Winter Holidays

Some photos from the past week of the family enjoying the winter holidays:

Zach & Clara taking a walk (note Zach's awesome necklace - a gift from Molly); GGPa & Clara enjoying the fire truck (note how pleased Clara is to be riding the truck - she also enjoyed ringing the bell); Clara in the sun at Nana & Pa's house; Clara waaaants something (the camera? food?); GGPa, Pa, Molly, & Clara on the steps at Nana & Pa's house; Molly & her haircut; Molly & her new balance bike (thanks Pa!); Molly & her haircut; Molly had a sudden interest in the tricycle when she saw Clara riding it (Clara was less concerned and just as happy to explore the leaves on the sidewalk).

Happy Holidays to everyone!

from the archives - March '08 - Clara & Nona's rug

Cleaning up more files and found this cute photo shoot from March. At the time I remember being excited about the foot-holding and the rolling over (or was it almost rolling over?). And just 9 months later we're excited about the walking (no more speed crawling for her) and the talking (she shouts "dog!" for every animal she sees, "apple!" for food, and today she managed to say "outside!" at daycare).

Rainy Days

We've been enjoying a cold & rainy weekend. The girls love their bright yellow raincoats and Molly loves splashing the puddles in her ladybug rain boots.

Dennis the Menace Playground, etc.

Photos: Molly and the lion waterfountain at Dennis the Menace Playground after thanksgiving (2); Pa & Clara enjoy the bridge at the playground; Clara enjoys painting; Clara enjoys her sisters slippers.

November - sisters

again, early November fun.

And, on an unrelated note, doesn't this crafty project sound like loads of fun? It came to me by way of Rookiemoms.com's post on crafty projects (which makes me want to go out, get the crafty projects book, and start getting crafty!). Luckily my girls have four incredibly crafty grandparents, so they don't lack for lovely hand made toys & clothes.

November - with Mama

Mama & Clara at the park in early November:

November - with Nona

Pictures from Nona's last visit, in early November:
Nona & Clara at the park (3); Nona & Clara hang out on the stairs (2); Nona takes Molly for a spin in the Croozer bike trailer/stroller.

Grown-up Fairyland

Molly says:

The Grown-up Fairyland is now open!
There's boring things for grown-ups to do!
So come to the Fairyland for grownups!

Sounds like a blast, huh? :)

the funny sisters sleep

Today marks one week of ... drumroll please ... Molly & Clara completely sharing their room. That's right. Clara now sleeps - all night long - in the same room as Molly. The transition was amazingly smooth. So smooth, in fact, that I kept thinking it was only a fluke and chaos would erupt soon. But (knock on wood), one week later, Clara still only wakes up at night when she has a poop (granted, she seems to poop in her sleep almost every night, but that's another story), and Molly seems mostly unfazed by her new room mate.

In fact, Molly is incredibly sweet with Clara. In the morning, when Clara wakes up for the day and is crying, I hear her telling her "it's okay, your sister's here", and then she comes to get us and to tell us it's morning and time to get up. And Clara seems to absolutely adore sleeping in the same room as Molly. She still sometimes cries a bit (+/- 2 seconds) when I put her down, but mostly she just babbles to herself and watches her sister. I know down the road there will be other challenges to room sharing, but my fears of this transition have been allayed.

It started a few weeks ago when we finally let Clara go to sleep on her own (aka "cry it out", "Ferberize", or teaching "self soothing"). With the support/coaching of her daycare provider, Akiva, I worked out a plan and (this was the hardest part) stuck to it. It was brutal for me, but worked, just like everyone said it would. And after our trip to Carmel, I figured that was the perfect opportunity to move her crib.

Part of me wonders if we should have done this ages ago, but then part of me thinks maybe it wouldn't have worked so smoothly ages ago. Clara's at a very different stage now than she was even two months ago. And it was clear to me after the first two nights of letting her cry that the crying was much more of a "I'm pissed because you didn't do what I wanted you to do" cry than a "I'm scared or sad" cry. Which made me feel better.

Here's to me & Zach getting our room back, and all of us enjoying a long nights sleep!

Photos: From the days when Clara would only sleep in our bed or in our arms...