and over. Both thought this was the funniest thing ever. Once Clara realized I was there, rather than run over and hop into bed, she crawled all the way under the crib to hide.

It's fun to see them start to play together; Anna is only just leaving babyhood behind, so until now she hasn't been much of a fun playmate for Clara. Now, though...now I fear what the future holds. In a good way.

Florida, Family Fun, & Disney Day One

With nearly three months of freedom looming (Oliver wasn't set to start the new job until July 12th), we decided to celebrate the end of grad school in a big way by planning a trip to Florida to visit Matt, Honor, Andrew, Braden, Chase, and Delainey and to spend some time with The Mouse. Clara immediately became enamored of "Cousin Wainey" and Anna quickly found Braden to be sympathetic to the plight of the second child. We spent the weekend with them hanging out, swimming, playing games, and having an all-around great time. Chase and Honor introduced us to the wonders of Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone/iPod Touch; if you haven't played it, I recommend it. Highly addictive. Oh, and Clara wore Delainey's Snow White dress every possible waking moment. I think she would have slept in it if we would have allowed it.

On Monday, Honor drove us up to Orlando to begin our six days at Walt Disney World. We checked into our room at the Port Orleans: Riverside resort, where Clara was thrilled to find this on the bed:


We headed out to spend a few hours at the Magic Kingdom; Clara had been talking about seeing Cinderella's castle for months, so there was no question that this had to be the first stop. When she saw it at the end of Main Street she immediately wanted to walk through it and meet Cinderella. Unfortunately, she didn't see Cinderella that day, but did get to meet her in a big way later in the week (more on that to come).

Our first stop was Tomorrowland, where Clara spotted the Astro Orbiter and declared this to be our first stop. Here are the girlies waiting in line for our turn:



And the view of Cinderella's Castle from the upper platform of the Astro Orbiter:


Thanks to the ride swap cards for parents with little ones too small for certain rides, Clara was able to drive around the Tomorrowland Speedway twice in a row:


We also rode Buzz Lightyear once or twice that afternoon, where even Anna got in on the action by spinning our car around and around...and around.

On our previous trips to Disney, Oliver and I would always head over to Epcot for dinner at one of the restaurants in the World Showcase, so we decided to keep that tradition alive. We had a great dinner at the Biergarten in Germany, and after a long first day, tired little trooper number one succumbed to the inevitable:




Yes, that is a 35 pound three-and-a-half-year-old strapped to my back; yay for the Beco baby carrier.

More adventures in Disney to come in the next post...I really will get caught up one of these days.

Back Up and Running

Ah, the joy of high-speed internet; we're a week into life in our new house and we're back online. Once the unpacking, sorting, and purging slows to a reasonable pace we'll be back with updates galore. Let's see, we need to catch up on Oliver's graduation, our trip to Florida and Disney World, packing, leaving Provo, house-hunting, and our new little house in Seattle. Emphasis on the word little. It's 1125 square feet. But it's cute and has an awesome kitchen. And a yard that the girls are loving.

A quick story before I go sort through the few remaining boxes:

Anna is almost fifteen months now and has crossed the threshold into young toddlerhood, with the attitude to prove it. She can be pretty mischievous when the mood strikes and is starting to intentionally aggravate her older sister. Today when we were getting in the car Anna reached over and started pulling on Clara's dress (she's been wanting to wear dresses constantly lately), yelling all the while. Clara responded by crying, "Anna, stop breaking my dress! It needs to stay beautiful!"

This same little girl turned to her sister a few weeks ago and stated, "Anna, I'm so beautiful."

No issues with self-esteem there.

Overheard

When discussing the need for showers in our household:

"But Daddy needs to take a shower now. He's all stanky and beardy."

Clara, age 3 1/2, observing her father's excessive facial hair growth

Color Commentary

Because every post needs a picture, I bring you a picture of Anna from our car ride to Seattle.

We made it! We are in Seattle! After two days in the car, preceded by two days with moving crews, we are settled into our temporary housing, and house hunting in force. Though we took a house hunting trip, and have Google Doc upon Google Doc of listings we've checked out, we've yet to find a house that will work for us. I swear we aren't picky; it's just taking a lot of time.

There is one person who is picky, though. Little Miss Clara has decided that our house needs a specific quality. In fact, the color is not an option. For days she's been asking if we'll get a house in Seattle. But not just any house. No, she specifically asks for a green house.

As we went to get out of the car to visit the first house on our list today she looked at me and asked, "Is it a green house, Daddy?"

It wasn't, and the house won't work. After visiting another five houses today I got to thinking that perhaps she's on to something. Maybe we should only be looking for a green house.

Or maybe, Seattle is already turning her into a dirty hippy and she just wants a green (read eco-friendly) house.