A Word About Clara

The other day I snapped this picture of Clara and realized how perfect it is. Clara is so many things all at once. She is no clone of anyone or anything. She is her and there is no one else like her! She has become more girlie, but maintains her rambunctious, crazy, tomboy ways simultaneously. Just look at that picture. Crazy hair, mixed with a pretty dress, mixed with scraped knees, mixed with babies, mixed with that adorable, mischievous grin. I love this girl! Clara loves loves loves dressing up! She goes through about 800 clothes a day - her clothes, Tyler's clothes, dress up clothes, things that aren't even clothes. For example, that lovely purple thing on her head is a broken sand toy that she put on her head and called a crown. She wore it for days until it broke beyond repair. The dress is her "tutu dress." In her mind all princess dresses are tutu dresses and all church dresses are tutu dresses. She points out every princess dress in every princess book exclaiming, "Mom! Yook! Tutu dress!" Also, every princess in every princess book is either a mommy or a Clara. And a thing about princesses - she doesn't even watch the disney princess movies. In fact, she prefers Peter Pan and Jake and the Neverland Pirates over the princesses, but somehow she has still fallen in love with princesses. And another thing about dresses. If we are going out somewhere, you know, a place where Tyler's t-shirt, spiderman, or a dress up dress will not suffice, she will not, I repeat WILL NOT wear anything but a dress. Temperature be darned, dirt be darned, it will be a dress and it will be a dress that she picks out! Even if its paired with tennis shoes and a sweat shirt. Sometimes I can get around it by claiming her leggings or jeggings are tights and her shirt is a dress, but most the time she is in a legitimate dress, usually a light summer dress! Another funny quirk about Clara is her "flavor of the week." A friend commented on how much she loved seeing Clara's newest attachment. One week it will be a baby, the next a My Little Pony, the next a book. You never know what that girl will insist on bringing with her everywhere. Most recently, she attached herself to the instruction sheet from a Jake and the Neverland Pirates game. You can see it in the picture. She affectionately dubbed it, "Cubby's Map." (If you aren't familiar with the tv show, Cubby is the pirate in charge of the map.) She took that "map" everywhere, slept with it, and cuddled it. I had to tape that thing up about a million times. Oh Clara! I could go on and on about her. How she is still the biggest dare devil 2 year old I've ever met. How we should just buy stock in band aids since she has at least 2 on her body at any given moment. How she loves her big brother and copies everything he does. How she loves to be read to and will sit and listen for forever. How she is finally learning to talk and picking up all sorts of words and how her voice is the cutest thing ever! How she is both independent and a mommy's girl. Everything must be done by her "helf" (yes that means self) but she loves to cuddle and needs her mommy! (a phase I hope she doesn't grown out of any time soon). How she is both sweet and fiesty and nice and naughty and stubborn as a mule!  I love that she is just so her! And I hope that she will never change!