Clara, you are fourteen months old!

Clara Grace, you are a ray of sunshine one moment and a storm cloud the next! My goodness, you keep us on our toes but we just adore you anyway! I can’t believe you are already 14 months old! You’ve kept us on our toes for 14 months?! Wow!

Little girl, you love to dance! One of the things we like to do during the day is go into the playroom and dance to some music. You are just filled with so much joy! You also like to play with your brother’s hot wheels and you like to play outside so much that you cry when we come back inside.

You have finally taken your first steps although you aren’t walking full-time yet. Your vocabulary has also exploded this month, with words like: Ben, cat, dog, bird, belly, thank-you, bible, and probably others because you seem to just pop out with a new word every day.

You also like to stand on things.

Well sweet girl, I can’t wait to see what you do in the next month! We love you, little girl!

this smile.

It just melts my heart!

Clara Grace, You are 13 Months Old

** Okay so this is a couple weeks late! Sorry! Been so busy with… well, life. I am hoping to pick up blogging again soon because I miss it and I hate that I have so much chronicling Benjamin’s life (up to a point) and so little chronicling Clara’s. Anyway… **

 

Little miss personality. I don’t know what to do with you! You are a spitfire and I think as you get older we’ll be able to help you channel your, um, passion… but for now WOO GIRL. Those tantrums!!

Let’s talk about your sunny side, though. You’re a sweetheart most of the time and love to give mama hugs, and you’ve been giving daddy kisses lately, too. You’re certainly not as affectionate as Benjamin was, but hey if it’s not your personality who can really fault you for it?

You are still pretty much a mama’s girl but you are getting more and more independent and like to do your own thing (the way you want to do it) a lot of the time, too. You still are not walking. I’m sure you know how but you just like making me tote you everywhere. Mhm, I’m onto you, girl. Mama knows these tricks.

Some things you love:

• “talking” on the phone
• Hello Kitty
• Your bubba
• eating
• playing outside
• Dylan
• eating
• singing “Roll the Gospel Chariot Along”
• eating
• bath time
• the wiggles
• and eating.

Maybe next month we can update that you’re walking but you know what? All in your own time, I suppose. We learned very early on not to compare you to any other baby because you will do your own thing!

You are wearing 12 months clothes still, and you’re a wittle thing but I think you may have actually gained a pound, who knows?

Can’t wait to continue to see you grow, sweet Clara! It’s always an adventure with you!

To my sweet Clara Grace,

I never thought that I would ever be a mommy to a little girl. I had always seen myself as a mommy to boys, probably because Benjamin came first and there were four years between him and you. I was afraid to be a mommy to a little girl because I didn’t know if I’d be very good at it. Being a mommy is scary sometimes. But I am so, so thankful that God chose me to be your mommy and that you are my little girl.

You have been in our arms (let’s be honest, mostly my arms, you little mommy’s girl!) for one year now. One whole year! This year has flown by and we have gone through so many changes together. Can you believe that you have moved three times already in your short little life? You have gotten eight teeth and have two more on the way! You aren’t walking … yet. You prefer that mommy carry you everywhere and if I don’t carry you, you just speed crawl wherever you want to go. You can say mama, dada, bubba, and thank you (when you want to), and you know what sound a puppy makes.

Clara Grace, you are a precious, sweet, funny girl and we love you to pieces. I am so excited that it is your birthday and I can’t wait to celebrate with all our family and friends! You are such a blessing, and I am so, so proud to be your mommy!

I love you, a bushel and a peck!

taking candy from a baby

yeah, I took candy from that baby, and I’ll do it again, too!

It’s always nice to find your almost 11 month old happily holding two soggy Reese’s Cups on the floor, taking them away, and as she crawls after you crying, notice there is a third one in her mouth… pretty much all gone {except for the wrapper, thankfully}.

I am telling you… this girl is out of control. I had a feeling she was going to be a handful but nothing could have prepared us for Hurricane Clara, especially after Benjamin who was always so easy-going and never got into too much as a baby.

This girl is going to give me grey hair.

silly, messy Clara Grace… every day is an adventure with you!

my favorite event of 2013

Happy New Year, everyone! May God bless you in 2014!

Clara, you are seven months old!

 

You have done so much this past month that I don’t really know where to start! Well, you went  through your first move as we moved away from Demopolis, and the night we got to Nana and Papaw’s house, you decided to crawl for Papaw. Like, full-on crawling. And now, you are unstoppable! You’re so quiet when you crawl that we have to keep a good watch on you because your favorite thing to do is chew on wires, my little electrician.

You have decided that you don’t want to eat baby food, so we have gone straight into solids and you can’t get enough of it! You love to eat. You wouldn’t know it by looking at you because you’re still a petite little thing, but you do love to eat!

You still don’t like for your hands to be touched and you’re still pretty attached to me, but you’re getting better about that. You laugh a whole lot more lately and we love this! You especially laugh at your silly brother.

We love you, happy girl! You are such a sweet, sweet baby!

Clara, you are six months old!

Six months… half a year?! Really?! I can’t believe it. Time has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I was holding you in the recovery room at the hospital, crying because you were perfect and everything was wonderful {and I was on meds okay}. There are so many moments in every single day that I wish I could just freeze time for just a little bit, just to live in that moment just one moment longer…

Alas… six months have flown by and you are getting SO BIG. Seriously… although you aren’t crawling fully yet, you are everywhere and into everything you can get your little bitty hands on. Anything on the trays under the coffee table happens to be fair game and I have to pick up stuff you throw all over the floor during the day. Thanks for making me bend over more often. {Did I mention that my back hurts a lot more nowadays?}

You are wearing 6-9 month clothing so I guess you’re pretty average, maybe a little on the smaller side of things but not by much. You’re certainly not as chunky as Benjamin was at six months old, but you know what? I was a petite little baby myself so maybe you just take after mommy.

You love to play! I can put you on the floor with some toys and you just have the time of your life down there exploring your toys. If Benjamin is around, you like to play with him. He makes you laugh and I love the way he can always make you smile. I know you adore him, and guess what? He adores you!

We’ve been experimenting with different foods, but I admit I’ve been a little lazy on all that. You don’t seem to mind, though. You’re happy getting milk and you’re healthy so there’s no reason to worry. You do, however, really like eating small pieces of bread. And yesterday we found out  that you like to gnaw on chicken bones {much to my chagrin, and your daddy’s amusement}.

You’ve got a pretty spunky, silly personality so far. You’re a bit of a mommy’s girl at the moment and sometimes won’t even go to daddy. Girl, we gotta get that changed soon… because my back is hurtin’. Seriously.

It’s kind of funny… you won’t let anyone touch your hands. Except sometimes Benjamin, and sometimes you will let mommy or daddy touch your hands. When people come up to you, they want to touch your soft baby hands and you jerk your hand away like, “Excuse me, no.” I have to explain to them that you do this to everyone, not just them.

Anyway… six more months and you will be a year… so hows about we slow it down a little, aight? Aight.

Clara, you are five months old!

Nope, I refuse to believe that you are already 5 months old! How did this happen!? I blinked and then all of the sudden you are so, so big! I’m so proud of you for all you have accomplished in a month! You are a growing girl and you are so ready to move along with your brother. I watch you watch him and I know you want to do exactly what he does.

This month, you have sprouted two little teeth! One was noticed on Sunday and the second one popped through on Wednesday! I’m pretty sure you willed them to pop out because you kept getting mad watching us eat and us not sharing with you. Speaking of eating, we have started you on solids! So far you like avocado, carrots, sweet potatoes, and bananas and you dislike squash. You sometimes like to grab the spoon and help feed you, and sometimes you yell in between bites because we don’t get it to your mouth fast enough!

You constantly make me smile with all your sweet little expressions. They are never ending! You have such a beautiful smile and I love to see your face light up when I sing to you or when we play. You also love your daddy and your brother and I love to see your eyes just light up around them. You are so loved, Clara Grace! You are such a special little girl!

You have been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now, and that makes mama so happy! Thank you, baby girl! It took your brother a long time to get to that point so this makes me extremely thankful! You sleep in your own crib in your own room, although we have to pack pillows on your sides because you roll everywhere and wake yourself up. You are a mover and you won’t be stopped! In fact, over this past weekend, you decided it was time to learn how to crawl! You aren’t crawling just yet, but you are up on your knees and rocking, and you move backwards. You gotta learn how to shift gears instead of being stuck in reverse!

We love you, baby girl! You are such a joy in our lives and I can’t wait to see you learn even more this next month… no matter how much I’d also love to freeze time and keep you small for a little while longer! You are precious to me!

Clara, you are four months old!

Dear sweet Clara, another month has flown by and we have seen an incredible amount of changes in you since last month! I’m so proud of how much you’re learning and all the new things you’re doing. I know that you are watching your big brother and want to do things like him, and so I know you’re eager to be big! You seem so proud of yourself when you accomplish something that you’ve been practicing! Mommy and daddy and Benjamin are proud of you, too!

I love how much you love your brother. It is just so sweet how you look at him and smile at him when he talks to you, and how you watch him whenever he is around. I can tell that you adore him completely and I hope that you two grow up to be close, in spite of the age gap. It warms my heart how much you love each other already!!

This past month, you got to spend a lot of time with a lot of different family members who we don’t get to see very often and it was a lot of fun. You took your very first trip to South Carolina to visit Mimi and Granddaddy Bob, and you met your Great-Aunt Debbie and cousins Josh, Tyler, and Tori. We also saw Nana, Papaw, Uncle Steven, Aunt Melanie, Andma, and Uncle Preston! It was a super busy month!

You’ve picked up and mastered a lot of new skills this month, including rolling over both ways, holding yourself up on straight arms, babbling, grasping, laughing, bringing things up to your mouth, and other little things! You love to play and you enjoy the little toys you can play with right now, and you love to be read to. You like to look at pictures in books. This makes your bookworm parents happy!

You had your first train ride this month, too! You were so good and you slept almost  the entire nearly 6 hour ride! Wow! You were super glad to be home to daddy when we got home, though.

Last night, I packed up the pack n play that you had been sleeping in pretty much since you came home from the hospital, sans a few nights in the beginning. It has left our room a lot emptier and it makes me a little sad for you to move into your own room, but I’m happy that you’ve made the transition easily!

We love you so much, sweet girl! We can’t wait to see what you’re doing in another month!