There are no trains

There are no trains at Home Depot. Just in case you were wondering. Molly was. She made this astute observation last time we went (when Dieter was visiting ... some months ago). I remembered this when she reluctantly agreed to go with me again this afternoon. There may be no trains, but there is a self-serve checkout lane that lets us make things go "boop".

Trains and "booping" aside, we've been quite busy. Busy being sick and busy learning new tricks. I've been meaning to write about Clara's tricks for some time, and now she has many! She claps and waves and now even is figuring out when to do these things (first she just imitated). She'll usually clap if she hears someone say "yay!". And today I noticed she tentatively tried waving when she heard people saying goodbye.

And, Clara crawls! She's been working on this for several weeks now - and I've been saying she's "on the verge" for several weeks. But I think I have to stop saying "on the verge" and just call it crawling. It's not that I put her down and she races away. It's a more studied move. She gets where she wants to go, particularly if it's about one or two body lengths away. It's just enough that I have to stay on my toes, but not so much that I have to worry that she'll race away from me.

Molly's also got lots of tricks up her sleeve. Most frustrating for us right now is the end of the afternoon nap. She hasn't napped at school for about three weeks (or more?) now. It started when we were sick and just never returned. I'd let it go, but it's clear she still needs it! Her teachers notice that she's "spacy" and "out of it" after missing a nap. I notice that she's beligerent and very difficult to be with after missing a nap. She will still nap on non-school days if the conditions are just right. Mostly, those conditions involve a very active morning and a late (2:30 or 3pm) start to the nap. These naps usually last until almost 6pm, and even then we still turn around and put her to bed between 8 and 9pm. On non-napping school days my latest thing to try is moving the bedtime earlier (starting the routine at 7pm and getting in bed by 7:30). So far, she's been game for that, falling asleep fairly easily. We'll see.

Another fun thing she's doing is lots of singing - she likes the classics (Baa baa Black Sheep, I've Been Working on the Railroad, and ABC) and she also likes making up her own songs. She's also building up a storm with the legos - every day there's a new spaceship, office building, or train/truck/ambulance. Which reminds me - she's also really getting into the storytelling playing - especially elaborate stories about ambulances coming to help hurt people and taking them to the hospital.