Christmas Rolls Around Again.

Today my  almost 16 month old apparently said: "It's Christmas time" while at home with her Dad and Clara.  She adds this to her recent repertoire of words that include: Blue, Yellow, Duck, Moo, and Hello.  With Clara in full on Santa-Christmas-Fever mode, I am hardly surprised that Freya is jumping on the Christmas-enthusiasm train.

Flashback to a couple of weeks ago, when Freya and Clara met Santa.  Their mutual enthusiasm for Santa  vanished when presented with the Real Deal - smiles were replaced instantly with steely-eyed glares that seemed to say: "We'd like to see you try something, Santa-man.  We can take you."  I don't know if the sisters discussed their plan of attack beforehand but they clearly were borrowing from last year's intimidation strategy - Don't let Santa see you smile.  

2015

2016

Clara isn't too big on posed photography.  Take this case in point - picture day at school came and went.  This is the photo I took of her before we went to said picture day.  

Clara - candid, happy - cute.

Just try to tell Clara to smile or do something specific in a photo.  Good luck.  Here are the photos I got back from picture day.  First - the portrait.  Same abstract background from my childhood.  I would like to know who matted down Clara's hair before hand - maybe Clara?  Who knows.  And that smile - what a lovely smile - somewhere between - "You told me to smile - I'm smiling." and "I'm just pretending to like you."

And for the grand finale, Clara's class photo.  Top row, center - just where her parents were always placed as the tallest kids in the class.  It's nice to see some things never change. I present to you, Clara, not looking at the photographer with her eyes closed. My one consolation is at least she's not the only one.  4 year-olds, man.

So with that, kick back, relax, and enjoy this holiday season. I know my kids are.

Dear Santa...

Last Christmas Clara was two. She was excited about leaving out cookies and milk for Santa but still took a lot of prompting to remember what she was doing and why. Needless to state, she didn't make herself sick with excitement the night before Christmas waiting for Santa to show up.

Yes, I am THAT mother. The one who wants her daughter to stare at the ceiling all night long straining to hear reindeer hooves on the fire escape. I stubbornly believed in Santa until I was almost ten, and still kinda do. This year I want to make Clara as over-excited as possible.  I already have her hooked looking at all the Christmas decorations all over the neighborhood and I know I'll have to actually hide all her presents this year or else she'll TOTALLY find them.  Tomorrow we're breaking out the advent calendar.  Open a little door EVERY DAY and get a little prize! (WHAT!? AWESOME!)  This is good training for Clara as she will become my willing accomplice as the years go by in making her baby sister totally over-excited about Christmas as well.

We made this snow-globe craft together.  I think Clara did a really good job making the tree. Maybe I'm biased, or maybe I just LOVE CHRISTMAS!

 

On Sunday, Gerald sat Clara down o help her write a letter to Santa.  He took down everything she wanted to say.

Dear Santa, I hope you love your list. I’m really excited for Christmas this year. I’ve been a very good girl this year. We should make a present for you too! Here’s my list:

Anna Bubble.

Glitter

Art Supplies

Shopkins and Blind Bags

A “Big Girl” Hat

Stickers

Sunglasses

“Serious” Books

Chocolate Treats

Teddy Bear/Olaf Toy

Anything”Frozen.”

A Pink Umbrella.

Thank you so much, Santa!  Love, Clara.

Now did Clara really understand the whole "I've been a good girl this year" thing?  I'm betting not but I give Gerald major Christmas points for working it into the letter.  I like how Clara is trying to soften up Santa with the whole "we should get you a present too, Santa." Good woork, little girl.

I  find Clara's present list both heartwarming and hilarious.

Let me first address the "Shopkins and Blind Bags" request.  For those of you not in the know - Shopkins are tiny. cheaply made toys that come in tiny shopping baskets. But here's the kicker - you don't know what one you're getting until you open it-  and you know how little kids love surprises.  Each shopping basket comes with a list - a key if you will, of the names of each of these little cheap pieces of plastic  and whether or not they're common,rare, super rare....etc.  So for the bargain price of 3.00 if you might get a pinky nail sized coffee pot named  "Coffee Drip",  and a sneaker with glamorous eyes named "Sneaky Wedge." At least you get two to a basket.  We can thank You Tube and the Disney Cars Toy Club channel on aforementioned You Tube for introducing Clara  and by extension, her parents, to the wonders of Shopkins. Clara would watch Amy Jo unwrap Shopkins for HOURS on You Tube if we let her.  When we buy her Shopkins as treats she always says "I hope we don't get a duplicate," just like Amy Jo does. It's ridiculous.  But who am I to talk?  I collected Garbage Pail Kids.

Anyone have some suggestions for "serious" books for a three year old?  What does she mean?  Who knows?  Better get cracking, Santa. And while you're at it, keep a lookout for a "Big Girl" Hat. Just cross glitter off the list, Santa, and please take note of Clara's three references to Frozen. Anything Frozen - she's not discriminating. She might even sing you all the songs from Frozen if she catches you putting presents under the tree this year.

Clara meets Christmas.

I think the best part of watching your child grow up may be introducing them to the holiday season.  I can remember the magic that the Christmas season inspired in me as a child.  The excitement and anticipation only occasionally tipping into over-excitement and making myself sick thinking about what Santa was going to bring me this year.

Clara is not quite two and a half and this year - she gets it.  Gerald and I get to introduce her to all the things we loved as children and we get to watch as she experiences it all for the first time.  We have seen so many of Clara's "first times" but this one takes the cake.

The season started with the Advent Calendar.  I loved advent calendars so much as I child that I would make them for myself.  I would draw a multi-windowed mansion and draw a picture behind each window.  One wasn't enough.  I had one at home, made one for everyone in my family, and had one in my locker at school.  The last time I made one was sometime in my late 20's.  Turns out - Gerald has an amazing advent calendar where each door in the Christmas tree opens to reveal a Christmas ornament, and later in the month, the figures from the Nativity. 

As you can imagine, Clara is bonkers about opening tiny doors and revealing presents.  Every day she asks for another "match."  I think the "reveal" reminds her of turning over cards in memory games.    She also isn't too fond of the whole one-advent door-a-day thing but we've managed to talk her down so far.  Last night, the first figure of the Nativity was revealed - a tiny king carrying gold.  Clara carried it around the apartment referring to it as "her Queen."  That's fine by me.

We have also talked to her a lot about the concept of Santa Claus and what's going on with that.  She already loves presents but the idea of a guy in a red suit and a beard bringing her surprise presents one day makes her hit the ceiling with excitement.  Now whenever the doorbell rings she yells: "Oh! Oh! Is it Santa!!!??"

A few days ago we took her to our Union's Holiday Party where Santa was scheduled to put in an appearance.  She talked about Santa the whole ride down on the Subway - to me, to strangers, to anyone who would listen.  At the party, Santa was in a special room.  We walked in and Clara paused, suddenly shy.  Santa asked if she wanted to sit on his lap and after a brief hesitation, she squared her shoulders and went for it.  She sat on his lap while Gerald and I took a hundred pictures.  When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, her nerves betrayed her, and she whispered in a tiny voice into Santa's ear: "A princess...and play doh."

Santa said:  "Ho ho ho...I think I can help you out with one of those requests, little girl."...and he pulled a play doh set out of his bag and handed it to Clara. 

Clara's eye widened - it was true, Santa COULD magically provide you with you heart's desire. 

Clara shrieked: "Look Mama! Look, Dada! PLAY DOH!"

Magic.

It's possible the best thing about being a parent, and I know Gerald agrees.

Gerald, posing with the new tree.

Chatting with Santa.

Happy New Year, Clara.

It's January 1st, 2014.  Clara ia just a few days shy of a year and a half.  What a year.

Updates on Clara.

She likes to blow kisses and hug her dolls.

She still loves to pick up rocks and carry them for blocks.  Telling me quite clearly: "A rock."

She likes to count in a haphazard non-sequential kind of way.  "Two...three...two...two...three...one."

She loves singing songs and can sing the melody (if not all the words) on key...which I find amazing.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The ABC song, and The Hello Song are some of her greatest hits.

She loves her new Picnic basket toy.  Today she took out the orange and the cookie, held them out to me and said: "Circle."  I think she's a better abstract thinker than I am.

She likes to pour water on the coffee table.  Until recently she waited for me to come and clean it up. Yesterday I was busy on the computer and Clara walked in talking a blue streak.  I told her I would be with her in a minute and noticed out of the corner of my eye that she was draggin a pair of my pants out of the bedroom.

When I went out into the living room I was greeted by a delighted Clara who having poured water all over the coffee table, had tried to clean it up with the tiny tablecloth from her picnic set.  When that failed to do the job she went in search of a bigger piece of cloth. My pants as it turned out, were perfectly suited to the task.  I thanked her for her help.  

As a mother I am amazed by the parents whose children know the "Clean up song" and can put away their toys.  I think Clara was trying to show me that she doesn't need a Clean Up song to get the job done.  

Next week I plan to show her the mop.  Just kidding....I think.

I look forward to another year of amazing Clara.

What Clara gets into...Merry Christmas.

I recently came across this blog on Reddit and laughed so hard I cried.  Read it HERE. In it, the blogger describes her 10-month-old's real present list to Santa.  I identified with almost every item on the list.

I will proudly  admit that I have done a really good job of hiding electrical cords from Clara but whenever I forget to close the bathroom door I return to the mayhem of a cloudy pile of unwound toilet paper, the items of the bathroom trash strewn across the floor, and the strong possibility of one of Clara's dolls posed in her potty, or (heaven forbid) if I have also forgotten to close the toilet seat, a soggy doll taking a bath in the toilet.

I would also love to know what aspect of our evolution has enabled small babies to grasp tiny objects - almost invisibly tiny objects - in their fingers and then carry them to their mouth for a taste.  Was food in the distant past so scarce that babies were crawling around under the tables fighting over tiny crumbs, Lord of the Flies style?  Because I find myself vacuuming the entire house every single day because no matter how clean the floor is Clara finds the one stale, ancient broken shard of Chex cereal hiding in a crack in the floorboard and pops it in her mouth before I can blink.  Ninja-style, Clara gets her hands on everything I think she shouldn't have.  Here's a picture she snapped with my phone after stealing it out of my pocket and running away with it, madly giggling and pressing buttons.  

At least she didn't purchase a ten dollar app like last time this happened.

Last week two of my Mommy friends came over with their children for a play-date.  18-month-old  twin boys and two 17-month-old  girls created a predictable cyclone of toys in Clara's room.  Us parents laughed as they pulled out every toy and book they could get their hands on, regarding it for mere seconds before tossing it in the growing pile in order to get something else.  Billie was digging around in Clara's crate of Duplos, pulling them out piece by piece with laser concentration.  That is, until her mother Sindy remarked in surprise: "Oh what's this?"  She reached over to Billie and pulled a perfectly preserved, dessicated Baby Carrot out of her daughter's tiny fist.

My first reaction was to be completely mortified - what kind of mother was I?  The kind that left a  baby carrot mummify in the toy box?  But instead I just laughed.  Maybe Clara thought she would save that carrot for later...a month and a half ago.  Or maybe she has a squirrel's instinct to bury food for the winter.  Either way I think I can place the blame squarely on my almost 18-month-old. At least the floor was vacuumed.

I swear that Clara grows an inch a day.  She has figured out that she can stand on tiptoes and run her hands over tabletops to see what kind of treasures her little hands can grab and pull down for a look-see. She is also determined to bounce across the couch and try to pull ornaments off our tabletop tree.  And let me tell you people...as sad as I was to get a tiny tree this year, I am so happy not to have to contend with the smackdown that would occur between Clara and a giant tree resting in a stand on the floor.  Because believe you me, by the end of that battle Clara would be left standing (albeit covered in sap and probably wearing the tree skirt on her head) in the smoking pile of rubble that would be the toppled tree, broken ornaments, and billions of pine needle that had been ripped of the branches.

So far this Christmas, Tabletop Tree - 1, Clara - 0.