59 Months

It seems so easy to recognize and document the milestones and progress of a baby and easy to forget updates on the older kid. Poor Clara. Next month Clara turns 5 and it seems like she was born not long ago, yet I feel like we've been hanging out forever. She is my sidekick. She is the best helper. She keeps an eye on Hazel for me, if I'm busy/working and Hazel wakes up from a nap, Clara always offers to "go and talk to Hazel". She puts toys in her crib and talks to her to keep her entertained until I can get her. She picks her up and brings her to me and can barely hold her up, but hasn't dropped her. (Dare I say yet?) She can make her laugh like no one else and loves her little sister like crazy. One time I asked her to watch Hazel while I left the room for a few minutes. She came running in and said, "Mom! Hazel put something in her mouth!" Flustered and running to Hazel I said, "I thought I told you to watch her!" Clara innocently shot back, "I did. I watched her put that thing in her mouth!"

When she's not busy being my helper, she still utilizes that wild imagination of hers. We pretend pretty much all the time. It's probably safe to say we are pretending more than we are living reality. Witches, cheetahs, fairies, heroes, sonic and after seeing an Indian dance at the balloon festival, we have been Indians full time. The funny thing is she can't remember the word 'Indian'. She has asked at least 30 times, "What are we again?" She even sat for an hour outside Saturday night while Jason and I worked in the yard and beat her "drum". On the way to tithing settlement we were discussing why I didn't want her to wear her headband on her forehead and be an Indian at the church.

C: Why don't you like the way Indians look?
M: I don't have a problem with the way Indians look, it's just not appropriate to pretend to be an Indian at tithing settlement.

C: We're not pretending. (Totally serious.)

Later that evening we were discussing possibly making Indian feather headbands to wear at Thanksgiving...

C: Where do real Indians get their feathers?

J: From eagles and other birds.

C: Ewwwwww! That's disgusting!

J: Why?
C: Because they are full of diseases!

Sometimes, she pretends she's in college and has a boyfriend and talks like she's 21 on her phone. That pretending gives me anxiety, but humors me at the same time.

She plays so well independently but loves to socialize and have friends over or go to a friend's house. Planning her birthday party is becoming a bit difficult since she seems to want to invite everyone in her preschool class.

She loves her preschool and amazes me with the things she learns and remembers. I think she gets nervous when she's asked questions because sometimes she freezes up and can't answer so she'll make something up. But really, she knows the answer and will expound on anything I say. Last week was the second parent program to finish up the earth module. They had an ocean and submarine to play in. Clara must be acclimated to her new schedule of school three days a week because she didn't yawn every 2 minutes during the program like last time. She just sang nice and loud and listened when she was supposed to be listening. I noticed other than one girl that is close to a year older than her and one or two boys, she is the tallest person out of the other 15 kids. I don't think she's short, but being the tallest girl and taller than all but a few boys did surprise me.

I think she's going to be a good little reader based on some of the things she does. We have bells that she practices for music and she can read the solfage notes on the bells. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web and she loved it. She loves to be read to and to read. She will "read" for over an hour on her bed.

The other day she woke Hazel up from her nap. It wasn't intentional but I got upset because she wasn't even supposed to be in my room (I was in the shower). I scolded her and a few minutes later, she came back with an apology note. I need to scan it in, but she wrote, all by herself, "I love you." She missed some letters, but still. Not only was it so sweet, but also very impressive that she wrote the message so well.

She is quick to compliment, but also quick to speak her mind. She told the little girl we carpool with that her shirt was pretty... but "it looks like pajamas." In our house we speak our mind and try not to take offense. She does that well, but I need to work on teaching her about being sensitive to other's feelings.

She is still super curious and asks why, what words mean and for explanations constantly. For the most part, she is well behaved, eats well, sleeps well and plays well. Every now and then she will still come in our room at night. One night a few weeks ago she came in while I was still awake. She laid with me for a little bit. I asked her if she was ready to go back to her room. She said she wanted to lay with me for a few minutes longer. A few minutes later, she sat up, slid off my bed and went back to her own bed.

We have double sliding mirror doors on our closet. Every time Clara walks past them, she smiles at herself in the mirror.

One night we knelt down for family prayer and she came over to kneel to my right. Then she said she wanted to be by Jason and then got in between us and said, "Actually, I'll be in the middle so I can be by both of you. Wooooo!"

I could go on and on with the funny things she says and does. Like when Jason ran over the curb pulling out of our neighborhood and she screeched, "Dad! You just ran over the curb!" or when she found out Dan and Karen were driving behind us and she said, "So it's like we're the horses and they are the trailer." Before tithing settlement I was prepping her since often Bishops will ask questions about tithing. I asked her if she knows where tithing goes, obviously looking for something along the lines of to help pay for churches or temples. Clara is much more logical than that. Her answer? The bank.

Sunday was our primary program. Clara said her part perfectly and about twice as fast as she normally talks. They had her class, the CTR 4's, stand up to the front of the platform/stage (what is that thing called?) for the songs. During the entire first song, Clara held her hand straight up and jumped up and down over and over and over. Apparently she wanted to make sure Grandma and Grandpa Melzer knew where she was. It was really, really funny. And really, really irreverant. Of course she sang as loud as she could too so that even if someone couldn't see her, they could hear her. Someone told Jason she sang the wrong word in a song and said, "ooops, I mean ______" and corrected herself. She also let her friend (who's a bit bigger than her) sit on her lap for some of it. I've had about a dozen people tell me how entertaining she was to watch. I was sitting with my class, close enough to see everything she did but far enough away that I couldn't do a single thing about it. I love that she smiles and is so spunky and fun... even if she's still learning that there is a time and place for everything.