Clara

Wow… 11 months.  Did you know that is just one month away from 12 months? Jeff and I feel like Clara has changed so much just in this last month.  We are really starting to see her personality.  She loves to laugh and interact with us.  She is a very happy baby.  She seems to really enjoy music and singing and has even started to dance to music. We often go to baby story time at the library, and the songs, interactions, and bubbles are a huge hit.  We also frequent the children’s museum just to play and to go to classes about math, Spanish, etc.  It’s amazing what is offered! Clara still loves to read, and her current favorite books are the ones where you lift the flap.  She is able to do this on her own but we have had several flap casualties already.

Clara has started pointing in the last month and will usually point to the correct item when asked, “where’s your bunny?” or “where’s the fan?”  Speaking of fans… she is fascinated by them, and we have several at our house.  When she is sitting in her seat for meals, she can see at least three different fans.  One day, she pointed to the one in the kitchen, then to the one she could see through the window on the back porch, and then turned around to point to the one in the den.  This has now become a fairly regular thing to point to all of the fans that she sees.  Can you imagine the fun we have in Home Depot on the fan aisle? If only they kept them running… Clara is now saying “mama” and “dada” regularly for us and approximates other words.  She does the sign for “all done.”  Although this still is used to mean a lot of things right now, she consistently does the sign when she is finished eating.

You can see 4 teeth now, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom, with another starting to come through on the top. And… Clara is taking several steps at a time now.  She has been increasingly walking longer distances between furniture but will now take off on her own and can take up to 5 or 6 steps before stopping.  She also enjoys sticking out her tongue these days and touching yours when you stick it out too.

Mississippi State went to the college World Series in Omaha. This was a huge deal for our school.  Sadly, we ended up in second place but Clara enjoyed hanging out with her daddy during the games.

Clara’s kicks in this picture were Jeff’s as a baby.  Aren’t they cute?

Playing in the cabinet and even crawling all the way in…

And the pointing…

Clara is 10 months old! We are starting to realize that she is becoming more and more of a toddler and less of a baby.  One recent development is Clara standing independently for up to a minute or so.  She will even swing her arms or play with a toy while standing. Her balance is pretty amazing.  She could likely take a few steps with some motivation.  Crawling is just so efficient… and she is super fast. She continues to get into everything.  She is curious and definitely not tentative. A favorite thing is to take things out, like laundry out of the washer and onto the floor, or diapers off of the clothesline, or toys out of a basket. Maybe next month she will enjoy putting things back in. Clara is very social.  This was very evident during our recent trip to Spain as she made friends with anyone we met.  She seems to know how to get people’s attention by making noises and then just beaming.  This continues as we run errands around town.  Home Depot has been a huge hit lately.  We walk down the aisle, and she seems to get everyone we pass to notice and give her a smile back. Clara is still on the small side and is just now getting too big for her 6 month clothes (even with her big cloth diaper bottom).  We are starting to see her 3rd tooth poking through on the top.  Clara is clearly understanding more of what we say and is babbling often.  She is saying “mamama” regularly and even “dada” sometimes now.  She is attempting to repeat words after we say them.  She still loves books and now turns the pages with us.  She has now started crying when the book is over… not something we promote.  I am glad that she likes books!

Clara helping with the laundry…

Clara has become quite the messy eater

A new favorite thing is to do raspberries with food in her mouth… in this case, beets went everywhere

This month, Clara got in the pool for the first time.  She was not too sure about it but did ok as long as one of us held her.

Our house remains in flux with continued projects.  Clara loves all of the wayward boxes and construction supplies.

It is very hard to believe that Clara is 9 months old.  She seems like such a big kid now.  We really do have a lot of fun.  She thinks Jeff and I are hilarious.  We decided that we need to soak that in as much as possible now as it won’t last too much longer.  Clara continues to crawl everywhere and pull up on anything.  We have started to see more of her moving around the furniture, going from one thing to another, and wonder if walking might happen soon. At her 9 month checkup, she weighed just over 15 lbs and was in the 10th percentile.  She still is a petite little girl. “Mama” is officially her first word. I’m thrilled. She will say “Dada” too but we just aren’t sure she has put it together with Jeff yet. Walcott even gets a “Wa” occasionally.  This past month, she has started to enjoy playing in her room– sometimes even on her own for a short time.  Her fisher price dollhouse is a favorite.

We have had two recent visitors checking out our pool… ducks! They have frequented casa de Rottman a few times so far. Clara and Walcott are checking them out below.

Clara is 8 months old now… as of 3/28. This post is a little delayed.  She continues to amaze us. She is into everything now and crawls faster than I can imagine.  I leave the room for a minute, and she has already moved on to another place.  She is pulling up on furniture and toys any chance she can get. Before we left the condo, she was crawling up the stairs with ease.  We are thankful we have no stairs in our new home!  Bath time is a favorite now.  Clara is no longer content to hang out in her seat but crawls around the bathtub splashing and pulls up on the faucet and sides of the tub.  She is noticing emotions and now laughs just because we are laughing– so much fun!  Her babbling has really increased, and she seems to now recognize words like milk, eat, and book. When playing peek-a-boo a few days ago, I was hiding behind Jeff and saying, “where’s mama?” and Clara clearly said “ma.”  Jeff said I could claim it as her first word if she does it again… come on Clara!  Nevertheless, she is growing and changing rapidly!

So… a lot has happened in the last month! Clara started crawling shortly after her 6 month birthday and is now all over the place.  She is even pulling up on toys and furniture.  She has two bottom teeth and has started eating solid food. We are even starting to hear more babbling. Whew… what a big kid she is.  She seems to love being around people and just out and about.  We are very close to the Phoenix zoo in this rental, so we take advantage of that regularly! We also frequent the park to get all of us out of the house, particularly Walcott as he traded his yard for a small patio.  Clara’s interest in books has greatly increased with Brown Bear and Goodnight Moon being favorites right now. She really is a joy!

Someone was a little upset towards the end…

Six months! Hard to believe.  Clara was almost crawling at this point- not for lack of trying!  These are my favorite month pictures so far.  These were taken in the short term rental that we are in right now in Scottsdale.  When it’s time to take pictures for the month, Jeff always thinks I go overboard on the amount of photos, and he is right.  But, this is the result!  Love our sweet Clara bug!

These were taken shortly after Christmas at Nana and Pops.  We so enjoyed our time in Mississippi! The best pictures we took this day were when Pops walked in and Clara just beamed.  She knows he is a special guy already!

Pops!!