bouncy castle madness!

there is a new childhood epidemic... the upscale bouncy castle. we've encountered 2 within 3 days time, neither being expected. 

at least when the above video was taken (at the daycare's fall festival), I didn't have to get in. not so lucky at the zoo... (they also had a magician. and country music. it was a weird day at the zoo.) 

I'm pretty sure my brother took this just so he could mock me later.  it's a little remniscent of a wrestling move, no?

I wasn't planning to take my shoes off at the zoo...

the giant smiles were worth it, though. 

now onto much more exciting and grown-up things...

it's Halloween! time to play hide-the-zombie-arm!

parent-teacher conference + state fair

Today we met with Clara's daycare teacher for her 2-year-old assessment. She had a single-spaced two-page list of milestones to discuss. She said Clara is "very smart," "very sweet," "very dramatic" and has a great imagination. The only thing she's lagging on is potty training, but we haven't really been pushing it.

Hilariously, Clara is the Hermione of her class. She eagerly answers all the questions while the other kids are "in the back kicking each other" (to be fair, she is one of the oldest).

But she likes non-academic pursuits, too. Behold, the State Fair:

a $2 bag of carrot slices = big fun

Still planning to get back to regular blogging someday!

G

Toddler treehugger

Clara is really into nature, which delights me, being a covert treehugger. She likes to dig for worms. She likes to sniff flowers and herbs in our garden. The last few days, she's wanted to sit in the grass or walk around the neighborhood to "talk about trees" or "talk about plants." She will listen intently and retain a surprising amount of knowledge. She is particularly adept at identifying flowers (she is borderline obsessed with azaleas), though sometimes she'll get them mixed up based on color (for awhile, she thought all yellow flowers were daffodils).

She also has a beloved Fancy Nancy book about Earth Day, so the concept wasn't new to her when we mentioned planting a tree (a chaste tree) to celebrate.

great mysteries of the world: how were the pyramids built without modern machinery?
how was this big hole dug with a spoon-sized shovel?

Afterward, she wanted to water the tree.

The next day, she asked to plant another tree. If only we had infinite space and money, baby girl!


Here are some Earth Day-related posts from my old gardening blog:
http://lawofthelandblog.blogspot.com/search?q=earth+day

Easter recap

We spent Easter at my mom's house. It was nice and low-key. The only three entrants into my family's annual egg contest were me, Scott and Clara. Clara recognized Scott's egg as a tiger but was adamant that my Pete the Cat is a monster. I got her wooden egg at Michael's - she colored it, directed where the googly eyes should be glued, then painted it. (I sealed it with Modge Podge.) She was very secretive and serious about the process! We will have some real competition in the future, I think.

super secretive egg decorating (this was taken from way across the room,
and she was still wary of me spying on her)

See lots of old egg entries here.

The green overalls are a beloved hand-me-down given to Clara by Scott's cousin Kimberly. We didn't get any family shots this year because I was having a wardrobe crisis and, well, Scott doesn't like pictures. But, here are some shots of the girl.

"I'm flying!!"

Lots o fun with Uncle Jer

On the way over there, I mentioned something about bunny cake (an Easter tradition) and she said "I love bunny cake!!" Of course, we laughed because she'd never had bunny cake, but that has since been remedied and she's either a good guesser or a baby psychic. She definitely loves bunny cake.

"I'm hiding!"

toddler hilarity

during my blogging drought, I kept notes on my iPhone of funny things Clara said or did that I wanted to remember. some highlights....

~19 months old:  she is crazy about her Pete the Cat doll - takes him everywhere, sleeps with him, etc. she started wanting to "show Pete" everything (especially pictures in books) and she would cram him face first into whatever he was supposed to look at.  around this time we also discovered that we could manipulate her into eating things if Pete "tried" them first. (a few months later, Pete got his flu shot first to help Clara be brave. seriously good strategy on daddy's part.)

~20 months: imaginative play increased dramatically. strawberries are tiny houses. a measuring cup in the bath is a perfect pot for cooking beans, which are then fed one by one to turtle and frog. (Turtle also likes candy.)

~21 months: she reportedly likes to wrestle with the boys at preschool. "wrestling" appears to mean throwing oneself on the ground and then giggling.

~22 months: language has exploded, but sometimes it's unclear if she understands what she's saying, especially with adjectives ("look at that creepy horse!"  "I want to make a dark castle!")

~24 months: (grabs my phone) "I'm gonna text Bay [Bailey, our cat]" ... points to some of her bath toy animals and excitedly insists it's her "new family" (I work in the foster care system and she's read a comic book for foster kids, so that is likely the origin.)  .... If you tell her she can pick out one more book to read before bed, she'll bring you the animal encyclopedia (239 pages).

~25 months: "I'm a bear! Mommy is a buffalo. Daddy is an aardvark." .... Q: Did you play with toys at school today? A: Yes.  Q: What toys did you play with?  A. The spooky alligator.  .... Every day we pass a construction site with a mountain of red dirt and she says "It's a giant cake!" .... She brought daddy some "coffee" - a pot (from her play kitchen) full of Lego fences.

a moving target

I don't think the iPhone camera (at least the iPhone 4 camera) is optimized for fast-moving toddlers, but it's a handy tool for memorializing unexpected, funny, fleeting moments (quality of the pictures aside). A few of such moments from recent weeks:

loves the space encyclopedia uncle jer gave her
(and we are horrified at how much science we've forgotten since school days)

pizza for the owls

she's into picking out her clothes now, and will sometimes say "I'm so stylish!"

 

fave dino shirt
(when daddy works late, we send him a night-night pic)

(plain, organic, whole milk) yogurt w/local honey

real pics soon + new header and some back-story about the 5 months since I quit my job without a plan and started living again.
G.

quickie

 

more soon, I promise!