Clara is TWO!

Clara became comfortable with the birthday concept late last year, even learning to say she would be two in February. The idea came up again and again, and we frequently found Clara at her little table role playing her party while singing "happy birthday to you" over and over again.

So the lead up to this actual day has been long, and we're pretty sure Clara has believed she is two for quite some time. (Indeed, the ability to hold up two fingers - as shown above - did not come automatically. She has been practicing for months that fine motor skills of simultaneously extending two digits while holding the other two in place. She showcased the fruits of her labor just one week before the birthday!) The birthday itself is only a minor formality.

We had a small get together of Clara’s closest neighborhood friends where our daughter showed off her prowess at thoroughly excavating all icing from any cupcake within her reach. The ensuing sugar high snuffed any Clara inhibitions and led to a rare public show of dancing and singing...then a groggy fall from that high…then an evening ending temper tantrum.  Ah, sugar.

And now, a few reflections on Clara the two-year old...

These Flowing Locks

Just as we were beginning to believe that scalp was incapable of producing hair, Clara has unleashed a mane on us in the past few months. It began sprouting a little bit in April, making slow but sure progress. We may have placed too much attention on that singular physical trait as she tends to equates hair growth with growing up. She points to baby pictures and says "Clara just a baby. Clara just a little bit of hair." Then she points to her head and says, "Now Clara has a lot of hair." 

Compare her Q-ball at the one year mark...

...to this...

Toddler Proofing

If we write about Clara's stool, don't be too put-off. Until we get through potty training, it will just be the little white leg-extender her Pappaw gave her to reach the bathroom sink. More recently, she believes it gives her magical abilities to get to anything, and so she carries it around the house to get into the kitchen drawers, onto the counters, to try to get Kate's iTouch off its dock on the shelf, to make an easier climb onto the coffee table, etc.

Kate has a little medical procedure done last week that required her to wear a bandage on her forehead which we replaced a few times each day. The process fascinated Clara. One night, when Kate came home from work, Clara eagerly volunteered to get her a new band-aid and ran into the other room. We thought little of it until we peeked into the bathroom to find that Clara had taken her stool, used it to climb on top of the toilet, and was on her tippiest toes trying to open the medicine cabinet where we keep the band-aids. 

It sunk in immediately...we need to take another look at this house and move our mindset from baby-proofing to toddler-proofing.

We Have Seen the Enemy &  It Is...BIG GIRL BED

Never would we have guessed that our daughter’s challenging sleep habits would continue until (and beyond?) the two year mark. We have hoped that each milestone in her growth and maturation would bring with it that magical ability to fall asleep at night and stay there until morning.  But as we have so thoroughly documented, this has not been the case.

The Big Girl Bed remains the enemy. She continues taking advantage of the freedom it affords and roams into our bedroom multiple times a night.

We are thinking of ditching that bed and instead of going back to the crib, we’ll just haul in a large lobster trap and put Clara’s mattress in there. If she gets out of that, we’ll know we’re working against forces vastly more powerful than us.

Jokes

"Ha-ha, that funny." So says Clara after flipping through the New Yorker magazine searching for the cartoon vignettes peppered across its pages. We told her those were jokes, and now she's very curious to know what each one says and means. Honestly, we can't claim to understand many of them, but Clara sure seems to. We tell her what it says and she produces the hardiest fake laugh you'll ever hear from a toddler. 

Defiance

Yes, it’s creeping in bit by bit, and we’re very much in trial-and-error mode for figuring out how to deal with this prototypical two-year old behavior. We know we have to use “no” more frequently and follow through with consequences, but we don’t want to overuse it. In our ideal world, we spend more time reasoning through things with her.

Of course when you have a child flopping around on the floor of the grocery store, your options are somewhat limited. 

Riding a Tricycle

It’s amazing how quickly these little suckers grow! We were visiting Kate’s parents at the beach in January, and Clara had to stretch hard to get her feet to these tricycle pedals while keeping her bottom in the seat.

Just a few weeks later, she can pedal with ease and cruises up and down the driveway!

Playing Teacher

Raleigh provides so many excellent resources for children. From a great park system, to Clara's beloved Greenway, to fantastic libraries. Our tax dollars are well apportioned.

A few times each week we go to story time at the Cameron Village Library where Clara sits (usually) in rapt attention (sometimes) to the librarian reading to a bevy of kids her age. There are songs, there are stories, there is dancing. Clara participates sparingly, but she soaks it all in. 

(Indeed, we’re finding that to be a defining trait of our little one. She really pays attention. That, combined with her curious mind, creates impressive recall of so many things we think would just fly by her at this age. We hope these traits continue…we hope we’re able to foster them.)

While she remains a bit shy at the library, she sings the songs for us when we get back home. She has also taken a notice of the teacher as authority figures, extending some hero worship their way. Clara now likes to pretend she is the teacher, lining up her lovies on the ground while she sits in a chair and reads them her favorite stories.

In Conclusion…

As parents we still have an overwhelming sensation, a mixture of gratitude and deep responsibility. Clara is our treasure, our most wonderful challenge, our joy. Even in the most exhausted moments, it’s not too hard to span back these two short years in our minds to recall that beautiful morning when she joined our family.  We love you more than anything, Clara, and are so happy you’re with us.

But now, we’d like you to take a look at this supersized lobster trap we just put in your bedroom… 

Bahamas

This is what seven years gets you if you run business and many personal expenses through American Express cards and are parsimonious with the points they yield...a free-ish trip to the Bahamas. More importantly, it was our first every vacation sans Clara. 

We spent five days at an all inclusive resort in Nassau which we came to call the "land cruise." Once you're there, you just lounge around the resort, get drinks whenever you want them, go eat whenever you want it, take in the water sports, entertainment, etc. Much as you might get - we would suspect - when you go on an ocean cruise. 

We opted to avoid most of the social aspect of it all in order to lounge on the beach reading pretty much all day long every day. And we're somewhat embarrassed to admit that we were lights out each night around 9:30 pm (the need for recovery of Clara's sporadic sleep patterns). 

The 80-degree Caribbean weather was a nice respite from the rough, long winter in North Carolina (our apologies to all those further up north and out west enduring an even rougher, longer winter than we).

We missed Clara and thought about her frequently, even going so far as making sure our Verizon phones were equipped with international calling options (which we only used once!). Though we came to find the missing part was unrequited. Clara was having the time of her life, basking in the adoration and unending attention of Kate's parents. She never asked about us once. To think...all the worrying we did - all that preparation telling her where we were going and assuring her would come back - that we would scar our only child. And she hardly blinked an eye when we left, and gave us a yawn when we returned home. Perhaps we're not as needed as we imagine. 

Krispy Kreme Challenge

What would one rather do on a 38-degree rainy February morning in Raleigh besides run two miles, down 2,400 crisco-infused donut calories, and immediately run another two miles?

Well, Paul's brother Brent, nephew Jack, and friend Jason came down from Virginia to complete the Krispy Kreme Challenge and torpedoes be damned...bone chilling weather wasn't going to get in their way. 

Jack, at 14, is the man. He lived up to the challenge, downing the full dozen donuts, finishing before any of us, and managing to belt out a sub-7 minute mile on the return leg.  Jason was next, not far behind.

Brent and Paul protected the flank. Between the two of us, we managed to eat three donuts total. But we think we saw more pukers on the return leg than anyone else! Below, Brent does his victory pose in front of the NC State Bell Tower.