Clara is a happy, happy kid. She wakes up in the morning excited to see everyone and plays hard until she crashes at night. She loves her family. The first thing she says every morning when Brad gets her out of her crib: Mom! (L)uke! If she hasn’t seen one of us for awhile she gets concerned and asks for us. She likes it best when we are all together.
Her transition to big sister has gone smoother than we could have hoped. She doesn’t seem bothered by the shared attention and is most worried when she doesn’t know where “Uke” is. She loves to have him sit in her lap and give him hugs and kisses. She doesn’t quite understand the concept of being quiet when he is napping. She will tell us “shhhh” and then still yell excitedly when she sees him. Clara believes Luke must always have his pacifier and will JAM in in his mouth if we aren’t careful.
She learning new words and phrases very quickly. She talks all the time, even if we can’t understand everything. Some words we hear a lot: da-dee, mom (very matter of fact), pa (grandpa), uke, outside, game, book, mess, base! (basement), bath, coat and mitts. It is so much fun to watch her learn new words and express herself. She can count to 5 and can sing along with some of the letters when we sing the ABCs. She has started to stick two words together on occasion: Dad talk!
She has three pacis in her crib and doesn’t seem to want to give them up anytime soon. She asks for her “pass” as soon as she knows it is bedtime. She puts one in her mouth and holds the other two. She also gets one on the car - a rule she strictly enforces!
Other favorites:
- Reading books - especially at bedtime. Her favorite books change all the time but she seems to really like Sandra Boyton books, Hop on Pop and books with animals. She’s starting to read along with some of the words in books we’ve read a lot.
- Favorite songs: Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABCs, Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes.
- LOVES phones. When we ask her who she is talking to it is always “A-mee”.
- Bath time. We’ll be playing at night and all of the sudden she’ll try and take a piece of clothing off and ask for a bath.
- Playing hide-and-go-seek. She asks to play by covering her eyes and saying “hide?”.
- Elmo and Abby on Sesame Street. We are asked every night with her most convincing look/voice “Elmo? Abby?”. We’ve let her watch some episodes on the Ipad so it can’t come out while she is awake unless we are prepared for a battle.
- The Winnie the Pooh videos she gets to watch at Grandpa and Grandmas. It’s no wonder she likes it there! :)
- Coloring, stickers and Play-Doh
- Being outside! We were teased by some nice weather in the last few weeks and you could tell she was thrilled to be out. The first night she ran around the backyard giggling. I think she was amazed with all the space to run! She loves wagon rides, walks, bubbles, sidewalk chalk and getting into everything in the garage.
- Doing things herself. She loves to try and dress herself and put on her outside gear. We hear a lot of "NO!" as she runs away when we try and help her. We tell ourselves that it's a good thing in the long run that she is strong-willed and wants to be independent??
Our sweet second child doesn't even get a blog post of his own! Luke continues to be a pretty chill baby at two months. Lots of eating and sleeping (we wish more without one of us holding him!). He is still spending most of his sleeping time in his car seat or swing. He likes the tight quarters and protests when he's laid down to sleep in his crib or bassinet.
At his check up this week he was up to 11 and a half pounds and 22 inches long. He is starting to smile and puts up with lots of noise from big sister.
He likes to be held in our front carrier and go for walks outside the few days it has been nice out. He goes to sleep almost immediately, which is great for this mom who loves the fresh air. I have 3 weeks of maternity leave left - we're hoping for lots more walks in our future!
The first few months of having a new baby are overwhelming at times. But, I think the second time around you have a little more perspective that things change quickly (and often times it is out of your control!). We're ready to sleep a little more and get back to "normal" life, but we are also so thankful to have this little boy join our family.
Best update ever! We miss you guys dearly and need to come see you when it's nice enough to let the rugrats run around outside. You seem to be settling in to life as a family of four pretty easily. Clara makes me laugh A LOT!! Brad needs to frame that one on his desk at work. :)
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