Clara Catch-up

School - Clara still loves school. A few weeks ago they had "Parent Night" where we got to go and let Clara be the teacher. It's fun to see what they do and also to see how much she's learned. Currently they are in their Rain Forest habitat so of course they had a little mini mock rain forest. It replicated the environment of an actual rain forest and was really neat.

Hazel got to go see Clara's school for the first time. She loved it and whined for the next two weeks when I dropped Clara off, pointing to the stairs. 

Here Clara is showing Jason how they do snack time. What's not to love about a grown man sitting on a toddler stool? {Wait, I'm married to a grown man??}

There is a room off to the side of the classroom that is changed with each habitat. For this one, it was a research tent.

The highlight of my night was watching Clara scoop up the plastic bugs in the "tools" and drop them in the jar for research. She takes pretending so seriously sometimes I wonder if she actually believes she's doing it for real. I absolutely adore her imagination.

Clara loves to be outside and loves water. I've gotten really good and not caring at all if she gets her clothes wet, whether it be from irrigation, rain or sprinklers.

T-ball - Remember soccer where Clara would talk and talk and talk to the other players and not give a second thought to where the ball was? T-ball is pretty similar. In one of her earlier games, she was talking to someone, the ball was hit to her, bounced off her foot and she didn't even flinch. She just kept talking. We all have a good time and the league is much better organized and gives the kids more of a precursor to the real sport than her soccer league did. Plus she got to play with Lucy and Elsa which was a bonus for everyone. She had friends/cousins on the team and I had family to visit and laugh with during the games. Here's her first game.

And here's the last game, which started with pizza and ended with trophies.

Clara went through the reading program at school really quickly. She loves to learn and loves to read. It seems to come second nature to her. Several months ago (February?), Clara made some books. I need to scan them in. Although I'd also just like to frame them and preserve them forever. Up until that point, she had never really written anything but her name and sometimes she'd ask me to help her spell different things for a card she was making for someone. This made me all the more surprised when she wrote these books. I love it when kids spell things out based on sounds. Sometimes it leaves me wondering if they should revise the English language because kids seem to be much more consistent than it actually is. That same day, she also made sign for her store. She was so convinced people would come to buy her stuff. She spelled bows and rtist (artist) by herself. I asked her how she knew how to spell bows and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I sounded it out." Duh. 

Also months ago, Clara got to go watch Jason play basketball by herself one night. When they got home, she was so excited to tell me she got to go on a daddy-daughter date to Dairy King. :) When she tells me exciting things like this, she usually does one of two things. She either talks in a very serious voice, uses her hands a lot and sounds like she's 18 or she raises her eyebrows over and over. Those are the little things I wish I could remember forever.

When we went day camping with Jason's family, we stopped at Jack-in-the-Box for breakfast. Jason and I were trying to find the sticker to see what credit cards they took. I asked if they took American Express. Clara looked over at the window and said, "They take snow cones too." My goodness children are wonderfully entertaining. Of course Jack's profile looks like a snow cone.

Clara hasn't been into riding her bike much. I finally bought a pump to pump up her tires that have been flat for over a year. It's obviously much easier to ride a bike with good tires so she enjoys it much more.

Connie gave Clara the game Sorry for Christmas. Last Sunday night we put Hazel to bed and played with Clara. She loved it and won fair and square. Her and I played the next day as well and she won again, fair and square. It looks like despite her having a personality so similar to mine it's scary, she's scored her daddy's luck.  

This is the Easter bunny costume she designed and constructed all by herself. She insisted we use white yarn to tie it on and not black because, "If we use black, people will know I'm not the real Easter bunny."

She's still funny (makes me smile daily), thoughtful (thinks of her sister all the time), selfless (is always willing to share - a few times I've even see her give the last bite of whatever treat she has to Hazel) and helpful (loves to do "big" jobs around the house). Sometimes I just stare at her, thinking about what an incredible girl she is. I still check on her every night before I go to bed and think how blessed I am to be her mother. Not just a mother, but her mother.