Clara 14 months

This month as been exciting because Clara seems to understand a lot more. She still only says a few words (mama, dada, roar and arf arf) but her receptive language has really advanced. Now when we say milk she will go point at the fridge, she will to the stairs when we say upstairs, we can ask her what's on her shirt and she'll look and singing or playing music always leads to her dancing. She likes giving CJ treats and pulling Lily's hair. She doesn't seem to be too picky when it comes to mealtimes... except she gets very upset if you take her milk up away to refill it. She still only has 5 teeth and is around 24 lbs (depending on the accuracy of our bathroom scale.

THIS MONTH

  Clara loves:
-giving hugs
-animal noises (only a lion and dog so far....most of the time if you ask her what sound an animal makes she will most likely "roar" at you).
-grabbing hair
-playing "this little piggy"
-telling us "no" (tilting her head to the left and shanking it)
-dancing (spinning in a circle)
-favorite books: Hot and Cold book by Eric Carle and the Doggies book by Sandra Boynton

Clara Hates:

-getting in the car seat

-being told no

This month we were able to go out to visit my grandma in Maryville twice. The girls love seeing their "GG" and playing in her room. Currently Clara is working to bring down her record breaking time of dismantling GGs room all while trying to escape out the door and climb on GGs bed.

we've decided to weaponized our 1 year old

During our second visit we got to see my aunt, uncle and cousin from Las Vegas and my great aunt and great uncle from Ohio. Clara perfected her "cheese" face for my uncle the photographer and enjoyed being thrown in the air by several people.

We've also gotten to go to several story times this month. We ended up at the musical story time just because we needed to get out of the house on a cold Saturday morning. At one point the woman running the story time gave all the kids noise makers and then started to play the fiddle....my ears have still not recovered. Clara liked playing with the scarves and kept trying to wear the scarves like a hat.

obsessed with the sticker

One Saturday morning we went out for breakfast. Clara got to try some of Lily's chocolate chip pancakes....I think they were a hit. Later that day we had a playdate at a family friend's house. The highlight of Clara's evening was trying to get the dog to give her kisses.....he happily obliged

gross

Other than that we've been to gymnastics a few times where Clara always does her best toddler impression of a honey badger. She wants to do exactly what the big kids are doing without regard for the fact that she's 14 months old and a lot smaller/ more uncoordinated than they are. She will run towards any group of older kids playing, pieces of not toddler proof equipment or foam pit with wild abandon.

Here are some other pictures from this month:

 kid version of watching paint dry

 teething bites

she loves Lily

caught her feeding CJ food

a lunchtime mess

wearing the dress that Aunt Rachel made

all dressed up for work

Lily 3 years (Feburary)

Lily has completely embraced the philosophy "Better to ask forgiveness than permission". If she wants to do something she does it.....doesn't matter if I've already said no. She loves Clara and is always trying to make her laugh. She still loves to cuddle....it's nice to have one that will because Clara has never been much of a cuddler.

THIS MONTH:

 Lily Loves:
-the live action Jungle Book movie
-pretending to be Mowgli
-playing outside
-dancing
-singing to her baby dolls
-books: A Bad Case of the Stripes, Little Red Riding Hood and Where the Wild Things Are

Lily Hates:

-bedtime (her stalling tactics are legendary)

-mommy not buying her things at the store

Favorite phrases:

-"See dat witch mommy.....if I pinched her eyes she would shriek"

-"You are a kind mommy" (I'll remind her of this when she 13-17 years old).

This month defiantly hasn't been one of our busiest. We were able to make it out to Maryville to visit my Grandma twice. The girls love seeing GG, playing with her therapy peg board and attempting to dismantle her room.

The second time we went out to visit we also got to see my aunt, uncle and cousin visiting from Las Vegas and Great Aunt and Great Uncle visiting from Ohio.

We've also gotten to go to a musical story time and a regular story time. Lily had a blast interpretive dancing with scarves, listening to the stories and playing music.

One afternoon we got together for a playdate with some family friends. The playdate abruptly ended when Lily threw a major tantrum after I told her it was time to go. She hit me, got put in time out and then peed on our friends front door mat.

There have been a few unseasonably warm days this February and we've enjoyed going for walks and playing outside. It's gotten a little colder in the past few days but since we played outside last Lily has asked everyday if  we can play outside and go swimming.

Like every month we normally spend morning per week at gymnastics. Lily has gotten every good at

jumping into the foam pit, climbing up the inflatable slide (the slide not the stairs) and hanging upside down. Since she first saw the Jungle Book she likes to pretend to be Mowgli.....she almost always asks me to pretend to be Shere Kahn or Kaa.

Other pictures from this month:

 Lily loves her puppy cousin

and CJ  

 pop picks Lily up by her ears

"Mommy I look at me....I a woman now"

 the most accurate "Life with a toddler" picture I've ever taken

Sometimes toddler have meltdowns because you won't put their shirt on for them

Sometimes toddler have meltdowns because you won't buy them a Barbie

Sometimes toddlers are just plain weird.....