25 Things about Clara!

Many of you who are facebook may be seeing lots of notes popping up in various people's profiles which have 25 things they share about themselves. Well, I thought that I would let you in on 25 tidbits about our sweet baby girl.

1) Clara is named after three important people in her life. Clare is her G's middle name. Clara is my dear friend Alix's middle name, and May (her middle name) is my grandmother's middle name.

2) Clara hates to be wiped. Anyway, anywhere. Face after eating--hates it. Nose if runny--hates it, bum if poopy---hates it! Oddly, other hygeine things like tooth brushing and hair washing she doesn't mind.

3) Clara has just started giving hugs. She scoots over, puts her arms around my neck and leans her head down and scrumps in for a hug. It may well be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. She also hugs Sophie, which melts my heart in about half a second.

4) Clara loves cruising with her walker! We borrowed a walker from a friend of ours, and she does laps in our basement. She still isn't interested in doing it solo quite yet, but she is getting closer and closer. When my grandmother came for dinner last week I got a hilarious photo of Clara and my grandma both using my grandma's walker at the same time. Too sweet.

5) Clara sleeps WELLLLLL!!!! From a very young age Clara has been a great sleeper. Her typical night is going down at 7 or 7:30 and sleeping until 7:30 or 8:00. After having such a challenge in the sleep department the premiere fois it is SOOOOO appreciated to have a sleeper. August this year we 'cried her out' which consisted of her whimpering for about 3-4 minutes for two nights. Can my two kids be related???

6) Clara loves other babies. Photos or the real deal, she is in heaven. When she sees a baby her age (or her preference is a bit younger....easier to man-handle) she goes bananas and scoots right over. She then attempts to explore all parts of their hair, eyes, mouth, cheeks, belly until either the baby, me or the other mama ix nays it.

7) Clara waves backwards. In other words when she waves her hand faces herself. It is precious (not that I'm biased). She tells us with her hands up and a "dah" (which means done if you don't understand Clarese) when she is all done eating. When she realizes that I have understood what she is saying she gets the biggest grin on her face.

8) Clara loves oatmeal. Every morning for breakfast she eats globs of oatmeal (herself) from her tray. She eats a full adult portion every morning.

9) Which leads me to my next point. Clara will not tolerate any feeding from an adult. No spoons or forks for this kid. She eats by herself, with her fingers, with ALL foods. Including applesauce and yoghurt. I don't know how she does it, but she does.

10) Clara used to love berries of all kinds, but now is kind of 'off' them. She ate raspberries, blueberries and blackberries by the hundreds. Over Christmas she had the flu and threw up shortly after eating blackberries. Since that day she has had no interest in berries. Not sure if that's why. Her therapist will tell me in 30 years I'm sure.

11) Clara claps. It's really cute.

12) She says dada and mama and I'm pretty sure she knows that means us--but still not 100%.

13) She is obsessed with stairs--either going up or down. As a mother, you can imagine that I'm not equally as thrilled with this obsession. Especially with inadequate baby gates. Inadequate meaning not enough. She thinks it's hilarious to play 'chase' to the upstairs stairs. Mama runs top speed every single time. COOL! Let's do it over and over again. PS...Baby gates are expensive!! I just checked on-line and wow.

14) Clara loves reading books from her bookshelf. She will sit on her floor and pull them off the shelf and flip the pages. Then she'll get a gleam in her eye and remember the stairs.

15) Clara is a busy little girl. She is curious and explorative and loves to open cupboards and empty contents all over the floor. This activity never looses its appeal. She keeps mommy on her toes.

16) Clara is extremely good natured. She is such a happy little thing. People always comment on her wonderful demeaner.

17) She does, however, have a bit of a temper. For example, if you take her off of the stairs she loudly demonstrates her unhappiness. Or if you wipe anything. She goes from zero to one hundred in about a second and a half. There's no in between.

17) Clara is not a fan of the snowsuit. But once you get her bundled she is very quiet and still the entire time we are outside in the winter. Either in her stroller or her sled she doesn't say boo. Doesn't even make different facial expressions--very much has a poker face.

18) Her favourite food is probably grapes.

19) As far as we know she has no food allergies so far, and no asthma. We are so thankful.

20) She is ticklish. And she has the most precious laugh when you wiggle a finger under her arms, on her ribs, her feet or her thighs.

21) Clara's other favourite food (?) is radiator foil. That's right, you heard me. The foil that lines the backs of our radiators (in every room I may add), that has probably been there for 50 plus years, is very tasty. But not chicken of course, that is disgusting.

22) My favourite moment with Clara is seeing her face for the first time each morning. Whenever I step into her room she is standing at the end of her crib waiting for me with her sleep sack and her messy little head of hair. She then points to her books on her book shelf. My other favourite moment is putting her to sleep. She has her bottle while looking directly into my soul, then we have a little snuggle before I put her in her crib. It is a wonderful time of day.

23) Clara sings. If I sing she starts singing as well--she changes pitch like a little bird and it is so sweet.

24) Clara was born with a full head of dark black hair. It has gradually lightened, but never fell out. She has thick hair from her daddy's line. Lucky girl.

25) Clara is like a bright light in our lives. She may be small, but her personality can light up a room. People want to be near her, and she brightens the faces of everyone who steps in her path. Each day, as I get to know her more and more, feels like such a gift. She is a remarkable little human. I am an incredibly thankful mama.