Nanas

Clara just loves nanas.

One Nana is one of her very favorite people. She talks to her on the phone, and Clara sometimes cries when we hang up. And she always says, "Bye, Nana!" the second after the call ends.

The other nana is one of her very favorite foods.

Not as high on the list as blueberries, but close.

And she evens holds them like a big girl.

Thank goodness for nanas!

Not ready for this

The days are numbered. My time with only one mobile baby is dwindling away. I can feel it. 

Luke is not crawling just yet. He finds a way to get to something across the room if he wants it badly enough, but you could stare right at him and not have any idea how he did it. 

So I thought I had some time.

But then this past weekend, when we were traveling, Luke did something unexpected. He pulled himself up in his hotel crib. 

Oh, dear. 

And he's been doing it ever since.

The couch.

The play yard.

Toys. Very unstable toys.

We all know what this leads to. One thing. And it's no good. At least not for a mommy who would like her baby to stay a baby and have only one kid who can run around, getting into everything, terrorizing the animals and breaking through baby gates. 

Thankfully, he's still extremely unstable and can barely hold himself up for two seconds before falling (should I say 'thankfully' when it involves falling?). He's not even close to standing unassisted. 

And let's keep it that way, buddy. 

Your sister went two months between pulling up and walking. Can we make it at least three for you?

Our happy boy

I never thought I'd say this, but Luke's days of not sleeping are a distant memory. He's now a sleeper, through and through (although I know that can change any day), and is such a happy boy because of it.

And that happy little boy turned eight months yesterday. It's so hard to believe he's only four months away from one year. One year!

I say this all the time to Ryan, but for the longest time I really pictured Luke as a perpetual newborn. I'm not sure why. I think it's because he's our second and it's so easy for Clara to steal the show. Luke was a little baby, just laying there, then sitting there, not really needing much, and Clara was very much in need of our attention. Luke would do something developmentally and it would be days (or weeks) before I noticed. Meanwhile, with Clara last year, we were all over her every move!

Poor Lukie! That sounds terrible when I type it out, but really it's not. He was just our sweet, sweet little baby, and his baby-ness was exaggerated by Clara quickly growing out of hers.

But that all changed the past few weeks.

Always crawling, or at least his version of it

I braced myself for his turning seven months. I knew it was a time of rapid development. Clara, despite being born ten weeks early, started doing new things every few days once she hit that milestone. 

And Luke has been no different. He's no longer my newborn. 

He found his voice, saying "Dadada" all the time, even yelling it out of the blue (or whispering, which I find adorable). He started rocking on all fours a few weeks ago and has been wanting to crawl so badly ever since. If you put something he wants across the room he will get to it, one way or another. And just the other day he did an army crawl for the first time. 

Not exactly Clara's legendary eyelashes, but still beautiful

He's also gotten a ton of teeth lately, and has five in all. Adding in solid food (as in not baby food, but puffs and blueberries and that sort of thing) wasn't even on my radar until yesterday, when I realized maybe I should try.

There's those teeth

Oh boy, this kid probably wondered what took me so long!

Someone's pretty happy

He can't get enough of it. He loves feeding himself. He's watched his sister for so long, I think he's happy it's finally his turn.

Sharing a snack

Even though he's now eight months old, I still can't believe he's here. That I conceived a baby and he lives with us and his name is Luke.

"And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God." Luke 1:37

ME

It is fast becoming my favorite word.

"Me."

It is a different kind of "me" mind you, because it actually doesn't have anything to do with... well.... me.

There is something special about the way Clara and Luke pick up on the things we teach them. Obviously at 1 1/2, that is more apparent in Clara right now. She picks up her toys and books when we ask or will give Luke a kiss when we tell her to. She even has learned to catch a ball and very quickly picked up going down the slide in our new kiddie pool.

Videographic evidence can be found below:

But while there is immense gratification in her learning from us, there is something even more special about her learning on her own.

That gets us back to "me".

I have never taught her what "me" means or an appropriate time to use the term. Karey does not recall a time, where she did either. But the perceptive little munchkin has figured out that "me" means.. well "me!".

So now, whenever she wants you to pick her up or let you sit in your lap she waddles over and grabs your leg and whispers, in the sweetest voice, "me". As you might imagine, it is the most compelling argument ever uttered in the history of human existence. It is impossible to resist.

Especially when coupled by this look:

Now I get that this is probably not all a good thing. It is, perhaps, encouraging a degree of selfish behavior, but in addition to her frequent "me" requests, Clara also happens to be about the most generous child on earth. She is constantly giving Luke everything, including things he doesn't really want. She hands him toys, her sippy cup, stuffed animals and from time to time the lint or fuzz she picks up from the floor.

Overall I believe it shows the depth of her curious mind, the way that she is a sponge for the world around her and in particular, the way she is processing that information and turning it into a result.

As I look back on this post, I am realizing that in the grand scheme of the world this is a rather insignificant development. It is just one word, right? But I guess on this Father's Day I am reminded about the incredible gift of parenthood.

The simple is once again really significant.

And every significant step is leading to the incredible person Clara is and who she will eventually be.

Neat freak in training

A few weeks ago, I noticed Clara pick up a paper towel I had dropped and use it to wipe up some milk that had leaked from her sippy cup onto the floor.

I squealed with delight! I might have a natural-born neat freak, I thought.

Isn't it the hope of every mother who hates cleaning that she'll have a kid who loves it? Well, it's mine. I pray that one day one of my children will rather vacuum and dust than play dolls. I can dream, at least.

Shortly after the spilled-milk incident, this lovely lady posted something on Facebook about her daughter cleaning, and I decided I had waited too long to have Clara pick up after herself. Her only real experience with cleaning thus far was when we sing "Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere..." as we wipe her hands and face after eating. And let's just say it's not exactly her favorite time of day. There's a good chance she'd rather be water-boarded.

So I started having her pick up her books and toys and put them in their respective baskets. She took to it beautifully and now we do it every day. And for every item she places in a basket you'll hear a little baby voice say "good girl". Melts my heart.

Then today, as I was on my hands and knees wiping filth off of the kitchen floor as she sat in her high chair, it occurred to me that she could help and she might even think it's fun.

And she did.

I swear I even noticed her wiping extra hard at a little bit of dirt on the dish washer. We might have a little cleaner, after all!

She moved on to the cupboards all on her own...

I didn't tell her that soap and water doesn't work too well on windows. She was just so excited.

Even if she's not a natural-born neat freak, I can always turn her into one, right?

Okay, one more...

I couldn't resist the sewing machine that was still sitting on my kitchen table. I had to keep sewing while it was out, because who knows when I'll ever get it out again? That hall closet is a long walk.

So I took an old J. Crew tank top (our dryer ate the straps years ago) that was in my old-clothes-I-might-want-to-make-into-pillows-someday fabric stash and went to work.

Being a hoarder finally pays off!

A perfect project for a lazy/busy mother of two - half the seams were already stitched for me.

It turned out a little big, but that's actually a good thing. It's long, and stretchy (and soft and comfy!), so I think she'll be able to wear it next summer too.

NO sewing today. Maybe Sunday. But not today.

Today we are just modeling dresses for Mama's photo shoot, and playing (and cleaning up after Urine Armageddon. The babies hatched a plan to pee all over everything the last 12 hours... the crib, our bed, the floor...notice the missing couch cushion...)

Poor Luke. One second Clara's reading him a book...

And the next, she doesn't want him to touch it.

Girls are moody, little guy. It's better you learn this lesson now.

Creative burst

I was searching the internet for a cute dress for Clara to wear to my sister's bridal shower in a couple weeks and became discouraged at the selection. So what did I do? In a move very unlike my unmotivated-self, I got my sewing machine out of the coat closet, fabric from under the guest bed, and thread from the shed (not the most well-thought-out storing of my sewing supplies, I know). 

Not wanting to sew anything with buttons (I've never done it) or a zipper (I didn't want to go to the store to buy one), I came up with the idea to sew a skirt onto a onesie. Little did I know that's a popular sewing project! Oh well. It was very easy. And when I made a mistake and sewed the front of the onesie when I didn't mean to, which left a big hole, I added a ribbon to cover it up. 

She was NOT getting up, so I went with it

This was pre-mistake embellishment:

Not bad for my cell phone. Looks like a shot for the Etsy shop that I don't have.

My second attempt went a little better. I used the last of some of my favorite fabric.

Got any guesses where the only good light is in my house?

Don't you just love rick-rack? Although it needs some ironing here

So those were pretty easy and weren't very difficult to juggle with taking care of the babies. I just gave Clara some chalk (we don't have crayons, believe it or not) and put her to work in her high chair. Today was a different story.

I, again, was looking online for dresses and came across this site. Actually, I came across one of their dresses selling on ebay for $300. I can make that, I thought (right after I thought, $300??? For a baby dress??? On ebay???)

Well, I didn't exactly make that dress by any means, but I dug through my fabric, pulled out a few selections, and went to work. This time, though, it greatly disrupted the babies. It was just one of those days. I don't think I'll be doing it again for a while.

The result was worth it, though...

She was much easier to photograph in this - I think she knew she looked pretty

I had no pattern (and no cutting mat - I couldn't find it so I had to use scissors!), so I was pretty surprised to see how it turned out. I think I got lucky.

The strawberry fabric on the straps is another of my favorites. I used some of my last scraps for this

It fits her great, just a little tight going on since this too has no zipper or buttons. I'm going to alter it once it doesn't fit over her head anymore, maybe add a zipper. I have big plans.

I didn't set out to make it a halter, but that's what we ended up with

I'm spent. Even though those dresses took, maybe, a total of five hours over two days, I'm putting the sewing machine away for a while. I like being with the babies without thinking about getting back to my project. But I am super-excited Clara has a few new dresses. That last one will be making an appearance at her aunt's rehearsal dinner.

And so he doesn't feel left out (because all I make is dresses.. sorry Luke!), here's a picture of Luke in his big boy (12 month!) pj's...

No, he's not super-advanced! I just propped him up to see his pajamas better.

Has anyone seen my little, tiny baby?