8 Months, Baby :)

Little Clara isn't so little anymore. Well, yes she is but every week she's getting bigger! Here is my favorite photo of her from Easter. She is such a doll :)

Clara is very interested with the phone, remotes, video monitor, and basically any other electronic thing she shouldn't have. She loves lots of things she shouldn't have - paper, tissues, plastic, small pieces, magazines, grass, pens, string, electrical cords . . . the list goes on. 

We've been out a lot more now that the weather is nice, a good bonus to being back in Kansas is the warm weather in April. Clara loves spending time outdoors and it's nice when Cedric can find friends to play with so we can have some one on one time. 

The big development this month has been Clara's steps towards crawling. She went from lunging forward to getting in the crawling position. She will move her arms forward but hasn't quite figured out how to push her legs forward yet. She crawls her arms until she is on her belly then reaches and rolls until she gets what she wants. 

A few times she has successfully half pulled herself up. She loves to practice standing but doesn't try to walk or anything. She loves to be upright. 

Clara is very strong. Exhibit A - my arm a day after Clara decided it would be fun to squeeze it while feeding.

Clara is getting tired of some of her baby things. She is getting aware that some toys and activities are distractions so I can get things done. She just seems aware of what is going on, she is starting to understand some words and phrases. We've been starting to work on baby signing more. She's started clapping and sometimes I wonder if it is actually her trying to say "more". Maybe, she is a genius - right?

Cedric loves finding double shopping carts so he can sit with Clara. They've been getting along really well. There are times when Cedric ignores her a little but in general he is a great helper and likes to entertain her. She laughs at him and he loves that. I say "She thinks you're funny Cedric" then he says "I am funny Mom". 

Clara still can't sit up from laying by herself but she tries. She is such a happy baby. She is babbling a lot more -"yayaya", "gagaga", and "dadada" and it's always loud. She shouts and yelps and is really cute when she gets excited. She is getting opinionated but in general is very happy. 

Sleep hasn't been going very well this month. Clara is out of her Merlin Sleep Suit because she rolled in it and now is in a free for all situation at night. She rolls all over and is trying to find the best way to get comfortable. So she's up a lot. We didn't go through this with Cedric as he was out of the suit much earlier. 

Clara is a great baby, I just will love it when she sleeps more! I'm feeling like the bottom two teether are close to coming in - maybe things will get better after that? She is happy most of the day, so I try not to worry about it!

Easter 2016

Easter was early this year, the last Sunday in March, and it was our first Easter in our house. We didn't have a lot of decorations but we were ready to dye eggs the week before. Cedric didn't have a lot of patience to let the colors set and got frustrated when we didn't have stickers to put on them, like we did last year. How he remembered last years eggs is beyond me!

Like last year he was very keen to eat them right away and immediately remembered that he doesn't like hard eggs. Next year Clara should be able to help some and I'm going to try to remember to add less water to the PAAS cups. And get stickers :)

We met with Grandma Podany Easter bunny the week before but spent Easter in Wichita and Kingman with my family. We were very happy that Grammy had a sign to remind the Easter bunny to "Stop Here"!

Clara wasn't big on opening the basket, she just loved to crinkle the paper and try to eat the grass. She did like the new gifts so much that she didn't mind her dad putting the jumbo egg on her head because she could still see her toys. 

Cedric didn't want to wear his fancy shirt but he did look good in it for a few minutes. 

When we woke up in the morning we had 2 inches of fluffy sticky snow on the ground. It was beautiful and sad, as this was the most snow all year and we didn't have any of Cedric's snow gear. He was disappointed he couldn't go out in the snow but was happy when it was 60 and melted in the afternoon for our Easter egg hunt in Kingman. 

 I bought Clara the cutest eyelet white dress from The Gap, a silvery-pink sweater from Carter's and a pair of hand me down silver shoes. This was the first time she wore real shoes, now that I think of it! I had this outfit for a few months - girl clothes really are cuter than boy clothes. It's hard not to buy more!

 Clara did a great job with all the family. She is definitely more social and less afraid of strangers than Cedric. She had a nice time sitting on her great-grandma's lap! 

 It was a quick trip down but it worked out. The kids slept better the first night than the second and they handled the drive down better than the drive back. These things will get easier!