Baby. Gone.

So, it's been way too long since I've posted.  So much has happened in 3 months!  Our trip was amazing, and a month later Travis went to Singapore and came back the weekend after Emily finished Kindergarten.  She got a bloody nose on the busride home one day because a boy punched her in the nose after she fought back when he tried to kiss her (SO proud of my girl!).  Audrey finished preschool and seems to be growing into a mature young lady before my very eyes.  But most of the changes have been with my little Clara, who is definitively no longer a baby.

Clara had her 2nd birthday party on her birthday, and we celebrated in our typical fashion - family (including Amanda and Brandon).  It was a lovely day and we had a great time. I made her a rainbow cake and used enough food coloring that we were probably all farting rainbows the next day.  A week later, Travis took Emily and Audrey with him to Barnum for the weekend to go to a wedding, and I stayed home with Clara and we dove in to potty training!!  She did a fabulous job, with no accidents the first day and only 2 the next.  She even did a super job the following weekend when she was at Sullivan grandparents' without me and Trav, and in the entire two weeks she's gotten every single poop in the potty, with only a few accidents here and there that seem like understandable learning events.  Like yesterday, she was helping me wash potatoes under running water -- who can blame her, really??  For the most part, she runs herself to the potty, but if I prompt her in the right way she's agreeable to trying to go, and sometimes she goes and sometimes she doesn't and it's totally non-stressful. *phew!*  I am SO PROUD OF THAT GIRL!!!  I'm proud of me too, because I did a ton of reading and planning in the days (& months!) leading up to pulling the trigger on it, and I really worked hard that first weekend to set her up for success.  But most of it is Clara, cuz she's just that awesome!  We are done washing diapers, because she wears a disposable at night, but it's tricky, because she's keeping those dry, too.  I made the call to switch because I didn't want to wash one load per week that only had a few in it (wasteful and totally nasty), but now I'm just throwing away dry diapers each morning, which leads me to the next development, in that Clara seems to think she doesn't need a nap anymore!!  She is napping right now as I write this, but it took me 45 minutes to convince her and I was unsuccessful the previous 3 days.  I guess I'll aim for a couple of naps per week, but she is the first one awake at 6:30 every day and I would assume if she needed more sleep she'd get it at night... who knows.  Just this afternoon, we changed the rail on her crib so it's a toddler bed, and she can climb out.  I hope she stays in it!! :) 

Clara is a real singer, now, too!  She was singing the first 5 notes of "Maybe" from Annie, which is an arpeggio plus one - quite a range for a little girl and totally spot on pitch the whole way!  She loves Edelweiss, and several other of the lullabies that I sing to her.  She of course sings the Frozen songs with the girls, too, and likes to sit at the piano and "play along" with her singing.  She is talking more and more, too, and she is a funny little thing!  She woke up Saturday in Barnum and went in to announce to Grandpa that "Mom. Gone."  I asked her one day if she was ready to go out the door with me, and she was working on a puzzle in the living room, and she answered, "Nope."  Are you a baby, Clara? "No. Girl."  She does say sentences but she prefers single words and her delivery is such that you can hear the definitive punctuation at the end!  The one that makes me giggle the most is when I explain something to her, and she'll respond in the most pathetically agreeable voice, "o-kay Mom-my." 

Clara gave up her paci shortly after we got back from Thailand because the weather was getting warm, and she didn't want to wear her sleepsack.  I told her if she didn't wear the bag she didn't get to have the pacifier that was attached to it either, and she was fine with that.  So that was that!  We even flipped her carseat around, so she is forward-facing now.  She's decided she no longer needs bibs or sippy cups at the dinner table. Aside from her blunt vocabulary and using a booster seat at the table, there is really nothing babyish about her anymore.  It makes me pretty sad, but I still get plenty of snuggles out of her, and tender little ear-touches. Gotta hold on while I can!

Our family is in full summer-swing.  We've done two weeks of swimming lessons for the older two, and discovered that after 5PM we can go to the pool down the block for only $4 - cheaper than a season pool-pass, for sure!!  We had friends from Minnesota visit this weekend; last weekend Travis and I biked and camped, and next weekend Emily and I go to Mom-n-Me at Camp Tanglefoot, and I am beyond excited!!!  It's so good to have windows open and the girls outside biking and playing in the sprinkler.  Emily is happy to be able to spend days with Amanda, who takes them to the zoo and to trails to ride their bikes (Audrey is a pedal-biker, no training wheels!), and parks and all kinds of fun things.  We have a challenge to read 1300 minutes this summer so Emily can get an outdoor day at the start of next schoolyear, and we're right on track.  We've got fun things planned every weekend until August.  I love summer!!

I really should write down everything about our Thailand trip before it's too far gone from my memory.  It seems like so long ago that it was cold in Iowa and lovely on the Thai beaches.  It was an incredible trip, but this summer is making me feel like I'm on extended vacation. Too bad the solstice was this weekend and the days will start getting shorter.  I could get used to things this way!