Thoughtfulness

Remember that post when I wrote that The Boy was sleeping through the night?

Yeah, that was short-lived. The last two nights he got up every 4 hours and did not go back down easily. That, combined with my stupid habit of spending too much time on the internet at night, makes for one tired momma.

So imagine my surprise when, this morning, I woke up suprisingly well-rested. An even bigger surprise when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 9am!!! At that moment, no small people were clamoring for my attention, I just woke up because I had slept enough.

Surprise #2--this was the scene that greeted me when I opened my bedroom door:



















In a hushed voice she told me, "I waitin' for you, Momma."

Awww . . . can a day be started any better?

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Clara opening her door on her own was no surprise--she's been getting better and better at it for the last two weeks. However, she's normally pretty noisy and spends a good 10 minutes rattling the door knob before she meets with success. But the fact that she did not freak out when she found that she was the first person awake in the morning, PLUS not demanding that I get up to read to her immediately were pretty impressive feats for this two-year-old.

So, when she asked for a cookie as we headed to the kitchen, I thought it a sufficient reward for being so stinkin' thoughtful.

Yours, Mine, and Ours

If you're not used to talking with her, conversations with Clara can be pretty tricky. (That's how she'd phrase it.)

Yes, sometimes she doesn't pronounce words right.

But the real trick is that, in Clara's mind, she is always You. I (or whoever she's talking to) am always Me. Because, of course, when I talk to her, she is You and I am Me. So it makes sense just to repeat things that way, right?

So when she says, "Help you!" she isn't saying that she wants to help you. She's saying that she needs help. When she says "Sit with me!" what she's saying is that she wants to sit on your lap.

This confusion has been going on for a few months now, and I've gotten used to it. But now we're beginning to coach her as to what she should really say.

So now, every once in a great while when she wants help, she will say "help me!"

And I'm left wondering if it's me she wants to help or if she needs the help.

"Sheesh", as Kermit would say.

The Boy and Harry

When I found out that I was expecting a baby in the first week of August, it didn't take me long to think, "what if he comes a little early? Say, July 30th? Then he'd share a birthday with HARRY POTTER!!!" (And JK Rowling, of course.)

And he very nearly was born on Harry's birthday! (But, I really am more excited about the fact that he was born on my grandma's birthday.)

And, while we picked out his name simply because we liked it, I have found a number of ways to justify it to him. My favorite being that we named him after JK Rowling, as he was so very nearly born on her birthday. (hehehe--poor little guy!)

And, popular opinion has it that he's the spitting image of his father. But he's clearly got his mother's eyes--just like Harry.

And he has crazy, stick-out-in-all-directions hair, just like Harry!

And, being a product of both me and Mario, the likelihood that he'll probably need glasses one day--just like Harry!

However, I'm quite certain that he is just a muggle.

Not like Harry.

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Yes, I'm still up at 1am, waiting for my flan to bake. This is what happens.

The Lowdown

I'm feeling the need to update and know that I've had a number of ideas that I should blog about.

However, now that I'm in front of the computer, all those ideas have flown out my head.

So here's the low-down:

The Boy

• no longer screams through baths. I finally wised up and remembered that Clara stopped screaming when I'd sit her up in the tub and--low and behold--that works for this guy, too. That and slowing down enough that he's not freaked out by the water and splashing and rushing (for a mom that's usually not in any kind of rush).
  

• is almost sleeping through the night. Last night he work up at 3:30, but usually he makes it to 4 or 5 and then goes back to sleep for another 2 or 3 hours. Of course, now that I've bragged about it, he'll be waking up every two hours tonight.
  

• Lights up whenever Clara walks in the room. I melt every time.
  

• He likes to bat at the Elmo that I've hung by his "play" space, and I think he's starting to grab things voluntarily, too.

• For the last three weeks, I've sent him to the nursery during the Bible study I attend on Wednesdays, and he hasn't made any fuss that couldn't be cured with a bottle. Bronte even got him to take a nap in a pack 'n play this morning!
  

• In general, he is still the smiliest, happiest baby I've met. I just can't get enough of him.
  

Clara

• is still obsessed with airplanes. She gets pretty excited about trains and buses, too, but airplanes come up in conversation at least once an hour.
  

• She loves, loves, loves her babysitter. She's got some telephone-shaped blocks and whenever she finds them, she pretends she's talking on the phone. When I ask her who she's talking to, 90% of the time she replies, "Bon-te". (Yep, same Bronte who got The Boy to nap today.)
  

• She was really interested in the trick-or-treaters that came to the door on Monday. When I mentioned going trick-or-treating next year, she thought that was a great idea. However, she does not want a costume and will not paint her face. (I bet she'd change her mind if I made her an airplane for her costume.)

• She really is mostly potty trained (while awake). We've gone to the Alameda 3 times without diapers and no accidents. The first time I was running a number of other errands and while we were standing in a huge bank line I remembered that she had no diaper on. No problem, though. Whew!

• She's finally getting over her rabid, whiny phase that emerged sometime around the end of July (wonder why?). I think it's been about a week since she's thrown a fit, so here's hoping that we're through the woods with that one. Or maybe she started to learn consequences from her second-to-last fit. Every Sunday after mass, we go to the convenience store next to the church and Mario always buys a newspaper and lets Clara pick out a small chocolate bar. Two weeks ago, she got mad about something, started crying, and Mario had to take her out. It wasn't that she was crying in church, but that she wouldn't tell us what was wrong. While they waited for me, Mario kept telling her, "if you just tell me what's wrong, you can still get your chocolate." She never did. All afternoon she kept talking about how she didn't get her chocolate. I think it was the first punishment that she really understood and felt as a punishment. So that chocolate habit that's been irritating me finally did have a purpose.

• She's been getting braver at the park and is FINALLY going down the slides by herself. Her favorite slide is a fairly tall one, made of gloriously slippery concrete. I thought it would be fine for her to do by herself. However, when her butt landed at the bottom, her head kept right on going and smacked the ground like a ripe melon. So, after two-and-a-half years of life, Miss Careful has her first real owie. She did recover after about 10 minutes and did go on other slides that afternoon. Whew. I was afraid that fall would scare her off for a few months. Thank goodness that's not the case.
  

Wow--that's enough blabbing about my kids (even though that IS what this space is for).