Happy First Birthday Clara!

We had a great time celebrating Clara's birthday. We had a polka dot and balloon themed party with a polka dot cake and lots of decorations around the house. We just had family over for some food and food and kept it low key. I was particularly happy that mom & dad and Nicole could make it to celebrate!

I can't believe that my little girl is one! What a great year we've had with this little person in our lives. She is our pride and joy. Here are some highlights about Clara at one:

*Clara is doing everything except walking. She is an expert crawler, she cruises around the furniture, she pushes her walk behind lion all over the house, she climbs the stairs, and she'll stand on her own for a few seconds before sitting down to crawl where she wants to go. I don't think she's in a hurry to walk because she can already get anywhere she wants to go.

*Clara loves to play inside the kitchen cabinets. Pots, pans, food items come out, Clara goes in.

*Clara is a very vocal girl. She has a great vocabulary for a one year old, including the words: up, bubble, pop, look, book, thankyou (all one word to her), uh-oh, apple. Ok, I'll admit, some of the words take a mother or father to understand, but she's says them at the appropriate times and is really trying to communicate. She knows sign language for "all done" and "more". It is really fun to learn to communicate with her using a little of her language, and a little bit of ours. Now, if she would just learn to say mommy and daddy!

*Clara loves to dance and clap. She first learned these skills from watching the Ellen show with mommy (who says TV is bad for kids?). She waves bye-bye, or caio, she plays peek-a-boo, and blows kisses. She loves her lovey piggy and stuffed animals and will give them loves and cuddles whenever she can. She also loves to give mommy and daddy loves and kisses.

*Clara has recently discovered that mommy's belly is getting bigger. If I ask her where the baby is, she lifts up my shirt and gives my belly a kiss. We'll see if she is as excited when a new little girl comes out of that belly and starts crying and taking up some of Clara's mommy time. Luckily, Clara is a total daddy's girl. She will always pick daddy over mommy and will sometimes cry if I try to take her away from daddy.

We are so blessed to have Clara. It is so hard to remember what life was like before she arrived. Then again, why would we want to try?