Blizzard of 2010

This weekend Raleigh got a good kick in the shins from Grandpa Winter. The Drydens were locked in the cabin for the most part, but we did venture into the cold for a couple walks. Saturday was overcast, windy, and freezing. We visited briefly with the Joneses but were quick to get back to the warmth of our home.

Sunday was still cold but very sunny, giving Clara a chance to wear her rhinestone-studded pink shades for our long walk. While being bjourned around Mordecai and Oakwood, she kept her sunglasses on the whole time. As the evidence below will bear out, this kid is one cool cat!

Clara at 11 Months

Whew! This one flew by.

Clara's verbal skills and physical dexterity have taken off this month. She has become fluent in several animal languages, starting with monkey ("ooh-ooh-ooh"...a sound we may have to unofficially count as her first intentional word), moving to cow ("oooooooh"), on to doggie ("wuf-wuf"), and then kitty ("aghhh" sounds more like a hairball in her throat, but it works for us).

In terms of proper words, she has skipped A's altogether and moved straight to B's. Her favorite words are blueberry ("boo-baba"), balloon ("ba-ooo"), banana ("baaba"), and boob ("bah").

Clara's favorite game? "Where did it go?" Complete with hand gestures, palms facing the sky, shoulders cocked up, head tilted to one side, and eyebrows raised in quizzical expression. The fun of this game is that she can create it herself. Naturally, it's played most frequently at dinner time as she tosses peas from her plate to the floor.

28 5/8 inches tall and 18 1/2 pounds. Those stats came from another pediatrician visit. This time it was a mean stomach virus that raised some serious Cain starting last Tuesday morning. It hit Paul first (at 5.00 am as he was preparing to leave for the airport), then Clara an hour later, then Kate that afternoon (while with a young client), then Grandma Barb the next day when Clara visited her grandparents at the beach, then Uncle Jack (who had the good fortune of seeing Clara for 15 minutes at a stop on I-95), then nanny Katie, and finally Papaw Ted. It was a 24-hour tasmanian devil virus, swirling in and out in no time, but leaving much destruction in its wake.

Finally, for the most obvious, the first steps have been a big deal. True, she tends to use momentum to propel her a few short feet from base camp (coffee table) to the safety of someone's open arms. But we think it counts. The best part is watching her muster up the courage to do it. Sometime she lets out a little kamikaze yell to psych herself up. She always laughs for herself at the end.

The Future's So Bright...

Clara was hesitant about these shades for two weeks after Kate bought them. She loved putting them on Paul, Kate, and Kitty, but she wasn't about to put them on herself.

That changed in a moment of spontaneity when she allowed us to slip them on. Once she spotted herself in the mirror, she rather liked what she saw. She wore the sunglasses for the next 20 minutes.

SHE WALKS!

She tested our prediction, taking us into the last week of her tenth month before taking those first steps. But here they are. Clara lets loose of the coffee table and hurls herself, with total disregard for life and limb, towards Grandma Barb. Her first steps!

Where Did It Go?

The game of choice...

Clara Walks! (Sort of...)

We don't want to cry wolf, but we were excited enough to see Clara make her way -- so confidently, we'll add -- behind this baby walker, that we are daring enough to tempt that headline. We're all waiting to see if she gets courage before the end of January to step away from the crutches and try it on her own.