Cute Clara

There wasn't a lot going on this week, but I still wanted to blog about some of the things Clara has been up to lately so I that I can remember years from now what she was like at this age.
Clara is a very cuddly girl. She will come sit on my lap anytime I decide to sit on the floor. She also has now become great at giving hugs. She wraps her little arms around my neck and squeezes tight. It makes me feel so loved. She will give me a hug anytime I ask her to and even a lot of times when I don't. She is good at getting kisses. When I ask her to give me a kiss, she gives me her cheek so that I can kiss it. It makes me laugh! Anytime I'm on the floor, she has to be right there with me. One day I laid down on the floor after I was done reading her a book. She grabbed the book, handed it to me, and then crawled on me, then laid down on top of me so that I could read her the story laying down.Clara loves to be tickled and chased. When I put the two of those together, I can't ever stop without her getting mad. She loves to run behind our couch and wait for me to try and get her. When I can't, she giggles and runs out. I then chase her around the apartment on my hands and knees. When I finally catch up to her, I tickle her neck or sides. She laughs and laughs. When I move out of my crawling position, she tries to move my arms and legs back into a crawling position.
When Clara can't do something she wants (like try to get me back into crawling position) she makes fists with her hands and grunts in frustration. I have taught her not to get mad, but to say please when she wants something instead. So now she squeezes her fists tight, grunts, and then quickly follows that with a very calm and happy, "please." It makes me laugh every time she does that. Who changes emotions that fast?
Clara is very expressive. She can now get me to understand what she wants almost always. Which means there are less tantrums. However, when she does have a tantrum (mainly when I tell her no to what she wants) it's a huge one. I can't believe how loud and flexible she can get!
Clara loves to watch TV. That is the source of most tantrums. She'll ask to watch TV by saying "T" and pointing to the screen. I'll usually let her the first time she asks in a day, but when she asks for it after she's seen way too much already in a day, I tell her no and try to distract her with something else. Most often the distraction doesn't work and she throws herself on the floor with her arms flailing and screaming at the top of her lungs. It's scary how much she already loves TV. She can sit and watch it for hours if I let her. In a way, it's a good thing because then I can tutor without her interrupting. But she gets very engrossed in the cartoons and can ignore everything else around her. Her favorite thing to watch is a DVD we got for free from a Little People toy she got for Christmas. It's a claymation of little people doing silly things.Clara loves cars. I'm not sure if she likes them because that was the first word she made the connection that objects have a name, or if she learned the word first because she likes cars. Either way, every time she sees a car (toy or real) she gets a huge smile and excitedly says, "car." If it happens to be a moving car, she will then say "bye-bye" to it as it passes by. She also calls any vehicle a car now. If I try to tell her it's a truck (or what ever else it really is) she gets a really confused look on her face and then will say car again, as if she's trying to correct me.
Clara can also say the word "me" now. She says this when she is playing with other kids and they try to play with the toy she is playing with. She also does this when they have something she wants to play with. She is not very good at sharing anymore, but that is definitely something I'm working on with her.
Clara can say the first part of the word scriptures. We read 1 verse with her every night before putting her to bed. She always gets so excited to read the scriptures. As soon as she sees them, she excitedly says "scri" and sits right down to be read to. Clara can look at any picture that has Jesus in it and can point Him out. She has also gotten to where when she sees a picture of Him, she says, "Je" and points Him out to me. She also folds her arms and closes her eyes when we pray. She doesn't make it through the whole prayer yet in that position, but she is getting better at lasting longer and longer. When my visiting teachers came last time, she was throwing a pretty big fit. She cried non stop the whole 45 minutes they were here. When it was time for the closing prayer, she stopped crying and folded her arms. She kept her arms folded and was quiet the entire length of the prayer! As soon as the prayer was over, she started crying again. That has been the one and only time she has made it through an entire prayer with her arms folded.
I love watching my little Clara grow and learn. I couldn't imagine my life without her!