Sisterly Love!

The competition is strong between these two, but it's got nothing on the love! As second child, Hattie's sense for possession is come much earlier than Clara's did. But it's not hard to understand why. She has been fending for each toy, each bite of food, each bit of parental affection since she emerged from the womb.

So she learns the skills of the younger sibling. She snatches things when Clara's not watching and darts to a distant corner to enjoy them in private. She revels in those rare moments when Clara is out of the house, and Hattie can raid her sister's bedroom for all sorts of treasures otherwise verboten. And she takes advantage of those moments (rarest of all) when she gets Mama and Daddy all to herself.   

But as the videos and pictures attest, the sibling relationship is not all defined by tug-o-wars and screeching fits of whine. There are the sublime moments of pure sisterly love, when it's clear these two girls enjoy each other's company immensely. 

As parents, we expect our greatest joy (and, perhaps, our greatest accomplishment) will be a lasting, loving friendship between the two most precious things in our world.

(Our favorite sisterly love video of all time has to be this one below...It's Clara and Hattie at Marbles in January 2013. Pure glee at seeing each other after a few moments of playing apart!)

NC Zoo with the Morrisons

We met the Morrisons half way between Raleigh and Concord to spend a day at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. BK is pushing 8-months pregnant with their third child, and so she wins trooper of the day for trekking through the long walking paths with a couple kids always clinging tight. (Second place goes to Hattie. She was napless, yet saved her meltdown for the very end.)

Vacation Bible School 2013

Vacation Bible School 2013 has come and gone with all the fun, joy, and insidious song melodies that entails. It's one part child care (a desperate need in the summer time), one part christian education, and one part Glee for pre-schoolers. 

The theme this year was "Around the World," and each day featured a different country and its culture. But it's really designed for a finale presentation for the families on Friday evening, during with the kids all get up and sing the four or five songs they've practiced through the week.

And boy do they practice! When they come in each morning, they do a quick practice of the songs. Between classes, they practice the songs. And each child was provided her own copy of the music to play in the car CD player to and from VBS. 

Practice, practice, practice!

The kids seem to love it, and they revel in showing off for their parents and siblings during the Friday night show. This years Glee performance was a true break-a-leg success for Clara and her friends, as the videos demonstrate so convincingly! It's a real treat to see kids from 3 through grade-school singing from the top of their lungs, and dancing about with so little self-consciousness. Ah, that they could keep that innocence and joyful ability forever!

For the parents, we get to experience those songs - with their insidious melodies - for months to come in the car CD player.

More Diving Board...

In a week's time, Clara graduates from the low diving board to this....

Notice the "12 FT" sign on the side of the pool! She is digging all this summer swimming!

Lake Crabtree

We were able to spend time at Lake Crabtree with the Golden family recently.  It was such a wonderful chance for the kids to play together and for the adults to catch up over delicious food!  As always, Franklin captured the memories with an array of amazing photos.  Thank you, Franklin!

 

Clara in the Tinkerbell Fairy outfit handed down by Lily Kate

 

Clara "Flives" at the Swimming Pool

The Summer of Swimming

This is the summer that Clara learns to swim. Well, we should probably go ahead and use past tense. Though she started off slow and unsure of the water (to the point that we were wondering if she held onto any of the past three years worth of lessons), with just one session with a new teacher and she's a fish.

She doggy paddles like a fiend and is working hard on getting her back legs up and out of the water with full-splash kicks. Better yet, she has bested her fear of going underwater. It's now her preferred stroke!

This is the background going into a visit to Peggy Golden's pool on Sunday. Clara was excited to show off her skills, and doubled her eagerness once she saw the diving board. Here's how it played out: 

Take One:  Clara's first attempt at jumping from the diving board was, to say the least, a bit tenuous. But she mustered the courage for a leap into Daddy's arms...

Take Two: But once she saw her friend Lily doing it, there was no holding Clara back. She must have repeated this scene 40 times in about two hours...

I'm not sure we can really call it a dive. Nor would I suggest it's a mere belly flop. It is intentional, I think, in that the flopping part of it (versus, say, going feet first) prevents her from going too deep in the water...making it easier to get to the surface to swim. We'll call it "FLIVING."

Clara Goes to Pirate Camp

We are in the thick of summer camps, with Clara starting her third of the month.

The first week was cooking camp at Marbles Kid Museum based loosely on the book, You Give a Mouse a Cookie. They made cookies, cupcakes, pancakes, etc.

Last week was Arts Together's pirate camp. We're still not clear exactly what they did, but she said it was a lot of fun, and she's sporting lots of self-made pirate garb.

This week is Vacation Bible School at church. We're already been listening to the music over and over and over. There will be more pictures to come on this one...

Glanvilles Visit

The Glanvilles left Raleigh for Connecticut back in December, so we're glad for any chance to visit with them. They came through town for a night on their way to Doug's brother's wedding. It gave the girls a chance to catch up, (the grown-ups, too), and for the famous "Cla-aughn" rivalry (unstoppable object meets immovable force) to rear its head again!

Virginia Visit Over Father's Day

We made a quick, overnight trip to Virginia in what turned out to be a mini-Dryden Family reunion. Paul's brother John was in town from Korea with his daughter Sam getting ready to head-out for a Mormon mission in the Ukraine, his sister Jill came through town with her three kids on the way to the beach, and brother Mark has been in the area for several months now living the mountain life. 

We sneaked in some river time on some of Brent and Deidra's new water toys...

The girls, of course, loved the chance to see all their cousins. Clara has been talking ever since about how many cousins she has. Hattie insists on seeing pictures of Will, Matt, and Jack over and over and over again.

Hattie says, "Will, Will, Will"

When nephew Will visited a few weeks ago, Hattie developed her first case of googely-eyes. She's been saying "Will" ever since. When we told her we would be going to visit Will and his family in Virginia over father's day weekend, she would run around the house saying "Will, Will, Will" (which sounds almost siren-like..."Wee-el, Wee-el, Wee-el"). 

She attached herself firmly to Will during the trip, rarely allowing him out of her sight. 

Since we've returned, she has insisted that Kate include "Wee-el" in her good night song. And she sings along, "Nigh, nigh Wee-el. Nigh, nigh Wee-el. Nigh, nigh Wee-el, it's time to say Nigh, nigh."

Hattie's First Ponytail

Morning routines can be a bit hectic, much more so with two kids than it was with one. (How you could do more than two? We can only imagine..)

Paul and Kate often try an element of divide and conquer. Kate has taken over much of the breakfast-making duties, and Paul bring Hattie into the bathroom while he gets ready for work.

Hattie loves playing with all the tidbits in the bathroom cabinets, especially her Mama's hair items. When she had a clip out, we noticed she has just enough hair to pull it back into a ponytail. Thus...we capture Hattie's first ponytail this morning!

Hattie...Cornhole Player Extraordinaire!

Hattie demonstrates that she's a cornhole master, showing her mad skills following our family date night dinner at the North Hills Yard House.

Hattie at 18 Months

It is hard to believe that our sweet Hattie is now 18 months old!  It has brought such joy to our hearts to witness her growth, and it seems that each new day brings with it a new and exciting developmental milestone.  It has been so much fun to hear the new words Hattie is speaking, which seem to come at record speed these days.  We have been attributing this fast pace to the fact that Hattie adores her big sister, and therefore tries to mimic everything Clara says.  Regardless, Hattie's vocabulary has exploded this month.

  Just a sampling of the many words and phrases we have heard Hattie say:

~ NAMES (Momma, Dadda, Clara (which sounds like "Ca"), Ga, PapPaw, Anna, Max, Lolly, Raleigh)

~ OBJECTS (Juice, Ice, Cheese, Home, Car, Bubbles, Hat, Nose, Knee, Toes, Eyes, Tractor, Bath)

~ PHRASES ("Hi, Bye-Bye, Night-Night, Gentle, More, Open It, Out, Up, At Their House")

We have also been amazed at how quickly Hattie has grown into a bona fide toddler.  Sitting in a "big girl chair" instead of a high chair during mealtime, pushing the kiddie carts at Trader Joe's instead of sitting in the shopping cart, learning how to ride a tricycle, reading board books before bedtime, singing her ABC's with Clara, scribbling with crayons and markers, climbing, running, playing games.  

         

At Hattie's 18-month checkup with Dr. Anderson, we were proud to hear that she has grown to 33 inches tall and nearly 25 pounds, placing her between the 75th~90th percentile for both height and weight!

We love you so much, Hattie!  

We are so excited to witness all of the wonderful milestones sweet Hattie will continue to reach over the next 18 months!!