I'll start this post more focused on Clara's twelfth month and then turn the focus to her first birthday. I tried to take a lot of photos this month, as you will see.
Clara is getting bigger and I'm starting to let her do more things. I realized I can't keep her out of the sandbox forever so have given up and am working with her to keep the sand out of her mouth and eyes. Of course, her favorite thing is to start throwing the sand out of the box but she's getting much calmer about it now that she gets more playtime. It's the same with the stairs. After falling off the first one I figured I better teach her the proper way to go up and down. She picked it up right away and starting cruising up and down. We have to stay right behind her but the more we let her practice the less excited she is about the stairs.
Clara has been getting better about taking a few steps at a time and standing around. We went to buy new shoes as the time has come to wear more than socks around town. She loves the new independence.
Cedric and Clara are still getting along well but we've already reached the "Mom, she's wrecking my life" (he said line but it didn't sound that way) stage. Clara likes to do whatever Cedric does, is imitating him and wants to play with whatever he has. We are working on "trades" and I'm trying to get him to understand that all this just means that she wants to play with him. But he just wants to play with Mommy. It can lead to some frustration on his part.
Cedric gets as excited as I do when Clara can do something new. He is very excited for her walking. He is very helpful and wants to encourage her. I suggested she sit in the front car with him one day at the store and he was very happy to share his space.
For their birthdays my parents gave the kids their own playset. Clara loved it right away and has really enjoyed swinging and sliding every day.
Bob's parents got the kids a personal bouncy house, which I also wonder if Clara enjoys more sometimes. She could sit in that thing with me forever and loves to try the slide down the front.
Basically, Clara is a very busy girl. She wants to be at the center of the action!
She loves water and bath time!
Clara is also a great eater. Now she doesn't eat everything but she eats most anything, which is a far step above her brother's eating habits. She loves to feed herself - the messier the better.
She also has a great talent for finding food. She learned to pull on the tablecloth, so that had to go. She also loves to go to the cupboard to find her foods and pull them out.
Clara loves a good snack! She also is open to new foods and thinks anything that looks small could be tasty. We really have to watch what she puts in her mouth!
And then it was Clara's birthday.
One Year Stats:
Height -
Length -
Head -
I couldn't tell if Clara liked her special glitter shirt or not. She kept grabbing at it all day and looking at it. I generally don't put her in many sparkles as anything that could be picked off and eaten would be.
Cedric suggested that we eat lunch at Freddy's so Clara could have her birthday ice cream, just like he did. Such a nice brother!
Then it was time to try birthday smash cake, take two.
It did not go well.
So I cut off a little piece and gave her a fork. She loved eating it on her own, the one time she didn't want to get messy!
And there you have it. One year old Clara. Little girl Clara. She's been a joy this past year and we can't wait to see how she grows this next year! Happy Birthday!
