The Grashorn Grounds: clara rose at 10 months

Sweet Clara Rose is 10 months old. Just a few months and she will be one year old. What a joy she is to our family. She is a happy, smiley, into everything, social butterfly. It is with eagerness and a small tear that we watch her transition from a baby to a toddler.

watching the brothers fly their kite

Clara's appearance is changing. She is thinning out since she is constantly on the move. Her thighs are not quite as big, but her cheeks are still nice and round. She also got an additional tooth on top (August 23), her left lateral incisor. She looks a little like a jack-o-lantern when she smiles since she has the three teeth. Her other top teeth are close to popping through, so it should be soon. Her hair is getting longer, especially her bangs. Mom uses a barrette to hold them to the side because she isn't quite sure what else to do with her hair at this point. The front will eventually need to catch up with the back, so she is letting it grow. She is still all big brown eyes and rosebud lips.

Clara is on the move and into everything. She can stand up on her own from a sitting position, hold it for a minute, and then squat back down to sit. She also has taken up to 3 steps in a row (September 12 was the first), so walking appears to be shortly in our future. It's just a hard stage because everything seems to go into her mouth. She has a tendency to eat dirt, a shriveled pea that didn't get swept up on the floor, and chews on any electrical cords she can find. We are constantly having to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't find any of them. We also found her up in the boys room the other morning, which meant that we (which means the boys) forgot to shut the gate on the stairs and that she was able to climb up all of the stairs on her own. I

Our family adores Clara and, in turn, she has many terms of endearment. She is most often called Clara (or Cwara by Nathaniel who can't say his l's). Nathaniel used to call her "key-ah-da" because he couldn't say his r's either. We also call her Gussie, Birdie, Baby Girl (sometimes baby squirrel by dad because it rhymes), Bella, Bitty, and Clarabelle. Mom is trying to just call her Clara so she knows what her actual name is.

With the last breaths of summer, we tried to cram in as much as possible. Here are some of the highlights from the past month:

We made it home from our long trip from Minnesota and we worked on getting into a routine again. With Clara's new found skills, she started struggling with nap time. She didn't nap for over an entire week and got very crabby in the evenings. We tried having her cry it out a little bit, but mom looked online and determined that she might sleep better if the room she slept in was dark. Mom moved the pack and play, where she takes her naps, into the closet. It took a little getting used to, but now she settles right down. It seems that the light was causing her to continue to be stimulated and she needed the dark to calm down and fall asleep. Thank you internet.

We went to metro parks, play dates, the zoo, and to COSI for their farm days exhibit. The boys were thrilled to be able to climb on and check out some big farm equipment. Clara hung out in the stroller until she was too tired, and then she took a nap in the Ergo. She loves being out and about.

watching her brothers

sprayer

We went to a final parks program on Caterpillars at Highbanks. The boys learned about moths and butterflies, and made a craft on the life cycle of the butterfly with pasta. It was perfectly timed since we had found black swallowtail caterpillars on our parsley plant and raised them until they turned into butterflies at home. The boys were also excited since they finally both received their squirrel patch.

parks program

our butterfly

We enjoyed going to dad's last softball game of the year. The boys only wanted to sit for so long, so we headed over to the local park with our friend Chase and Ms. Erica to get some wiggles out. Clara loves swinging.

the park

We had our neighborhood kick off to fall party. There were bounce houses, a kids bike parade, a band, a firetruck, and face painting for the kids. It was a great time to relax before everyone started school for the year.

Clara saw her brothers off on their first days of preschool. She has enjoyed having a little one on one time with mom. Although, a large part of it is spent taking her morning nap.

wishing her brothers luck

We went peach picking for the first time at our favorite orchard. Mr. Rick came along and so did Christine. The peaches were huge and delicious. We picked a few too many since they went bad quickly, so we sliced many of them and froze them. We also made some peach jam. Clara loved eating the peaches and can easily eat an entire peach at every meal.